Live Wire (20 page)

Did he envy the others as well? Was there a part of him, as there was in her, that hungered painfully for that same emotional bonding. A hunger she knew no man could sate with the exception of Jordan.

Sometimes, she felt as though she had been cursed by him. No matter how she had tried in the months since leaving the ops, she couldn’t get him out of her head, or out of her heart. He was a weakness she now knew she had no chance of resisting. Just as she knew he had ruined her for any other man.

“You have your orders,” Jordan stated to the others, his gaze still locked with hers. “Make the necessary contacts and we’ll get this started.”

Jordan used the tone that everyone knew meant business. It made the team jump and head for the nearest safety zone. It just made her hot. It always had. It made her wet and never failed to keep her pussy throbbing in need.

Everyone was leaving except Lilly and Bailey. They rose gracefully to their feet and came into the kitchen while the men gathered files and prepared to leave.

“I contacted Ian and Kira, Tehya,” Lilly told her. “They’ve been in D.C. for months. Kira said she’s been trying to reach you since you left base. I’m certain you’ll be hearing from her soon.”

A heavy breath escaped her and she closed her eyes. She didn’t want anyone else involved in this.

“I wish you hadn’t called them,” she said.

“Darling, Kira would have killed me, and made sure it hurt. Badly,” Lilly told her, clearly amused. “But never fear, we have several excellent plans here that Ian and Kira conferenced with us on. We’re going to have such fun saving your temperamental little hide. You’ll actually thank us later.”

Laughing lightly, Lilly kissed her cheek and then Bailey gave her a quick hug. “Take care dear, and we’ll be seeing each other again soon.”

Tehya remained still, watching them warily now. She’d seen these two play their little high jinks on the men of the unit, but this was the first time she had been a recipient. It wasn’t a pleasant sensation. Now, she almost regretted the plots she had helped them with.

Within minutes, the small crowd had dispersed, slipping silently from the house, and leaving her alone with Jordan and the hunger heating between her thighs again.

Tehya wasn’t used to having neighbors, so the fact that her house was in the middle of a large block had been her opportunity to learn how to live among people. It wasn’t a crowded block, though. The houses were spaced a good distance apart, ensuring privacy. Her house sat in front of a line of sheltering trees and the two neighbors on the left of her were related and currently vacationing together.

Walking into the living room while Jordan locked up, Tehya pulled the heavy drapes carefully over the French doors, ensuring there wasn’t so much as a crack between the material for prying eyes to see into the house.

“So, you have plans C, D, E, and F?” she asked as he turned to her once again.

“G, H, and I, as well,” he informed her coolly. “You can never have too many plans, Tehya.”

Arrogance settled around him like a royal cloak.

“So you say.” She shrugged, crossed her arms over her breasts, cocked her hip and stared back at him, her brow arched.

“Don’t give me that look,” he warned her. “You could have stuck around to contribute to planning your own protection, rather than running off as you did.”

“Well, it was leave or commit murder,” she told him archly “Has anyone told you that you’re damned arrogant Jordan? Or that you could make a saint conspire to murder?

“Only every day you were around,” he snorted. He dropped his arms and stared back at her with a look of pure, hard dominance. “Why did you run, Tehya?”

She hadn’t expected him to question her.

“I’ve all but lived with you for six years, and you can’t guess that one?” she asked with a hint of sarcasm. “Do you have any idea how hard this is for me to accept? Sorrel is supposed to be dead!” she suddenly cried out, surprised by the vehemence that tore from her. “He’s not supposed to haunt me like this.”

Jordan heard the pain in her voice and once again fought the tearing at him, that urge to just
do something
to make her pain go away. It killed him to see or hear her pain.

Hell, she’d always had the power to do this to him. She forced him to feel emotions he didn’t know how to handle. She made him feel as though he were betraying both of them by being unable to what she made him feel when it rose tight and hard inside him as it did now.

“Tehya, the people who helped when you were young weren’t qualified to go up against Sorrel, and neither were you.” He braced his hands on the counter and forced himself not to touch her. “You were a child, not an adult, and it was no fault of yours. There was nothing you could do to change any of it.”

