Live Wire

chapter 10




It was set in stone. In cement. In steel.

It was a promise she reaffirmed the next evening.

Tehya reminded herself that she had made a promise to her mother and to herself. After her grandparents’ murder, she had sworn to her mother that she would protect the rest of the family by staying away from them. That she would also protect the single secret her grandfather had given her mother unless she had no other recourse, until the threat of all danger had passed.

That secret, a set of numbers, was more than her own legacy, more than the legacy that had been stolen from Francine Taite, when Sorrel had kidnapped her. It was an inheritance set aside by Bernard Taite for his missing daughter. Cash, gold, bonds, family jewels, and a portion of Taite Industries profit per year, after Bernard Taite’s death. It was a legacy set aside by her grandfather, and Tehya couldn’t claim it until she either married, reached forty years old, or decided to return it to the overall estate for a very small portion of the whole. That inheritance was all she wanted from the Taites. As far as she was concerned, she deserved every tiny bit of it.

“Your gown will be here in about an hour.” Jordan stepped into the bedroom where she stood in front of the large, well-lit mirror, that hung on the wall behind the dresser completing her makeup. She hated vanity lighting, preferring the more natural light in the bedroom instead.

Dressed in thin shorts and a camisole top, barefoot, freshly showered and still trying to come to grips with the night before, Tehya avoided his gaze as she brushed a finishing powder over the completed accents to her face, before returning her makeup to the bag lying on the dresser.

“Fine,” she answered shortly as she checked the feature-defining job she had completed on her face. Smoky eyes, defined cheeks, the darker eye shadow highlighting and darkening the emerald green of her eyes.

Hell, she didn’t look like Teylor Johnson any more than she looked like the missing Tehya Talamosi Fitzhugh. Which was the effect she had been working for. Makeup was indeed a girl’s best friend.

Jordan paced across the room to her as she watched him carefully from the corner of her eye.

He wore black silk slacks, custom-made leather shoes, and an Egyptian cotton white shirt so expensive she was almost amused by the price. She knew the Malone’s were incredibly rich, each son provided a healthy inheritance when Erin Malone died. They rarely showed it though, which only made it more shocking when she saw proof of it.

The matching evening jacket was lying across a chair in the other room. She knew his habits, and she was certain he had taken just as much notice of her own.

“You don’t seem particularly concerned about the party tonight,” he commented as he stood behind her, his gaze going over her face, taking in the expert application of makeup.

“Should I be?” she asked, her brow arching.

“This is the first time you’ve been face-to-face with the Taites, other than Journey. I know it’s a complication you weren’t looking forward to,” Jordan said.

Her lips twisted bitterly. “True, but life is nothing if not a complication, wouldn’t you say, Jordan? Why should one more matter? Besides, they have no idea who I am, and no one at the party who matters has any idea who I am. Why should I be nervous?

Jordan leaned against the edge of the dresser, crossed his arms over his chest, and stared back at her.

“The whole Taite family will be there, Tey. Stephen and his wife, Lauren. Craig and his wife, Melisande, as well as the children. Craig’s son and heir, Royce, his daughters Alexa and Journey.”

She turned with a frown. “Isn’t that unusual? Stephen Taite had one child, Craig, but Craig has three.”

“Unusual.” His lips pursed thoughtfully though his gaze was amused. “Perhaps Craig didn’t enjoy being an only child.”

“Mother said Craig was quite determined that there be no other children to share his parents’ time with him.” She remembered this as bits and pieces of conversations with her mother emerged. “She always appeared very fondly amused by the memory. Evidently, Craig was quite possessive of not just his parents, but also any inheritance he would receive when they died.”

“What’s your point?” he asked curiously.

Did she have a point? Other than the fact that she truly wasn’t nervous and was only now realizing how very little she knew about her family. Even though their youngest daughter worked for her, Tehya refused to listen to Journey discuss them.

“No point,” she finally shrugged as Jordan continued to watch her. “I’ve just always found that rather strange, I guess.”

“Why would it seem odd or strange to you if you have no intentions of revealing yourself to them?”

Tehya propped her hands on the dresser and stared back at herself in the mirror for a long, intense moment, before dropping her eyes and turning to stare back at Jordan.

