Page 5 of Silver Secrets

“Careful, Phoenix. One of these days you're gonna go up in flames and not come back from it.”

“Just because you never go out and have fun doesn’t mean we all have to lead boring lives.”

“Yeah, well. My whole world disappeared in a single blink, Hawk. You wouldn’t want to go out either if that happened to you.”

The air in the room changed, and Gage forced himself not to apologize. Was it a dick move bringing up his dead wife and son? Yeah, probably. Doesn’t mean Hawk didn’t deserve the reminder.

“Fuck, Track,” he groaned. “I’m sorry, man. You know I was just busting your balls. I loved Mel and Mikey, too.”

“I know you did. It’s fine. I’m just in a bad mood.”

“Wanna vent?”

“Nah. It’s just Sloane.”

“What’s up with the good doc?”

“She’s hiding something.”

“Like a new kitten from her landlord something? Or like a basement full of bodies sort of something?”

“I have no clue. I need something to take my mind off of her. I’m itching to run a search on her name and I don’t want to violate her trust like that…”

“Just yet.”

“Huh?”

“You don’t want to violate her trust like that just yet. Meaning, you will if you think something bad is going on.”

Gage scratched at his jaw, knowing he damn well would. “Yeah.”

“Alright, well, you gotta turn off stalker mode for a few hours at least. Cap and Reap let me know we’re needed on site for a job this afternoon.”

“Shit. I’m supposed to be working on some coding for The Trident. What’s the job?”

“The new clinic. Apparently Dr. Rahni’s ready for us to go over and run an estimate for security on the place. Needs cameras, alarms, keypad access points, the whole nine yards. I’d ask Stone, but Gunner already put him on the bed and breakfast job in Lark Lake.”

“What’s Nash doing?”

“He’s over at The Trident, trying to finish up the protocols for that team of Rangers coming in next week.”

Shit. He couldn’t get out of it. His day had just gotten exponentially longer.

Gage groaned and shut his laptop. He’d spent more time warring with himself over looking deeper into Sloane’s background than he should have. Getting out of the office would be good. He’d be able to clear his mind, focus on work.

Or, at least that was what he thought. But over the last two hours as he and Hawk walked down every inch of the new Silver Springs Health Clinic with Jake, the doctor who Seb was backing to open up access to medical care directly in Silver Springs, Gage’s mind still kept skipping back to Sloane.

“Come on, daydreamer. Gunner just sent a text. Lily convinced him to have family dinner at Dolly’s.”

“I wasn’t daydreaming.”

“You’ve been locked in your mind this entire time. How many key card entries did Jake tell us he wanted?”

“Five. One for the door from the waiting area into the exam rooms. One for the back door that has entry access in the alley. One for the supply closet and then one to get into the medication room, where there is one more needed for a specific level of medications that only Jake and his PA will have access to.”

Jake laughed. “I knew you were paying attention.”

“It’s almost as if Hawk can’t believe other people can multitask just because he’s incapable of doing that himself.”

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