Page 98 of Shadow

Peter nodded. “I heard some of you at Solitaire were having some trouble. Let me know if I can be of any help.”

What was going on with Samuel? He’d left the spy game a few months before Ripley. Was he struggling with being out? When they’d spoken the other day, it was a question about a safehouse they’d used in London, and he’d assumed Samuel was trying to get back into the game. He made a mental note to give his friend a call.

Ripley glanced at the corner where Marissa and Olivia appeared to be wrapping up the rope lesson. Olivia beamed and held her arms out for a hug from the other woman, then she turned and spotted Ripley watching her.

When the two women made their way to the table, Olivia leaned down and kissed him. “Did you see me flying, Daddy?”

Ripley grinned and pulled her down onto his lap. “I saw, baby. That looked like a lot of fun.”

Marissa stood behind Lance and wrapped her arms around him, kissing the top of his head.

“Thanks for letting us play, Ripley. Did Lance tell you what he found?”

Ripley nodded, and Olivia looked at him expectantly.

“Just an interesting connection between Fiona and someone I’ve worked with before,” he explained. “It’s not much, but it’s something to go on.”

The three couples spent the next half hour chatting, laughing, and nursing drinks until Gage approached and pulled out a chair. “Y’all look so happy you’re making me reconsider this whole single life thing.”

Olivia snorted. “You may not have a steady partner, but you’re still getting plenty of love.”

Gage shrugged. “And yet here I sit with no woman in my lap.”

“According to Patrick you’ve got someone in New York,” Lance said.

Ripley raised an eyebrow. “Keeping secrets?”

Gage scowled and shook his head. “Patrick is a nosy busybody. But he’s also wrong. I escorted a lady to an event we both had to be at anyway. Nothing more.”

Olivia chuckled. “You’re a little too defensive, Gage. Who was she?”

Gage stood and stretched. “It’s been a long day. I’m gonna hit the hay.”

“Chicken,” Ripley teased.

Gage flipped him off and sauntered towards the door to the backyard where all the tents were set up for people who wanted to sleep outside. There was also the option to throw air mattresses down on the floor of the dungeon or the library.

Something buzzed against his thigh, and he frowned, reaching for his phone. But it wasn’t his.

“I think your phone is ringing, baby.”

Olivia lifted and pulled her phone out of her back pocket.

“Excuse me for a sec. This is Fiona.”

Ripley’s spidey senses kicked into high gear, and he shook his head. “Answer it here.”

She rolled her eyes but put the phone to her ear.

“Hello?”

A pause.

“Fiona, calm down. I need you to handle this because I can’t be there right now.”

“Put it on speaker,” Ripley whispered.

Thankfully, Olivia seemed to sense that he wasn’t in the mood to argue with her, and she put the phone on speaker and set it on the table.

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