She couldn’t bear to see the emotions in her own eyes, or the haunted dreams she had never been able to give up on.

“Mother adored her family,” she said softly, frowning as her chest tightened with the pain of everything that had been lost over the years. “That was her only dream, to find a way home. The last call she made, before Sorrel caught up with her, after her parents’ deaths, she sounded broken.”

She had been broken, Tehya amended silently. She had heard it in Francine’s voice, the agony that couldn’t be healed, the knowledge there was no home left to return to.

“Trust no one, Tehya,” she had whispered without inflection, her voice hoarse, ragged, yet lacking emotion. “Swear to me you’ll never risk the rest of the family. But when you’re old enough, Tehya. When you reach your inheritance age, swear to me. Swear you’ll claim all that is left of what should be yours. Swear it. And when you do, you’ll find him. You’ll find the son of a bitch that helped Sorrel. You’ll make him pay. Swear it, damn you!”

Tehya had sworn. She had wanted to beg her mother to do it. Francine had been thirty-three years old. She’d had only seven years to go. At forty she could have claimed the inheritance and found her own vengeance.

Her mother had lived long enough to claim enough. Within a week of her parents’ death, Sorrel’s men had found her. They had found her, they had tortured her to death, for her.

Her mother had died protecting her.

“You were her family, too.” Jordan’s voice pulled her back from her memories. “You were her daughter.”

“I was her albatross,” she whispered, the muted grief that haunted her reflected in her voice, despite her attempt to hold it back.

“She cherished you,” Jordan reminded her. “If you had been her albatross then she would have let Sorrel have you.”

“And she lived in hell to protect me.” She couldn’t forget that. She couldn’t fail. She couldn’t let the past destroy her, or her mother’s death would have been in vain.

“She made me swear I would never involve family in this.” She turned to him, praying she was making the right choice in allowing Jordan to draw them in, even to the small extent he was involving them.

And now she was pushing it by going to a party the entire family was attending. A party where everyone would be speculating about the landscaping company owner and what she was doing with one of D.C.’s favorite sons, Jordan Malone.

“You’re not calling your family begging for help,” he pointed out. “You’re meeting them as someone totally unrelated to the great-niece Stephen Taite has no idea how to locate.”

And rumor was that he had searched for her for several years after her grandparents’ and mother’s deaths. She’d never understood why though.

Turning back to the mirror, she fluffed the curls that fell nearly to her hips and checked the smoky shadow that accented her eyes. She needed to break away from the sapphire blue of his gaze, from the unspoken questions that seemed to lurk there.

“Do you expect Ira Arthur and Mark Tenneyson to be there?” she asked after several moments’ silence.

“They actually have invitations.”

Tehya turned back to him in shock. “How did they manage that one?”

“Through the French Embassy.” Jordan’s lips tightened. “We’re still trying to track down the particulars of that invitation. Until we do, stay close. See if anything is mentioned about the attack on your house.”

“They know about that? So much for a life of f*cking anonymity, Jordan. What the hell is going on here?”

“We’ve managed to contain most of it,” he assured her. “But you know how rumors work, Tehya. Someone will have heard about it.”

“No doubt.” She breathed out roughly. “What’s the story then?”

“Your cousin, Denver Roberts, was staying at the house when someone tried to break in. Things got out of hand and shots were fired. That simple.”

“That simple,” she breathed out roughly.

She didn’t want to think about her home. She didn’t want to think about the damage, and she didn’t want to discuss it.

“Fine.” She lifted her hand in a denial of the conversation going further. “Maybe I’ll get really lucky and no one has heard about it.”

“Tey, you’re worrying too much,” he told her somberly. “The meeting will be short, an introduction, no more. Just enough to give the men watching the Taites, as well as you, something to report back to their employers. I want to know who is pulling the junkyard dogs’ chains; and how the hell they managed to get an official invitation to a Senator’s party.”

“It’s D.C.,” she reminded him. “Invitations are traded like baseball cards.”

His head inclined in agreement. “I guess we have to find the collectors then,” he told her.

“Do we have any idea who the dogs are working for yet?” She rather liked the analogy in regards to Arthur and Tenneyson.

