Live Wire

chapter 2




“Stash me somewhere safe? Don’t I feel important?” she said as she turned away from him, and the lost-sounding loneliness that echoed in her voice had his fingers curling with the need to pull her to him.

For a moment, her delicate face reflected an inner sorrow he didn’t know how to deal with. But as quickly it was gone, and she was turning to face him fully, her expression filled with feminine determination.

“I guess you better tie and gag me then, Jordan, because you’re not stashing me anywhere.”

Son of a bitch, he hadn’t expected such stubbornness from her. He knew she could be stubborn, just not with him.

“Do you know who’s watching you?” he asked. Wondering if she suspected and if it would even make a difference to her, or if she suspected and her stubborness stemmed from that.

Her lips tightened, her dark green eyes shadowed. “I assume it’s one of Sorrel’s associates or one of his former enemies.” She surprised him once again with her answer. “Strange, isn’t it? The bastard’s dead and he’s still haunting me.”

“We didn’t expect this, but we were prepared for it,” he reminded her somberly, hating the dark pain reflected in her eyes now. “That was the reason we staged the deaths, hoping it would put an end to the occasional searches Sorrel’s enemies have arranged over the years. Somehow, someone figured it out and contacted one of Sorrel’s former associates, Ira Arthur with a message that your death was staged. Someone managed to track you down and is in the process of proving your identity as Tehya Fitzhugh. You know how dangerous that could be.”

He’d pulled every trick he knew out of his hat to protect her before she had left Texas. How the hell anyone could have proved Tehya wasn’t dead was beyond him.

She stared back at him, her expression so still and calm that for the first time since he’d met her, he couldn’t gauge her emotions or her thoughts.

“You’re not certain I’ve been found, then?” she asked, her voice guarded.

He gave a hard shake of his head as he stared back at her incredulously. “Tehya, it seems pretty f*cking definitive to me, baby.”

“You said they were in the process of proving my identity.” He could see a fragile glimmer of hope in her eyes, and the knowledge that he was going to have to extinguish it made him clench his fists even as a part of him fought to allow her to keep that hope.

“And how long do you think it will take them to prove you’re Sorrel’s daughter once they find you and grab you?” The thought of it was so abhorrent he had to force the words past his lips.

“There’s no verification of who’s searching or why?” she pressed. She lifted her hand to nibble at her thumbnail thoughtfully.

“That rumor was enough,” he stated tightly. “You admit it yourself, Tehya, you know someone’s been following you.”

“I’m not certain,” she said, her hand dropping as she bit her lower lip instead. “None of my security systems are showing anything. I’ve caught no one following or watching me. My damned neck just itches.” Her tone was irritated. “It could just be paranoia and coincidence, too. You know how former operatives can get, Jordan. They see shadows where none exist.”

“It’s enough for me, Tehya.” Her instincts were so finely honed to survival he wouldn’t dare ignore them. “I don’t believe in coincidences, and we both know your instincts are too damned good. And you’re forgetting, sweetheart. I slipped right in tonight.”

“But you know the system.” She waved it away. “I’m just so used to running that I’m paranoid.” She gave her head a hard shake. “I need a drink.”

Stepping in front of her Jordan stopped her. “No system is fool-proof, Tehya. Even yours.”

“Neither are rumors,” she informed. “Now, excuse me, I really need that drink.”

She walked from the bedroom as though they were discussing nothing more than the weather. Leaving Jordan to follow her in frustrated anger.

“Dammit, Tehya, we need to get out of here. I have a team together and a private plane waiting at BMI to get you back to base. I’ve convinced Killian Reece to let you in on the new Ops team—”

“Oh hell, no.” Her head shook emphatically as she stalked away from him. “I’m not going back. And I’m sure as hell not working for Killian Reece.”

Damn her.

Jordan clenched his teeth as he followed her to the living room, watching as she strode to the small wet bar on the far side of the room.

The teakwood bar sat next to French doors that led to a spacious, secluded patio outside.

She poured a drink, no doubt the whisky she preferred, then slapped another glass on the wood and poured another, for him, he presumed. He was going to need it.

“How did you convince Killian Reece to take me on?” She flashed him an irritated look. “And why would you? He lumps me right in there with Sorrel, and hated me just as much as he hated Sorrel for the death of his wife.”

For a second, Jordan remembered the reason Killian hated Sorrel. Why he refused to trust Tehya. His wife racing through the rain, escaping the warehouse, a young child in her arms as her blond hair flew out behind her. A child Sorrel had had kidnapped with intentions to sell her on the white slavery market.

