Chapter Twenty-Three
RILEY WATCHED THE area Andre had been so interested in for movement. Nothing and more nothing. She should have insisted on going with the two men. She was just as trained as they were.
But, she reminded herself, this hunt for the intruder wasn’t about training.
This hunt was about catching him and bringing him in for questioning.
Andre’s capturing the unknown quarry would begin the mental process of setting him up as the lead interrogator.
The effect wouldn’t be the same if she joined the hunting party.
The bedroom door opened, and Iona stepped out. Her team leader frowned as she scanned the living room and the balcony.
“Where are Elias and Andre?”
“Chasing a shadow.”
“I see. First question. Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I can handle worrying by myself.”
“Second question. Why didn’t you go with them?”
“If Nathan is out there, I won’t intimidate him at all. If Andre captures him, he’ll establish his superiority. I could never do that because of my history with him.”
Iona’s eyes narrowed. “Are you sure this isn’t Andre acting like a dictator? Because if it is, I won’t tolerate that when we’re on missions with Echo unit. That kind of interference will get someone killed, maybe one of you.”
“You’re wrong about Andre. He respects me and my skills. Calling him a dictator is insulting, and I resent your saying so. More importantly, I expected my team leader to trust my judgment.”
“This isn’t about trust. It’s about you being in love with an alpha leader.
I don’t want to see your relationship dynamics influence your work.
If that happens, I will bench you permanently, Riley.
As much as I love working with you, I’d rather have you as my tech support than dead. Am I making myself clear?”
“Crystal, ma’am. I hope you listened to me, Iona.
I won’t tolerate disrespect and distrust from you.
If that’s what I can expect from you from now on, don’t be surprised when the boss brings you in for a come-to-Maddox meeting.
You won’t have to bench me because I’ll request a transfer to a team that can use my skills and earn my trust.”
“I guess we’ve made our positions clear, haven’t we?”
Of all the times to choose to address this, now was not the right one.
Riley needed her emotions under control in order not to react to anything Shadow Man said.
She couldn’t afford to show her feelings, or he would have the upper hand.
Didn’t matter that Andre would do the actual interrogating.
With her present, a whole new dynamic would go into play.
She turned away from Iona and fixed her gaze on the stand of trees to the right of the original place she’d been watching.
Shadow looked one way, then immediately ran the other way.
He was out of her sight in seconds. “Andre and Elias have the intruder on the run. It should only be a matter of time before they bring him back here and have a talk with him.”
“You aren’t doing the interrogation?”
She shook her head.
“Why not? You’re an interrogator. That’s what you do.”
“Andre is a trained interrogator. He’s also not me.”
“If this is about objectivity, you missed the memo where Andre admitted to being in love with you. Do you really think he’ll be unbiased in his dealings with Berkley or whoever this man is?”
“It’s a power game, Iona, and I was easy to dupe.
” Never again would that happen. “If this is Nathan, he sees me as his trainee and himself as the trainer. He has no respect for me. Andre, however, is an unknown who bested him by catching him. He’ll get more information from Nathan than I will.
” Galled her to admit the truth, but there it was.
On this part of the mission, Riley was a liability.
“If this is a stranger, Andre will have a go at him first. If he can’t get information from him, then I can try. ”
“Why can’t it be you from the first?”
“Because I was supposed to be his victim. He’s wired to see me as weak. I can still get the information from him, but it will take me longer.”
She turned away from the window and walked to the kitchen. “We’ll need more coffee.”
“What about this interrogation? We can’t do it here, for goodness’ sake. This is a hotel. People notice when someone is screaming, and call the cops. Do you want to explain to the cops why we’re interrogating a prisoner who is also a federal agent?”
“We’ve got this.” She dug into her Go bag and pulled out a Mylar blanket. After shaking it out, Riley spread the blanket on the ground and set a chair in the middle of it. Next, she brought a towel and the ice bucket to the kitchen and set them on the counter within easy reach.
Riley also laid out duct tape, her Ka-Bar, stun gun, two more knives, and zip ties. Some tools they would use. Some they wouldn’t. The intruder, however, wouldn’t know what tools Andre would use to get the information he wanted.