Jordan’s lips quirked “Not even a clue. As I said, I’m hoping they’ll lead us to them after the party. If nothing else, put us a few steps closer.”

A few steps closer.

“Well-funded, well-hidden, and well-connected,” she murmured. “We won’t know who it is unless they manage to actually take me.”

He moved quickly behind her, his gaze meeting hers in the mirror.

“Let that happen, and once you’re safe, I promise you, I’ll make damned sure you regret it.”

She heard the anger in his tone and grimaced as Jordan dared her.

“I haven’t been running for all but the first five years of my life just to let them take me, Jordan.”

“Make damned sure of it,” he growled. “The last thing I need is to lose you, Tehya.”

His choice of words had her glancing in the mirror to catch his reflection. He turned away though before she could see anything, and she had the feeling it was deliberate.

“And those words coming from the man who allowed me to walk away nine months ago,” she said calmly. “Tell me, Jordan, did you even think about me before you learned my identity had been compromised?”

She couldn’t leave well enough alone, no matter how she tried.

“I didn’t lose you,” he stated coolly as he turned back to her. “I knew how to find you, Tehya.”

Her lips tightened. “Yes, all you had to do was contact Killian.”

Another thought had her turning around to face him.

“How convenient that my phone had been tampered with just before this happened,” she stated mockingly. “Perhaps we should launch our own investigation, Jordan. Into Killian Reece and whether or not he betrayed me.”

Killian hated her because Sorrel was her father. He would have no problem turning her over to Sorrel’s enemies. As far as he was concerned, blood would tell, and he had no compunction saying it to her face.

“It’s already begun,” he promised. “But that doesn’t change our present situation so stop attempting to change the subject. Are you ready for this party, Tehya? Will you be able to handle meeting the Taites?”

“No, Jordan. I’m not. But just as with anything else in the past, it doesn’t appear as though I have a f*cking choice does it?” She fought to throttle her fury.

She swung away from him and stalked across the room, intending to pass him, to move into the living room, to get away from the reality of what she could never have, as well as the realization that she was moving closer to them with every second.

“I’ve never seen you like this.” He caught her arm as she would have passed him. “You’re not focused, nor are you trusting me as you used to, Tey. What happened?”

Confusion swept over her as she glared back at him.

“What do you want from me, Jordan? How else do you expect me to be? For the first time in my life, I thought I was safe, only to learn I wasn’t. My home was invaded. I’m being thrown into a situation where my entire life once again is out of my control. Should I simply be calm and collected and expect you to take care of it all?” The anger that burned inside her filled her voice now.

She couldn’t help it. She was moving too quickly into unfamiliar territory and was unable to get her bearings fast enough. It had been three days since she had lost the small measure of peace she had found, since the security she had unknowingly craved so desperately had been taken away from her.

“You’ve always trusted me to protect you.”

She was confused by the darkness in his tone now, by the glint of anger in his blue eyes.

“This has nothing to do with protection, Jordan,” she argued, desperate now to escape this conversation.

“What does it have to do with?” He questioned her rather than releasing her as she tried to jerk her arm from his grip. “Tell me, Tehya, since when do you believe I would allow anyone to dare to harm you.”

Jordan couldn’t explain why her belief in him was so damned important. Why he had been watching her for three days, probing at her trust, pushing her limits.

The night before he had broken through the reserve she had held against him where her body was concerned. That step had been imperative. Though he had no idea why. He couldn’t explain it to himself and prayed she didn’t demand explanations. It had forced her to probe those emotions. It had forced her out of that shell and placed him in a position to help her rebuild it.

She had lost too much, he couldn’t allow her to lose faith in him as well. When this was over, when the time came to rebuild her life, yet again, he didn’t want her shying away from her dreams.

Unfortunately, it had come with more emotion, with more pain than he had wanted to see her facing. That pain was beginning to make him want to commit murder, even as he wondered how her trust was surviving.

That ultimate trust, from a woman to her lover, was the same trust that came with the illusion of love. And with love, there always came heartbreak. God knew he didn’t want to break her heart, but that pain was preferable, he thought, to losing the dreams of her home.

