by Lora Leigh
He’d called in the first, and the best, Elite Operations team that had ever existed.
His team, to protect his woman.
CHAPTER 5
“Hey, Teylor, you’re here early,” Kyle the bartender called out as she entered the dim interior of the bar and looked around.
The Saturday afternoon regulars were there, no more than half a dozen. Journey was there as well, a plate of Wing Dings, the bar’s exceptional chicken wings, and a glass of soda sat next to a heavy text book she had been reading. Friendly’s had become her only hangout, Journey had told Tehya a few weeks before. It was the only place she felt comfortable, she claimed.
Journey lifted her head and a smile crossed her face as she raised her hand in greeting before turning her attention back to her book, obviously more interested in studying than socializing.
Shoulder-length fiery gold hair fell over a delicate face as she frowned fiercely at whatever she was reading.
“This is the wrong place to attempt to study,” Tehya chided her in amusement as she caught Journey’s nails tapping against the table in time to the music. “I hope the test isn’t being given anytime soon.”
Journey grimaced as she lifted her head and pushed the book away. “A very boring dissertation on an even more boring poet. I’m still trying to convince grandfather to allow me to drop the English major for one of graphic design.”
“She’ll make a lousy English major with that attitude.” Casey stated sympathetically from the table next to Journey. “She needs to simply do what she wants and tell the rest of them to kiss her ass.”
“Is that your best advice, Casey?” Tehya shot him a look of amusement that took effort. “Maybe you should give her tips on pissing her grandfather off.”
“I would, but she keeps throwing that damned boyfriend up at me.” He shot her a quick grin. “I keep telling her Sebastian’s a sissy name and there’s no way he’ll stand up to good ole grandpop with her.”
Tehya gave a low, easy laugh. Another response that she didn’t feel. Journey had begun seeing Sebastian several weeks before, though she had only mentioned him to Tehya a few times and never with a last name.
After getting his beer, Casey came back to the table and Journey, who was still staring at her book.
Tehya headed over to the bar and accepted the cold bottle of beer Kyle set in front of her. She moved beside Journey as she remained silent, gripped the bottle and sipped.
Hell, why had she run here? Tehya wondered as she looked around the small bar. Journey was studiously ignoring Casey now as she always did when he teased her over Sebastian.
“Hey, Tey, you’re quiet today.” Casey looked over to her a few minutes later as he sipped at his beer, his brown eyes curious. “Everything cool?”
She nodded absently. “Fine, Casey. Just at loose ends at the moment.”
Tehya didn’t work Saturdays and Sundays. She usually cleaned house, took care of the yard, or did paperwork. Normally, she didn’t arrive at the bar until late for a drink, and to watch other customers while pretending she was a part of the joviality that existed among them.
Friendly’s was just what its name implied. No one put on airs, no one pretended to be superior to the others. It was simply a nice little place for a beer, friendly company, and a chance to unwind.
And still, she felt out of place. And today, she definitely wasn’t unwinding, while the sense of not belonging felt sharper than normal.
Always on the outside looking in.
Always dreaming about life, but never living it. She’d never had a chance to live, to love without fear, or to work to realize her dreams. And she hated that.
A shaft of light speared through the side entrance, drawing her gaze as she lifted the beer to her lips, pausing before taking a sip.
Tehya wanted to groan in frustration. Instead, she pretended not to see the new arrival as he strode to the table and pulled out the chair before sitting down.
That didn’t keep the few women in the bar from turning to stare. After all, he was tall, broad shouldered, arrogant, and had an air of sexy, dominant danger about him.
He was dressed in jeans, a casual dark shirt, leather jacket and boots, and there were probably no less than half a dozen weapons hidden on his body. Breathing out wearily she stood from the table, ignoring Casey and Journey’s curious gazes as she moved to the bar, followed by the silent, dark-eyed male everyone seemed to be watching. His arrival told her far more than words ever could. Jordan was serious about this unsanctioned operation. And he was serious about making certain someone was watching her.
He slid onto the barstool beside her. “Give me what she’s having,” he ordered the bartender, nodding at her beer.
Kyle shot her a surprised look before filling the order and taking the money tossed onto the bar.
“What do you want?” she asked, her voice low as she lifted the bottle to her lips. “And who do you have following me? I know it wasn’t you.” She would have seen him. Micah wouldn’t have tried to hide from her.
“Nope, wasn’t me.” A flash of white teeth in sun-darkened flesh, the glimmer of devil’s black eyes.
Micah Sloane, aka Maverick.
She sighed. “You should be home with your family.”
What the hell had Jordan done, pulled in the whole freakin’ team?
“Seen the pictures lately? I’m telling you, that little rugrat is hell on wheels.” Pure pride filled Micah’s voice as he pulled a photo from his inside jacket pocket.
Tehya almost rolled her eyes at the proud papa move.
Laughing, radiant. It was almost as if the picture itself were infused with the love shining from his young blond wife and the toddler, black-haired, black-eyed Trace, she held in her arms. Micah sat beside her, his arm around her, and in his free arm he held an infant dressed in pink. Six-month-old Emmaline Allegiance Sloane.