There had been gunshots, fury, and disbelief as Jordan watched Catherine Rhyan’s eyes widen when she fell, her only thought to protect the child in her arms and the unborn child in her womb even as she bled out before their eyes.

Sorrel had killed her, but it had been Catherine’s decision to enter that warehouse without backup just as it had been Jordan’s responsibility to protect her anyway. Nowhere in there could any blame be attributed to Tehya and Killian fully admitted to that fact.

“Killian doesn’t blame you, Tehya, and he’s as concerned as I am about this situation. You’ll be returning to base.” He had to push the words between his teeth as his irritation threatened to explode into anger.

“I won’t return to base, Jordan.” She gave a brief shake of her head again before downing the whisky without a grimace. “It’s going to end here, one way or the other, if I’m even being watched. Until I know for certain, I’m not going anywhere.” Weariness flashed across her expression. “I’m tired of running.”

It would end in her death. Jordan stared back at her for a moment, at a loss how to handle her.

“How did you find out I was targeted?” she finally asked. “I felt as though someone’s been watching me for weeks. Was that you, or someone else? Because if it was Sorrel’s associates or his enemies, I would think they’d have made a move by now.”

The thought of someone stalking her sent ice chilling through his veins. But she was right. If she had been found, it didn’t make sense they would wait around as they had. “It wasn’t anyone I sent.” Damn, he’d hoped John had gotten the information before she had been found. “One of John’s contacts got in touch with him with the information that there was a rumor Tehya Talamosi wasn’t dead, and certain parties believed she had been found. That contact was aware of your location as well as your new identity.”

He could still remember the pure terror that had flooded his system at the thought of one of Sorrel’s partners, or possibly his enemies, getting his hands on Tehya.

“And here I am.” Her arms spread mockingly before dropping to her sides. “You’ve warned me, now you can leave.”

He almost laughed at the response. “Do you really think I’m going to leave you here alone?”

What the hell would make her even entertain the thought that he would allow her to face this alone? That any of the former team she had been a part of would allow it.

“I don’t know, Jordan, it’s been nine months,” she stated, the mockery thick in her voice. “You don’t call, you don’t visit. That makes me think you wouldn’t give a damn either way.” Her eyes widened. “Oh yeah, that’s right, you’re just here to escort me to the plane. You’ve pawned me off on someone else.” He caught the hurt brewing inside her now and frowned back at her in confusion.

“I’m not part of the Ops anymore, Tehya. Killian has control of the base, not me. He’ll make certain you’re protected—”

Expressive green eyes flashed furiously.

“F*ck you, Jordan, and f*ck Killian. I don’t need your help. You couldn’t call, you couldn’t care less until you thought the identities of the others were at risk. Admit it.” Anger glittered in her brilliant green eyes and flushed her face.

“Bullshit.” He was almost yelling back at her, completely losing the calm he had maintained over the years. “I’ve done nothing but worry my ass off since the second I woke up and realized you’d left base without so much as f*cking saying good-bye. Now this? F*ck, Tehya, I’m not worried about the identities of the others in this situation because it doesn’t apply. They are not at risk. You are, dammit.”

“Why lie to me?” she snapped as she moved around the bar to face him furiously. “All you had to do was call the cell, Jordan, at anytime. I was always here. Not a single call from anyone since I left, and I’m supposed to believe you’re so damned concerned about me now? I don’t think so, stud. The most any of you are worried about is your own damn asses evidently.”

His hand shot out, gripping her arm, as she moved to pass him. “I’ve been calling that damned satellite phone for over a month, every day straight, and in the nine months before that I called more than a dozen times. Kira has been trying to contact you since you left. I don’t give a damn what you believe, but it’s your f*cking ass we’ve been worried about.”

He watched her eyes narrow, her lips thin. “No one has called me, Jordan. I’ve kept the phone on me night and day just in case, and trust me, I checked it for calls, messages, and texts, and they weren’t there.”

The rough, aching vein of pain in her voice had him stilling and watching her closely. She was hurt. He could see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice. The thought that none of the team had contacted her in all this time had hurt her. And he couldn’t blame her.

“Where’s the phone?” But he knew damned well and good he had called her a dozen times or more before the information had come in that she was at risk. And he sure as hell knew he’d been calling almost hourly until he stepped into her home. That didn’t count the number of calls Kira and Bailey had both made.

He watched the suspicion darken her eyes before she moved her hand behind her and a second later pulled the cell phone free from her back pocket.

She slapped it into his hand.