“I’ve always believed in you,” she finally answered, her eyes flashing with a vulnerability that surprised him, and a glimmer of emotion he hadn’t expected to see. Not yet. A part of him went icy cold, denial snaking through his brain.

She believed she loved him, and the ache in his chest at the knowledge of the pain that belief had brought her, that it would bring her, tightened through him. Even now he could see the grief she felt, and her fear that emotion would never be returned.

It hurt more than he had thought it would.

“I’ll protect you, Tehya,” he whispered, his free hand cupping her cheek, his thumb brushing over her lips. “In all the years we’ve worked together, I’ve never lost an agent, have I?”

“Never,” she answered, staring back at him painfully, her gaze haunted with so many hopes and fears, and the realization that dreams were just never meant to be.

He wanted nothing more than to erase the pain in her eyes. To see a smile in her gaze, to see just the smallest glimmer of happiness. In that moment, Jordan realized he would do whatever it took to give her a chance at that happiness. Even if it meant destroying the illusion of emotion she thought she felt for him.

Her lips parted against the pressure of his thumb as those incredible green eyes flashed with exactly what he wanted to see. Mixed with the vulnerability, the emotion she believed was love, he saw that moment when her heart, her brain, her senses locked into the emotion and her trust in him cemented.

For a moment, he let himself bask in that emotional heat, a response he was certain, absolutely positive, she was even fully unaware of.

And it had been achieved with an ease that indicated the depth of emotion she had felt for him before ever leaving the base in Texas.

That knowledge tightened his guts. In a split second he was hard, and filled with such remorse that it shocked him.

Just because he knew the love she thought she felt was no more than an illusion, a cruel, vicious, emotional prank, didn’t mean she would ever accept that fact. It didn’t mean she believed in it any less.

From the moment she had arrived at her home and found him there, he had pushed her toward one end. Toward the complete and total trust he needed her to feel. And now that she was there, he felt nothing but disgust for himself.

“Protect my family, too, Jordan.” A hint of steel flashed in her gaze then. The trust was there. That belief he had needed so desperately to ensure she would work with him rather than against him. But with it was also a warning. Tehya could make a formidable enemy, and if her family was harmed, that was exactly where this course would lead.

He let his lips quirk into a small smile as he forced the lie of amusement into his gaze. A lie because amusement was the last thing he felt.

Unlike his precious Tehya, he knew exactly how to lie with every cell of his body.

“Your family is completely protected,” he assured her. “I promise, I even have plans B, C, and D where their safety and protection is concerned.”

He was all about his plans. For a moment, just a moment, he wished he could be more about believing in love than about believing in reality.

To keep that regret harnessed, his head lowered and his lips brushed against hers, gently, but with a restraint that made his body tighten and ache with renewed hunger.

As her lips parted, as the fiery heat and infusion of emotion filled her kiss, Jordan wished, for the first time in too many years to count, that he too believed in love.

Tehya’s lashes drifted open as the kiss slowly eased away, her senses immersed in the pleasure of a contact that shouldn’t have had such an effect on her.

She loved him, though. The emotion she had never been able to restrain welled inside her as she stared up at him, wishing she could hold the heart of the man that held hers so easily. A man who refused to believe love could be more than an illusion.

As her lips parted to speak, a heavy knock at the bedroom door echoed through the room.

“Hey lovebirds, we have a delivery out here.” Nik chuckled in amusement.

Tehya almost swore Jordan was ready to roll his eyes.

Staring down at her, Jordan backed away slowly. “I’ll go out and talk to him.” His lips quirked in amusement. “For some reason, it bothers me that Nik would see you half-dressed, in our bedroom.”

Shocking. And Jordan didn’t often shock her.

There was the faintest hint of male possession in his tone, as though he had already laid his claim to her. As though he intended to keep her.

Tehya gave her head a hard shake as he left the room to talk to Nik, the sound of the possessiveness in his voice still rocking through her senses. How she had needed to hear that, because Jordan never felt possessive. She had never known or heard of him to be jealous of any woman.

