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  “I wouldn’t force such a decision on you.” The clipped words assured her she had managed to offend him. “Do you believe I would hurt you in such a way, Tehya? That I would risk your future like that now, while I know your past hasn’t yet been resolved?”

  It wasn’t her future that frightened her, it was the rejection she knew she would face and the possibility, slight though it was, that the dangers she faced would risk them as well. Besides, the last thing the Taite family would want would be her return.

  And Stephen Taite knew his family would lose Taite Industries to Tehya and her heirs if she returned. When Bernard Taite, Tehya’s grandfather, had been forced to change his will after his daughter hadn’t been found, he had named his only brother, Stephen, as his heir. But there was a codicile in the eventuality that his daughter or her heirs were ever found.

  If they were, his estate, in its entirety, would be turned over to her and his brother would be regulated to CEO of the business only.

  It would breed resentment and discomfort. Whether Tehya claimed everything or not.

  There was also the small matter of an inheritance that only Tehya could collect.

  Bernard Taite had created the wealth the Taite family enjoyed, but for the past fifteen years, Stephen Taite and his son Craig had called it their own. They wouldn’t want to relinquish it now, and she couldn’t blame them.

  It would give them a reason to reject her. A reason to fear her.

  She could turn the companies over to Stephen or his son Craig, but there was a portion of the inheritance, held in reserve that had been set aside in case Taite Industries had ever failed. An inheritance that would, in cash, gold, and bonds, total far more than Taite Industries was worth by now. An inheritance Tehya was determined to hold on to in the eventuality that her dream of being a mother herself was ever realized or that the danger she faced was ever defeated.

  “How are you going to manage this without the Taites knowing who I am?” Her fingers curled into the pillow as she held back her tears. She was absorbing the fact that she would have to face the family she could never allow herself to have and possibly to accept.

  “You’ve already made a first contact, Tehya. Why are you so frightened to face the rest of the family when you employ your second cousin and have obviously become friends with her?” he said, as she felt her heart sink.

  Micah would have run a background check on everyone that walked into that bar before the team ever arrived. Tehya should have thought of that.

  “How long did it take you to find her?” he asked when she said nothing.

  She closed her eyes. She had wanted to keep that connection to herself, to enjoy it, to relish even this small contact with at least one family member. She hadn’t wanted it tainted by the danger she faced.

  “I knew before I arrived,” he revealed. “How long were you planning to make contact?”

  “I’ve kept an eye on her for years,” she revealed. “I learned she had come to America to go to college just before the team disbanded.” She almost smiled. “She’s as wild as the wind, Jordan. I didn’t want her getting into trouble.”

  “So you came here to watch over her?” he guessed, his tone carefully controlled, as though he knew any show of anger would only ignite another confrontation between them. “She’s a lot like you. She has your temperament. Micah’s report on her is like reading your life if you had been born into that family. A rebel. Independent and stubborn as hell, she and her grandfather are rumored to go head to head often, and according to my sources, the only reason she wasn’t sent to a private girls’ college was because the Queen of England herself intervened and ‘requested’ her father uphold the Taite family tradition of sending the girls to America to complete their education.”

  Yeah, that was Journey. She was so young, so damned determined. It made Tehya proud as hell to know her. And she was damned calculating in getting her way as well.

  She suddenly realized couldn’t lie there in the bed any longer. That nervous energy building inside her wouldn’t be denied.

  Rising from the bed, she glanced over her shoulder, barely glimpsing his curious expression in the dim light of the room.

  “Why, it really doesn’t matter, does it?” she asked quietly. “But if your plan is to use Journey in this little plot of yours, then perhaps you should reconsider it. I believe I would be truly upset over that Jordan.”

  Jordan almost grinned at the protectiveness Tehya felt for the sharp-tongued Journey Taite. And it didn’t surprise him. The other woman had no idea how much she was like her missing cousin. They were so alike Micah had remarked that they were all damned lucky they didn’t resemble each other. Because there would be no way to hide their familial relationship if they did.