She turned her head away from him, her tongue peeking out to touch the point of her upper lip. Somber grief tightened her expression as she gave a little shrug, as though the explanations, the reasons why, really didn’t matter.

Her fingers raked through the heavy hair at the top of her head, causing those long, riotous curls to bounce around her shoulders, down her back and tempt his fingers. “It will never be over,” she whispered, her voice harsh. “He swore he would never release me, and even in death he’s managing to keep a hold on me.”

“It doesn’t matter how far you run, Tehya, or how hard you fight it, you’re going to have to realize the only hold Sorrel has on you is the one you’re allowing. I won’t let the past destroy you. And neither will your friends. But we need you to see, to believe we can do this together.”

She rubbed the back of her neck. She was irritated, frightened, and he was damned if he knew how to help.

The need to do something though, anything, to wipe that fear from her eyes clawed at the heart he didn’t know he still possessed until he met Tehya.

Her lips tightened as her dark green eyes seemed to glow in the frame of her pale face. That little spattering of freckles stood out in stark relief on her nose, clearly visible despite the tan that he knew covered her entire body.

“When Mother first escaped, she hid with me in a convent with Sister Mary, a friend she had known since she was young. She stayed only for a while, then left to make certain Father’s men hadn’t followed her. She called Sister Mary late one night, about three years later. Sister Mary pulled me from my bed and we ran. As we ran through the forest, I remember hearing gunshots. His men raped several of the sisters. The Reverend Mother had been tortured before they killed her. Horribly.”

He knew that. He had the file on the horrendous murders of the sisters at the Holy Blessings Convent.

“Sister Mary and I ran for several years,” she continued. “I saw Mother only rarely. Then one night we met with an ex-marine. Matthew Thomas.” She rubbed at her arms as though suddenly cold.

“Matthew slipped me into America, and I thought I would be safe with him. I thought he could defeat any monster, he was so strong. He and Mother had evidently had a relationship. I think they may have even loved each other.” She swallowed tightly her gaze stark with painful memories. “Several months later, Sister Mary’s body was found. She had died just after handing me over to Matthew. He and I both knew she would have told Sorrel who I was with, and where I was. She was so fragile, Jordan. So tiny.”

She stared back at him with those eyes so haunted it broke his heart. “When Matthew sent me to his friend Boyd in the Washington mountains, he told me he was going to take care of the problem once and for all. Then he would bring Mother to me, and we would be safe.” The pain in her face had his fingers aching to clench into fists. “Two months later Boyd pulled me out of bed in the middle of the night and we were on the run.” The first tear eased down her cheek. “Matthew’s body had been found. He had been skinned alive.”

Jordan couldn’t stand still another moment longer.

“Goddammit, I have the fucking files,” he bit out furiously as he took her in his arms and held her to him with an overwhelming need to take those painful memories out of her head. “I have the files, Tehya.”

“Then you know.” She sobbed, anger, fear, and desperation in her cries. “If these are Sorrel’s men, then you know what they are. You know what they’re capable of doing. Why, Jordan? Why won’t they let me go? Why won’t they leave me alone?”

His hands gripped her upper arms as he pulled back and stared down at her before lifting one hand to wipe the wetness from her cheek.

“Tehya, sweetheart,” he whispered. “We kept you hidden rather than taking care of this when we should have. Sorrel isn’t haunting you, but it’s obvious someone associated with him believes you have something they want. We’ll just have to figure out what that something is.”

It was the only thing that made sense.

She shook her head. “I didn’t take anything from the estate while I was there. I even left the clothes I had brought myself the night I was attacked there.”

“We’ll figure it out,” he promised her. Nine times out of ten it was something as simple as a file she may have seen, or some insignificant piece of information Sorrel had given her before the night he died.

For now though, all he could do was hold her. All he could do was comfort her and ache for the years of her life that had been stolen from her.

“I’m fine.” She gave a hard shake of her head as she pulled away from him and moved to the counter before turning to face him once again.

Letting her go wasn’t easy, but it was easier than seeing that pain in her eyes.

“You’ll be fine,” he promised her. “We’ll see to that, darlin’.”

