“Whipped cream on a latte. Whipped cream! Plus all that glorious foam. I mean come on, who wouldn’t want that?”
“Most people, actually, darling. I mean, doesn’t that strike you as overkill?”
“Trick, do listen closely.”
“Yes, Max?”
“I get not one, not two, but three pumps of vanilla syrup in my coffee drinks. Do I seem like a man who can’t handle overkill?”
“Five pumps when I add the cinnamon and hazelnut.”
“Is that why the sticky bun one you make me is so nummy?”
“Yes, my prince.”
“You, Trick, are a true genius godling of syrup squirt-i-tude. And yet now I learn that you have been holding out on me. You have not been offering me whipped cream. I am lost, forlorn, and abandoned. I am wasting away! You don’t really love me at all, do you?”
“Max?”
“Yes, Trick?”
“Would you like me to go get you some whipped cream for your sacred libation?”
Max offered up his half-drunk syrupy latte and gave Trick very big eyes. “Oh, would you? How kind.”
Judd shook his head at their antics. “You two are absurd. You know, Max, we actually need Trick’s help with something important.”
Max glared at the enforcer. “Are you saying whipped cream is not important, because if you are, we will have words, sir! Words!”
Trick returned with the latte, now piled obscenely high with whipped cream.
“You do love me.” Max sipped it immediately. “Bliss. Now, carry on with your insignificant non-sugar-related business.”
“Thank you for your kind permission,” replied Colin.
Max blinked at him. “Aw, look at you, snookums! You’re developing, like, baby teeth, or something. That’s so cute and vicious.”
Colin decided just to ignore Max, probably not possible, but worth a try. He showed Trick the photos.
“Do you recognize any of them?”
Trick bent over the screen. “No. I mean, not really. The short one looks kinda familiar.”
“Like a friend of a friend?”
“No, like distant family. But it’s hard to know for certain.”
“How can you not recognize family?”
Trick drew himself up to his utterly inconsiderable height. “Us otter shifters aren’t like you werewolves. We don’t have pack the way you do. We don’t bond with all the smells and the fur and the peeing and what have you. Besides, it’s been a really long time since I saw anyone from my family. I left them, remember?”
Colin didn’t want to cause his friend any pain. “Sorry, Trick, I didn’t mean anything by it.” Stupid Max, getting him all riled up.
“Oh, cutie, that’s okay. I’m not like hurt about it or anything. They didn’t reject me. Not exactly. I mean, I basically left them. But the short one does look vaguely familiar. What’s her name?”
“Risa Ostrov.”
“Well, there you have it then.”
“We do? Have what? Is that a family name?”
“Not exactly.”
Judd’s voice rumbled out. “Trick.”
“Sorry, evasiveness comes naturally to me. Risa doesn’t mean anything, but Ostrov means isle in Russian, I think. Just like Inis. She might not be directly related, but she probably has dobhar-chú blood in her.”
Judd shook his head. “She didn’t smell like anything supernatural.”
Trick looked at the photo again. “And she seems a bit big to be one of us. But we’re like you lot, in that way.”
“What do you mean?”
“Born and bitten. This woman might have been born to the dobhar-chú but never taken the bite, chosen against it, been a dud, or gone in as a human infiltrator. Hard to know.”
“Would she keep family connections without a second skin?” Judd pressed.
Trick shrugged. “Might do. It’s not like the family lets anyone ever really leave. I’ll be checking my back for the rest of my life.”
Colin looked at Judd. “SBI has been tracking goods moving over state lines, right?”
Judd grunted.
“What if it’s Lexi Blanc that’s moving them?”
“Your mother?”
“Or her team. Not a bad way to do it, right? She has, after all, been on tour all over the United States.”
Judd stood then, tossed back the last of the cheese smoothie. “Great protein shake, Trick, but we gotta jet. Colin?”
“I’m done. See you later, Max.”
“Can I have the last of your whipped cream?”
Colin grinned at the Magistar. “Whatcha got not enough for you?”
“Never enough, never surrender!”
Colin pushed his mug at Max, then trotted after Judd’s retreating form.
Behind him he heard Trick sigh dramatically at Max, “They’re gone so soon. Was it something I said?”
“Lack of whipped cream, I suspect.”
“Oh, stop it, Max.”
Judd hustled Colin back to the den to pick up Isaac and Kevin. Time for the last leg of the interminable bodyguarding contract. Only now Judd was excited, because the hunt was on.