Page 74 of Redemption

Yesterday, we spent pretty much the whole day watching movies and taking it easy. We don’t get a lot of time to relax, so when we do, we take full advantage of it.

The animals absolutely adore each other and surprisingly didn’t get into any trouble while we were gone at Lyric’s the day before yesterday. Lyric has sent so many photos and videos in the group chat, and we are all absolutely loving it.

Today, Elijah and the guys are coming home.

The guys will be resting, and we most likely won’t see them until tomorrow, and Pete and Elijah will be spending some much needed time together.

So there’s not really much to do.

I don’t want to go down to Lyric’s unless she invites us. Their whole worlds have changed, and they’re getting used to a new normal. I don’t want to interfere with that, and she’s sending me lots of updates anyway.

The guys are all off doing their own things. I’ve already been up to Tank and taken him out, although I suppose that I could do it again, he wouldn’t mind. The weather isn’t that great though, and for understandable reasons I’m a little hesitant about dodgy weather at the moment.

I am at a complete loss as to what to do.

Staring down at my phone, an idea hits me, I can text Rylie, I haven’t heard anything from her for a while.

I know she will be unlikely to be able to reply, but it’s been too long since we last spoke, and I haven’t heard anything from Mr. R either. That’s both good and bad since he would only give me an update on Rylie if something bad had happened.

At least sending a message would give me something to do for the next few minutes, and she’ll reply when she can and know that I’m thinking about her.

Me: Hey! I’m just checking in. I haven’t heard from you for a while, and I wanted to make sure that you didn’t need any backup going after Hunt’s followers.

To my utter shock, my phone immediately starts ringing.

“Hey, girl,” Rylie greets me happily. “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, you sound a bit off, but I can understand you,” I reply as I put my phone on speaker so she's louder and I can hear her better. The sound quality isn’t great. “How are you? Are you okay? How’s the job going? Do you want backup? Wow, I’m sorry, that’s so many questions.”

Rylie's laugh makes me smile.

“God, I miss you,” she says with a sigh.

“Right back at you, but you didn’t even answer one question then,” I point out with a raised eyebrow, not that she can see me.

, “I’m okay physically, and I’m safe. Mentally I’m confused as fuck. Mr. R took me off the Hunt case because there was something else that needed my particular brand of skills. I don’t need backup, but I will let you know if that changes, I promise. Are you guys all good? How’s the Hunt case going?”

I quickly explain everything that’s going on.

“Why are you confused?” I ask. That seems like the most important thing to focus on.

She sighs heavily. “Dude, I wish I could tell you.”

“Case?” I ask, understanding lacing my tone. We’ve all had situations where we wish we could talk to someone about something, but because it’s case-related, we’re unable to.

“Yeah, I’ve never quite had a case like this. I can handle it, and I can check in a bit more than I could on the Hunt case, which is great, but it’s so much more complicated than anything I’ve done before, and I’m working with people,” she explains, and I chuckle at the disdain in her voice.

“You never know, you might like them,” I say teasingly. I’m aware how unlikely that is.

Rylie scoffs, “They’re alright. Mostly. If I’m being completely honest, then I have definitely worked with worse teams. Maybe.”

She says it so begrudgingly that I can’t help but laugh. “Well, that is definitely high praise coming from you, you must like them.”

“Shut up,” she mutters.

My smile widens. “I would ask if they’re a team from the organization, but I can’t think of anyone that you would want to be near, unless they’re a team that never comes to headquarters?”

“Yeah, they’re from where I’m based at the moment,” she replies, being really careful about what she says. “Dude, this job is fucking insane. Obviously, I can't disclose any details, but the moment I can, fucking hell, we’re going to need whisky and chocolate.”