The whole time she set up the kitchen as an interrogation room, Iona watched her without saying a word or lifting a finger to help. What was that about? Iona wasn’t usually like this. What set her off? If it was Elias, Riley might have to kill him.
Okay, she would do nothing permanently damaging to a fellow operative. She could, however, make his life miserable. A few keystrokes could seriously damage someone’s reputation and up the misery quotient to an unbearable level. Riley would enjoy doing that if he’d mistreated Iona.
Ten minutes later, Andre and Elias returned with Nathan Berkley in tow.
Riley’s heart sank. Really? Was no one trustworthy anymore? She stared at the man who had been her handler for years. He was spying on her.
Resentment grew inside Riley. She couldn’t believe a man she had trusted with her life for years would stoop this low.
Andre and Elias marched Nathan to the chair Riley had prepared for them. Andre looked at her with approval in his beautiful eyes and winked. That made her feel good.
“This is some kind of mistake. Let me call my office. They’ll vouch for me.”
“Now, how would I know if you called the right place? What if you never intended to call your office but set us up for assassination just like you tried and failed to do with Riley?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He looked down and to the left.
Nathan lied. Her hands fisted. That jerk just flat-out lied to Andre.
“Who did you really plan to call, Berkley?”
For a man who’d been running his mouth in the past few minutes, he suddenly went silent. Confirmation of Andre’s suspicion that Berkley intended to play them.
“Now you’re closing your mouth?” Elias snorted.
“Come on, man. You’re too late. You already gave yourself away.
Berkley, you’ve been out of the game too long.
It’s catching up with you. Do yourself a favor and spare yourself the pain and suffering that’s ahead. Tell my friend what he wants to know.”
That’s when Nathan tried to turn the tables on them. He turned his face toward Riley. “We used to be friends. How could you let them do this to me? Aren’t you going to do something?”
“I did.”
“What?”
She smiled. “I set up the tools they’ll need. My friends are excellent at what they do, Nathan, and they aren’t soft or lazy, and their skills aren’t rusty.”
“If I’m supposed to be impressed by that, I’m not. After all my years of experience, this is nothing.”
Andre shook his head and stepped up to rest his hand on Nathan’s shoulder. “I’d rethink my position on that if I were you.”
“And if I don’t?”
“You’ll spend the next few hours in excruciating pain.”
Nathan snorted.
Elias shook his head. “Believe him. My friend doesn’t lie.
How about a live demonstration?” He flicked a glance at Andre, who covered Nathan’s mouth and compressed nerves between the neck and shoulder.
The pain was so horrific that most people screamed, cried, or both in less than a minute. Nathan was in the last category.
Looking at her former friend undergoing extreme interrogation bothered Riley on a deep level until she turned away and retrieved her laptop.
Sitting on the other side of the breakfast bar where she could see what was happening if she wanted to look, Riley woke her laptop and went back to the search for Ludlow and Brown.
Even though Andre believed all her kidnapping attempts were because of Nathan, she wasn’t so sure they hadn’t missed something.
Her gut said something else was going on, and Echo and Artemis had missed it.
Better to know where those two men were to make plans if they came after both groups.
The muffled screaming and sobbing went on for three minutes. Yes, Riley had timed it. So sue her for failing to distance herself far enough. At least she had made a little more headway in the search for the two convicts, and she didn’t like what she found.
Elias folded his arms across his chest. “See what I mean, Berkley?” The tone of his voice showed a sunny disposition that wasn’t Elias at all.
Nathan gave a slight nod as he sucked in large quantities of air.
“That’s good. So, ready to talk now?”
Nathan’s gaze flicked up to Riley’s again.
She smiled and shifted her gaze back to her computer screen.
Elias clapped his hands together once, making a loud popping sound. “Pay attention, Berkley.”
Her old boss jumped despite his wrists and ankles being secured to the chair.
“Let me explain the rules. We’re going to have a chat. All you have to do to survive is tell us what we want to know. Simple, right?”
Nathan glowered at them, hatred in his eyes. “You really think I’ll tell you anything?”
Elias moved closer to the prisoner. “By the time we’re finished with you, you’ll be begging to tell us everything we want to know plus some.”
He sneered. “You have a lot of misplaced faith in your abilities, buddy. I train people to interrogate others. I know all the tricks in the book to keep from spilling my guts.”