Elite Ops Complete Series

by Lora Leigh

  “Monster-watch,” she breathed out roughly.

  She could feel it. She knew the truth. He would be there tonight. The man she fought not to remember. With his large, hurtful hands. His cold, precise voice. He would be there.

  “We’ll monster-watch then.” He sounded unconcerned. “But it won’t touch you. He won’t touch you. We’ll identify him if he’s there; then you and I will leave him to the others. Agreed?”

  She looked into his eyes. “You’re lying to me,” she accused him. “You won’t leave him to the others. You’ll kill him first.”

  He stared down at her, his expression stilling before he nodded slowly. “I will kill him first,” he stated. “For daring to lay a hand on you, Risa. For that alone, even if there was nothing more, I will be the one to kill him.”

  But there was more. There was the history he had with both Orion and the scientist. His friends who had died because of them. Or was it his friends? She watched him closely, saw the flicker of guilt and of pain in his eyes, and she knew the truth. She knew her lover. She knew he had once been Mossad. Mossad didn’t walk away from their culture or from their vision to work for an outside agency.

  “They were your parents,” she whispered. “Weren’t they? And the son, he was your brother?”

  He shook his head slowly as he watched her. “There was no brother. There was only a father, a mother, and a son. A man so bent on revenge that he accepted a life of the walking dead to draw the blood of his enemy.” He lowered his head, brushed her lips with his own. “And when this is over, he will be alone again, with more than the memories of the desert to sustain him. He’ll have the memory of a woman. A touch that burns with passion. A kiss that sustained his soul. He’ll have his memories of you, Risa. More than he ever believed he would or could have.”

  She stared back at him in shock. He was David Abijah. The son who had supposedly died at Orion’s hands when he stalked him.

  She felt her throat tighten in remorse, felt her heart ache for everything he had lost.

  “You don’t.” She swallowed tightly. “You don’t have to leave, Micah.”

  He laid his finger against her lips. “I’m a dead man, Risa. I made a vow. A promise. And I forsook any dream I may have wanted at a later time. I made a vow that I can’t walk away from now. Even for the most beautiful, the most courageous woman I’ve ever known.”

  She felt her lips tremble. At least he didn’t love her, she thought. As much as she loved him, if he had breathed those words to her, she would have shattered apart. She could love him and lose him, but the thought of Micah throwing away a chance at love would have broken her.

  “I’ll always be here,” she told him. “You can visit.”

  He could hold her whenever he wanted to. She would be there for him. She would await him.

  But he was shaking his head. “You have a life awaiting you, baby. I signed mine away. Live your dreams. Breathe in the desert air. Build the home of your dreams and fill it with children. Be the woman you dream of being.”

  But she dreamed of being his woman.

  She looked out the window and watched as the limo turned off the interstate and headed into town. They were almost there. She wanted to scream at him to turn around now, to take her home. Because when the mission was over, there was nothing left to hold him with her.

  Instead, she slid from his lap, gathered the tattered remains of the courage he thought she had, and forced herself to be silent. To be dignified.

  Only children threw tantrums, she told herself. But she wanted to throw a tantrum. She wanted to scream and rage. She wanted to fight whatever fate had decided that she couldn’t have the man she dreamed of having.

  “We’re meeting Jordan and Tehya, as well as Ian and Kira Richards with your grandmother and her escort, in the lobby of the hotel,” he told her again. “We’re going to enter the ballroom, get us some drinks, and mingle. You’ll know many of the people there. You’ll introduce me as your friend. Look for the doctors you know. If you recognize the man that accompanied your father that night, and later to the clinic, then turn in to me. Don’t stare at him. Simply tell me you’re ready to leave, and we’ll leave. You can give me his name after we leave the ballroom.”

  “Then what?” She watched as the lights of the hotel came into view.

  “Then I’ll return to your apartment with you and the others will meet with me. We’ll work up a plan and we’ll go after him. That simple.”

  “You’ll leave me alone?”

  “Never.” His look was possessive, fierce. “You’ll be protected, love. I swear it. Are you ready now?”

