Page 116 of Storm Warning

“Second question. Why didn’t you go with them?”

“If Nathan is out there, I won’t intimidate him at all. If Andre captures him, he’ll establish his superiority. I could never do that because of my history with him.”

Iona’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure this isn’t Andre acting like a dictator? Because if it is, I won’t tolerate that when we’re on missions with Echo unit. That kind of interference will get someone killed, maybe one of you.”

“You’re wrong about Andre. He respects me and my skills. Calling him a dictator is insulting, and I resent your saying so. More importantly, I expected my team leader to trust my judgment.”

“This isn’t about trust. It’s about you being in love with an alpha leader. I don’t want to see your relationship dynamics influence your work. If that happens, I will bench you permanently, Riley. As much as I love working with you, I’d rather have you as my tech support than dead. Am I making myself clear?”

“Crystal, ma’am. I hope you listened to me, Iona. I won’t tolerate disrespect and distrust from you. If that’s what I can expect from you from now on, don’t be surprised when the boss brings you in for a come-to-Maddox meeting. You won’t have to bench me because I’ll request a transfer to a team that can use my skills and earn my trust.”

“I guess we’ve made our positions clear, haven’t we?”

Of all the times to choose to address this, now was not the right one. Riley needed her emotions under control in order not to react to anything Shadow Man said. She couldn’t afford to show her feelings, or he would have the upper hand. Didn’t matter that Andre would do the actual interrogating. With her present, a whole new dynamic would go into play.

She turned away from Iona and fixed her gaze on the stand of trees to the right of the original place she’d been watching. Shadow looked one way, then immediately ran the other way. He was out of her sight in seconds. “Andre and Elias have the intruder on the run. It should only be a matter of time before they bring him back here and have a talk with him.”

“You aren’t doing the interrogation?”

She shook her head.

“Why not? You’re an interrogator. That’s what you do.”

“Andre is a trained interrogator. He’s also not me.”

“If this is about objectivity, you missed the memo where Andre admitted to being in love with you. Do you really think he’ll be unbiased in his dealings with Berkley or whoever this man is?”

“It’s a power game, Iona, and I was easy to dupe.” Never again would that happen. “If this is Nathan, he sees me as his trainee and himself as the trainer. He has no respect for me. Andre, however, is an unknown who bested him by catching him. He’ll get more information from Nathan than I will.” Galled her to admit the truth, but there it was. On this part of the mission, Riley was a liability. “If this is a stranger, Andre will have a go at him first. If he can’t get information from him, then I can try.”

“Why can’t it be you from the first?”

“Because I was supposed to be his victim. He’s wired to see me as weak. I can still get the information from him, but it will take me longer.”

She turned away from the window and walked to the kitchen. “We’ll need more coffee.”

“What about this interrogation? We can’t do it here, for goodness’ sake. This is a hotel. People notice when someone is screaming, and call the cops. Do you want to explain to the cops why we’re interrogating a prisoner who is also a federal agent?”

“We’ve got this.” She dug into her Go bag and pulled out a Mylar blanket. After shaking it out, Riley spread the blanket on the ground and set a chair in the middle of it. Next, she brought a towel and the ice bucket to the kitchen and set them on the counter within easy reach.

Riley also laid out duct tape, her Ka-Bar, stun gun, two more knives, and zip ties. Some tools they would use. Some they wouldn’t. The intruder, however, wouldn’t know what tools Andre would use to get the information he wanted.

The whole time she set up the kitchen as an interrogation room, Iona watched her without saying a word or lifting a finger to help. What was that about? Iona wasn’t usually like this. What set her off? If it was Elias, Riley might have to kill him.

Okay, she would do nothing permanently damaging to a fellow operative. She could, however, make his life miserable. A few keystrokes could seriously damage someone’s reputation and up the misery quotient to an unbearable level. Riley would enjoy doing that if he’d mistreated Iona.

Ten minutes later, Andre and Elias returned with Nathan Berkley in tow.

Riley’s heart sank. Really? Was no one trustworthy anymore? She stared at the man who had been her handler for years. He was spying on her.

Resentment grew inside Riley. She couldn’t believe a man she had trusted with her life for years would stoop this low.

Andre and Elias marched Nathan to the chair Riley had prepared for them. Andre looked at her with approval in his beautiful eyes and winked. That made her feel good.

“This is some kind of mistake. Let me call my office. They’ll vouch for me.”

“Now, how would I know if you called the right place? What if you never intended to call your office but set us up for assassination just like you tried and failed to do with Riley?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He looked down and to the left.