  Propping his elbow on the bed, he rested his head against his hand and watched her patiently, waiting for more.

  “She looks just like my mother did as a young woman,” Tehya finally said softly, the loss she felt over her mother’s death echoing in her voice. “Sometimes I let myself imagine what our lives could have been like if Sorrel hadn’t destroyed her. Mother would have been happy, I think. She would have made everyone around her happy. No matter how horrible the running could get at times, Mother always had a way to make me smile.”

  “She passed that gift on to you, Tey,” he assured her.

  He watched as those fiery curls moved gently when she shook her head before she asked, “What are you going to do to pull the Taites into this? Using Journey would be wrong, Jordan. She deserves more than that.”

  And it would break Journey’s heart if she learned Tehya was the daughter of the deceased Francine and hadn’t revealed herself. If Journey was anything like her, she would be hurt because Tehya hadn’t confided in her. She would be more than hurt, she would be furious.

  “Actually, we’re using someone else to bring you in contact with the Taites,” he said. “Kell Krieger has decided to go into politics. With the help of his father-in-law, Senator Stanton. He and his wife are hosting their first series of campaign balls and luncheons to allow the senator’s backers to get to know him and his wife, Emily. One of those backers is Jordan Malone.” He grinned self-mockingly. “I’ll be arriving with my new lover, Teylor Johnson, to support my good friend and fellow Navy SEAL.”

  Tehya collected her robe from the chair by the bed and pulled it on slowly as she allowed the information to process.

  She was going to end up with a headache before the night was over. She could feel it building just behind her eyes as she fought back the tension rising inside her.

  “You’re not going in covert? You’re risking not just yourself but your family?” She couldn’t believe he would do such a thing. That he would possibly ever bring the Malone name into an operation.

  “Too many people know me too well, especially in D.C. Creating a cover will only cause more problems than it can fix.”

  “I don’t like this plan.” She gave her head a hard shake. “God, Jordan, you’re risking Grandpop? Sabella and the children?”

  “There’s no risk,” he answered definitively, almost convincing her. Almost. “If anything, that risk will be confined to myself only.”

  She shook her head, her lips parting to speak.

  “Tehya.” His voice sharpened. “Why would they bother to strike out against my family? It would serve no purpose. Even Sorrel wouldn’t have bothered to go so far out of his way. And once they’ve been neutralized, all they’ll know is that an operation targeting them by a law enforcement agency succeeded. Jordan Malone will never be tied to it.”

  She was shaking her head as she spoke.

  “You’re insane,” she snapped.

  “We could always go back to plan A.” He shrugged. “As I said, the SEAL base commander in Florida has expressed a lot of interest in having you on his team once he learned Killian wouldn’t be acquiring you.”

  She threw him a glare before sitting on the edge of the bed and turning to watch him furiously.<
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  “Fine. I’ll go to Florida.” A lifetime of hiding. No true friends, nothing that could truly belong to her. An underground suite without windows again, the knowledge that she never truly belonged. On the outside looking in.

  She couldn’t do it, but more to the point Jordan knew she couldn’t do it.

  His smile was tight, knowing. “It won’t change the plan,” he told her softly. “But I’ll have you transported out at daybreak if that’s what you want.”

  “You could go back to retirement.” She swallowed tightly. “Go home and help raise your nephew. You’ve always said if you’re not around then Noah and Sabella will spoil him to death.”

  Of course, he was usually telling Noah that. Noah and his wife Sabella were completely crazy about their son. They would be even worse over the coming daughter, whom they’d already named Mira.

  He shook his head slowly. A negative movement that matched his mocking grin.

  “In three days, the game begins. We’ll leave for D.C. tomorrow evening. There’s a suite reserved for us at the Four Seasons in Georgetown. We’ll begin a series of carefully coordinated social events until someone bites. We’re going fishing sweetheart.”

