she couldn’t seem to stop herself.
“…that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same …”
Gilmer pointed to the legal pad and asked again …
“What’s this?”
Riley still wanted to explain what it really was, but the words of the oath continued to pour out …
“… I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion …”
Gilmer’s face was morphing into another face.
It was Jake Crivaro, and he was looking angry. He waved the pad in front of her face.
“What’s this?” he snarled.
Riley was surprised to see that nothing was written there at all.
She heard all the other interns murmuring aloud, speaking the same oath but in a confused jumble of voices.
Meanwhile, she was nearing the end of the oath …
“… I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
Crivaro seemed to be seething now.
“What the hell’s this?” he said, pointing to the blank yellow paper.
Riley tried to tell him, but no words came out.
Riley’s eyes snapped open when she heard an unfamiliar buzzing sound.
She was lying in bed next to Ryan.
It was a dream, she realized.
But the dream definitely meant something. In fact, it meant everything. She’d taken an oath, and she couldn’t take it back. Which meant she couldn’t resign from the program. It wasn’t a legal problem. It was personal. It was a matter of principle.
But what if I get kicked out?
What do I do then?
Meanwhile, she wondered—what was that buzzing sound that kept repeating over and over again?
Still half-asleep, Ryan groaned and muttered …
“Answer your damn phone, Riley.”
Then Riley remembered the cell phone she’d been given yesterday at the FBI building. She fumbled around on the side table until she found it, then scrambled out of bed and carried it out of the room and shut the door behind her.
It took her a moment to figure out which button to push to take the call. When she finally succeeded, she heard a familiar voice.
“Sweeney? Did I wake you?”
It was Agent Crivaro, sounding none too friendly.
“No, of course not,” Riley said.
“Liar. It’s five o’clock in the morning.”
Riley sighed deeply. She realized she felt sick to her stomach.
Crivaro said, “How long will it take you to get awake and dressed?”
Riley thought for a moment, then said, “Um, fifteen minutes, I guess.”
“I’ll be there in ten. Meet me outside your building.”
Crivaro ended the call without another word.
What does he want? Riley wondered.
Is he coming here to personally fire me?
Suddenly she felt a rising wave of nausea. She knew it was morning sickness—the worst she’d experienced so far during her pregnancy.
She let out a groan and thought …
Just what I need right now.
Then she rushed to the bathroom.
CHAPTER SIX
When Jake Crivaro pulled up to the apartment building, Riley Sweeney was already waiting outside. Jake noticed that she looked more than a little pale as she got into the car.
“Not feeling well?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” Riley said.
She doesn’t look fine, Jake thought. She doesn’t sound fine, either.
Jake wondered if maybe she’d partied too hard last night. These young interns did that sometimes. Or maybe she’d just had too much to drink right at home. She’d certainly seemed discouraged when he’d dropped her off yesterday—and small wonder, after the chewing out he’d given her. Maybe she’d tried to drown her sorrows.
Jake hoped his protégé wasn’t too hung over to function.
As he pulled away from the building, Riley asked …
“Where are we going?”
Jake hesitated for a moment.
Then he said, “Look, we’re going to start from scratch today.”
Riley looked at him with a vaguely surprised expression.
He continued, “The truth is, what you did yesterday—well, it wasn’t entirely a screw-up. You found the Madison brothers’ drug money. And that burner phone turned out to be plenty useful. It had some important phone numbers in it, which made it possible for the cops to round up a few gang members—including Malik Madison, the brother who was still at large. It was stupid of them to buy a prepaid phone and not dump it after using it. But I guess they just didn’t think anybody was going to find it.”
He glanced her way and added, “They were wrong.”
Riley just kept staring back at him, as if she was having trouble understanding what he was saying.
Jake resisted the impulse to say …
“I’m really sorry I gave you such a hard time.”
Instead he said, “But you’ve got to follow instructions. And you’ve got to respect procedure.”
“I understand,” Riley said tiredly. “Thanks for giving me another chance.”
Jake growled under his breath. He reminded himself that he didn’t want to give the kid too much encouragement.
But he did feel bad about how he’d treated her yesterday.
I’m overreacting to things, he thought.
He’d pissed off some colleagues at Quantico by pushing for Riley to get into the program. One agent in particular, Toby Wolsky, had wanted his nephew Jordan to be an intern this summer, but Jake had gotten Riley in instead of him. He’d thrown his considerable credentials into that effort and called
