13. Chapter Thirteen #2
Relief washed over me. Good. “Not yet. I think she got caught up taking care of other things after you got hurt. Could you add me to it? It would make communication and monitoring easier.”
I could hear quiet typing in the background from his end of the call. “Sure. I’ll get right on that. Any preference on the code name?”
My eyes went wide. “Code names in a secret app?”
Ryan sighed. “It may feel overboard, but we aren’t leaving anything to chance. Do you have a preference or not? Lynette may already have something in mind, but I’m asking all the same.”
I glanced around the room and then grinned when my focus landed on the empty glass. “Quinn always calls me and Phil her second shadows. Can you work with that?”
“Yep. Expect an email in the next five minutes. The link will only be good for ten minutes. Use your network credentials to log in and then immediately reset the password.”
“Thanks, Ryan.”
He let out another sigh. “I appreciate having you on board. With the chaos here… I’m glad for some back-up.”
There was a moment of silence. “You holding up okay?”
“As best as I can. Doc says I’m healing well, so that’s encouraging.”
A commiserative chuckle came out. “You’re going insane, aren’t you?”
“A little, but Ellen is helping a lot.” There was a light knock on a door in the background. “I gotta let you go. Be on the watch for the email.”
The call ended, and exactly two minutes later, an email came in. It didn’t take me long to get everything set up, and I smirked when I logged into the app and saw Ryan’s code name.
Tech:
Shield:
Shield:
Tech:
There was no way I was going to say a word to Lynette Agosti about the code name.
I’ve had worse.
The green circle next to Ryan’s name disappeared, and I assumed it meant he was no longer in the app. I noticed Hummingbird was online, though.
Should I message them? Would that be weird?
I didn’t have long to think about it when my cell rang, startling me from my thoughts. I was a little surprised it was Lukas, and a video call. What could be happening at this hour? I answered the call. “Hey. Is everything okay?”
He nodded. “I tried calling Quinn and got her voicemail. Is she okay?”
“Oh yeah. She told me it was a bath night tonight and that she was going straight to bed after that. I think she’s banking on the fact I’d wake her if it was an actual emergency.”
Lukas let out a relieved breath and leaned back.
From the looks of the room in the background, he wasn’t in his office, but his bedroom.
“Good. I’m glad. She needs the alone time to take care of herself.
I’m pretty sure I pissed her off earlier.
Honestly, if you hadn’t walked into the house, she may have fully gone off on me. ”
May have? I was still stunned Quinn hadn’t taken his head off. “Glad to be helpful?”
After a moment, he shook his head and looked at me again. “She’s too good for me.”
“She’s what you need, and you’re what she needs. Trust me.” There were so many of Lynette’s qualities I saw in Quinn. That woman was built to be Lukas’s partner, even if it was hard sometimes.
But isn’t that the case with all relationships? Give and take?
Lukas nodded. “I suppose I can’t argue with that.” He paused for a moment and looked to his left. “So, dinner was interesting.”
Moving on, I see. Good. “How so?”
Lukas sighed. “Lianne offered Regina Pennington the job.”
I blinked in shock. “Wait, the security job she pitched to you this morning? She offered the position tonight?”
He nodded. “Regina immediately accepted, too.”
I let out a low whistle. “Damn. That’s awesome, though. When is she starting?”
“Tomorrow.”
If I hadn’t been sitting down, I would have needed to lean against something. “Holy crap. Lianne isn't wasting any time.”
“Nope.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, clocking how he sank farther into his chair and looked like someone had stolen his candy. “What else happened tonight?”
“Well, after dinner, and after Blake and Regina headed home, Lianne, Ryan, and I headed to her office to pull paperwork together for Regina to fill out. I kept telling Li I would take care of it, but she insisted on staying and made us walk her through the paperwork end of adding someone to the team. Once all that had been collected and organized, I was going to hang out with Ryan and shoot the shit like we used to, but he headed out before I wrapped up my conversation with Lianne.”
I furrowed my brow. “Like he went home?”
Lukas shook his head. “No. He went to his girlfriend’s place.”
The sour look on his face had me changing the topic. Why isn’t he happy for his best friend? “You mentioned staying to help with Regina’s training. How much longer do you think you’ll be there?”
I could have sworn I heard him grumble something about proving usefulness, but then he cleared his throat. “I’ll be helping train Regina and then will be Ryan’s fill-in while he takes the weekend off.”
My eyes widened. “What? Ryan never takes time off.”
Lukas chuckled for a moment. “Yeah, he doesn’t know it’s happening yet.
We’re telling him after we get Regina through her first couple of days and is more settled in.
Lianne is working on the details and reservations as we speak, and I’m going to drive him to the campground myself to make sure he goes. ”
“So, when do you think you’ll fly back?” The man still hadn’t fully answered my question.
He leaned back in his chair. “Monday night? Tuesday? I don’t know.” Lukas sighed. “I miss Quinn.”
“She’s your other half.”
Lukas huffed out a small laugh as he nodded. “Yeah, she is.”