“He used it for political reasons. Nothing personal. But man, the memes he’s shared.” She frowned. “He’s definitely a socialist.”
He didn’t like the look of that frown. “Is there something else bothering you?”
“No, just wondering why I signed up to help with this.” She laughed. “I mean, it’s tedious and not very challenging.”
“Oh, yeah, that.” He chuckled.
“Doesn’t seem like it bothers you, though.”
“I get it, but tedious is just the thing I want to do these days.”
She sat back. “Don’t you miss being an agent at all? The excitement the job could hold. I know I do at times.”
He shook his head. “Maybe I haven’t been gone long enough.”
“Yeah, time has a way of making us forget the hard parts and remember only what we enjoyed.”
“Besides,” he said. “We’ve had a few exciting months at Shadow Lake. Even had to dodge some bullets, so that was fun.”
She blinked a few times and stared at him. “What kind of survival training are you teaching?”
He laughed. “We recently had a client who was being stalked and needed our help. And before that the Maddox brothers’ significant others had some big issues that I helped with. You know how it goes. As the team’s source of online information needed in investigations, you get pulled in all the time.”
“Oh, I get it all right.” She chuckled. “But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Not sure how I feel about it when it comes a little too close to the reasons I left the Bureau. But I guess it does keep the job fresh and exciting.” He tapped his monitor and yawned. “Especially when you have unending hours of this kind of thing in front of you.”
The door opened, and Gage stepped into the room. He was dressed in his usual black tactical pants and a logo-embroidered team shirt. His dark hair was cut shorter than Colin remembered, and it was slicked back like he’d just taken a shower.
“Yo, man.” He locked gazes with Colin. “Looks like you could benefit from a little more sleep. Those Maddox boys working you too hard?”
“Just the opposite.” He explained about caring for his mother. “We need to find someone to hire soon or one of us will have to quit our job.”
Gage tilted his head. “What kind of qualifications are you looking for?”
“Honestly, nothing much in the qualifications department. Just someone with a good personality who is kind andcompassionate. Responsible and organized. Who can do basic things for my mom, like help her dress. Get her meals. Make sure she takes her meds. Basic common sense kind of things.” Colin took a long breath. “And not offend her by treating her like a little kid. That’s probably the hardest. Knowing when to step in without overstepping.”
Gage nodded. “I don’t mean to speak out of turn, but I might have a solution for you.”
“You do?” Colin perked up, feeling as if he’d just downed one of his favorite espressos.
Gage perched on the side of the table. “You know Nick Thorn?”
“Are you kidding? Who in IT on this side of the country doesn’t know about Nick?”
“Well, he has a friend who’s a white-hat hacker, and she’s looking to take a break from it. Not sure if she’s interested in the kind of job you’re offering, but she’s going to stay with us until she finds her footing. So a live-in situation like you have might be perfect for her.”
Colin tamped down his excitement as caring for his mother was a far cry from hacking. “Let’s ask her for sure.”
“Actually, she just arrived with Nick, and they’re on their way down here. I’ll go meet them and update her so I don’t put her on the spot in front of you. If that’s good for you.”
“Sounds great.”
Gage pushed to his feet and marched out of the room, his tactical boots thumping into the quiet, broken only by the hum of computer equipment. He still had his military-perfect posture and crisp movements of someone at attention. Gage had been on track to be a military lifer until the injury took him out and some things clearly carried over.
Colin admired what the man had built here and his family life. Not that Colin was ready for that kind of commitment in hisown life. He had to recharge after his years chasing scumbags at the Bureau, only to have a long list of other equally or more notorious predators immediately filling the void. The child predators being the worst.
Colin fought back the shudder that wanted to take him and prayed for help. Help that God hadn’t provided in the past, but then each day was a new day, wasn’t it? And maybe the day that God said, “I got you.”
