Chapter Nine
“And might take you out or one of my teammates, too.” She rested her elbows on the table and buried her face in her hands. “This is my worst nightmare come to life, losing people I care about.”
“We’ll find out who set this up and stop them.
I won’t let them hurt you, Riley. They’ll have to go through me to get to you, and I’m a tough soldier who’s lived through many missions more dangerous than this one.
This time, however, the stakes are higher than at any other time in my life.
” Andre wrapped his hand around her nape. “I won’t fail you. I give you my word.”
She turned into his arms and hugged him tight. “While you’re watching my back, I’ll watch yours.”
“We’ll do this together, Riley. Together, we’re an unbeatable team.”
“Then we’d better get started. Iona and Elias will relieve us in a couple of hours. I’d like to have some answers before I try to sleep. Otherwise, I won’t sleep much at all.”
“Same.” Unanswered questions bugged him until he couldn’t focus on anything else.
This time, however, he had to zoom in on his own problem.
He and Riley had agreed to divide and conquer.
Andre knew Riley was burning up the Internet, searching for anything she could find to help Chris, and now she was hunting for the person who wanted her dead.
While he wasn’t a computer geek, he had a lot of experience as a homicide detective.
One piece of advice always applied. “Follow the money, babe. If you figure out who supplied the reward money, you’ll have your answer to who has targeted you. ”
“Copy that.” Riley rubbed her hands together, her gaze fixed on the computer screen.
Andre would also have his next target. No one would attempt to harm his woman and get away with it.
He refocused on his computer screen and clicked on the next file. Andre grimaced at the name. Harlen Ludlow was a first-class monster, charged and convicted of two murders. A jury sentenced Ludlow to life in prison. He should still be a guest of the state.
Andre clicked on one of the Fortress databases and entered Ludlow’s name. The result popped up in seconds. His eyes widened as he read the information presented.
He sat back, frustrated and angry at the findings. Unbelievable. How could this happen?
Riley paused with her hands hovering over the keyboard. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh, yeah. You could say that. A criminal I arrested, who was convicted of two murders, is out on a technicality following a successful appeal filed by his attorney.”
“Technicality?”
“Yeah. One of the crime scene investigators allowed a key piece of evidence to be cross contaminated with evidence from another case.”
“And no one caught the cross-contamination during the trial?”
“Apparently not. Ludlow hired a different attorney to represent him during the appeals process. She’s the one who caught the error.”
“Where is Mr. Ludlow?”
Something in her voice had Andre watching his woman carefully. Unless he missed his guess, Riley was doing some targeting of her own. “Don’t know yet.”
“Find him.”
“Chill, babe. If he’s the one making the inquiries, you’ll know.” He sent her a pointed look. “I better know the name of the person who funded the murder account when you dig up the information.”
Something else bugged him. Interrogator and his two flunkies had kidnapped Riley, yet someone had funded a hit on her. Were there two people or groups after Riley or just one person who had become frustrated with the kidnapping failure and turned the account into a murder fund?
He tucked that away to think about later and returned to his list of angry perps.
He opened three more files. Nothing. On the fourth file, once again he stilled.
Jared Brown. Andre sighed. Of course. He’d forgotten how long Brown had been in prison.
He hadn’t forgotten the long string of vile threats against Andre and his ex-girlfriend, Eve.
Those threats were the reason Eve walked away from him and never looked back.
He glanced at Riley. Would she bail on him too, or would her steel spine and unending supply of knives have her standing her ground?
She paused again in her work and looked at Andre. “What?”
“I found another serious threat.”
“And?”
“The last time I saw him, Jared Brown threatened to cut my heart out while it was still beating.”
She froze. “Is he capable of doing that?”
“He’d already done just that to two people when I arrested him. My ex-girlfriend heard him utter the threat that included me and her. She walked away and didn’t look back.”
Riley tilted her head. “I’m sorry she hurt you and didn’t have a spine. I’m not sorry she’s out of your life. Are you worried I’ll walk away too?”
His heart hurt. Riley walking away was unthinkable.
What he’d felt for Eve was paltry compared to the overwhelming feelings he had for Riley.
Andre hadn’t missed Eve. If Riley left him, he’d never recover.
But he had to give her the freedom to choose.
Boxing her in would destroy what they had together.
“If you did, it would be understandable.”
“Andre, I have knives of my own, and I know how to use them. I won’t walk.” With that pronouncement, she turned back to her computer. “If Brown is out, find him. We’ll deal with him after we complete this mission.”
