Page 97 of Storm Warning

“We found Riley’s mentor from Homestead, the homeless camp.”

Violet and Rayne exchanged glances. “Good. I want a word with that woman.” Rayne’s eyes blazed, and her hands fisted.

Violet frowned. “Get in line.

“There’s no line.” Riley closed her eyes briefly. “She’s dead. Angie and her entire family are dead.”

“Oh, Riley, I’m so sorry. Do we know how they died?”

“Handgun with a silencer. They were murdered at the hospital.”

Teagan whistled. “Bold move on the killer’s part. A lot of risk in assassinating someone in that manner inside a building occupied by many people.”

Iona lips curved. “We ought to know.”

“Same for us.” Seth’s forehead furrowed. “Go on, Andre.”

He explained the connection between Riley, Angie and The CIA and waited.

“Wait a minute.” Violet scowled. “Are you telling us you were with The Company, Riley?”

She gave a slight nod and waited for the explosion. Her teammates exchanged glances, then focused on her.

Rayne’s expression showed her relief. “Thank goodness you came to us.”

The others nodded in agreement.

Riley held up her hand. “Hold on a minute. Andre tells you I was with the CIA and your only response is that?”

Iona’s eyebrows soared. “You expected something different?”

“Well, yes. I thought you’d yell at me and maybe ask Maddox to send me to another team.”

Teagan grinned. “Disappointed, aren’t you? Look, we all have pasts we don’t want to talk about.” She sobered. “You already know my past was ugly without me sharing the details. The same is true for the rest of us, Riley. Who are we to judge?”

“But I worked for the CIA. The rest of you were military or law enforcement. I was neither.”

“The CIA does some good work.” Violet wrapped her hand around Noah’s. “I don’t want to work for them, but my guess is they recruited you when you were young and had no one to ask if that was a wise move.”

Relief swamped her. Thank goodness for her teammates. “I was still in college, majoring in computer science.”

“Like I said, young and vulnerable. The Company recruited you for your computer skills?”

“Everybody wants a hacker.” Once in a while, even Brent pressed her to switch to tech support for the black ops teams. Riley always turned him down because she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving Artemis. They were her family.

“We’re glad you realized the truth and joined the right side.”

“Let’s get back on task,” Noah said. “Before you left, The Company assigned you and Angie to the same mission. Regardless of whether the operation is classified, you must talk to us.”

Seth nodded. “Start at the beginning, Riley. Who recruited you?”

“Nathan Berkley. He contacted me when I was a sophomore. He was drinking a cup of coffee at the coffee shop I favored when I did schoolwork. We struck up a conversation about computers and the dark web. After a few minutes, we exchanged email addresses, and he left the shop.”

“He kept in touch with you?”

She nodded. “About once a month, he’d email about some new theory he’d heard about computers or hacking. I thought little about it. Frankly, I was too busy to concern myself with some old guy who was as crazy about computers as I was.”

Iona frowned. “How old was Nathan?”