“I’ve checked the security on it weekly,” she informed him. “Nothing’s come up, so no one has tampered with it. I carry the damned thing with me and use it for business, so I know you haven’t called.”

She had a computer program that the phone plugged into. The computer ran through the phone’s programs for any hidden trackers or cyberbots that could have found it.

Jordan popped the back of the sat phone, knowing something was wrong somewhere. If her security program had come back clear, then that left only one other answer. Someone had done something before it left base with her, after the more secure Elite Ops information had been erased from it. It was the only way it could have been tampered with and only a select few had the ability to do it.

“Kira and Bailey both called you the first week after the group disbanded and left messages,” he told her as he popped the battery from the phone to check the only vulnerability left. “I called the morning you left to chew your ass out for leaving without saying good-bye.” He flicked her a look that promised retribution for that little trip.

She ignored it.

Clenching his teeth, he turned his attention back to the phone.

He found the problem in less than a minute.

It looked innocent enough. No more than a small metal prong among several others, yet appearing oddly out of place, set within the small programming section of the internal security chip located just beneath the battery pack.

Jordan pressed the tip of his nail against the prong he knew shouldn’t be there, breaking it off.

Pulling his own phone from the clip at his side, he found and pressed the button preprogrammed for her number. A second later, the phone rang.

Tehya stared at the phone as he flipped it closed, cutting off the call, and held his hand out, the little piece of metal lying in his palm.

“It’s been receiving calls,” she said faintly, but she wasn’t doubting him. Jordan had no reason to lie to her.

“It’s an additional tracker. It allows the master program to track all calls, messages, and e-mails in or out. It can also be preprogrammed to re-route specific numbers or e-mails,” he said. “The tracker is used on phones given to assets and contacts rather than operatives, though, and placed in phones belonging to suspects or marks if possible. It shouldn’t have been on your phone.” It was only used with those whose trust was in question. Tehya’s trust was never in question.

“Then someone at base messed with it,” she guessed, that ache in her chest tightening further at the suspicion as she accepted the phone when he handed it back to her. “Now, who would have done that?” she asked mockingly. She could only think of one person who could believe she was capable of betrayal.

Killian and his team had been at the base several times before she and Jordan had left. It had been their job to clean their sat phones of the agency protocols, e-mails, or mission notes before returning them. Only Killian’s team and Killian himself had had the opportunity to tamper with the phone.

Jordan sighed. “It was developed specifically for the Ops by our techs. No other agencies have anything like it.”

“Well, then, that tells me something, doesn’t it?” It told her she was no safer at base than she would be here. Hell, Killian Reece would feed her to her enemies a piece at a time if he could, which meant she was safer taking care of herself.

“I’ll know who did it,” he told her, his voice icy cold. “I promise you Tehya, I’ll get to the bottom of it.”

As far as she was concerned, she knew exactly who had done it. There was no getting to the bottom of it. Only one person would have been capable of distrusting her to that extent.

“I think we’re both well aware who it was. Why the hell do you think he agreed to have me at base? So he could destroy me and made it stick. Not out of friendship for you, a sense of decency, or anything else.”

“I’ll find out.” His voice couldn’t have gotten any harder.

Tehya gave a small, almost silent snort. “And you think I’d be safe there, do you? Killian and I understand each other, and you keep refusing to believe it. He hates me. I stay out of his way and understand that he’ll always place Sorrel’s sins on me.”

She actually liked Killian Reece. He was hard-core, stone-cold, paranoid, and damned dangerous. He was the perfect commander for the new Elite Ops team. And she knew, in his position, she would have felt the same. She respected the hell out of him, but she was well aware of the fact that he saw her as the enemy. She would have seen him as no less if positions were reversed.

Sorrel had murdered Killian’s wife and unborn child; there was no way in hell Killian would ever trust the bastard’s daughter.

“Tehya, you can’t stay here,” Jordan stated simply. “You know yourself what could happen if it’s Sorrel’s enemies that are after you. If it’s his associates or allies, then it could be far worse.”

“Naw, I’m too old to be trainable as a sex slave,” she assured him. “If it’s his associates, then they simply want vengeance. I killed Sorrel and his son Raven, and helped to all but destroy the organization. Why would they care now, more than eight years later? It doesn’t make sense.”

“And you think they’ll simply kill you?” His blue eyes seemed brighter, harder. “Tehya, these are men that Sorrel funded, that gave him their loyalty. The same men who were determined to capture you and your mother for all those years. These men aren’t out to thank you, baby. They’re out to torture the hell out of you and make you beg to die because you destroyed the man and the organization they were so fanatically devoted to.”

