Page 53 of Storm Warning

Riley didn’t want to die tonight. She had plans with Andre, a lot of them. Truthfully, her plans spanned a lifetime. She just had to figure out how to tell him.

She glanced at her phone to check the time. One more hour on their shift. With Elias working too, Riley could focus more onher computer work rather than splitting her attention between the computer and the security cam views.

Riley dove back into her search, peeling back another layer of information as she chased another lead. Unfortunately, the hour passed without new information.

She growled. This was the most frustrating search she’d ever encountered.

Andre rested his hand on her shoulder. “Ready to go upstairs?”

After checking that her bots were still at work, she pushed the computer to the side and stood. Although she didn’t really want to sleep, she knew she needed rest. “Let’s go. Did you have any luck?”

“Some. The information will keep, though. I’ll tell everyone at the same time after breakfast. If we talk about this now, neither of us will unwind enough to sleep.”

Andre escorted Riley upstairs to her room. He signaled her to wait while he checked the room, then motioned her inside. “Try to sleep, Riley. If you can’t, wake me and we’ll put on a slow movie or television series and see if that helps you sleep.”

She nodded, although she’d do everything possible to avoid waking Andre. After a long, heated kiss, he left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Riley slipped off her boots and climbed onto the bed, draping a quilt over her. She didn’t like that someone might have discovered their safe house’s location. If they made a move overnight, she wanted to be ready to roll in seconds.

When sleep remained elusive fifteen minutes later, Riley resorted to the trick Angie taught her after she first arrived in Homestead and had trouble sleeping. She slowed her breathing and relaxed her body muscle by muscle, moving slowly from her neck to the soles of her feet.

She woke an hour later to a brisk knock on the door. Riley sat up as the door opened.

“Riley.”

Andre. “What’s wrong?”

“We have company.”

“Where?”

“North quadrant.”

The same place as the broken branch and the boot print. Wonderful. Not. Guess they should have moved after all. Riley paused. Perhaps not, though. If they captured the intruder, she could interrogate their prisoner. She’d learned many things during her time in The Company. The art of questioning prisoners was one of them. “Two minutes.”

“Security room.”

“Copy that.” After Andre left, Riley threw off the quilt, stepped into her tactical boots, and hurried to splash her face with water to shake off the mental cobwebs.

At the two-minute mark, she dropped into a chair beside Andre. “Show me.”

He pointed at the camera view of the area with the broken limb and boot prints.

At first, Riley saw nothing. Seconds later, a shadow shifted, and a man emerged. Dressed in black from head to toe, the man also wore a ski mask to cover his face. “What’s the plan?”

Andre’s eyes glittered. “Catch him and have a chat with him.”

A chat. Right. Dread coiled in her gut. Should she let Andre catch and question the intruder or tell him of her specialty? For that matter, why bother hiding it? Iona was her team leader, and as leader she used the gifts and abilities of her team members. Iona wouldn’t allow her to sit on the sidelines without using her training.

Time to tell him the truth and see how he reacted. Riley turned. “Catch him and bring him to me in the kitchen.”

Her man stared in silence for a few beats. “I assume there’s a reason you asked me to do that. Care to enlighten me?”

“Besides being a computer analyst, The Company trained me well in the art of interrogation.”

More staring, then, “You’re serious?”

“Very.”