Chapter 21
Chapter 21
“ I t’s weird to be here without her.”
Cameron Ridge looked at Blue over the desk between them. “I know.”
“It’s weird to be in your office working, just the two of us,” Blue continued. Ridge’s office was the only place of guaranteed safety until they could determine whether or not they had a mole.
“Yep.”
“It’s weird…”
Cam set down his pen with a sigh and looked up. “You’re purposely trying to provoke me by making idle small talk, huh?”
“Yup.”
“Quit it.”
“Okay.” Blue put his head down and resumed typing. Unlike Esther, he was not one of those people who needed total concentration on his work to be effective. In fact, his brain seemed to enjoy having a distraction. Locked in Ridge’s office, he was void of handy distractions, minus his sometimes-surly boss. Since Maggie started her maternity leave, he was more surly than sometimes. He clicked his pen a few times until Ridge made a not-so-subtle motion toward his gun. Blowing out a breath, Blue tossed his pen aside. “How’s she doing?”
The “she” in question was always Maggie, the strongest source of any connection between them. Without her, they would likely not be friends. They certainly had little in common—geeky hacker and suave SEAL turned spy. Except Ridge’s brother was married to Blue’s fiancée’s sister, so they were almost sort of family, if you tilted your head and squinted really hard. But it wasn’t the in-law connection that bridged them; it was Maggie, Ridge’s wife and one of Blue’s closest friends. She was like a little sister to him, and he felt protective of her. He hated that she’d had to kill someone at such a critical time when she should be feeling nothing but ecstatic excitement over the baby.
“How is she?” Blue repeated when he couldn’t take the ten second stretch of silence any longer. Couldn’t they bring Babs in on this? He and Babs were close the way he and Maggie were close, and she dated Maggie’s brother. No way she was the mole. Although Babs had been sort of dreamy and distracted ever since the shooting. He wondered if she was equally traumatized by seeing a man get killed. She was soft like that, like Maggie.
“She’s fine,” Ridge said distractedly.
“Really?” Blue asked. Ridge didn’t like to talk about feelings or personal stuff at work. Or outside of work. That privilege was reserved for Maggie, unlike Blue who wore his thoughts and feelings on his sleeves, literally with tattoos.
“Really, really.”
“Were you purposely quoting Shrek just then?” Blue asked.
Ridge looked up long enough to give him the death glare before dropping his head again.
“It’s not just that Maggie’s soft,” Blue continued as if they were in a back and forth conversation and his words weren’t pinging off Ridge like spitballs. “It’s that she’s so innocent and untouched.”
Realizing he wasn’t going to be able to blow off the conversation or ignore Blue like he wanted, Ridge set down his pen and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Maggie is soft and sweet, but she is also steely and determined. She has a lot of rational sense, and she knows she did the right thing. That knowledge is helping her cope with what is obviously a difficult situation, but she’ll be fine.”
Blue blinked at him a minute and grinned. “You bugged her about how she was doing until she said those words and now you’re direct quoting her, huh?”
Ridge resumed staring at his paper. “Shut up, Blue.” His cheeks were slightly pink, telling Blue his guess was correct.
“It’s probably true, though. Maggie has hidden depths of rage and protectiveness. Wouldn’t want to get caught between her and Amelia when they’re angry.” He shuddered.
“No, you wouldn’t,” Ridge said mildly.
Blue tipped his head, studying him. “What’s the worst fight you and Maggie ever had?”
“Even if I weren’t your boss, do you think I would tell you that?” Ridge returned without glancing up.
“I like to know things about people,” Blue admitted the obvious truth. “Hidden things they’d rather keep secret. Gives me a creepy sort of thrill.”
“Jane’s a lucky, lucky woman,” Ridge muttered.
“Oh, come on. When you were in the field, you can’t tell me you didn’t get a little high off digging deep and finding hidden information. If not, what’s the point?”
“Uh, protecting national security?” Ridge said.
“All I’m saying is, it’s fun to spy on people. I’m just honest enough to admit it,” Blue said.
Ridge gave him a wry smile. “Do you think it’s fun to be spied on?”
Blue shrugged. “Who cares? We’re the top of the top, the best of the best. No one’s going to spy on us.”
Ridge envisioned Blue guzzling milk from the jug, The Colonel on standby, watching in secret. Only this time the memory was hilarious and he laughed.
“One day without your wife here to stand guard, and your brain broke,” Blue said.
“Don’t you have work to do? And, believe it or not, I’m asking not only as someone who is annoyed by your inane chatter, but also as, wait for it, your boss .” He dropped his pen as if he were dropping a mic.
“I’m getting shades of what you were like before Maggie entered the picture and made you likeable. Not going to lie, don’t care for you as much without her,” Blue said.
“Me neither,” Ridge said unconcernedly, reaching for his pen again.
“For your information, I am working. I’m waiting—oh so patiently—for the decryption on the stuff I took from everyone’s phones this morning.” A little ping went off beside his head and he scooted back to stare at his screen. “Huh.”
“What?” Ridge asked, sitting up straighter. He knew his team pretty well by now. Despite how much he and Blue liked to poke at each other, they were friends who had spent a lot of time together, both in and out of work. He knew when Blue was serious, knew when he was concerned. He had that look now.
Blue cleared his throat and swiped a hand over his neck. “It’s, uh, something from Babs’s phone.”
Ridge tensed. Not Babs. Maggie would be crushed. He forced himself to take a deep breath and push away his emotion. “What is it? And don’t hold back or I’ll literally break one of your bones, starting with your toes so you’ll still be able to type.”
Blue took a deep breath and said it in a rush. “Secret meetings, looks like a rendezvous. Something she’s obviously trying to keep hidden.”
“With who?”
Blue shrugged. “Don’t know who the other end is. Looks like a burner phone.”
Ridge pressed his palms into the table. Not good, not good at all. “Let’s bring her in.” He reached for his phone and dialed Babs’s number, hoping against hope he wasn’t about to arrest his employee, his wife’s friend, his brother-in-law’s girlfriend.