The boy had a mischievous grin on his face, the daughter innocently content in her father’s arms, and the mother stared back with a secretive Mona Lisa smile. She was a woman who knew the joys, the secrets of being loved by a strong, powerful man.
He tucked the photo away again.
“They’re beautiful,” she said, taking another long sip. “Why aren’t you home with them?”
From the corner of her eye she watched as he reached up and scratched his jaw while staring at her profile. Black eyes were gentle, his expression compassionate.
“Well, see, I have this friend,” he confided, his voice low enough to carry to her ears only. “She’s in trouble and doesn’t want to accept help. Then I have this other friend. He’s lost his heart and doesn’t want to accept it. I’m here to help both of them. I’m a nice guy like that.”
And she wanted to cry, because he truly was a good friend like that and thought nothing of endangering himself to help a friend.
“Your friend hasn’t lost his heart,” she said, knowing exactly who he was talking about. “Trust me, it’s right there in his chest, just as hard and cold as it ever was.”
Micah chuckled.
“Hey, Teylor, this yahoo botherin’ you?” Casey’s voice came from behind her. It sounded more aggressive than she had ever heard him, and filled with a warning to Micah. Lord love him, Casey had no idea the weapon he was close to challenging.
She could only shake her head wearily.
“Hey, man, I got this,” Micah assured him with an amused, patient smile. “Go find a little plaything of your own, why don’t ya?”
Tehya choked as she fought back a weary groan. She really didn’t need the male posturing right now.
“It’s fine, Casey,” she turned and said to him. “What my friend means is that he’s a smart-mouthed ass, but he’s cool all the same.”
“Oh.” Casey looked at Micah, narrowing his gaze on him, his expression forbidding. “He looks like bad news to me, Tey.”
“Naw, he just likes to bring bad news,” she told him. “Everything’s fine, Casey, I promise.”
&nb
sp; Casey scratched his head in confusion, as he looked from Tehya to Micah and back again for a long moment.
“I should just go back and aggravate Journey some more maybe?” he suggested, though Tehya could see the suspicion still darkening his gaze.
Tehya’s nodded somberly. “Yeah, I’d do that, Casey.”
He gave another glance toward Micah before grunting irritably and returning to a still-silent, studious Journey.
“You know, Tey,” Micah drawled, “your choice of friends here is a little immature. Sure you don’t want to come out and play with the big boys and girls again?”
She gave a heavy sigh. “I guess you’re parked here until I leave, right?”
He leaned closer, his expression becoming serious. “It’s like this. I followed you from the house. You had a tail keeping well back for the better part of the way. When you turned in here, they drove off and simply disappeared. Now, what does that suggest to you?”
That she was in a shitload of trouble. That the panic building in her gut wasn’t simply paranoia, it was danger. The kind of danger that had murdered her mother, her friends, and had made her life hell until six years before. It told her she was in over her head here.
“Either his partner is here, or he would have arrived within minutes after I did,” she answered painfully.
He gave a subtle nod. “And I didn’t see anyone come in after you. Did you?”
She shook her head slowly. There were three entrances, impossible for one person to watch unless he were inside. Tehya had been inside and no one had entered after her, except Micah.
“No one came in,” she said softly, painfully. “They’ve been watching me long enough to know my habits, to be able to guess my moves.”
“Long enough to know if you have any weaknesses,” he reminded her.
She swallowed tightly, but forced herself not to look around. She knew everyone here. They were all regulars. That meant whoever was watching her had been here from the beginning. She had run a very thorough background search on everyone here, and they had all been above suspicion.
If Micah was right, someone was backed by a hell of a lot of money and power to be able to pull that off. Those commodities were essential to building a background that would pass a check like the ones Tehya was capable of making.
She let her gaze rove discreetly around the bar once again as regret built inside her.
She had needed to feel a part of something, and she had chosen this place because she had believed it was neutral enough, that it was safe enough. Had she been more wrong than she could have ever imagined? Who here had managed to fool her to that extent?
“The situation is delicate, then,” she murmured as she lifted the beer to her lips. “Explains why you’re in covert mode.”
She had wondered, when she had first seen him, about the slight differences in his cheekbones, the longer hair, the scar slashing down the side of his face that he didn’t really have. If a picture were taken of him, it would show other differences that she wasn’t catching in the dimness of the room. Differences that would disappear once he returned to his wife and children. Enough differences that he would never be mistaken for Micah Sloane, a personal security expert in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Yeah, that explains it,” he agreed as he turned his head and looked back at her. “Doesn’t explain why you’re here rather than safe at home helping everyone come up with the plans, the contingency plans, and countercontingency plans the boss man always requires, though.”
She was almost amused. Jordan definitely believed in contingency plans, and the countercontingencies.
She finally sighed. “All of you need to let me handle this myself.” Though she was beginning to suspect it was far worse than she imagined.
“Aw, darlin’, you know that’s not going to happen, right?” Gentle affection filled his tone. “You’re family, Tey. We don’t turn our backs on family anymore than you slacked on the job when we needed you.”
