“Tehya.” Lilly’s determined tone had her pausing at the bedroom door, her hand on the knob. “We’re friends. Wouldn’t you help Travis and me if we were in trouble?”
She turned back just enough to see them, her gaze flicking to Jordan. “But I don’t have anyone who would give a damn, Lilly, in the way you and Travis care for one another. So that really doesn’t apply, does it? Perhaps that’s something all of you should think about. You have families. The others have children. You have something to live for. Do you really want to risk that for someone who isn’t worth it?”
Yanking the door open, she walked into the bedroom, slamming and locking the door behind her before rushing to her dresser.
Her small emergency backpack was there on the side. A weapon, cash, credit cards, and an extra set of keys to the car were inside.
She doubted there was a chance in hell of getting to the car, but she had to leave the house. She had to get away from the acceptance and love she could feel between the two couples. She was so desperate to have it herself, and the knowledge that they were risking what they had to help her made her die a little inside.
Thinking straight, thinking logically, wasn’t going to happen here with Jordan demanding to protect her, and the other four backing him without a thought for their own safety.
She wasn’t at base any longer. There was little security, there was no safety, and Jordan wouldn’t always be there to protect her.
This was one battle she was going to have to decide whether or not to fight, on her own.
* * *
“She’s slipping into the garage,” John stated quietly as he watched the handheld monitor he carried. The wireless reception from the small cameras he’d installed before dawn came in clearly.
Jordan stood facing the French doors that led to the back patio, his arms crossed over his chest, as he forced himself to stay in place.
“Are Micah and Nik in place?” he asked quietly.
“They’re ready to roll,” John told him. “They have the same view I have until she leaves the camera’s field of vision. After that, all he has is the tracker we placed on her car.” He gave a small, amused grunt. “Son of a bitch, it’s a good thing you warned me about the electronics detector she slipped out of base, because she’s running it over the vehicle now. I was able to modify the tracker so she can’t spot it, but damn, it wasn’t easy.”
Jordan almost had to grin. She’d slipped out several little goodies that the team had used in the course of their missions. The enterprising little thing had squirreled away well over a million dollars’ worth of high-tech equipment.
And he’d let her. Despite the fact that he had been certain she was covered, that her new identity was secure, he’d allowed her to take it.
Because he knew it would make her feel secure.
“It’s nice to know she came out of there with something for the six years she gave you,” Bailey murmured, apparently following his train of thought.
Jordan almost winced at the not-so-subtle dig. He knew that for years the women at the base had watched him and Tehya, expecting any day that their relationship would develop into something more. When it hadn’t, their disappointment in him had been apparent.
“Door’s up and she’s pulling out, Jordan,” John reported. “Micah and Nik are on her ass.”
Maverick and Renegade would make sure she was protected.
Jordan had known she would run. Once John, Bailey, Travis, and Lilly had shown up, she’d panicked, just as Kira had predicted when he had called and apprised her of the situation before arriving in Hagerstown.
He was praying that in allowing her to run they would at least catch a glimpse of who was tailing her here. If they could identify who it was then perhaps they could get lucky and trace them back to their employer.
Kira had known Tehya far longer than the rest of them had, and during that first year on base, she had kept Tehya centered on her job when her fears had almost had her running more than once. It had taken nearly a year for her to settle into the idea of being safe.
Staying in one place wasn’t something Tehya had ever done. Most of her life had been spent running, barely managing to stay one step ahead of her father, or the men he continually sent after her.
Settling down and accepting safety hadn’t been something Tehya could adapt to overnight. And as Kira had known, once she had accepted it, the agents with the Elite Ops had become her family.
The thought of endangering them, like those who had tried to protect her as a child had been endangered, had sent her back into the panicked running mode.
Those protectors had all died within weeks of hiding her with someone else. Her father had caught up with them, tortured and murdered them. For months after Tehya had moved into base quarters, her screams had echoed into the steel-lined hall outside her bedroom from the nightmares that haunted her. More than once Jordan had been unable to resist going to her, pulling her from her suite and putting her to work to exhaust her.
“What if she doesn’t come back?” Lilly posed the question worriedly.
“She’ll come back.” Jordan turned back to them. “She has roots here now, Lilly.” He gazed around the house and thought of the small business she owned. “She’s never had roots before. They’ll tie her to this damned house when nothing else could have.”
Lilly shook her head, her gaze somber. “There are no roots strong enough to hold her if her friends are endangered or if you are.”