going to get to Sasha before she’s picked up and long gone? She might’ve dropped her phone there.”
Bridget didn’t want to imagine her friend in trouble. Though, she had to admit that the word “friend” was a pretty strong word to use in regards to Sasha. She wasn’t sure anyone could claim to be truly close to her. True, Sasha could take care of herself. Then again, Bridget would’ve said the same about herself. And yet, when it came down to it, Clarke had bested her.
Let’s do this again soon.
Eric and Aiden were both on their phones, Ted on his computer. Jess and Millie waited for her to spit out what she had to say.
Bridget needed to get to Sasha before it was too late. If it wasn’t already too late. “I need to make a call.”
“Zander?” Millie asked.
Bridget nodded, pulled out her phone, and called him. He’d replied to her text—the selfie of her and Aiden in Zander’s living room. She didn’t want to get distracted by the picture and his comment, but she’d look at it later. Probably while eating a pint of ice cream.
Zander had replied to the text with, “Small world.” The man should really use emojis. He’d be able to be a whole lot more expressive.
“Hey.” His normally rough voice sounded like gravel.
“Sasha’s in trouble, and I need a favor.”
“What’s up?” His tone changed. If there was something he could help with, Zander didn’t hesitate. But Sasha? Take that willingness to help and multiply it a hundredfold like a shot of the protein he probably drank. Distilled. He was huge.
Bridget explained the present threat—Clarke—and the fact Sasha had triggered a call for help. Then she told him the location. “I need to borrow your chopper.”
“No one flies it but me.”
“That’s good, because I don’t have a pilot’s license.”
“We’re on our way back, thirty minutes out from the airport. Soon as we land, I’ll make us ready.”
Bridget glanced at the time on her phone. “I should be there by then.”
“See you soon.” Zander hung up, probably so he could brief his three teammates on the situation. Or so he could take a power nap and wake up ready to jump on this new mission. She didn’t know which, but she was grateful for him anyway. The kind of guy you called when you headed into danger, and who you also sent a gag Christmas gift to.
Only it was his teammates who’d sent her several videos of them making fart noises with the little tub of glow-in-the-dark slime. Not Zander, who the gift had been for. If she had time, she’d ask Ted where the slime was now. Maybe he knew. She could steal it and send them a bunch of videos.
Her boss said, “Keep me posted.”
Bridget gave Millie a quick hug and accepted her car keys, then headed for the hall. She needed her car back, but this would do for now.
“Bridget?”
She glanced back at the door. “I need to go help my friend.”
Jess strode down the hall toward her. She walked like a cop. They didn’t think that was a thing, but she’d always been able to tell. “He cares about you.”
Bridget figured she was talking about Aiden, though Jess didn’t say.
“I have to go.”
“I can tell he cares, even though I barely know your guys’ history.”
“Well, it’s complicated.”
Jess said nothing.
“I knew your grandfather.” Alan Ridgeman had been the chief of police before Conroy Barnes. “He knew not to poke his nose into things that weren’t his business.”
She was out the door before Jess could say anything. The woman knew nothing, so why did she even feel the need to comment? It didn’t seem to Bridget that Aiden needed to be protected from heartbreak. He was capable of doing that himself. Strong. A good guy. Possibly two-timing someone he claimed to love. He made her want to swoon and managed to infuriate her at the same time.
A man in a relationship.
She stewed on it all the way to the local airport. She got there early and leaned against the side of the car while the plane landed. Trying not to shiver and wondering where her coat even was. The plane taxied toward the hangar where she’d parked. Inside was the chopper. Zander’s chopper.
Where the man got money for a helicopter and an airplane, she had no idea. No one checked into Zander’s background. If they did, he quickly found out and they were persona non grata forever after that.
Or so the tale went.
As the four