  The limo pulled into the front entrance of the exclusive hotel.

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  It came to a stop as the doorman stepped to it and opened the door with a practiced swing of his arm.

  Micah stepped out, then reached in and took her hand to help her step free of the limo.

  Risa drew in a hard breath.

  She could do this, she assured herself. Micah was depending on her. Orion and the doctor he worked for had destroyed Micah’s family. For whatever reason, it had caused him to sign away his future. He deserved his chance for revenge.

  She felt his hand on her lower back, a warm, comforting weight as he led her into the hotel.

  Bright lights assaulted her eyes. She clutched at the small purse she carried and looked around frantically at the guests gathering outside the nearest ballroom. Faces blurred; the music seemed distant and far away. She felt as though she were suddenly outside herself and scrambling to find purchase.

  “Risa. There you are.”

  Her head jerked to her left. Her grandmother Abigail was moving across the lobby, her escort behind her. Dr. Oswald Heinrick was a family friend. She had tried to get Risa to let Heinrick see her after she was released from the clinic, but she had refused.

  Heinrick, like James Walters, had been a friend of Jansen Clay’s.

  Ugly little girl. The words clashed in Risa’s head as her grandmother’s voice seemed to fade. Damn you, Jansen, you promised one of these girls to me. I’ve risked my entire reputation for your fucking drug.

  Risa shook her head.

  “Risa, dear, are you okay?” Her grandmother hugged her.

  Abigail’s now short, spiked hair brushed Risa’s jaw. She glanced behind her, looked up, and encountered Oswald Heinrick’s cold green eyes.

  I know you! I know you! Her own screams echoed in her head.

  “Risa, you look simply beautiful.” Her grandmother drew back and stared at Risa with a beaming smile before looking over her shoulder. “Isn’t she gorgeous, Oswald?”

  “She’s simply beautiful.” His voice.

  Risa shook her head. It wasn’t the right voice, was it? She remembered a colder tone. Didn’t she?

  God, she couldn’t breathe. There were too many people surrounding her, too many voices. She couldn’t think.

  “Risa, darling?” She felt Micah’s arm around her back as she stared up at Oswald Heinrick. His smile was warm and friendly. His eyes were cold. The thick beard and mustache that covered the lower part of his face distracted her.

  It shouldn’t be there, she thought.

  “You grew a beard,” she whispered faintly.

  His eyes narrowed on her. Snake’s eyes. Small and mean. She remembered those eyes. Like ice. Hatred and disdain filling them.

  “Actually, I did.” His smile was wide, disarming, as he ran his hand over his lower face. “Abigail isn’t quite used to it yet.”

  Abigail wasn’t the only one.

  “Micah, please meet Oswald Heinrick,” Abigail introduced them. “Oswald, this is Risa’s gentleman friend I was telling you about, Micah Sloane.”

  “Mr. Sloane.” Oswald lifted his hand. “It’s good to meet the man that finally broke through our Risa’s reserve. Her grandmother has been worried about her.”

  Risa’s heart was racing in her chest as she stared at his hand. It was large. Broad. It w
ould be rough on the back. She wanted to know about his palm. Was it soft?

  She could feel her stomach trembling. Her hand reached out, her fingers shaking as she gripped his wrist.

  “Risa?” Micah’s voice was at her ear. She heard him, the tone dark, warning.

  She wouldn’t break down. She was to turn to him.

  She turned Heinrick’s hand over.

  “Risa?” Oswald questioned her.

  His palm was soft. She stared at it. She couldn’t bring herself to touch it. It was pale and white, without so much as a callus.

  Against her hand she could feel the back of his. She felt the fine, almost invisible scars.

  “I’m fascinated with hands,” she said faintly as she released him.

  “Really, dear. You’re being a bit odd tonight, even for you.”

  She tilted her head. There it was. The derision. The mockery.

  She stared into his eyes.

  I know you. She spoke the words silently and watched his pupils flare.

  Yes, she knew him.

  Her nails were biting into Micah’s wrist.