They hated her because she had killed Sorrel and Raven, men she knew as her father and her brother. She hoped they were burning in hell.

“I’ve been running since I was five, Jordan.” She sighed wearily, exhaustion crashing in on her at the thought of even attempting to live again as she once had.

The last two weeks had been harder than she had realized. She hadn’t slept well; the fear that she was being stalked, that she had been found by her father’s friends, or his enemies, had weighed on her, she realized.

“Tehya, there are other places besides the operational base. Just let me hide you until we can reset your identity. We’ll do a full facial reconstruct and fingerprint alteration. When we’re finished, no one will find you, I swear it,” he said. And perhaps, if there had been a hint of emotion in his voice, the thinnest vein of desperation, she might have considered it. But that was all she would have done, considered it.

“The fingerprint alterations rarely work, and there’s still DNA. I’m tired of running,” she whispered, staring back at him as the heaviness weighing at her soul threatened to weaken her knees and take her to the floor. “I’m tired of losing everything I’ve worked for because some entity out there has decided I have no right to live, no right to freedom.” No right to love or to have the rest of her life to regret what couldn’t be.

“So you’re just going to sit here and wait for the bastard to strike?” He crossed his arms over his chest, which was never a good sign.

Jordan was possibly the most arrogant, most domineering man she had ever met in her life, and she had met a lot of men. When he took that stance, he was impossible to sway. Even his men knew better than to confront him at such times.

Fortunately, Tehya wasn’t one of his men, and confronting Jordan was something she had perfected over the years.

“I killed my father and my brother.” She shrugged, knowing that waiting for the strike would be easier than trying to run from it, easier than never having friends, never having a place to belong. “And I haven’t had a single nightmare over it. But if I have to start running again, Jordan, then my life will become a living hell again. I simply can’t survive that way anymore. And they’ll find out, I won’t be as easy to capture as my mother was.”

Her mother. Delicate, fragile Francine Taite. She had been tortured to death in Nicaragua when Sorrel’s men had finally chased her down, ten years after she had escaped with Tehya. Francine had refused to reveal where Tehya was hidden, had given him no information about where he could find the daughter he had chosen to breed.

Her father’s family was obsessed with bloodlines. It ruled everything, and nothing was allowed to taint its purity. Huge sums of money, land, and power were made in exchange and sometimes, there was even force. Her father’s family occupied a very dark corner of their superbly rich, exclusive world and for the right price, a blue-blooded daughter could be forced into marriage. Her mother was one of those women. Her father had repeatedly raped her until she had become pregnant with Tehya. It was a fate Francine did not want for her daughter.

Sorrel had still managed to find her, though. Through those hellish years he had murdered everyone who had tried to help her, cut her off from all possibility of peace, and in his demented mind he believed she would actually willingly return to him.

“Goddamn, Tehya.” Frustration filled Jordan’s voice now.

“You trained me well, Jordan,” she reminded him. “At the least, I’ll have a chance. They won’t be expecting someone able to fight back.”

She had learned a lot during her years with the Ops. Enough to believe she had a chance.

“I didn’t teach you to be f*cking stupid,” he snarled, those blue eyes darkening to deep sapphire as he glared back at her. “Tehya, you can’t face these men alone. Hell, you’ve seen the merciless cruelties they inflict on their victims. Do you think I’m going to let you become one?”

Damn, she’d never seen him this pissed off at anyone, especially her so quickly. He was, but for that one night, always calm, cool, and fairly unemotional when dealing with her. No matter what she had done to prick at that wall of self-control he possessed.

“Maybe I just learned that one on my own.” Giving him a tight smile she turned on her heel and headed back to her bedroom. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to shower and go to bed. Just because it’s a weekend doesn’t mean I don’t have things to do tomorrow.”

Jordan watched as she stalked through the bedroom door, her head held high, those damned curls making his fingers tighten with the need to sink into them and hold her in place for a kiss that would rock them both to the soles of their feet. A kiss that would ensure she was too weak to fight him.

Son of a bitch.

His fingers plowed through his hair before he jerked his satellite phone from the holster at his hip and keyed in Killian’s number.

“I assume you found her,” Killian answered on the first ring. “The protocol on her phone has been disengaged. How did you know it was there?”

Jordan felt his jaw tighten to the point that he wondered if it would crack. Had Killian been standing before him, he might well have killed the f*cker. “I didn’t, Killian. I tried to call her to give her advance warning of the danger that was already stalking her, only to learn she wasn’t getting my calls.”

