Chapter Six
ANDRE OPENED RILEY’S front door and froze. Oh, man. This wasn’t good. He should have expected something like this when they returned home, but why hadn’t Fortress received a notification?
Riley frowned. “What’s wrong?”
How did he tell Riley that her home had been trashed while she was on a mission to rescue a kid from terrorists? “Look for yourself.” He stepped aside.
She gasped. “What on earth? Look at this mess!”
“I assume you didn’t leave your house in this state.”
“No, I didn’t.” Her hands fisted. “Fortress didn’t notify me of a breach in my security. Why didn’t they?”
“Maybe because we were on a mission, and they didn’t want to distract you.”
“Perhaps. They could have called me when we were in Bayside to deliver the news.” She motioned to the disaster zone that was her living room. “This is not a pleasant welcome home. In fact, this gives me the creeps.”
“I understand.” He pulled his Sig from its holster and held the weapon down by his side. Though he doubted the break-in artists were still here, he wouldn’t take chances with Riley’s safety. “Stay here while I check the house.”
“I can clear the house as well as you can.”
“Let me. Please.”
She motioned for him to go ahead.
Room after room, he checked all the places someone could lie in wait for his woman and found each one empty. When he returned to the living room, Andre pulled out his phone. “Go through the house and record each room while I contact Zane. You know the drill, Riley. Look but don’t touch.”
She saluted, then recorded as Andre made the call to Zane and placed it on speaker.
“Buddy, you’ve only been home for an hour. What kind of help could you need this soon?” Zane said in greeting.
“I need a crime scene team at Riley’s house.”
“Talk to me.”
“Someone broke into Riley’s house and trashed it while we were gone, Z.
She’s recording everything now. When she’s finished, I’ll walk through the house again with her to see if they took anything.
The pattern looks like a thorough search to me.
Her electronics are still in place except for her computers.
” He knew his woman had several expensive computers in her home, but on his walk through, Andre had seen none.
Riley groaned. “Oh, man. I love those computers.”
“You’ll get new ones. And I know you,” Zane said. “You have everything on them backed up in multiple places. You, my friend, are as paranoid as I am about information.”
Andre frowned. Information. Was it possible this break-in was tied to Riley’s kidnapping?
“Do you blame me?” Riley countered.
A snort. “Nope. Computers are notorious for eating information when you least need them to. Not backing up your files is just begging for trouble.”
“Guess I’ll be working some late nights for the next few weeks.”
“I’ll help if I can.”
“Appreciate it, my friend, although there isn’t much you can do about this.”
“Probably not. Andre?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Find out how the burglars got in, especially how they gained entrance to the house without tripping the alarm system.”
“Copy that, sir.”
“Let me know if I can help. Also, I’ll let Brent know what’s happened. Don’t be surprised if he shows up. He won’t be happy about this.”
“He’s not the only one.” Andre ended the call and turned to Riley. “Can you tell if anything is missing except your computers?”
“I noticed nothing else.” She stood with her hands on her hips, her gaze taking in the mess.
“What’s the point of taking only my computers?
Sure, they’re expensive, but there are plenty of other electronics that are easy to carry out and pawn.
My computers are programmed to wipe out everything if someone other than me tries to access them.
Taking the computers will net them nothing in the long run. ”
“On the outside chance that a computer expert as good as you are gets his hands on your equipment and breaks your passcode, what would he get for his trouble?”
“He’d have access to everything, including the Fortress databases.” Riley’s gaze broke away from his, her arms wrapping around herself.
Access to something else besides the powerhouse of information worried her. What was it? “What else?”
She waved his statement aside. “The only thing that matters is the breach in Fortress security.”
“Don’t do that, Riley. Something else is bothering you. What is it?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“Yeah, it does. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be holding back.”
She scowled. “The information doesn’t matter to anyone but me.”
“Although I don’t know if it matters or not, I need to see all the pieces of the puzzle to put a complete picture together.”
“I’m telling you this has nothing to do with the break-in.”
“Since you don’t know that for sure, let’s err on the side of caution, all right? You don’t have to give me details. A broad outline will do for now. I promise whatever you tell me stays with me unless it applies to your kidnapping.”