  Fishing.

  He’d explained that saying before. Carefully coordinated outings where they played the bait and waited to see who would bite. It was a game she had played in the past with Sorrel’s men, and she hadn’t liked it then: she liked it even less now. “It leaves too much to chance,” she argued. “And the risk is too great.”

  He rose from the bed, naked and powerful.

  Tehya watched as he moved around the bed until he reached her. Gripping her shoulders, he pulled her to her feet and unbelted the robe slowly.

  “It’s time to sleep, baby,” he told her gently as he removed the silk and pressed her back down to the bed. “Come on, Tehya, lie with me just a little bit longer. We’ll argue the pros and cons of the game on the way to D.C.”

  He pulled the sheet over them after he climbed in beside her and wrapped his arms around her once again.

  “We need to discuss this,” she argued helplessly as he held her to him. She had never been very good at arguing with Jordan when he refused to argue back. “Jordan, you’re being too damned stubborn.”

  “I’m being logical. I’m really good at that Tehya, I promise.”

  She lay there, staring into the darkness, listening to the heavy, sluggish beat of her heart, the panic threatening to choke her, and knew that the final battle she had been putting off all her life was nearing.

  But as he said. Jordan always really good when it came to the logic thing and to his plans. He checked every angle, and then every nook and cranny that those angles could present. He was her best chance at survival and she knew it, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

  * * *

  Jordan was aware of the fears that haunted Tehya. As he held her close, simply sharing his warmth, he tried to give her the time she needed to come to grips with the operation they were preparing for as well as the past she had been trying so hard to avoid.

  He could feel her heart beating hard and heavy as he stroked her back, and he knew the urge to run, to hide, was nearly more than she could fight. That was all Tehya had ever known for safety, to find a hole and dig in.

  The time for hiding was over, though. Whoever had found her, whoever had taken the time and the effort, not to mention the danger, of looking into the explosion in Afghanistan, wouldn’t stop.

  They had tracked her to Hagerstown, and then had decided to watch her rather than striking. They wanted something from her. Otherwise they would have struck by now. Jordan had run enough ops both as a SEAL and as commander of Elite Ops team, that he recognized the signs.

  Tehya wasn’t seeing it for what it was because the memories of the past, the blood and death, were all she could see.

  Jordan was considering everything, though, and the fact that there were no answers, that there were no clear avenues to follow, sent a chill racing up his spine. Hiding wasn’t as easy as many thought it should be. Especially when one hired henchmen like Arthur and Tenneyson. Someone somewhere, a rumor, a drunken employee. There should have been some kind of information, at least one name to indicate who was behind it.

  “Why are you here now?” she whispered into the darkness, confusion thick in the soft question.

  “Why now what?” He allowed a finger to wrap around a silken curl that trailed down her back.

  “Why are you in my bed now, Jordan? And why are you so determined to save me?”

  The confusion in her voice was genuine, as though she couldn’t understand why he would care. Damn her, he was going to end up with gray hair where she was concerned.

  “Why do you think I allowed you into the Elite Ops?” he asked quietly. “You were a civilian, Tehya. The daughter of a known terrorist and white slaver. You could have been a hell of a risk. Why would I allow that?”

  He felt her tense in his arms, and hated knowing that the question reminded her of things he realized she wanted to forget.

  “Because it was what Kira and Ian wanted.” The decisiveness in her tone indicated that she fully believed that.

  He chuckled lightly. “Yes, they definitely pushed for it. But Tehya, I could have said no. They wouldn’t have liked it. They would have been pissed, but they would have still done their jobs.”

  He felt her tense marginally, as though she were considering his explanation.

  “Then why did you?” Once again her voice echoed with her bemusement.

  She truly didn’t know.

  “Because I wanted to ensure no other man touched you,” he said, his hand tightening on her hip to drag her back against the hardening shaft between his thighs. “Because Tehya, as much as I fucking hated it, I couldn’t get you out of my head.”