She was checking her appearance at the mirror when Jordan stepped back inside minutes later. “Mikayla delivered the dress.” Entering the room fully he laid the ball gown over the bottom of the bed before turning back to her

His gaze was darker, less a sapphire blue, perhaps closer to a navy. As though in the moments they had been apart, some dark memory had filled his senses.

The soft, shimmering folds of the dark violet material looked like a splash of vivid excitement against the white comforter. It was just as she had envisioned it when she and Mikayla had discussed the design. Strapless, with an empire waist and yards of violet silk falling to her feet over the white silk underskirt, it was both romantic and sensual.

The bodice cupped and loved her breasts, while the rest of her curves were hinted at and teased the senses. An illusion of height was added, then given a boost by five-inch matching heels that had been delivered with the dress.

A soft, matching cape with a white silk lining, and a white clutch purse for essentials, and Tehya knew she would be drawing gazes. Thankfully, the flesh-colored bandage Jordan had somehow procured, normally used for wounded operatives on covert assignments, hid the wound on her arm.

That had been one of Jordan’s requirements for the dress, that it be eye catching. That it please his senses and arouse him. When he had seen the drawn design, his lashes had lowered, and Tehya herself had become aroused by the look of latent lust in his expression.

“We’ll be arriving a little late,” he informed her as she ran her fingers over the shimmering silk. “I prefer an hour. Tonight, entrance means everything. The invitation list went out to all the guests and we’ve already begun receiving other invitations from those my family and I are acquainted with as well as associates of the Taites. We’re here only to support Senator Stanton and his son-in-law though.”

She nodded slowly. “I understand.” His friends would wonder about her, and ask questions later, when she was no longer a part of his life.

Of course, he would be uncomfortable with that. Jordan rarely chose a lover in the position of associating with his family. She let her fingers run over the material of the dress once again. She wasn’t going to allow his reluctance to take her around his friends affect the memories she was making.

It was the thought of the Taites though that had her chest tightening.

“Tehya?”

It was her silence that had him moving closer to her, watching her expression as she lifted her gaze to meet his.

“Would they have liked me, Jordan?” she asked, her voice almost too soft to hear, her expression so vulnerable, so filled with a hunger to belong that he wanted to kill Sorrel himself. She was so damned beautiful, kind, compassionate. Any family would be proud of her.

“Tehya, they wouldn’t be able to help themselves.” It was in that moment that he knew he was in serious trouble where those unnamed emotions for her were involved. They rose like a tidal wave inside him and threatened to swamp his normal good sense.

His arms went around her, drawing her close to him as he suddenly realized all the emotions she had hidden through the years. She had kept to herself, staying in her suite as he had done when there was no work to bury himself in.

She had fought for the same distance he had, and for similar reasons. Because the pain was too intense when the illusions were ripped away. Or, in her case, when she lost those she loved.

He should have never allowed her to hide in such a way, Jordan admitted.

“It’s too late,” she whispered against his chest, her fingers curling against his shirt to hold on to him. “It’s just too late.”

It was too late to go home. Too late to be a part of a family that would never understand the woman reality had shaped. And in a way, Jordan agreed with her. Unless they had an idea of the world that had created her, then they would never be comfortable around her.

“Perhaps you can never go home,” he whispered. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t forge your own place, as Teylor Johnson.” Easing back, he stared down at her once again. “You don’t have to admit to your familial ties, Tehya, to be a part of a family. All you have to do is be willing to be a friend.”

She would be an asset to any friend or family she chose, he thought. The honesty and compassion that was so much a part of her would always draw others to her, like a moth to a flame.

As she drew him. There were days he wondered if he would ever escaped the tangled web of emotion he knew she would wrap around him if she could.

Love. Hell, that illusion was stronger, was more than he was and he knew it.

Finally she gave a short, sharp nod before turning and heading to the bed where her dress was laid out.

Letting her go was the hardest thing he had ever done. He wanted nothing more than to hold her. And to give her the one thing he swore he’d never give anyone. The illusion he suddenly wished he could convince himself of.

Love.

“I’ll finish dressing, then,” she told him quietly as she glanced at the clock. “We should have just enough time for your preferred arrival.”

He frowned back at her suspiciously. “It doesn’t take an hour to put a dress on, Tey.”

She almost smiled at the doubt in his tone, and in his face.