Andre continued to comb through his case files, looking for threats to him and Riley. By the time he finished, four case files were in a separate folder to examine more closely. He snorted. If they had time. Right now, the more pressing problem was the bounty on Riley’s head.
He closed his laptop lid and pushed back from the table. “I’m going for a perimeter walk. Need anything before I head out?”
“A kiss.”
“That I’m happy to deliver.” He bent and settled his mouth on hers for a long minute, his touch possessive. Riley was his, and he’d protect her with every breath in him. The person who orchestrated this bounty on his woman would regret it.
He broke the kiss and straightened. “I’ll be back soon.” After a brush of his fingers along her jaw, Andre walked to the back door and outside to the patio.
For the next 30 minutes, Andre walked the perimeter of the house, giving him a chance to memorize the surroundings as he trekked around the property. He returned to the patio and quartered the area.
Something was off. He could feel it in his bones, but what was it? He slowly scanned the property again, letting his gaze linger on the places where the enemy could lurk if he evaded all the other security measures in place. Hard to do, Andre admitted, but possible.
On the third pass, he spotted an abnormality. A broken tree branch. His fingers trailed along the dangling branch. This was a fresh break. The leaves hadn’t wilted yet, and the branch was still pliable.
Had he or Elias broken the branch when they’d walked the perimeter earlier in the evening? He hoped that was the case. If it wasn’t, however, it meant someone had been on the property in the past few hours. Whether he was friend or foe remained to be seen.
Behind him, the patio door opened. Andre glanced over his shoulder, expecting to see Riley. Instead, Elias stepped out and joined him. “You’re early. Something up?”
A shrug. “I couldn’t sleep, so I thought I’d help you keep watch until Iona and I take over in an hour.” Elias glanced at him. “Everything okay out here?”
“Don’t know yet.” He pointed at the broken branch. “Do you remember breaking that branch?”
“Nope. Let’s check it out.”
Despite having already examined the branch, Andre walked with his friend to the tree in question. Another pair of eyes on a problem was always wise. Usually, Elias saw things from a different perspective. He remained silent while his friend examined the branch and the area surrounding the tree.
Elias crouched and studied the ground. “Look at this.”
Andre bent and examined the area Elias showed him. A tactical boot print. His stomach tightened into a knot. “Fresh prints?”
“Has to be. Christiana had rain last night, so this print can’t be over eighteen hours old.”
“The boot print doesn’t match the tread of Fortress tactical boots. Our people didn’t leave this print behind.”
“Could be a neighbor or a hunter.”
“It’s possible.”
“But not likely.”
“Nope. Sorry. Do you want to move her?”
Andre was silent as he considered the problem. He shook his head. “Not yet. I think we’re secure for the moment, but we should stay alert.”
“Copy that.”
They returned to the cabin and reset the alarm. Andre glanced at his friend. “Need coffee?”
“Definitely. The shift will be a long one if I have to do it without caffeine.”
“I hear you.” Andre prepped the coffeemaker again and turned on the brew cycle. In less than a minute, the scent of coffee filled the air. “Need a snack too?”
“Wouldn’t turn it down.”
“Check the pantry while I look in the refrigerator. We’ll put together a hodgepodge of snack food guaranteed to keep us fueled up.”
As the brew cycle finished, they placed their chosen food on a tray that Andre carried to the security room. “See anything?”
Riley was studying the computer screens. “Not really.” She frowned and pointed to one of the camera views. “Did you see something off in this quadrant? You and Elias seemed to be very interested in something there.”
“Broken branch along with a fresh tactical boot print. And before you ask, the tread doesn’t match the ones issued by Fortress.”
“Do we need to move?”
“Not yet. We need to remain alert, but I think we’re safe enough for the night.”
She turned the chair to face Andre and Elias. “If this is a threat, who is the target? Second, how did they find us? Fortress doesn’t advertise the addresses of safe houses, so what magic did this person work to find us?”
Elias gave a slight nod. “Those are excellent questions we don’t have answers to yet.”
“What do we do, Andre?”
“Stay put until the sun rises, then reevaluate. Unless something convinces me otherwise, we’ll move to another safe house tomorrow morning. If our location is compromised again, I’ll find a safe place for us to stay outside of the Fortress safe house network.”
“That will mean Fortress has a leak, putting all ops in jeopardy.”