  And it was no more than the truth.

  He could have easily told Tehya no. He wasn’t above it. Nothing should have come above the team itself. But Tehya had, and for six years that had been the only defense he had against her. The knowledge that she was his weakness.

  As she moved to turn to him, a screaming, high-pitched alarm began tearing through the house.

  “Someone’s coming in.” Tehya was moving instantly, adrenaline kicking in, fear driven out by carefully programmed instinctive responses. The instinct to survive, combined with six years of rigorous training exercises.

  Following Tehya, Jordan rolled from the bed.

  Within seconds they were both dressed and rushing for the bedroom door.

  Weapons were held ready in their hands as they each slung a smaller pack that held extra weapons and ammo over their shoulders. Tehya had grabbed her go bag from the closet, while Jordan slung the large pack, with the more powerful weapons, over his shoulder with the smaller pack.

  Jordan jerked a set of communications links from the side pocket of the bag. He activated them quickly before handing Tehya one, a second before attaching the small earbud into his own ear and activating the line, even as they raced from the bedroom.

  As they raced through the doorway, the sound of the alarm abruptly stilled, and at the same moment glass exploded into the room as the sound of an explosive charge filled the room.

  Jordan felt the bite of icy fury surging through him as he pushed Tehya quickly ahead of him, covering her with the automatic Uzi he carried over his shoulder.

  Micah was barking satellite heat signatures into the communication link as automatic fire was returned, blasting through the shattered patio doors and tearing into the drywall and wood that covered the walls.

  “Move!” Tehya yelled, surprising him from her position at the door to the garage as she began laying cover fire from an obviously converted P-90 Personal Defense Weapon.

  He didn’t make her wait.

  Throwing himself across the kitchen, away from the flimsy protection of the refrigerator, Jordan rushed through the doorway before pulling her after him.

  Just in time. The retu
rn fire tore chunks from the doorframe, pelting them through the exit as Jordan threw them both to the floor.

  Tehya felt a sharp bite in her right shoulder, but she didn’t cry out.

  In the next second he gripped her arm, pulling her along the floor as quickly as possible to the exit.

  “Micah, are you in place?” he barked into the link.

  “We’re pulling in now,” Micah responded sharply.

  “We’re at the door. Do you need assist?”

  “Get ready to roll, they’ll be right behind us.”

  Gripping the doorknob, the door was pushed open as the metal door on the other side of the room exploded inward.

  Helping hands jerked Tehya into the armored black Hummer before Jordan followed, throwing himself as Micah hit the gas and tore out of the driveway.

  “They were watching for assistance,” Noah reported as automatic gunfire hit the outside of the Hummer before Micah took a sharp curve, putting trees, homes, and vehicles between them and the gunfire.

  “We had to take out three of the bastards to get into the driveway,” Noah continued, turning in the passenger seat to stare back at Jordan. “We were delayed getting to you because of that.”

  “Satellite imagery borrowed from a nearby base showed four coming in from the patio, three through the bedroom window, three moving along the driveway entrance, two heading to the garage, and two covering the enclosed van parked on a back street just down from the house. We were able to take out the van, those at the driveway and moving on the garage. There was no way to halt the attack on the house.” Noah looked at Tehya where she sat between Jordan and Nik as he apologized.

  Jordan watched as she gave a sharp shake of her head.

  Her hand lifted to cover her shaking lips. “It’s okay, Noah,” she whispered hoarsely.

  But it wasn’t okay, and Jordan knew it.

  “Noah, monitor the police channels. Did you leave bodies?”

  Noah stared back at him with knowing mockery. “I left trackers on the vehicles.”

  Of course he hadn’t left bodies, just as they hadn’t allowed any of the assailants to see who had shot back, wounding their men. A few possibly fatally, but they would still have enough life left in them to get out of the area before witnesses arrived.