“True,” she agreed. “But it often takes longer than that to finish the look, Jordan. Stockings can’t have runs, the skirt has to lay just right, my makeup will have to be adjusted for the color because I didn’t expect the depth of the shimmer once the gown was completed.”

She was trying desperately to maintain her control, and Jordan had no idea how to ease the pain in her eyes. That left him with the only option at hand. A strategic retreat until she needed him to hold her, to assure her once again that there was no reason why she shouldn’t be loved.

“Enough said.” He lifted his hand to halt the subtly mocking explanation. “I’ll leave you to dressing while I discuss the security layout and the guests with the others.” He indicated the door to the rest of the suite with a sharp turn of his head. “Just let me know when you’re ready.”

“I’ll be sure to do that,” she promised as she moved to the head of the bed and loosened the material from the padded hanger it was secured to. “As I said, an hour, perhaps a bit more.”

For just as long as she could draw it out.

For some reason, Jordan seemed determined to bring her face-to-face with her family, and she had a feeling it had more to do with his belief that she should align herself with them than the belief that being there would allow him to identify who gave the orders to the men threatening her.

As much as she craved family and connections, she knew that connection had been broken with her grandparents’ deaths. All the wishing, all the tears, or all the regrets in the world couldn’t change that.

“Just be yourself, Tehya,” he reminded her again, suddenly behind her when she had expected him to leave the room.

One hand gripped her hip for a second as his head lowered and he placed a soft kiss at the curve of her shoulder. “I promise, no one could help but to love the person you are.”

Everyone but him.

“Of course.” She tried to convince him she believed it, though they both knew otherwise. “I would just prefer that it hadn’t come to this.”

He nipped her flesh, causing her to jerk and turn her head to stare back at him in surprise.

“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world.” He grinned. “We’re just getting ready to have some fun, baby. Where’s your sense of adventure?”

Before she could answer him he was drawing away from her and moving from the room. The bedroom door opened and he disappeared through it, closing it behind him with a decisive snap.

There was definitely something to be said for the days when he spent more time trying to ignore her than to seduce her, she thought with a sigh.

At least then the knowledge of her future hadn’t been so clear-cut.

Now, she was certain, no other man but Jordan would do, which meant that after he was gone, she was looking at a very lonely existence.

But she wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

* * *

“There you are.” Travis Caine was preparing to knock on the bedroom door when it opened.

Stepping through, he was ready to close the door when Travis stopped him and handed him a small cellophane pack.

“Flash bandages,” he informed Jordan. “Covers the wound and hides it. Lilly thought she might need it with the strapless gown. And there’s enough for several uses there.”

Jordan frowned back at him. “Those are damned hard to come by, Travis.” And he knew they were; they were items he’d had problems acquiring even during his time as Elite Ops commander. He was right though, Tehya would more than appreciate it.

“Thanks, Travis.” He nodded back to him. “I appreciate it.”

“Eh, thank Lilly, she thought of it.” He inclined his head back toward his wife.

“I should have known that,” Jordan quipped before crossing the room to where the others were waiting.

Jordan faced the men awaiting him in the parlor of the suite, his gaze narrowed, any amusement or sense of fun that he may have given Tehya evaporating.

Getting the team back together hadn’t been hard. The moment they had known Tehya was in danger they had come running, several of them with their very dangerous wives in tow. Those wives were there now, in full party dress, like goddesses of beauty sent to tempt mortal men.

“What do we have?” He glanced at his nephew, his unofficial second in command.

“Everyone has received their guest lists and everyone’s buzzing. Hell, Jordan, maybe we should socialize more,” Noah reported, his darker eyes amused at the knowledge that others were excited at the prospect of a Malone being in town. A testament to Riordan Malone Sr.’s popularity when he was younger. “The Taites are fairly quiet, though Lauren, Stephen’s wife, has extended a lunch invitation to the Malone party.” His lips quirked mockingly. “Speculation is going wild over the identity of your guest, Teylor Johnson, though. Even the Taites are making inquiries. Within hours, they were aware of the fact that you were indeed the same Jordan Malone that refuses to sell the Malone property in Ireland, that they’re so desperate to acquire.”

