Live Wire (12 page)

“When this is cleared up, and I have a minute to beat the fuck 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 fucking 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 fuck 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 clit 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 fucking me nine months ago?”

“It wasn’t fucking 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.