Chapter Seven #2
“Industrial buildings in that area have larger vents.” He lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug. “I fit.” Barely, but it had worked. “I knew she would, too.”
“So what’s the problem with using the vents?”
Andre moved a step closer to Elias and lowered his voice. “I didn’t know Riley had claustrophobia.”
A soft whistle from his teammate. “Oh, man. How did she do during the escape?”
“She’s a rock. The only signs she was in distress were fast breathing and sweating. I was so proud of her and felt like a total failure for not realizing sooner what those signs meant.”
Elias was silent for a moment. “That explains why she never volunteers to crawl around in tight spaces.”
“And why Iona never sends her into those places. Her teammates know and work around her phobia.”
“They sent in Rayne instead.”
“Huh. I haven’t thought about that, but you’re right. I wonder why.”
“She was in gymnastics growing up.”
“And?” What did that have to do with her going into tight places?
“Rayne is still very flexible. According to Grant, she can twist her body to fit into those small spaces, and it doesn’t seem to bother her.”
Smart of Iona to use the strengths of her team members.
Seth also used the skills and abilities of the members of Echo unit.
None of them, however, could contort their bodies to fit into small places.
Andre was lucky that he fit into the ventilation system this time to rescue Riley.
“My brilliant idea to avoid conflict with the terrorists led me to stir up nightmares for Riley.”
“It will pass.” Elias glanced at Andre. “And if it doesn’t, have her talk to a counselor. He or she can help her compartmentalize and process. The point is, you got her out of there when the odds were against you. You saved her life, Andre.”
He gave his teammate The Look. “Come on. You know better than that. Riley was probably minutes from freeing herself. The women of Artemis are resourceful. The guys who kidnapped her weren’t the brightest criminals I’ve run into. They didn’t search Riley for weapons, and she had several of them.”
“While you have a point, Riley got out of that room sooner because you came to her rescue.”
The women returned. “The pantry and refrigerator are full of food,” Iona said. “We shouldn’t have to go to the store for a few days at least. You don’t cook, right?”
“Does grilling count?” Andre looked from one woman to the other. “I can grill like a champ, but put me in a kitchen, and I’m hopeless.”
“Same here,” Elias said.
“We can work with that.” Riley smiled. “Iona and I aren’t cooking every meal.”
“We’ll pitch in where we can.”
“Good. Why don’t you and Andre heat the grill? I vote for hamburgers for dinner tonight.”
“I’ll second that.” Iona motioned toward the collection of spices on the kitchen counter. “The spices are in the spice rack. It has everything you’ll need for dinner.”
“We saw frozen French fries in the chest freezer,” Riley said. “We’ll bake them while you’re grilling the hamburgers.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Andre looked at Elias. “Why don’t you and Iona choose rooms upstairs? Riley is in the primary suite. I’m in the room next to her. While you’re up there, I’ll get the grill going.”
“Sure. We’ll be back in a couple of minutes.”
Iona followed Elias out of the kitchen.
Riley opened the refrigerator, pulled out the hamburger meat, and handed it to Andre. “I’ll find the bowl you need while you turn on the gas grill.”
He walked outside onto the patio and fired up the grill.
By the time he returned to the kitchen, Riley had already lined up various spices beside the large bowl she’d laid out and a plate to stack the raw hamburgers along with a platter to use when they were grilled.
“I didn’t know what you wanted to use, but these spices are pretty common. ”
He skimmed the labels and chose the four spices that he wanted, dumped the hamburger into the large bowl, and liberally added spices to the meat. After washing his hands, Andre kneaded in the seasoning and formed patties he set on the plate.
Elias returned and took the plate of hamburgers outside along with a spatula. Iona followed him.
Riley stared at the closed door for a beat. “They’re spending a lot of time together. Have you noticed?”
Andre washed his hands again. “Yeah, but maybe because they’re the only single ones on our teams rather than some interest on both sides.”
“I don’t think so. I’ve seen the way they look at each other. Besides, we weren’t paired up before I was kidnapped.”
“We weren’t officially paired up, but we were a couple, Riley. Everybody knew it. I didn’t make a deal out of it, but we were definitely a couple. I haven’t been interested in anyone else since I first saw you.”
Riley stared. “I don’t know what to say to that.”
“How about, ‘I feel the same way, Andre?’”
Her mouth curved. “I feel the same way, Andre, and I don’t know what to do with this information.”
“I’m going to tuck that in the back of my mind and pull it out to look at until I’ve convinced you we’re the real thing.”
Iona walked into the kitchen and pulled up short when she saw them standing close together. “Sorry to interrupt.”
Riley blinked and turned to her team leader. “No problem. What do you need?”
“Parchment paper.”
She turned away from Andre, searched the pantry, and handed Iona the roll of parchment paper. “Here you go.”
“Thanks. Carry on.”
When they sat down to eat later, they discussed Christopher and Rex. “That dog is a sweet thing.” Iona popped a French fry into her mouth.
“I’m afraid the ambassador won’t let Chris keep him.” Riley sat back and folded her arms. “Rex isn’t fully grown yet. He’ll be a big dog, and the ambassador is gone for months at a time.”
“I think Brent has a plan for that.” Andre took Riley’s empty paper plate along with his own and dumped them in the trash. “There’s no way he would have brought Rex to Tennessee only to dump him back in a shelter.”
Riley scowled. “That would be cruel.”
“Yeah, it would.”