How Killian could have done something so insane Jordan couldn’t imagine. He knew that Killian, possibly more so than anyone else, should have known better than to leave her so vulnerable.

“They’re already there? They moved faster than you expected then,” Killian mused as though he hadn’t heard even a hint of the anger in Jordan’s tone.

“Why did you f*ck with her phone?” Even he heard the animalistic growl in his tone now, the unmistakable fury.

All he could see was Tehya lying in a pool of her own blood, destroyed before he could get to her because he’d had no way of warning her of what was coming.

And that was Killian’s fault. The bastard had dared to mess with her only means of communication with the team. Her only way of contacting him if she was in trouble.

Killian didn’t answer for long moments. “She’s a risk, Jordan,” he finally explained, his tone reserved, as though he were carefully choosing each word. “I was merely keeping tabs on her.”

Keeping tabs on her? He’d been spying on her calls, tracking her movements, blocking her ability to receive a call from her former unit operatives.

“And when I called requesting your help to protect her, you didn’t inform me of this, why?” It was all he could do to keep his tone low, the ice from disintegrating into full, fiery fury.

“I saw no reason to tell you,” Killian answered bluntly. “I was only tracking her, nothing more.”

“The team’s numbers were disengaged and blocked from receipt,” he snapped back. “She couldn’t have received our warning of the danger if her life depended it, and it just may well have.”

“That was unintended,” Killian answered carefully. “I didn’t deliberately change those features. Sometimes, the secured numbers already programmed in become disengaged for receipt after the tracking protocols are set. She could have called you, though, as you well know. I didn’t set those protocols and the default doesn’t disengage the ability to call out to any of the programmed numbers. It does however sometimes block the incoming features as well as track them.”

He hadn’t thought Killian could be so f*cking cold, so merciless. Jordan prided himself on being able to anticipate the moves of every man he worked with. It was one of his strengths as a commander, and one that had saved his and his men’s asses more than once.

He could count on one hand the number of times he had been wrong about an agent he had worked with and each time that failure had resulted in someone’s death.

Had his inability to anticipate Killian’s actions gotten Tehya killed, then Jordan knew he couldn’t have borne the guilt. Or his fury. He would have killed Killian. Hell he was ready to fly back to Texas now just to take his rage out on the other man. He hadn’t lost such control of his emotions since he was a f*cking teenager.

He had known Killian didn’t trust Tehya, but he hadn’t expected him to have actively moved to do something so drastic as to have placed a tracking and security protocol on her phone. For nine months Killian had known where she was every minute of the day. He had listened in on her conversations, possibly known every detail of her life, and it was information he hadn’t volunteered to Jordan when she became endangered.

“When this is cleared up, and I have a minute to beat the f*ck out of you, then I’ll be back to base,” Jordan said, the violence swirling just beneath the surface leaking into his voice.

It was a promise, and one Jordan intended to stand by. Even better, Killian knew he would stand by it. Killian would be lucky if he could walk for a week.

“Your emotions are involved here,” the other man told him coolly, and Jordan listened, just for the sheer pleasure of allowing the man to dig his own grave deeper. “Once this is over, I trust you’ll see things more clearly.”

Jordan breathed in slowly. “If she had been taken, Killian, if she had been harmed … How long do you think she could have held out before she broke and revealed the Ops? Think about that. Think about the danger you placed not only my men in, but also your own.”

Not that Jordan doubted Tehya’s ability to withstand things that would break most men. Even her mother had had a spine of steel, one that had kept her from revealing her daughter’s whereabouts despite being drugged and beaten, and her feet burned to the bone, her fingers broken.

“Look, I agreed to let her into my unit, didn’t I?” Killian snapped. “I wasn’t trying to get her killed or captured. I was simply trying to keep tabs on her. Look at it this way, if she had been taken, finding her would have been a hell of a lot easier because of the security protocols on her phone.”

“Why did you agree to protect her in the first place, Killian?” Jordan asked, suspicion suddenly slamming through his brain. “What was your intent once she got to the base?”

There was a long pause.

“What do you mean by that?” Killian’s voice hardened.

“Exactly what I said. How long before you would have tried to send her on a mission that she couldn’t have returned from?”

The short laugh that came across the line was cold and bitter. “You think I would have actually made her operational?” Killian asked with a sneer in his voice. “When did you start taking me for a fool, Jordan? She would have sat on her ass in her suite and kept it there. I have no use for her on any of my missions or in my unit. I can think of much kinder ways to commit suicide here. You’re so f*cking irrational where she’s concerned that you would have killed me if she’d gotten even a scratch. God forbid anything more serious had happened.”

