Page 59 of Storm Warning

Andre held up his hand and lifted one finger. “First, he knew your name, so he came for you specifically.”

“Yay, me. What else?”

“Second, you’re enough of a threat to trigger a contract. That means this person has the money to hire a hitman.”

“That’s not saying much considering the quality,” Elias said. “Joe isn’t the best hitman we’ve encountered.”

“True. Now that we know who he is, we can research him, find his work accounts, and build a case against him like we did other perps when we were on the job. If we’re lucky, the account funder paid good old Joe part of his fee for taking the job. If he has, we can trace the money back to the original kill account and drain it.”

“What will you do with the money?” Riley asked.

“Depends. If we can build a case against him, the cops will need to know about the account plus have a record of the money flowing in and out of there in order to arrest him for murder for hire.”

Iona sat on a stool at the kitchen counter. “How does that help Riley besides putting Joe on ice? Other killers for hire will take the job.”

“That’s why we’ll drain the account,” Elias said.

“If his employer is determined to kill or kidnap Riley, what’s stopping him from putting money in another account?”

“He can’t do that if we track him down and turn him over to law enforcement.”

“That’s the goal,” Andre said. “We want to make sure this guy won’t keep targeting Riley by sending hitmen after her or coming after Riley himself.”

“We also need to narrow down the suspects looking for you.” Riley thrust her hands through her hair, rumpling the long strands. “We can’t forget Zane’s information. Someone is after you too, Andre.”

“You are the priority, babe. You’ve already evaded two kidnapping attempts. So far, I just have someone sniffing around, looking for me. He or she hasn’t made a serious move yet.”

“It’s coming.”

He inclined his head. “We’ll deal with it when it comes.”

“We have a few hours of peace if you want to take a nap.” Iona rose and poured coffee into a mug and sipped. “I would take advantage of it while I had the chance if I were you.”

Riley shook her head. “There’s too much adrenaline running through my body.”

“Then you should crash soon.” Andre held out his hand to her. “Come on. I’ll find something slow and boring on television and turn the sound low.”

“You think that will do the trick?” That technique had never worked before. Nights like this were when Riley ended up back at Fortress, volunteering to do programming for Zane. When she was on assignment, Riley usually ran four or five miles to burn off adrenaline. Since neither choice was an option, she slid her hand into Andre’s. If nothing else, she’d enjoy spending a few minutes alone with Andre.

“We won’t know unless we try.” Andre led her to the living room. “Any preferences?”

“Surprise me.”

They sat on the sofa, and Andre picked up the remote. After scrolling for a minute, he settled on a series about couples searching for their dream houses. “Is this okay?”

“It’s perfect.” She turned her head toward him. “Did you know that my secret addiction is watching the tiny house program?”

He chuckled. “No, I didn’t. Will you be able to shut your mind down and rest with this program running in the background?”

“Absolutely. This will be fun to watch if I’m awake. Otherwise, this program will be good white noise to quiet my mind.”

Andre snagged a blanket from the back of the sofa and draped it over both of them, then wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

Little by little, Andre’s body heat along with resting close to the operative proved to be the magic ticket to dreamland. Riley snuggled closer to Andre. “Are you comfortable like this?”

“Are you kidding? This is the best I’ve felt in days.”

“I don’t want to aggravate your wound.”