Chapter 43
Ridge
I sit on the top step of Magma’s front porch, watching the road. My stomach is in knots.
A car turns onto the street. I straighten when I see it’s Flint’s SUV. He slows at the driveway and pulls in.
Both doors open at once.
Magma gets out of the passenger side first. He’s in a gray T-shirt and jeans. Flint slams his door and walks around to grab a six-pack off the back seat, which would explain why they are late.
Their voices carry up the path.
“So prison food wasn’t up to standard?” Flint asks.
“It actually wasn’t too bad, but you’re too stressed to eat anything.”
“I can imagine.”
“It’s good to be home and to see the sky and the grass.” He sucks in a breath.
“You were in for what? Two days…or was it three?”
Magma laughs. It’s a tired laugh, but it’s there. “It feels like two or three years.”
He hasn’t seen me yet. My car is parked further down the street, on the other side of a hedge.
They turn together and start up the path. Flint glances at me. Just a small tip of his head. He doesn’t say anything. He lets Magma get there on his own.
I stand waiting by the door, to the side. I’m essentially going to ambush him.
Magma reaches the bottom of the steps and stops.
He does a double-take.
“What the hell are you doing here?” His voice is gruff.
Then he looks at Flint, who has come up alongside him on the path with the beer dangling from one hand. “What is he doing here? Did you know about this?”
“Yes.” Flint holds his ground. “I asked him to come.”
“You asked him. Why would you do that? Do you know what he did?”
“I do, and I asked him anyway.”
Magma’s jaw is tight; his eyes are blazing. “Why would you do that?”
“Hear me out, please,” I say.
“No!”
“Hear him out.” Flint lifts the six-pack a little, like an offering.
“Please. Ridge played a big role in getting you freed. He found the evidence we needed. He’s the one who got Layla on a video call with Reed, so she’d give her confession.
He got her to agree to come back to the island to testify.
Without him, you’d still be in that cell.
It’s a simple fact. He knows Layla. He got her to tell him about how she was being blackmailed. I told you all about it in the car.”
Magma’s eyes move from Flint to me and back.
“I’m angry with you.” He points a finger.
“I know. I get it, I do.”
“And I have a confession to make, too,” Flint says it quieter. “While we’re here and doing this.”
Something passes across Magma’s face.
“Not you, too,” he mutters. “I need to sit for this.” He goes inside.
We follow him through the entryway and out the sliding glass doors onto the deck at the back.
The place is a mess inside. Drawers half pulled out.
Things on the counter that should be in cupboards.
The CSI team did a number on his place. They tore the place apart, and then they left without putting any of it back.
Magma drops into a chair on the deck. He doesn’t offer us one. We sit, anyway.
He looks at me. There’s no warmth in it.
“Talk,” he growls.
I clear my throat. “I knew you were under investigation. I knew from the start. That’s why Reed removed me from Security Central.”
“She knew I would see right through you,” he says.
“She knew I would probably break down and tell you and end up in jail. I was sent on a similar assignment at the hospital. Reed put me on Dr. Robyn Keller. I was to upgrade security at the hospital and look for evidence of treason on Keller. She wanted me where I couldn’t compromise the case against you.
She told me about you, and she warned me I’d be jailed if I breathed so much as a word. I was fully gagged.”
He doesn’t say anything. He just keeps his eyes on me, his jaw tight.
“I believed you were innocent the entire time – from the first moment she told me – and I made it clear where I stood. There was never a single second when I doubted you. Not once. Not even when I was told about the burner and the documents. I knew the evidence was planted. I knew it the way I know my own name. And I sat on it because I had to. If I had breathed so much as a word, we’d both be locked up right now.
Then there’d be no one left to dig us out.
I am so fucking sorry, Magma. If I could go back and do it differently, I would. ”
He looks at Flint.
“And you?”
Flint blows out a breath. “I’m the one who investigated you.”
Magma’s eyes narrow.
