Chapter 18
Chapter 18
A few hundred miles away, Cameron Ridge sat staring at his desk, trying to make his mind focus. He never had any trouble whatsoever focusing before Maggie Eldridge came along. Now his mind was a riot of worry and fear. Of course back then he’d also been rudderless and miserably alone, but still. Totally focused. And now all he could see was Maggie’s sweet face when he walked in that restaurant and realized she’d been forced to kill someone.
“How is she?”
A minute before, Ridge was alone in the office, and then suddenly The Colonel was there, like mist. If Ridge didn’t know better, he might believe The Colonel had the ability to apparate, like a character in a Harry Potter novel. Ridge’s door had a distinctive squeak when opened. It was closed before The Colonel’s arrival, and closed again after. How did he open it without squeaking? The first time The Colonel made such an appearance in Ridge’s life, long ago when he was a SEAL, Ridge predictably flinched. The Colonel had looked at him like he was the worst sort of coward and Ridge swore he would never flinch again. Now, for instance, he merely took a breath and replied as if they were in the middle of a conversation and Ridge hadn’t been in the room alone thirty seconds ago.
“She’s hanging in there. The call from Bailey helped.” Ridge had tried to tell Maggie about his first kill, but it made everything worse. Apparently wives didn’t like to hear the thing they had in common with their husbands was taking a person’s life. But then their sister-in-law, Bailey, a former Marine Major and The Colonel’s daughter, called with sympathetic understanding, and some of the weight seemed to slip off Maggie’s shoulders. “She’ll be fine, eventually.”
“Of course she will. She’s a fighter, our Maggie.” He shifted and flexed. “And Leo?”
“Still in the wind, or so he believes,” Ridge said. Knowing Leo and his suspicions about a mole on the team, Ridge knew he would rabbit. And he knew he wouldn’t think to check Esther for a trace, so that’s where he’d placed it, on the one thing guaranteed to always be by his side.
“Are they still in the place?” The Colonel asked.
Ridge gave him a nod. His office had been swept for bugs, but still. Couldn’t be too careful.
“Are we sure the boy’s not the cause of all this?”
Leo and Ridge were nearly the same age, but The Colonel still referred to them as boys. To him, Ridge supposed they were. “I’d stake my life on it,” Ridge said. “Leo’s a lot of things, traitor’s not one of them.”
“He’s been nearing burnout. Prime pickings for an enemy target,” The Colonel said.
“There’s exhaustion burnout and then there’s anger burnout. Leo’s tired, but he’s not angry, at least not at us. And, since Esther, he’s seemed to revive a bit. I’ve seen him with her, sir. He’s fiercely protective, would die before he’d let anything happen to her.”
“How good is he if he’s injured?” The Colonel asked.
“Leo’s a scrapper, he’ll be okay. And for the moment, they’re in the safest possible place.”
“That leads us back to your team,” The Colonel said, which was probably the true reason for his visit.
There was something Ridge needed to say, but it wasn’t easy. He took a breath and made himself blurt. “I might be too vested here. I don’t know if I can get a clear read on my team.” Half the team was his family, for goodness sake. His wife, his brother-in-law. Babs was on the road to being his sister-in-law. LuAnn, Ellen, Blue, they all felt like family, even if they weren’t. Ridge hadn’t seen this coming. His SEAL team had felt like his brothers; it never occurred to him an office full of civilians could, too.
“We’re old school military, not comfortable with mush. But it’s not so bad to have feelings, or so my wife tells me.”
“My wife tells me the same, but I don’t want my judgment compromised by those feelings. I don’t want to miss something because I willfully refuse to see it.”
“So don’t,” The Colonel said. “You’re the dad of this team, Lieutenant. Dads can love their kids, even when they need discipline. Take a breath, you’re on track here.”
Ridge took a breath, then another. And he felt better, clearer. Maybe it was the man’s faith in him. If The Colonel believed he could do this, he could do this.
“We need to bring Blue in. If we’re combing personnel, we’ll need him,” The Colonel said.
What Ridge needed to say next was similarly uncomfortable, but neither of them had gotten where they were by pussyfooting around feelings. “I’m not sure if I can trust him, not sure if he’s clean. There’s been a little resentment over Esther. He feels like she’s trumped his precious computers and software.”
“Has she?” The Colonel asked.
“Multiple times,” Ridge said, smirking. Blue was one of the best hackers in the business, and a good guy to boot. Ridge liked him, but it was more than a little amusing to see him taken down a few pegs, to view his flabbergasted reaction when Esther outperformed his software. “As much as I balked about this arrangement, Esther’s been an asset, and we’re lucky to have her. Her involvement has likely saved hundreds of lives, maybe thousands.”
“And also cost someone a whole lot of money,” The Colonel interjected. “Girl’s a walking target, and soft as mashed potatoes.” He swiped a hand over his face. “Blasted politicians, putting civilians in harms way.” He took a breath and dropped his hand. “Blue’s clean. Bring him in.”
Ridge’s brows rose. “You put one of your men on him?”
“The boy’s marrying my daughter. I put myself on him. If he was dirty, I wanted to know. Believe me, he’s clean. His biggest sin is drinking milk straight from the container.” He grimaced in a way that made Ridge wonder if he’d personally witnessed such an act. Suddenly he had the vision of Blue standing in his kitchen guzzling milk, The Colonel in the shadows a foot away, undetected. The man was a ghost, could get anywhere unnoticed, soundless and unseen. Ridge was good; Ethan was better; The Colonel was supernatural. Had he ever spied on Ridge that way? Slid into the shadows of his house and observed in order to make sure Ridge was trustworthy? Ridge fought a shudder, thankful once again the man was on his side.
“We’re going to have to dismantle everyone, delve into everything, pull it apart, piece by piece,” Ridge said. “And we’re going to have to do it quickly, before whoever is after Esther finds her.” And his wife was going to have a baby, any minute.
“Then let’s get to it,” The Colonel said, in his steady, reassuring way.
It had the same effect on Ridge as always, a call to action and service, as if his boss knew how to tap into the secret reserves inside him. Ridge sat up, nodded, and pushed away everything but the job. If there was a mole on his team, he was about to find it.