Chapter 1
Chapter 1
M aggie and Cameron Ridge sat on their couch, attempting to cuddle each other while their giant dog forcibly cuddled them, stretching overtop them and filling all available spaces.
She held a book in hand, resting on the dog’s chest, and he tried to watch the game around the dog’s airborne hind leg.
“We should get a cat,” Maggie said suddenly. Ridge muted the television and looked at her.
“Why, exactly, would we add to this menagerie?” he asked.
“To give the dog a friend. He gets so lonely when we’re at work.”
“You want to get a pet for our pet?” he asked.
“Not just that. Lately I’ve been feeling like, and don’t freak out, but maybe a tiny bit of baby fever. I have the strongest desire to cuddle something so hard.” She ground her fist into her open palm.
“Hello, I’m sitting right here, your adoring husband. Cuddle me,” he said.
“You don’t smell right,” she said.
“Ouch.”
“No, I mean you smell incredible, but it’s not the right smell to get rid of this feeling. I need something tiny and loaded with baby pheromones to quell my raging estrogen. It’s like when The Hulk goes green, but instead of stomping around in anger destroying things he picks them up and loves on them.”
“You know I don’t understand it when you talk comic book. But I have a brilliant idea: instead of a cat, why don’t we, I don’t know, have a baby,” he suggested.
“You’re playing pretty fast and loose with the word ‘we’ there. ‘We’ won’t have morning sickness, and ‘we’ won’t gain thirty pounds, and ‘we’ won’t have to push it out of ‘our’ body, and ‘we’ won’t have to make difficult decisions about work when it’s over.”
“No, but ‘we’ will do the hard work of caring for it together, of picking up the slack for each other when one of us is lagging, and this half of ‘we’ is extremely looking forward to seeing you pregnant.” He attempted to shove the dog aside to reach for her, but the dog was having none of it and instead pushed its foot into Ridge’s face.
“I don’t think I’m there yet, but I’m closer,” Maggie said. She kissed her two fingers and reached over the dog to place them on Ridge’s lips.
“If the dog has his way, we’ll never procreate,” Ridge complained.
“He wants to be our only baby forever,” Maggie agreed. “But you will love being a big brother,” she added to the dog, scratching his belly.
“I could go for some of that, too,” Ridge added hopefully, and she laughed. “Laughter, great, that’s what I wanted from that statement.”
“You have to know how to handle the dog,” Maggie informed him. “Smokey, ball.” The dog jumped down and ran eagerly for his toy basket and squeaky ball. Meanwhile Maggie closed the gap between them and slid her arms around Ridge’s neck. “You know, I’m not ready for a baby, but I wouldn’t mind a practice session, a pre-baby-making warm up, if you will.” She leaned into him, bit his ear, and he tossed aside the remote.
“No way I’m saying no to that,” he said, and then the doorbell rang. They froze, debating whether or not to answer it. “Were we expecting someone?”
She shook her head. “Better answer it.” In their world, surprises were usually bad news.
He stood and held up a finger. “Don’t lose our place.”
“Librarians are aces at bookmarking,” she assured him.
He had no idea who might be calling unexpectedly, but even so he couldn’t have been more surprised to see his boss standing on his doorstep. “Colonel, sir,” he said, automatically standing at attention, despite having been out of the navy for a few years now.
“As you were,” The Colonel said. It was probably his most oft-used phrase because he was the kind of man even civilians came to attention for.
“Come in, sir,” Ridge said, stepping aside to allow him entrance.
Maggie stood when he entered the living room, but not to come to attention. Instead she stepped forward and hugged him. “Colonel, what a nice surprise. Can I get you a piece of peach pie, sir? I just pulled it out of the oven an hour ago.”
“I can’t resist your pie, Maggie, thank you,” he said, returning her hug.
She left the room to dish the pie, and Ridge’s eyes followed her with wonder. He would never get used to the fact that a man who inspired such terror in others—and rightly so—treated his wife like a long lost, much cherished daughter. “Have a seat, sir,” Ridge offered, drawing his attention back to the man before him.
“Thank you,” The Colonel said, taking a seat on the couch. Right away Smokey ran up to him and deposited his ball in his lap.
“Smokey,” Ridge admonished.
“It’s fine,” The Colonel said. He picked up the slobbery ball and tossed it across the room while Smokey took off after it, nails scrambling on the floor.
“Is everything all right, sir?” Ridge asked. The Colonel had never come to his home before, and he was dressed in civilian clothes, another first.
“I, uh, have a kind of favor to ask,” The Colonel said, shifting uncomfortably.
“Anything,” Ridge said and meant it. He owed The Colonel a lot, basically his entire career and the wellbeing of his sister-in-law, Amelia.
“It’s about my daughter,” The Colonel hedged, clearly uncomfortable.
Ridge’s heart stuttered and stopped. “Jane?” If Jane and Blue were having problems, Ridge might lose the best hacker in the industry. It was a selfish thought, but he couldn’t seem to help it. Plus Blue was a friend, both to him and to Maggie.
“Not that one. Jane’s doing well. You know, I never would have guessed Blue would turn out to be son-in-law material when I plucked him out of that prison, but the boy’s grown on me. He makes Jane happy, and he treats her well. No, Jane’s not the problem. It’s Bailey.”
“Bailey, sir?” Ridge asked. The Colonel was notoriously private and protective of his family life, and with good reason. He was a high value target, and that meant his family could always be in danger, too. In fact, until recently, Ridge hadn’t known anything about The Colonel’s children until they had a case that required Jane’s expertise, which The Colonel volunteered. Jane was the middle of three daughters, but Ridge didn’t know the names of the others.
“My oldest. She’s recently been honorably discharged, and you know what a rough transition that can be.”
“Yes, sir.” Even shifting from SEAL life to being an undercover agent had been challenging. The military had a way of conditioning people for life.
“She’s been living with her mother and me, and, uh, I don’t know how to say this, but, uh, well, she’s driving me crazy. It’s not that I don’t love her, I do, but we’re too much alike to be under the same roof for this long. Besides that, she needs something, some job or project to take her focus off things until she figures out what she wants to do next.”
“Yes, sir,” Ridge said, understanding the problem. “How can I help?”
“You’re more plugged in to the everyday nitty gritty of what we do. Bailey’s a worker. She needs to get her hands dirty to feel good. I want you to keep an ear out. If you hear of anything for her, send it my way.”
“Begging your pardon, sir, but this seems contradictory to what you told me about Jane,” Ridge said. The Colonel had practically threatened to end him if anything happened to Jane while on his watch.
“The situation is different, and so are the girls. Jane is soft and gentle, a civilian to the core. Bailey can handle herself, and she thrives on the danger, on the adventure. Try to coddle her, and she’ll cut you.”
“She does sound like you, sir,” Ridge said, his eyes alight with amusement.
“The difference is I learned my lessons. The girl’s got more courage than brains some days. Ah, this looks delicious,” The Colonel said, standing as Maggie rejoined them.
She had purposely lingered in the kitchen, giving the men a chance to talk, Ridge knew. It was a tricky thing to have a higher security clearance than his wife, but Maggie was good about slipping away, about not pressing him to tell her things or trying to finagle information or secrets out of him. Thankfully there weren’t many things he couldn’t tell her, and this one wouldn’t make the list. He would appeal for her help with Bailey Dunbar because Maggie had good people sense. If what The Colonel said about his daughter was true, he would need all of Maggie’s intuition and then some.