“I was assigned to your case the same day Ridge was assigned to Keller’s. I’m the one who gathered everything they used at the arrest. I’m the reason they came for you when they did.”
His eyes turn stormy. “You investigated me?” His voice is low. “You! Sitting at the next desk over from me for the last six years. We’re supposed to be a team.”
“I know.”
“You walked into my office every morning and asked me about my night, and the whole time you were building a case against me.”
“I was.”
“Jesus Christ.” Magma scrubs a hand over his face. The hand is shaking a little. “Both of you. Both of you knew.”
“It wasn’t like that.” Flint leans forward.
“Not exactly. I only took the assignment because I knew you were innocent. Same as with Ridge, even when I found the evidence, I didn’t believe it.
I knew you were being framed. Because I was in the know, I had inside information that helped us pull the rest of the case apart.
I gathered the evidence they wanted, but I also gathered the evidence we needed to clear you.
We had no other choice. That’s the truth.
Ridge and I worked the case and got you cleared.
We believed in you. We are your friends, and I hope, in time, you will be able to forgive us. ”
“I should have told you, anyway,” I tell him. “I know that now. I’m sorry, Magma. I was a fucking awful friend. If I could go back and do it again, I would do it differently. I would tell you everything, gag or no gag.”
He’s quiet for a while. The cicadas have started up somewhere in the trees behind the house.
“What bullshit are you spouting?” he asks me.
“What do you mean? I’m telling you that I was wrong. I should have left that first meeting with Reed and told you everything right away.”
“You would be a fucking idiot if you had done that. You’d be in jail right now if you had said something.” His voice has lost some of its edge. “I thought I taught you better than that. You’re acting like a pussy all of a sudden. What the fuck has gotten into you?”
“Okay, wait a minute. You’re confusing me. I thought you were angry at me for not telling you.”
“I’m seriously fucking mad, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t do the right thing,” Magma says.
“Does this mean you forgive me?” I ask quietly.
“Yeah.” He nods once. “Yeah, of course I forgive you. I’m still angry as fuck, but I forgive you because there was nothing else you could have done.
” He shrugs. “Why are you backtracking? Why are you acting like an apologetic pussy?” He points at me.
“You normally have more mettle than this. I shouldn’t have done it. ” He makes his voice soft and whiny.
“Is that an impression of me?” I ask.
“It’s how you sound right now.”
“What about me?” Flint asks. He’s trying to keep it light, but his voice cracks around the edges. “Am I forgiven yet?”
Magma snorts. “You’re going to have to give me a minute on that one.”
“A minute?”
“Maybe a couple of hours and more than just a six-pack.” Magma jabs a finger at him. “Ridge is one thing, but you were the one doing the actual investigating.”
“I know.” Flint’s voice has gone hoarse. “I know what I did. I’d do it all over again. If the tables were turned, I’d want you investigating me. I’d want you to be the one digging me out on the other end. Because that’s what friends do for friends.”
“Fine, you’re forgiven. Stop whining about it already.” He waves a hand at us both. “Don’t ever withhold information from me again. I’m glad I have you both in my corner. For the love of god, let’s crack those beers before they get warm.”
Flint grabs three beers and gives one to each of us. We pop the caps off.
They both take a long sip.
“You owe me lunch for a month,” he tells Flint.
“Bullshit. A week, tops.”
“Two weeks.”
“Fine, but they’ll be healthy.”
“Fuck that,” Magma says, and the two of them laugh. “How are things at Security Central? Has the place fallen apart without me?”
“Things have actually quieted down between the two islands.” Flint takes a swallow of his beer. “The talks are going well. There could be a declaration of peace signed soon. It’s looking promising.”
“Really?”
“Yep. So the frontline has been quiet for the first time in a long time.”
“Mmm.” Magma takes a sip. “And the rotation?”
“I shifted everyone on the southern wall to a two-week pattern after you went in. It’s holding. Morale is so much better. I’ve been able to give some of the team leave for the first time in over a year.”
“Good.” He nods. “That’s good.”
