Page 13 of Storm Warning

Riley’s heart melted a little at their interaction. Andre was so good with kids. Every time Echo unit encountered children on their missions, those kids inevitably gravitated to Andre. He loved children, and they knew it.

She dumped her empty plate in the trash can and sat on the bed beside Andre so Violet could sit with her husband.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Andre’s gaze locked on hers.

“Why wouldn’t I be? I’m not injured.”

“Not talking about physical injuries. You had to work hard to protect Christopher.”

“And I would do it again in a heartbeat. I don’t regret my actions. They were necessary.”

After a brief knock, Seth stepped into the room. His gaze connected with Riley’s. “Maddox needs to talk to you. He’s requesting a video call.”

She stilled. “Did he say what he wanted?”

“No, and I asked. The boss told me it wasn’t my business, that I’d find out when you talked to him.”

All right, then. Looked like she was doing a video chat instead of taking a much-needed nap.

Andre polished off the last of his sandwich, stood, and held out his hand to Riley. “Come on. We shouldn’t keep him waiting.”

He wasn’t wrong. Nothing good came of making the boss wait.

She and Andre followed Seth to the conference table. Riley booted up the laptop. A moment later, Brent Maddox appeared on the wall screen, his expression grim.

The rest of their teammates except for Violet gathered around the conference table. “What’s going on, sir?” Seth asked.

“Zane’s bots uncovered a threat to Riley.”

CHAPTER THREE

RILEY BLINKED. “DOESZane know who is targeting me?” This threat made little sense. As far as she knew, her security was intact. She didn’t have a family, so no chance of them slipping up and telling too much to a friend or relative. She also didn’t have a profile on social media. Riley hadn’t blabbed about her work to anyone outside of Fortress.

“Not yet,” Maddox said. “Z is tracking the threat through the Net. Hopefully, he’ll have something soon. In the meantime, you go nowhere alone.”

The members of Echo and Artemis straightened, their attention locked on their boss.

“Isn’t that extreme, sir?”

“These men grabbed you in the middle of an op. If Andre hadn’t noticed and followed, you’d have been missing longer than you were. Based on his report, he arrived just in time to prevent the kidnappers from hurting you to get what they wanted. You were lucky, Riley.”

She frowned. “I could have escaped on my own.”

“Perhaps. However, three against one isn’t great odds. What did they want?”

“It’s in my report, sir.”

“Nothing is in your report.”

“Because I know nothing. The interrogator kept saying they needed my cooperation. I got the impression that if I didn’tcooperate, they’d hurt me to get what they wanted. They never said what it was.”

“No threats lately?”

She shook her head. “I’ve stayed off everyone’s radar. No slip-ups.”

“Unfortunately, no cameras were available in the jungle, so we don’t know where they came from, nor do we have a picture of their faces. Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary recently?”

Under the table, her hands fisted. Maddox didn’t believe her. Why not? Hadn’t she proved herself to be trustworthy?