  “I need to leave,” she whispered. “I’m not feeling well, Micah.”

  That simple. That was all it took. His arm went around her and they were moving for the doors. She looked behind her to see Oswald’s eyes narrowed on her. Hatred flamed in them before he could hide it.

  It was him. She knew it was him.

  She heard Micah talking, but she didn’t know who he was talking to. She was filled with the images from the past. Those hands holding her wrists to the floor of the plane, his voice at her ear, telling her how ugly she was. How it behooved him to rape her. How she should thank him for teaching her how to be a woman.

  “Because I was born to be used,” she whispered as Micah rushed her back into the limo. “I was born to die.”

  “Stop it, Risa.” The door slammed behind them as Micah pulled her against him, holding her against his warmer body. “It’s over. You don’t have to remember this.”

  “I should thank him,” she said tonelessly, repeating the words Oswald had thrown at her the night he raped her. “I should thank him for lowering himself to settle for me. At least I was a virgin.” She flinched at the sensation of tearing, ripping pain.

  She could feel the sickness gathering in her stomach. It boiled and threatened to gag her as she fought it back.

  “Stop it.” Micah jerked her face up to meet his black, enraged gaze. “It’s over. Do you hear me? It’s over. He’ll pay for what he did to you, Risa.”

  “Jansen paid him.” She smiled mirthlessly. “He had to pay someone to fuck me after all.”

  And he wasn’t the only one. Micah had fucked her to gain his way to the man who would lead him to Orion. Even Micah had an agenda.

  She loved him, but there was no love for her.

  She lowered her head and stared forward. She pushed back the emotion, the fear. She pushed away the pain. But nothing could still the betrayal.

  Oswald Heinrick was a family friend. He had dated her grandmother for years. He had always been kind to Risa. Until the night he was with Jansen for the chance to molest a child. He’d wanted Carrie. Jansen had forced him to settle for Risa.

  Micah wanted revenge, and he had taken Risa to get it.

  She stared into the darkness, and for the first time, oddly enough, despite the rape and her confinement for nearly two years, Risa finally felt defeat.

  CHAPTER 24

  “HEINRICK IS IN the house.” John’s voice came across the receiver Micah had tucked at his ear as Jordan, Travis, Nik, Noah, and Mac all gathered in Risa’s apartment along with the Durango team.

  Morganna and Kira were sitting in the living room with Risa. Micah stood at the doorway watching her, his brows lowered in a frown as he took in her pale expression, the dazed look in her eyes.

  “Observation only, Heat Seeker.” Micah lifted his wrist and spoke into the small mic attached to the strap that surrounded it.

  “Observing impatiently, Maverick. The bastard is getting ready to run.”

  “If he tries to run, stop him.” Micah lowered his wrist as his jaw tightened with the effort to hold back the rage building inside him.

  “We’re going to have to go in, take him out quiet, and transport him to another location for interrogation,” Jordan stated as the team watched him with clear, determined eyes. “We have a warehouse here.” He pointed to the location on the city map he’d spread across the table. “This will give us the privacy we need for interrogation as well as confinement.” He looked up at Macey March, the technical whiz kid of the Durango team. “Head out there with Tehya and get it ready.”

  Macey nodded before brushing past Micah and leaving the room. In the living room he motioned Tehya to follow before they both left the apartment.

  “John, Micah, Travis, and myself will slip into the house and take Heinrick. The Durango team will cover. Nik, you’ll cover here and keep Ms. Clay stationary until Micah returns.”

  Micah turned to Jordan. “Send Risa along with Nik to the secondary location until we have Heinrick there. I don’t want her here without me.”

  Jordan’s blue eyes looked like ice. “We can’t risk that.” He shook his head. “Nik will stay here with her and in constant contact with us. I need you on the team, Micah; you know that.”

  Micah turned and stared back at Risa, willing her to look up at him.

  She was curled in the corner of the couch, her ball gown swirling around her like golden to black flames as she clutched a lap blanket around her shoulders. Her hair shielded her face, but he could see enough to know she was stark white.