They go back and forth like that for a few minutes. The kind of shop talk I’ve heard them do a hundred times. I let it wash over me. I don’t have it in me to chime in. I’m thinking about Robyn.
I lift my beer, but I don’t take a sip.
Magma looks at me. Then he looks at the bottle in my hand and at my face.
“You look like someone kicked you in the nuts,” he says. “I forgave you. It’s done. We can move on.”
I make a noise of agreement.
Flint smirks. “He’s in love.”
I shoot him a look that should have put him on his ass. He just keeps smirking.
“In love? You? With who, exactly?” Magma’s eyebrows lift.
“I’m not in love. Don’t listen to Flint. He’s full of shit.”
“He’s showing all the signs,” Flint says.
“Come to think of it, you have that look.” Magma keeps scrutinizing me.
“Stop with the bullshit already. Both of you!” I glare at them.
“It isn’t that. I hurt someone kind and sweet.
It has nothing to do with love. I feel like an asshole, that’s all.
Dr. Robyn Keller is innocent. She doesn’t deserve to be in a cell right now, and she’s in one because of me.
That’s not love. That’s me being a piece of shit and feeling guilty about it.
She’s angry with me, and she’s right to be. ”
“I’m assuming this has to do with your assignment at the hospital.” Magma puts his beer down. “What’s happened exactly?”
Flint gives him the short version.
“I don’t see the problem,” Magma says. “You did everything by the book.”
Flint grits his teeth. “Not exactly. Ridge fucked her.”
“Don’t!” I warn.
“What? You went there, and multiple times.”
Magma’s mouth has dropped open. “You slept with her? You slept with the female you were investigating? You’re always so by-the-book. What the hell happened?”
I shrug. “I didn’t mean to.”
Magma laughs.
“You didn’t mean to.” He shakes his head. “Ridge. I can understand if you didn’t mean to finish the pizza. I can understand if you didn’t mean to stay up too late binge-watching some series. But sex. You can’t say you didn’t mean to have sex with someone. That doesn’t fly.”
“It just happened. I—”
“He couldn’t help himself because he likes her so much,” Flint cuts in, grinning around the neck of his beer.
I want to put my fist through Flint’s face.
“I do like her.” I look at Magma. “She’s a good person. She’s a doctor, for fuck’s sake. She fixes people for a living. She doesn’t deserve to be where she is, and I have to get her out. I’m a total asshole.”
I put my beer down.
“Actually, I need to go and do that right now.”
“Where are you going?” Flint asks.
“To rewatch all the footage from the night Robyn’s apartment got broken into.”
“We watched all the footage more than once already,” Flint says.
“I know, but I’m going to watch it again. We might have missed something. Then tomorrow I’m going to sit down with the twelve staff members on the access list for that storage room and interview every single one of them. I’m going to find who is responsible.”
Magma looks at Flint. “I think you might be right. He looks like he’s in love.” Magma laughs, and Flint joins in.
“This has nothing to do with love,” I snap. “I have to do the right thing. That’s all it is.”
“Mmhmm.” Magma takes another sip of his beer to hide his smile. He fails.
“I’ll finish my beer, and I’ll join you,” Flint says, holding up the bottle. “Give me ten minutes.”
“I’ll help if I can.” Magma looks at me. His eyes have gone hazy for a beat. “I know what it’s like to be locked inside those four walls. I know what it’s like to have everyone looking at you like you’re guilty.”
“You’re making me feel so much worse.” I start to smile at him. “But I’m glad you’re out.”
“If your doctor friend is innocent, you’ll get her out. You got me out. Thank you for making it happen.” He squeezes my shoulder as I move past him. The grip lingers. “You’re the best male I know for the job. Now go and clear your girlfriend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Right,” Flint says.
“She hates me.”
“She’ll get over it,” Flint adds. “We’ll get her out. You’ll see.”
“I hope you’re right.”
I turn and walk back through the kitchen and out the front door to the SUV. My feet feel heavy.