Page 50 of Caught By the Chief of Staff

“No,” Rick corrects. “It said the ‘Old Ghost’ as in singular and—”

“My old callsign,” Jake inserts.

“Someone knows way more than they should,” Rick says, sending chills down my spine.

“Who else would know about that op?” Captain Black asks.

“We should call Wes and Lee,” Rick says from beside me.

“Just to warn them, but that op was after they got out,” Jake agrees with him.

“I’ll call now and put it on speakerphone,” Rick suggests, and Jake nods in agreement.

Rick slips his phone out of his pocket, the one with the new sim card, and swipes his finger across the glass to unlock it when he types in his code. He selects the phone app and dials in a number by heart before pressing the speakerphone button. The ringing sound fills the room, and we all collectively hold our breath.

“Special Agent O’Connell,” a deep voice answers. Wes was one of the few friends I met when Rick and I were dating. It was only once in a bar in San Diego, but he was kind and welcoming, even if there was an almost sad aura around him.

“It’s Donovan,” Rick says.

“And Chancey,” Jake says.

“Well why wasn’t I invited to the party?” Wes laughs.

“It’s not so much a party,” Rick says darkly. “But we’ll get to that in a minute.”

“You wouldn’t be near Goodie’s office, would you?” Jake asks, always the diplomatic one. Rick used to be just as charismatic and yielding. Is this what I did to him? Did I make him this brute of a man? Something tells me I better be prepared for the answer when it comes, because it won’t be a sweet and gentle fairy tale.

“No,” Wes answers. “With Claire on desk duty now that she’s as big as a house, and if you repeat that, I will not only deny ever having said it, but I will help her hide your miserable fucking bodies.”

“So pregnancy agrees with your blushing bride?” Jake laughs, which is ironic, because Grace is just as terrifying. She looks at me, and I can tell she knows what I’m thinking, because she raises a delicately sculpted brow—the one she cussed me out over while I waxed them—at me in challenge. I just stick my tongue out at her and shrug, making her laugh.

“No fucking way,” Wes grumbles. “I love her, but she’s a monster.”

“That sounds like how Angie was.” Jules laughs.

“I was just thinking the same,” Grace agrees with her on the antics of their college friend I’ve only ever heard about secondhand. She was at the inauguration; I just didn’t have time to meet her, because the newly minted Chief of Staff was dragging me from the building to have his wicked way with me.

“So Goodie isn’t around?” Jake asks, bringing the conversation back around.

“No,” Wes says, and I can hear his heavy sigh across the line. “With Claire on desk duty and miserable, he’s having to cover her field work. There’s something heating up in the area that sounds like it might be ready to shift to my office, but I’m actually out of town at the moment working another case. I’ll be happy to pass the word on though.”

“Something has come up here, and it looks like it’s linked to a mission we carried out after you guys got out, but I just wanted to give you the heads up,” Jake tells him.

“Funny you should mention that,” Wes says, not sounding like anything is funny at all. “The case I’m working on?”

“Yeah?” Rick says.

“I’m in Virginia. Palmer is dead.”

“What?” Rick asks.

“When?” Jake questions.

“It’s recent,” Wes answers. “He ate a bullet.”

“Fuck,” Rick bites out. “I didn’t know he was struggling.”

“No one did,” Wes replies. “I had just seen him at Claire’s shower. He seemed fine.”