Jordan had been aware of that for years. Unfortunately for them, he had no intentions of selling the Malone family properties. Not in Ireland, nor in America.

“And they’re normally the ones to care the least,” Lilly Harrington Caine, the daughter of an English lord spoke up. “The Taites abstain from gossip mongering and concentrate instead on their various charities and on family. To have them asking anything about anyone is a major coup.” There was no sarcasm in the words, simply a statement of fact.

“It’s Jordan’s charm.” Noah grinned. “They simply crave having Jordan tell them ‘No’.”

Jordan almost grinned. The Taites were persistent if nothing else. A trait Tehya had definitely inherited.

“We’ll see if they bring it up face-to-face,” Jordan said. “Perhaps they’ll believe me when I say it isn’t for sale this time.”

“Stephen Taite believes everything is for sale,” Lilly cut in at that point. “He’s quite determined to own that castle, Jordan. He learned Travis perhaps knew you, within hours of his arrival in the states this week. He’s already contacted us again this morning, wondering if we could arrange a meeting for him. We’ve declined, by the way.”

Jordan snorted at her cheeky grin.

“He only wants it because it’s something he’s been refused,” he growled as he moved across the room to the bar.

“You’ve picked up tails here at the hotel.” Nik changed the direction of the conversation. “Tenneyson and Arthur and their backup team are dividing their time between here and the Taites’. We believe they have the Taites’ rented estate bugged, but we’re not certain yet.”

“Of course it’s bugged.” Jordan knew he would have had it bugged if he were Tenneyson and Arthurs. The electronic listening devices would allow the team to easily split their time while still being assured no potential players slipped past them.

“We haven’t learned who’s hired them yet,” Noah said. “We’re still working on it.”

Nodding, Jordan poured himself a stiff drink before knocking it back and relishing the burn in the pit of his stomach. Nothing could sear away the disgust eating at him, though, or the restless anger at the game he was playing with Tehya’s emotions. The excuse that it was for her own good wasn’t helping in the least.

“Find out who these bastards are.” Jordan diluted the furious snap in his voice for the women’s sake.

There was no sense in pissing their husbands off because he knew he was getting in over his head with a woman.

Still, they stared back at him, uncertain why this mission suddenly counted so much more than all the others before it.

“We’re searching, boss.” Micah was the only one brave enough to answer. “Until then, we have Tenneyson and Arthurs covered.”

“Something else seems to have come up, though.” John Vincent had sat silently at the conference table until now. “We have a new player.”

Jordan turned to him with a heavy sigh. “And who might that be?”

“Journey Taite’s boyfriend arrived,” he drawled. “Several years older than she. Beauregard Grant. He’s a third cousin to Andrew and Melissa Grant.”

“And fifth cousin to England’s Lord Lowden Grant,” Lilly added. “He’s considered a black sheep, though. Dropped out of college, joined the military for a while. He was discharged for unsatisfactory performance of duty and conduct unbecoming.”

“I’m surprised Taite is allowing him anywhere near his daughter,” Jordan murmured.

Lilly’s smile was all teeth and disgust. “He’s still royalty, my dear Mr. Malone. As fifth cousin to Lord Grant, he’s also somewhere around twelfth cousin to the Queen Mother.”

Jordan’s brow arched. “Lineage, huh?’

“Lineage.” Lilly rolled her eyes. Anyone related to the Queen Mother placed a stamp on that kinship and proclaimed it far and wide.

“Beauregard won’t be a problem,” Jordan said. “Journey knows Tehya’s identity as Teylor Johnson and nothing more.” He looked at each man in turn. “Don’t take your eyes off her. Tehya is of primary importance, and tracking down whoever gave the order to attack her home is imperative. I want it over.” His voice hardened. “I want her safe.”

And as each man stared back at him he knew they understood, and they agreed.

Nothing mattered more to them than the protection of their wives, just as nothing mattered more to him than the protection of his … He gave himself a mental shake. Nothing mattered more than protecting Tehya and returning her to the life she had chosen for herself.

Because any life she chose would be far better than that of a life with a man who had learned long, long ago the perils of believing in love, and in happily ever-afters.

Nothing lasted forever.