A lifetime of friendship had just been shot to hell, Jordan thought. In all the years they had been friends Jordan had never asked him for a favor, just as he had never denied Killian any help he needed.

Killian had destroyed those years in a single, thoughtless act. He had refused Tehya the protection Jordan had once extended to Killian’s wife without so much as a request from the other man. They were friends; and that had made Catherine’s life just as valuable to Jordan as Killian’s had been.

Catherine had died anyway. Shot down by Sorrel. He had killed not just Killian’s wife, but also their unborn son. A child Killian hadn’t known she was carrying until the autopsy. And now, Killian thought he could make Tehya pay for her father’s sins, despite her innocence and the hell she had lived through because of her father as well?

“Then it’s a damned good thing I didn’t send you one of the best communications and logistics agents that I’ve ever worked with, isn’t it?” Jordan said. “I’ll contact Elite Command for any help I may need from here on out. I won’t bother you again.”

“Dammit, Jordan, what the f*ck are you talking about?” Surprise filled Killian’s voice now. “I’ve always had your back. That hasn’t changed.”

“Yes, Killian, it has. It changed when you endangered her life because of your own grief and inability to see past who fathered her to the agent she’s become. If that’s what you call having my back, then I think I’d prefer to have Sorrel alive and watching it. At least I knew what to expect from him.”

There was nothing but silence on the other end. Jordan waited, wondering if the other man would even attempt to present a decent defense. Not that Jordan could think of one, but sometimes the truth had a way of knocking a man on his ass.

“You’re making a mistake, Jordan,” was all Killian had left to say.

“God forbid I should see you again in this lifetime,” Jordan stated icily, “because you may not survive it.”

He disconnected the call before Killian could say any more. The rage building inside him didn’t leave room for regret over a lost friendship. A friendship that had spanned almost a lifetime, he thought as he contacted one of the only men he knew who could cover him at this point.

“We’re on our way to Maryland,” John Vincent, a.k.a. Heat Seeker said as soon as he picked up. “Bailey refused to wait for your call. She’s been too damned worried.”

Bailey Serborne, the heiress John had married, had taken a liking to Tehya during an operation Tehya had worked on with her and two other Elite Ops agents. It had been one of the few operations Tehya had worked off base, and Jordan remembered the nights he had paced the floor worrying while she had been in the field without him.

“Have you contacted Travis?” John asked. “He and Lilly have been just as concerned. They should have landed at JFK earlier and will be waiting for your call.”

His men were coming together without being called into operation because Tehya was one of their own. Because they trusted her.

“Call him.” Jordan ordered. “The situation here has changed. Too many watching eyes. Tehya’s refusing to hide.”

“And you really thought she would agree to it?” John questioned in amusement. “Even I doubted your ability to pull that one off Jordan.” And here John had taken to calling him the “Miracle Worker” in the past few years.

“If Rawhide makes contact, he’s to be considered unsecure,” Jordan told him coolly. “Relay the message to Travis and Lilly.”

There was a moment’s silence.

“That doesn’t surprise me.” John finally sighed. “Killian can’t let Sorrel go, and our girl is all that’s left of him. She’s all Killian has to punish, if that’s his frame of mind.”

Both John and Travis had warned him, Jordan thought. When they learned Killian was heading the new Elite Operations unit out of Texas, John had said he hoped that Tehya would never need a haven at the base, as they had all been offered. If she did, John had been certain the doors would be closed to her. Jordan had hoped he was wrong.

“I’ll fill you in when we meet,” Jordan promised. “Until then, I’m with her, but I don’t think she can be convinced to hide.”

A moment of silence filled the line before John spoke again, his voice heavy with regret. “After running her whole life, it would get damned old, don’t you think?”

Jordan could only shake his head. “Contact me when you meet up with Travis and Lilly. Security is well in hand here for the moment. It should hold until we come up with a workable plan.”

Until he could figure out where to stash Tehya and how to convince her to go along with it.

Hell, she was going to turn her protection into a battle, he could see it now.

What he understood, though, was that it wasn’t a deliberate battle and it wasn’t even a battle he could blame her for. She was thirty years old, and there hadn’t been a day in her life that she could be assured of her safety and security other than the years she had spent at the Elite Ops base in Texas.

Disconnecting the call, Jordan moved to the living room closet where he pulled out the bags he had brought in, then secured the door and returned to the central seating area.

The heavy, padded duffel carried a multitude of weapons, just in case. The other carried clothing, while the smaller padded bag held a selection of electronic devices he hoped he wouldn’t need.

