Page 41 of Storm Warning

“That I don’t know yet. I’m working on it. I should have an answer for you in an hour or two.”

Although he wanted to know what delay could be more important than Riley’s life, Andre kept his mouth zipped. Zane Murphy was the best in the business. If he didn’t have the information, no one would have it. The man was amazing. Griping wouldn’t net Andre the information sooner, but it would cause some hard feelings between him and Z. That would not happen.

Not only that, Seth and Brent would tear a strip off his hide for his impatience. No one disrespected Zane and got away with it. “Call me as soon as you know anything, Z.”

“Copy that.” Zane ended the call.

Andre sighed and glanced at Riley. “I’m sorry.”

Her head whipped toward him. “For what?”

“Bringing trouble into your home. Literally.”

Riley frowned. “How did you do that?”

“I must have tipped the enemy off that I was crazy about you. I brought this trouble inside your house, Riley, and there aren’t enough words for how sorry I am.”

“You don’t know that you tipped off the enemy. How could you have shown your hand when we were deployed almost the entire month?”

“Nothing else makes sense.”

“Not yet. We haven’t finished looking into this, Andre. I could have messed up and led the break-in artists right to my house.”

“You’re not careless.”

“Neither are you. Why don’t we hold off on taking the blame for what may not be our fault until we have all the facts?”

He appreciated Riley’s looking on the positive side and expecting the best from him. Andre held up a hand. “You’re right. We’ll wait.” Wouldn’t change the outcome. He had a bad feeling about this, and those feelings usually panned out exactly as his gut warned.

“Where’s my calendar?” Riley smiled. “I need to write that down so I don’t forget this momentous occasion.”

He laughed. “All right, Sloan. I’m not that bad, am I?”

“No, but it’s a lot of fun teasing you about it.” After a beat, she sobered. “Andre, something is going on, and I don’t think it’s going to be a simple fix.”

“Why do you say that?”

She shrugged. “Gut instinct.”

Unfortunately, his gut said the same. “We’ll figure out what’s going on. We have the power of Fortress behind us. Not much stays hidden with Fortress on the job.”

“I hope you’re right.” She was silent for a moment. “I’m concerned about Christopher, too.”

Yet another situation that Andre had zero control over and wished he did. Too many things could go wrong in the blink of an eye while law enforcement and child services investigated the allegations of child abuse. “Same. Brent Maddox can work miracles, though. Look at the setup for the next few days. Somehow he convinced the ambassador to leave Chris and Rex with him and his family rather than turning the boy over as soon as we returned to Nashville.”

“I wonder how he did that.”

“I don’t know, but I’m glad he did. That gives Brent and Zane more time to figure out if our suspicions are correct.” He exited the interstate and headed into the countryside near Christiana, Tennessee.

“Where is this safe house? Do you know?”

“It’s between Christiana and Murfreesboro. This is a cabin owned by a friend of Durango.” The black ops unit was one of two units stationed at Personal Security International, the Fortress training school for bodyguards and operatives in Otter Creek, Tennessee. “Fortress uses it occasionally as a safe house. I think you’ll like it.”

“If it’s the cabin I’m thinking about, I’ve been here once. It’s a really nice place.”

“Probably is. I don’t think Fortress has a series of safe houses in this area.” He deliberately shifted the conversation to lighter topics. “So, Ms. Sloan, where would you like to go on our first official date?”

“I don’t really care. All I want is time with you.” She turned to him. “Maybe we can find something fun to do in Christiana.”