Page 103 of Storm Warning

“Wait.” Riley held up a hand. “It makes sense that I’m being targeted because I killed Eduardo Garcia. But why Andre? How did he catch the attention of the man behind the assassins and kidnappers? Is he a target because he had the misfortune of falling in love with me?”

Andre shook his head. “It’s not a misfortune. That was a stroke of luck on my part. No question in my mind that you could do a lot better than me.”

She waved that aside. “But why are they fixated on you, Andre? You were part of a Special Forces team of Army Rangers. Why did they focus on you when you and the others were acting as a unit?”

Andre glanced at Seth, who gave a slight nod. “I killed the second in command of Obsidian Storm, Rico Mendoza.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

ANDRE WAITED FORRiley’s response to his statement. In a way, he was to blame for Angie’s death. The Rangers made a splash when they took down an imminent threat to the United States. Riley’s work probably would have been attributed to them if not for the CIA’s press conference, bragging about one of their own killing Garcia.

“You killed Mendoza?” Riley tightened her grip on his hand in silent support. “I’ve wondered for years who pulled that off.”

“It doesn’t bother you that I killed Mendoza in cold blood?”

“Does it bother you Garcia died by my hand?”

“Garcia was a threat to our country. If you hadn’t reached him first, one of us would have pulled the trigger.” He stopped, head tilting. “By the way, how did you kill him? Our superior officers didn’t include that information in our reports or in the debriefing session when we returned to the States.”

“The Company gave me a ring with a needle concealed inside. I activated it with my thumb. The needle delivered a dose of deadly poison that did the job in less than a minute.”

Andre stared. “Are you kidding me?” How could her employer do that to a rookie field agent? He believed her, but not the ineptness of the federal agency responsible for her safety.

“I can’t prove it, but his death was at my hand.”

“Oh, I believe you, Riley. What I’m finding it hard to believe is the CIA sent you into such a dangerous situation with only a close-quarters weapon to complete a mission with no backup.”

“Angie was nearby, and so were other agents.”

“But you didn’t know who the agency sent to provide a distraction, and you had no way to communicate with them if you got into trouble.”

“I didn’t need them.”

“A piece of luck.” He held up a hand when she protested. “Don’t bother defending them. They hung you out to dry, babe. If you’d been caught, Berkley would deny knowing you, walk away without looking back, and leave you to escape if you could before Obsidian Storm killed you for attempting to murder their leader.”

Iona scowled. “That is not acceptable for any handler. Not one of my people is expendable. Why didn’t you walk away from the agency after that mission, Riley? They didn’t have your best interests at heart.”

She shrugged. “I didn’t know any better, and I thought I could handle anything the enemy dished out. I know. You don’t have to say it. I had an inflated opinion of myself in those days and believed I could overcome any challenge.” Riley grimaced. “I was so naïve to believe such a thing, and I quickly learned better.”

Seth held up a hand to forestall more discussion. “We know why Riley and Andre are targets. That’s the point we’re dancing around in this discussion.”

Noah looked grim. “It’s only a matter of time before the rest of Echo comes under fire. That can’t happen, Seth. More than just our lives is at stake now.”

Grant nodded. “We should take the fight to them, not wait around for them to catch us off guard in a distracted moment.”

Violet wrinkled her nose. “What happened to diplomatic solutions?”

Elias shrugged. “There’s a time for diplomacy. We’re way past that and well into the time to fight. In fact, we’re late to theparty. I think the Storm’s soldiers are stalking all of us. It’s only a matter of time before they receive orders to take us out.”

Seth frowned. “Maybe.”

“You suspect something different will happen?”

He glanced at Teagan, then at the other women of Artemis. “We’re hard to kill.”

“So is Artemis.”

“We know that, Elias, but Obsidian Storm doesn’t. They don’t know that our women are more deadly than their soldiers, and that’s to Artemis’ advantage.”