He had checked the security in and around the house before breaking in earlier. Jordan knew he would have never made it inside without alerting her if it wasn’t for the fact that he had more or less built the system with her.

They had installed it at his nephew’s and father’s homes the year before the Elite Ops disbanded. She had added a few extra sensors he hadn’t thought of and a few traps for the unwary that he could only shake his head at. At the very least, she would have a hell of a warning if anyone attempted to break in.

Opening the weapons bag, he lifted another handgun from inside and laid it aside, before breathing out wearily. God, he should have never let her out of his sight nine months ago. If he had kept her with him, kept her in his bed, then he would have known exactly what he was facing.

He carried the duffels to the bedroom and set them carefully on the side of the bed he’d chosen as he tried to figure out the best way to protect her here.

Thankfully, Tehya usually slept on the side of the bed opposite from the one he preferred. If he was going to be forced to protect her here, then he was making damned sure he could protect her effectively.

She didn’t want to leave? Then she could put up with him. He wasn’t going anywhere without her. He may not be able to keep her but damn if he wouldn’t ensure he could keep her safe.

When Tehya walked into the bedroom, wrapped in nothing but a towel, she was greeted by the sight of Jordan obviously making himself at home. And in her bed nonetheless.

He was sitting on the bed checking his weapons and he lifted his head at the sound of the bathroom door opening.

Jordan’s gaze darkened with aroused interest the instant he caught sight of her. It flicked over her, taking in the still damp shoulders, and suddenly nervous grip on the towel.

Lust flared in the darkening depths, and for a second, Tehya swore it stole her breath. Instantly, her nipples hardened as a phantom caress to her * had it aching in need.

She hadn’t come earlier. He had teased her nearly to the point of orgasm, only to end up pissing her off once she had felt that weapon at his side.

He hadn’t come for her because he missed her, or because he was worried about her. He had come to take her and stash her somewhere safe until her identity could be changed yet again, and her life thrown into complete disarray before he sent her merrily on her way once again. Just as he had before.

She wished he had just stayed in Texas where he belonged. It would have been a hell of a lot easier on her heart.

“What are you doing in my bed?”

She couldn’t sleep with him. She wasn’t going to sleep with him. The danger of begging him for his touch, for his heart, was still too close to the surface for her to trust herself to that extent.

He laid the handgun carefully on the bedside table, his gaze becoming darker, more intense. “Where you go, I go. Where you sleep, I sleep,” he informed her.

The response only infuriated her more. The arrogance and sheer superiority of his response had the anger that had only simmered inside her threatening to flame now.

“No. This isn’t going to work.” She couldn’t allow it to work. If he were that much a part of her life, then there would be no way in hell she could save her heart.

“It’s going to have to work,” he informed her, his expression bland despite the lust raging in his eyes.

And it was raging. It darkened the intense blue, made it seem brighter, hotter, as he stared at where her fingers clenched around the material of the towel.

She couldn’t do this. Her chest tightened with the emotions flooding her. Fear, need, a hunger to belong. For so many years she had convinced herself she had a chance with Jordan. That if she showed him she was nothing like her father, if she was strong, if she trained hard, if she proved herself a worthy partner, loyal and adept, then she would have a chance.

And still, when the time came to leave, he’d had no problem letting her go. They had all let her go. If they had been that worried they would have found her when she didn’t answer their calls. They were damned good at finding people, they had known her new identity. All it would have taken was a little effort.

“You can sleep on the couch,” she said harshly. “Not in my bed.”

He tilted his head to the side, the overly long strands of black hair framing his face and giving him a wicked, pirate look.

“Afraid you won’t be able to stay on your own side, Tehya?” he asked softly, his voice chiding. “That’s okay, baby. You can crawl over me anytime you want.”

Her eyes widened at the deliberate sexual undertones in his voice.

“Now isn’t that a change?” she said sarcastically. “Are you sure you’re the same man that regretted f*cking me nine months ago?”

“It wasn’t f*cking you I regretted,” he assured her. “Why don’t you come over here and let me prove it?”

“I don’t think so.” Oh God, she wanted to. She wanted to sink inside his flesh and feel the heat of him clear to her soul.

He gave a light, mocking chuckle. “Think of it as an educational experience. By the time this is finished, and we’ve either saved the heroine or we’re both dead and beyond regrets, you can walk away without ties, Tehya. It won’t hurt anymore, because you won’t believe you love me anymore.”

Tehya could feel herself freeze inside. Like an animal that’s caught the scent of a predator, every instinct was thrown into survival mode.