  Morganna sat on one side of her, while Kira had pulled a chair close to try to talk to her. She wasn’t talking to them.

  “Micah!” Jordan’s voice was a slash of command despite the softness of it.

  Micah turned to Nik. The Russian’s face was devoid of expression, his icy blue eyes flat and hard as he stared back at Micah and nodded slowly.

  “I don’t like it,” Micah breathed out roughly. “We don’t have Orion yet.”

  “Heinrick is our key to Orion,” Jordan reminded him. “This is what we’ve been working toward.” He turned back to the other men. “We’ll weapon up in the vans; we have everything we need there. Heinrick’s estate is thirty minutes from here and secluded. He has no security or staff on-site. All we have to contend with is electronic security. Are we ready to roll?”

  Micah turned back to Risa. She hadn’t moved, hadn’t changed position. He needed to talk to her before he left. He needed to take that look of dazed terror from her eyes before it destroyed him.

  “Micah, are we ready to roll?” Jordan asked behind him.

  He grimaced at the demand. It wouldn’t be much longer, he promised himself. Once Heinrick was taken care of, then he would be back. He could ease her pain then. It would be a matter of hours.

  He nodded slowly. “I’m ready to roll.”

  As the team shifted in the kitchen, Micah moved to the living room. Morganna and Kira were rising to their feet, their expressions worried as he neared them.

  “Risa?” He knelt in front of her, taking her cold hands from her lap and staring into her dry eyes.

  She looked shell-shocked. How the hell was he supposed to leave her like this?

  “Nik will be here with you,” he said softly.

  She shook her head quickly. “Go. I’m fine. Nik is fine.”

  Her voice sounded hollow, distracted. Micah felt the fine tension that filled her body and he saw the pain in her eyes.

  “A few hours, that’s all,” he promised.

  She nodded sharply. “A few hours. I’ll be here.”

  “Micah, we have to go,” Jordan spoke from the door. “Black Jack is waiting. It’s time to clear out.”

  Micah breathed in roughly before cupping her cheek and staring into her ravaged gaze. “I’ll be back soon.”

  Her lips twisted in a facsimile of a smile. “I’m n
ot a child,” she informed him, her voice cool. “I’ll be fine. Do what you have to do.”

  He was going to leave anyway, Risa thought as she watched him grimace. She accepted the brief kiss he brushed across her lips and stored it in her mental stack of memories. It was a lousy goodbye kiss, though.

  She watched him leave. He was dressed in black. Black pants, black long-sleeved shirt and gloves. With his black hair and black eyes he looked like a dark avenger.

  Finally, the apartment cleared out. She was left with the quiet, icy-eyed Viking-like member of the team, Nik.

  She lifted her gaze to his. “Will he really be back?” she wondered aloud. “Does he return or just disappear into the sunset?”

  Nik’s expression never changed. “If he’s smart,” he finally said, “he won’t come back. It would be better for both of you.”

  Her chest tightened at the statement. Forcing herself from the couch, she got to her feet and moved for her bedroom. Nik wasn’t the talkative type, and that was okay, because she didn’t have anything to say. She’d asked her question and he’d answered her. The fact that the answer still didn’t tell her one way or the other if Micah would be back didn’t matter.

  She locked her bedroom door behind her and moved to the dresser. She pulled a pair of lounging pants from a drawer and a matching long T-shirt. Socks. Her feet were cold. It was too bad she had nothing in her room that would warm the cold, empty places within her soul.

  As she removed the beautiful dress she had worn for such a short time and dressed in the warmer cotton pants and shirt, she rubbed at her arms, hoping to chase away the chill taking hold of her.

  She washed the makeup off her face, smoothed lotion into her cold skin, and tried to tell herself everything was going to work out as Micah had promised.

  They would take Oswald Heinrick and question him. He’d tell them who Orion was, and they would capture the killer. She would be safe then. And Micah would be gone. He would never return.

  She pulled the clip from her hair after smoothing the lotion into her skin and stared at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.