She had to swallow tightly to hold back her tears.
“I don’t know if I can do this again,” she said when Micah said nothing more. “I don’t know if I can bear losing everything I’ve built here.” She could feel the grief tearing at her chest.
“I think we both know it’s too late to back out. You can run and hide, or you can stand and fight. There’s no in-between, Tey.”
Yeah, she knew there was no in-between. That didn’t mean her choices didn’t suck.
“He told me to warn you that if you run without him, he’ll have your car targeted and disabled,” Micah continued with quiet sincerity. “And I’d help him. It’s too late to run.”
She propped her chin against her hand and stared over at him morosely. Just what she needed, Jordan finding ways to dictate to her and he wasn’t even there.
“That’s just exceptionally wrong,” she muttered. “He knows that’s just exceptionally wrong, Micah. That’s my car. It’s not his any longer.”
He rose slowly from the barstool, his black eyes glinting in the dim light.
He bent down so his lips were close to her ear. “I’m going to fade back into the shadows now,” he said softly. “Head home soon, darlin’. You’re closer than you know to possessing everything you’ve wanted for the past six years. Don’t give up just when you’ve received the chance to enter the fight.”
She almost shook her head at his advice as she watched him stroll casually to the exit, sunlight flooding the darkened bar as he opened the door, then abruptly disappeared as it closed.
If he meant Jordan’s heart, then he was so wrong. Jordan had showed her during that last night at base that, at least where she was concerned, he didn’t possess a heart. Now didn’t count. Jordan felt he had to be there with her. He hadn’t come for her because he had needed her for himself.
What he possessed instead was a sexual appetite that set fire to her own, and only drew her closer to a broken heart.
“Hey, Tey.” Journey sidled up to the stool next to her. “Who was that piece of hot stuff you were talking to?” She flashed Tehya a wicked grin as she waggled her brows suggestively.
“Someone with a complex,” Tehya sighed as she wondered who in the bar could be the enemy. She was a fool, because she couldn’t believe any of them could be a danger to her.
She had learned as a teenager that the enemy could pose as anyone, even a friend. Yet evidently, that lesson hadn’t impressed itself upon her effectively enough.
It could be Casey, it could be Kyle, or even Journey. Tehya had known the other girl was a risk from the beginning, but not the type of risk Micah was watching for.
“Someone with a complex and a seriously nice ass,” Journey laughed.
“More than a seriously nice ass matters, Journey,” Tehya said. “And on that note, it’s time for me to leave.”
She had to get out of the bar, away from whoever was there specifically to watch her, to betray her. To complete Sorrel’s mission and destroy her.
It wasn’t as safe here as she had believed it was. For all her careful surveillance and background checks, somehow she had still managed to fuck up. Still, she had allowed herself to be fooled.
That, or she had been located within those first two months of moving to Hagerstown and was being watched even as she was watching those around her.
That would have allowed whoever was following her to put someone in place and prepare a proper background. Especially if she had been led there, or if her enemy had known her well enough to guess where she would head.
The thought that she was under surveillance for months and had never guessed until the past few weeks, had a chill of terror racing through her.
Looking around, she didn’t catch sight of Micah or anyone else. She felt the eyes on her, though. God, she should have paid attention to her instincts and run that first night she had felt the back of her neck itch.
Two weeks ago.
But if her suspicions were right, if Micah’s were right, it had been too late
long before that. But why hadn’t she felt the danger then? Why had she only begun feeling those eyes on her in the last two weeks?
Slipping the small electronic key fob from her jeans, she started the ignition to the car before crossing the street. Once she got to the vehicle, she walked around it, watching the screen on the fob intently for any sign of electronic devices or explosives.
The screen showed clear.
Once inside the vehicle she sat still and quiet and stared out the windshield, as she tried to get a grip on the fear building inside her, and the final realization, the acceptance that her father truly was reaching out from the grave to drag her into hell with him.
She wouldn’t get rid of Jordan or the others. If he had pulled the team in before he had showed up on her doorstep—and it appeared he had done exactly that—then he’d intended to learn who was searching for her on his own once he had placed her at base or in a safe house.
She knew Jordan; He didn’t do anything without a carefully thought out plan. He would have shipped her off to the Elite Ops base and then gone after anyone that seemed to be interested in her. He would have attempted to take care of the matter on his own.
What he couldn’t have realized was the moment she disappeared, her shadows would have disappeared as well. And eventually they would have found her again. They always did. And someone always died.
How many times had someone ended up dead because they thought they could fight her battles for her? Because they thought they could save her or her mother, no matter the odds.
However, unlike the others, Jordan had come prepared, and Tehya knew he had. She knew how he worked, how he planned, how he waged war.
Pulling out of the parking lot, Tehya headed home. Watching the rearview and side mirrors carefully, she drove around for a while, hoping to catch sight of anyone that could be tailing her. At least, perhaps she would give Micah a chance to catch sight of them, though she doubted whoever it was would be so careless at this late date.