Elias set aside his empty glass. “The boss has been looking for a pet for his daughter. I think Rex fits what he wants if Chris can’t keep him. This way, Brent can invite Chris to come see Rex when he and his father are in the country. Brent can see Chris for himself and check on his wellbeing.”
“Ingenious,” Iona said. “How sure are you that Christopher is being abused?”
“Ninety percent sure.” Andre glanced at Elias. “What about you?”
“Yeah, I feel the same.” He frowned. “If we had more time, we could investigate deeper. The way things are shaking out, though, we’ll have to leave the investigation to Zane and Brent.”
Riley studied them. “What would you need to do the job yourselves?”
Andre pushed aside his empty plate. “Medical records, police reports if there are any, eyewitness accounts of incidents, any testimonies offered, things like that.”
“I’ll see if I can find anything like that in between my other searches.”
“That would be great if you could. Zane is on it, but he’s juggling other tasks, including being our tech and communication support on this mission. Any information you run down, send him a copy so the two of you don’t duplicate each other’s efforts.”
She blinked. “That’s a good point. I’ll contact Zane and coordinate our searches. If he hasn’t already started on it, I’d like to focus on Christopher’s medical records.”
After they cleaned up and brewed another pot of coffee, Andre and Riley went to the security room for the first night watch while Iona and Elias went to their rooms to sleep.
Dropping into the seat in front of the computer screens with camera views of the surrounding area, Andre studied each one, committing it to memory in case something changed during their watch.
When the sun rose, he and Elias would walk the perimeter around the cabin and memorize the area while planning where to place surprises for unwanted visitors.
Riley set her computer down on the table next to Andre. “I’ll get coffee. Do you want anything else?”
“Not at the moment. Want help?”
“I’ve got it.” She brushed a light kiss over his mouth and left the security room.
He turned back to the computer screens and resumed his study of the camera views. This area of Tennessee was beautiful and filled with bushes and trees. All of them created great places to hide from the cameras. Might be worth setting up a few cameras that were more hidden.
Riley returned and placed a large to-go cup of coffee on the table by his hand.
“Thanks, sweetheart.”
Her cheeks flamed. “You’re welcome.”
“What’s in your cup?”
“Not coffee.” She sat beside Andre. “I chose hot chocolate again.”
He studied her for a moment. “Comfort drink, huh?”
Riley booted up her laptop. “Is that a problem?” She sounded defensive.
“Nope. Just observing.” And making note that his woman was still having difficulty with something. Not sure if the problem stemmed from Riley’s kidnapping or the possibility of Chris being the victim of abuse, something Riley seemed to know too much about from firsthand experience.
Once again, he considered looking into her background. Almost immediately, he concluded that he still wanted her to tell him. Didn’t seem fair to dig into her file. Andre longed for Riley to tell him herself, to trust him enough to divulge the secrets of her past.
It all went back to trust. Even though Riley was moving in the right direction, she hadn’t yet reached the point where she trusted him with everything, and that’s what he wanted from her.
Everything. He was crazy about this woman.
He’d been moving slowly, giving her time.
Holding back was becoming more difficult by the minute.
Sometime soon, he’d slip up, and he was afraid of how she’d react.
“Are you okay?”
His head whipped toward her. “Sure. Why?”
“You haven’t moved in five minutes. That’s not like you.”
“I’m fine.”
“If you say so.” She turned back to her laptop and typed.
He had to get his mind back on task. His personal relationship with Riley would have to simmer in the background until their current problems were resolved.
While he studied the screens, Andre considered who in his past life as a cop might try to locate him. Chances were excellent the searcher wasn’t looking for Andre to thank him. Might be a good time to go through his own personal files of threats from his law enforcement days.
He grimaced. He’d taken plenty of unhappy criminals off the streets. So which man or woman hated him enough to hunt him down and exact revenge? “Will you watch the screens for a minute? I need my laptop.”
“No problem.”
Andre pushed back from the table and dashed upstairs to his room. He grabbed his laptop and returned to the security room. “Any trouble?”
“Oh, yeah. We were under attack from a family of raccoons. You missed all the excitement.”
He chuckled and booted up his laptop. “We’ll have to stay on our toes with those critters around. Otherwise, they’ll make a mess digging through the trash.”
“The hamburgers attracted them to the cabin. You and Elias did a great job with them.”
“I’m glad you liked them because my repertoire of food is limited to hamburgers, chicken, and steaks. I can grill a mean potato. Other than that, I’m hopeless as a chef.”
Riley laughed. “I’ll make a note of that if we have another meal together that you volunteer to cook.”
“Not if, when. I will definitely grill for you, especially when the weather is good.”
“Sounds great to me.” She dove back into her work.
Andre logged in and opened his folder of problematic perps.
His heart sank when he saw the number stored there.
Holy smoke. He’d only been doing his job, and yet the perps blamed him when their lives went up in flames and they spent several years as guests of the state.
The choice had been theirs. It was just their own bad luck to have him as the investigating officer.
He and his Echo unit teammates put away a lot of perps, making the streets of Arden safer. Few folks remembered that, though. He only got the blame, not a pat on the back or a handshake for doing his job.
Same deal in the military. He’d lost count of the people who labeled him as a mercenary or killer for hire, a fine thank you for protecting the citizens of his country.
Andre refocused on his personal file of perps who had made threats against him during his interactions with them. If he was lucky, he’d narrow the search to a handful before he or she exacted revenge and hurt Riley.