***
It was easy. The offer of communal beer was always a hard one to turn down, and neither Braden nor Chase put up much of an argument after he tracked them down. They went to one of the bars in town that served shifter beer and walked over to a table that appeared ready to deal with their size. The chairs were all made of solid metal and the table was an extra-thick slab of wood. They must get shifters here semi-often if they had an entire table set aside for their use.
Once they’d ordered beers and an extra large serving of nachos the swapping began.
“So I hear on your first night that you threw a guy through a door and then remodeled the outside of the building with his body?” Chase asked after they’d said cheers to each other.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Noah cursed. “Can that just be put to rest?”
“Wait, you actually did it?”
“Absolutely,” Braden said when Noah refused to answer. “Then he got chewed out big time for use of excessive force.”
“The guy was a dick anyway,” Noah said, looking up at the pair of them, gauging their reactions to his next line. “He was trying to jump Gray from behind with a metal pipe. If I hadn’t gotten involved he would have succeeded. Maybe I overreacted on dealing with him, but I wasn’t wrong to get involved in the first place, I know that much.”
His eyes flicked back and forth between them, watching for any sort of unordinary reaction when he mentioned Gray’s name. They both looked angry though, upset at the notion of one of their own ambushing another with a weapon that could cause serious damage, even to a shifter.
“Ah, that makes a bit more sense then,” Chase said, his laughter dissipating. “I hadn’t heard that part.”
“Well of course not,” Noah said with somewhat more acidity than intended. “It’s not as funny when you hear that part too.”
Chase inclined his head in a mixture of agreement and apology, and the trio all had another pull from their glasses.
“What do you guys think of this place anyway?” he asked, pressing them for some generic information, trying to see if he could pick up on anything. “We’ve been here almost a week now. Anything good?”
“Not really,” Chase said. “Charles is pretty dull. Nice guy, but we haven’t really done anything or had to respond to anything. Today is my first real day experiencing the town itself.”
Noah pursed his lips in understanding. They’d all been paired off with one of the senior guards. He and Hector, Braden with Gray, and Chase with Charles, learning the ways of Cloud Lake from them.
“Yeah, Hector took me to a few things at the start, but he’s sort of pulled back from me now,” he agreed, watching again for any reaction.
Again, nothing out of the ordinary.
“At least he did that,” Chase complained. “Charles has just taught me what I need to know, and that’s it. I don’t even see him outside of work hours. I don’t even know where he goes. He’s so private. I don’t even know his last name!”
They all shared in Chase’s pain for a moment before drowning it in beer. Noah was starting to get frustrated. What had he thought, that a professionally-trained spy would just slip up on some basic questions and reveal himself to Noah? This was going to take work, he told himself, work and some time, or else nothing was going to come out.
“What about you?” he asked Braden.
“Not much, really. Gray has shown me to a few places, like this one, and we had one call, but once we showed up the guy calmed down and realized he’d fucked up. Was sent back to Cadia the next morning once he was sober. So I didn’t get to beat anyone up like you did.”
Noah glared at him but Braden just laughed. “I hear you’ve been having a fun time though?”
“What do you mean?” he asked cautiously.
“Something about a woman I hear?” Braden said slyly, winking at him.
“Oh, Angela?”
“OH, Angelaaaa is it?” Chase joked, chiming in. “She has a name now? Must be pretty special.”
Noah considered his answer here. He’d already revealed her name, which he shouldn’t have done. If he tried to clam up now, they’d needle him until he revealed even more than he was comfortable with. The trick was to give them enough to satisfy them, without actually revealing any important information. If one of them was the spy, he didn’t want them knowing any more about him and Angela than necessary.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “She could be, but we’ve only seen each other a couple of times. Before you ask, yes we kissed, but that’s all to this point.” He shrugged. “We’ll see if it goes anywhere I guess.”
By giving them the tidbit about kissing he would hopefully distract them from any other questions, such as how they met and the like, which he didn’t feel like answering.
“Kissing already? You playboy you!” Chase teased. “I’m surprised you haven’t slept with her yet.”
He grinned, adopting a bit of a swagger and trying to act like Angela was only someone he was interested in for sex. “I could have, and would have, but the first time things got hot and heavy I had to work in less than an hour. It was immensely frustrating.”
Noah kept the smile on his face, even though he hated himself for talking about Angela that way. She was so much more to him than just a body to have sex with. He liked her mind, her intellect and wit, and the love she showed for her child; it all spoke to him deeply, showing him someone he could spend every night with, not just one.
But it was in her best interest if they just assumed she was a plaything and let it drop. That would hopefully keep her safe from any prying eyes. In the future he’d do a better job of not revealing information to them. He was going to have to adapt, to play the spy’s game alongside them, and to play it better.
Speaking of Angela made him think of her, and he resolved to see her as soon as he could. He’d text her later and find out when he could come by next.
Hopefully it was soon. This had been a waste of his time, and he needed to rethink his strategy.