Riley closed her eyes for a moment, then turned away from him, arms hugging her middle tighter than before.
What on earth was so upsetting that Riley didn’t even want to speak of it to him? Of all people, she shouldn’t be afraid to speak the truth to him. Andre was in her corner and always would be.
“I was doing some private research.” She swung around, her glare fierce. “It wasn’t anything illegal, just something that mattered to me, no one else.”
That wasn’t enough information. He needed more. “What kind of research? I need more information.”
“Into my past, all right? Like I said, it didn’t matter to anyone else but me.”
Huh. Not what he’d expected. Why did she need to look into her past? Andre thought about what he knew of Riley’s background and realized he knew absolutely nothing. She had shared nothing with him or his teammates.
He frowned. Did the rest of Artemis know her history? Those women were as close as family. If anyone knew, they would. Well, they would along with Maddox and Zane. Fortress ran deep background checks on potential employees before it offered an employment interview.
The echo of a car door closing brought Andre’s attention to the front of the house.
He palmed his weapon and crossed to the large picture window and stood to the side.
He peered carefully outside to see who had arrived.
Andre relaxed some of his vigilance. “It’s Maddox.
” He motioned to his boss to come inside.
The Fortress CEO stepped over the threshold and glanced around. He whistled. “Do all the rooms look like this?”
“Unfortunately.” Riley folded her arms across her chest, scowling as she glanced around. “So far, it looks as though they only took my computers.”
Brent’s eyebrows shot up. “Computers? As in plural?”
“I had four.”
“All of them hooked up and working?”
She blinked. “Of course. What’s the point of having a computer if it doesn’t work?”
“What about your Fortress laptop?”
“In my Go bag.” She pointed to the duffel bag by the door. “I always have it with me.”
“You’re sure nothing else is missing?”
“We were about to go through the house more carefully, sir.” Andre wrapped his arm around Riley’s shoulders and hugged her to his side.
Brent turned to Riley. “What about the alarm system? Are you sure you set it before you joined your team at the airport?”
“Positive, sir. I’m obsessive about security.”
A smile curved his lips. “I think all of us are. Have you seen signs someone is looking for you or tracking your movements?”
“Not that I’m aware of, sir. Although I haven’t asked Zane specifically about that, he would have told me if one of his bots caught a search.”
“None of your bots caught an inquiry?”
“No, sir.”
“So either no one is looking for you, or they’re as good or better at computer work than you and Zane.
” Andre frowned. Was that possible? Of course.
Fortress hadn’t cornered the market on computer geeks.
Made him wonder yet again if the break-in had something to do with Riley’s kidnapping. But how could that be possible?
“Talk to me.” Brent’s attention locked on Andre.
“This is the second time Riley’s been targeted in the past two days. Both times, the perps seemed to hunt for information.”
Riley shrugged. “Could be a coincidence.”
“You know it isn’t a coincidence, not in our business. Someone is looking for information, Riley, and they believe you have it.”
“I have access to a lot of information, sir. Some of it is classified. How am I supposed to know what information they want? The kidnappers didn’t tell me, so I can’t narrow it down for us just like I couldn’t narrow it down for them.
What gets me is they would have hurt me for this knowledge, but they weren’t willing to give me enough clues to have the faintest idea of what they want. ”
“Someone is desperate,” Andre said.
Brent gave a slight nod of agreement. “Since none of my other operatives are targets, we can assume this information is something only you know, so not something known company-wide or within Echo and Artemis. So tell me, Riley, what information do you have that is worth going to all this trouble and risk for?”
“I don’t know.” She threw her hands up. “I wish I did.”
“You wanted to go through your house again, this time more slowly. Do it now. I’ll keep watch out here since I have some phone calls to make.
Once the crime scene team arrives, leave the house and stay away until they finish their work.
If you need a safe house, you’ll get it.
For the moment, your house is off limits to you and your teams.”
She flinched. “Yes, sir.”
“Get your stuff together, Riley.” He glanced at his phone. “You have five minutes before the crime scene team arrives.”
“Let’s start in your bedroom,” Andre said. “We’ll pack a bag before you check for missing things.”
“All right. From there, we’ll go to my office. That’s the next most likely place they’d take something besides my computers. The rest of the house has nothing worth stealing.”