Page 117 of Fatal Intent

Elias snorted. “We know several snipers. Any of them could have pulled off these shootings.”

A scowl. “Why would a sniper without a connection to our team shoot survivors? That makes no sense.”

“Ever heard of murder for hire?” Andre said.

“No way,” Savage said.

“Why not?”

“This is a personal vendetta, not a task handed off to a stranger. Takes the satisfaction out of it if you pay someone to do your dirty work.”

“Not everyone can pull this off,” Iona said. “Those who can’t will either pay someone else to do the work, find the courage somewhere to do the job themselves, or simply walk away.”

The five men from the Red Dawn team stared at Iona and the rest of Artemis. Grant frowned at Ellis Lindsey, who couldn’ttake his eyes off Rayne, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“You haven’t introduced us to the ladies, Seth,” Gino said. “You’re slacking, buddy.”

“This is Teagan, my wife.” He introduced the other women.

Chase sneered. “Ya’ll are bringing your women on missions now? How far the mighty have fallen.”

“We’re not in the military anymore,” Elias said. “Besides, Iona and the others are also our teammates.”

The five men exchanged glances. “What kind of work are you doing?”

“We’re with Fortress Security.”

Barry’s eyebrows soared. “Doing what? Installing alarm systems?” Disdain filled his voice.

“Black ops.”

Silence, then, Ellis said, “Your women are in black ops?” He rolled his eyes. “Come on.”

Gino held up his hand. “Enough. You didn’t stop by to shoot the breeze, Dixon. What do you want?”

“To find out what you know about the deaths of members of Red Dawn.”

The other man’s gaze drifted to Teagan, locked on for a beat, then shifted back to Seth. “We can’t talk about classified missions in front of civilians. You know that.”

“To protect them, we told the women the bare bones of Red Dawn. No details.”

“And they accepted that without whining?”

Seth’s eyes glittered. “Insult my wife and her teammates again and you’ll regret it.”

The other man held up both hands in a placating manner. “Sorry, man. Just going by past history with barracks bunnies.”

“Teagan and her teammates aren’t barracks bunnies.”

“Again, I apologize. I won’t call them that again.”

“Rex? What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

The woman’s voice caused an immediate reaction in Rex. He whipped around and wrapped his arm around the petite woman’s shoulders. “Everything is fine, honey. We’re just catching up with old friends.”

Eileen Reed stepped into the pool of light cast by a light fixture. She studied the operatives in silence for a moment, then a slow smile curved her mouth when she recognized Seth. “Seth.” She pulled away from her husband and hugged Seth.

He pulled away from her, frowning. “Eileen, this is my wife, Teagan.”