He knew. He knew what she had stopped hiding from herself, that she loved him, and still it didn’t matter.

“And what the hell makes you think I’m in love with you?” A woman had to have some pride.

He shook his head, his expression somber, his gaze alive with emotions she couldn’t decipher. “You think you are now. But by the time this is over, you’ll know me for the prick I am. You’ll see all the reasons why I’d make a lousy relationship choice, or God forbid, a husband, Tehya. Trust me, I’ll cure you. You’ll thank me for it.”

She couldn’t believe this. She looked back at him incredulously. She would have been amused under less stressful circumstances. “Is this what you’ve told your other lovers over the years, Jordan? Has it really been a successful line to use to get them into your bed?” Surely his women hadn’t been true airheads?

“You think that’s what this is?” His lips quirked with odd amusement. “No, Tehya, I’ve never used that particular line before. Does that mean you’ll take me up on the offer?”

“I’d end up killing you,” she muttered.

“There’s always that chance,” he agreed as she watched him nervously. “But at least you’ll be free of me.”

There was something in his voice, in his eyes, that halted her arguments. A somber, grieving “something” that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. He hadn’t said they would be free of each other. Or that he would be free of her. And Jordan was pretty consistent in saying what he meant.

She had news for him, though. She would never be free of him, and she knew it. Since that night she met him in Aruba, no matter how he played the bastard, no matter how many times she was left feeling as though he never noticed her, still, the need had only grown.

Whatever held her to him had been born that night, eight years ago in Aruba, before she joined the Ops, when he had finally agreed to allow her to be a part of Sorrel’s destruction. When he had promised her she could kill the father who had destroyed her mother, and who had tried to destroy her.

“Fine,” she snapped. “I’ll sleep in the chair tonight. But tomorrow you leave, Jordan. I don’t need you in this fight any more than I want the others here. The best thing you can do for both of us is leave. That way I won’t be distracted.”

She couldn’t afford the distraction if Sorrel’s men were truly after her. She would need to keep her wits about her. She’d learned that a long time ago.

Jordan’s eyes narrowed. “Try to sleep in the chair and I’ll tie you to the bed, Tehya. And tomorrow what I’m going to do is upgrade your security and see if I can’t find a way to figure out who the hell is stalking you, and destroy them. Until that’s accomplished, you can stop protesting, and you can stop arguing. Because you will sleep with me. Whether you like it or not.”

Which meant he was damn serious about tying her to the bed. And she was tired. The last thing she wanted to do was fight ropes or cuffs all night. The one thing she wanted, pride aside, was to lay in his arms, to sleep, just one night, surrounded by him. But she feared that one night would only leave her hungry for more.

“Tomorrow, you leave,” she said, anger and sexual hunger beginning to burn inside her at the thought of sleeping next to him.

He grunted at the order. “Tomorrow, we see about saving that fine ass of yours.” His gaze flicked over her, the somberness easing and being replaced by a wicked glint. “Because I have definite plans for it.”

She couldn’t stop the surge of adrenaline that raced through her at the sensual warning.

“Revise them,” she snapped, suddenly terrified, absolutely certain that facing her enemies wouldn’t be nearly as dangerous as revealing her heart to this man. And if she let him have her tonight there would be no stopping the revelation.

This was the Jordan she had rarely seen, Wicked, amused, playful. The one that sent his agents running more often than not in self-defense when he had that look on his face. He couldn’t, wouldn’t be predictable in this mood.

“Tomorrow, we’ll discuss it,” he offered easily. “Until then.” He patted the bed. “Snuggle in, sweetheart, and I’ll just get my shower. We can iron out the details then.”

He rose, moved to her closet, and as she watched in outrage, he pulled out his clothes before walking past her, and disappearing into the bathroom.

Only then did she think to breathe.

As oxygen hit her system, flames erupted through her body, licking at suddenly sensitive nerve endings and pushing her arousal higher.

Her p-ssy creamed in excitement, dampening the swollen, sensitive folds as her juices eased around her *. She inhaled a hard, deep breath and rubbed at her face desperately. Control. All she had to do was rebuild her self-control.

She might as well cut her heart out now and hand it to him on a silver platter, if she didn’t get control of herself now. Because as sure as the sun rose in the east, it wouldn’t survive sleeping with Jordan. Or working with Jordan. She was too weak for his touch, too desperate for it.

She had to find a way to get rid of him. He had to leave and let her fight this battle on her own. It was her past, and her nightmare, Jordan was her heart. She couldn’t fight them both at once.