Jordan saw the determination on her face, the pain, the belief that somehow she could protect herself, protect her heart, if she had just found a way to defeat Sorrel when she was younger.

“Will you?” she asked then, her expression closing on him, her gaze becoming shuttered. “Will it be better, Jordan? Or will the past steal the rest of my life?” She gave a hard, brief laugh. “I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t buy that puppy I wanted. This would be a hell of a life for a little dog, wouldn’t it, Jordan?”

A tear slipped down her cheek. “It’s just a puppy.” Her breathing hitched. “I can’t even have a fucking puppy.”

Before he could pull her to him again she swung away, her hand pressed to her mouth, more tears obviously following as she rushed to her room for a second time that day.

And hell, he hadn’t even known she wanted a puppy.

C
HAPTER
6

The situation wasn’t going to change. Her friends were sticking by her side, and Tehya had to admit that knowing that she wasn’t facing this alone eased the tight, panicked pressure in her chest and lifted the fatalistic feeling that she may not live to see her next birthday. But the fear of losing someone else reopened the ragged wounds of the past.

The world wasn’t a pretty place, she thought, at least not for her. Her life had been an endless battle and each day of freedom had been paid for with the blood of others.

Now, as day faded to night and she sat at the computer completing the last of the payroll checks that would go out on Monday, Tehya realized that the distant thought of escaping and running alone wasn’t a course she could take, either. The time for running was over, just as she had told him when he first arrived.

Her life had been a series of paths leading here, to whatever battle fate had planned for her.

Shutting down the accounting program, she gathered the checks and tucked them into their individual envelopes. Penning the final name, she stared down at it silently.

Journey Taite.

She sighed, sliding a finger over the letters.

Journey had somehow broken with tradition and had managed to escape notice as she found herself a job. Taite daughters didn’t work. Francine Taite had once stated that fondly. It was a tradition. Taite daughters were protected from the world at all costs. The youngest of Craig Taite’s daughters, Stephen Taite’s granddaughter, was evidently determined not to be protected.

They were second cousins and Journey had no idea Tehya even existed. But Tehya had known about Journey. The moment the other girl had arrived in America Tehya had known, and she had made it a point to watch out for the younger girl, even from Texas.

When Tehya had left to find another home, she had found herself in Hagerstown, close enough to ensure a chance meeting. And because of Journey, Tehya had found herself watching the bar she was so fond of now.

Had she endangered the other girl as well? God, she prayed she hadn’t.

And then there was Jordan.

He was on the couch in the living room working silently, not even a shuffle of paper to betray his presence. However, she knew he was there, and she knew she would have to deal with what he had said earlier.

She hadn’t even wanted to know what the plan was after returning to the house. But now, hours later, she found herself wondering about it despite her best efforts to remain unaffected.

She straightened the envelopes before turning and tucking them into the leather briefcase sitting on the floor by the desk. Her employees would be waiting for their checks when she arrived.

There were a dozen employees, fewer than she needed, but she had wanted to wait before adding to the business. She was glad she had. Fewer to suspect, fewer to worry about protecting.

“What do I do about my company?” she asked quietly as she rose from her desk.

Jordan looked up from his laptop, his intense blue eyes lasering in on her.

His brow lifted mockingly. “Are you ready to listen now?”

She deserved the comment. She had cut him off each time he had tried to discuss the situation with her.

“You know, Tehya, you surprised me.” Disappointment laced his voice. “We’re here for you. The entire team came the second they learned you were in danger and each member of the backup team has offered their help. And you don’t even want to hear how we’re going to keep you alive.”

There was a thread of anger in his tone, and she couldn’t blame him.

“Does it matter now?” Finally, she sighed and walked over to the recliner facing the couch. “I’m ready to deal with it now Jordan. I wasn’t capable of accepting it earlier.” She rubbed roughly at her face as the weariness made her feel weak, almost too tired to face this discussion. “Perhaps, Jordan, just once in my entire life, I wanted to believe I was safe. I wanted a home, a life. Perhaps a cat or a dog.” Weary acceptance filled her at that realization. She’d wanted a pet. “How pathetic is that? I’ve never had a pet.”