“I knew better, Micah.” Her smile, directed at the rear-view mir
ror, betrayed her by shaking perilously. “I’m sorry.”
“We’re an hour and a half from D.C.,” Noah said then, quietly. “You can make it up to me when we get there by making Jordan chill out for the night. You know how he tries to work us into the ground just because he’s pissed.”
“I’ll be sure to do that,” she promised, her voice still too raspy.
“An hour and a half is too long.”
Tehya felt her breath stop in her chest as Nik spoke up then, his voice a harsh, dangerous growl.
Jordan shifted to stare over her head at the other man.
“She’s been shot, Jordan,” he said.
CHAPTER 8
She was fine.
She was fine.
Jordan had to keep repeating the words to himself as he they made the drive to D.C.
A quick stop to ascertain the damage, then Nik had taken the front passenger seat for Noah who moved to the far back as Jordan quickly bandaged the arm while Micah drove.
Had the assailants meant to strike her?
Jordan couldn’t help but think that they hadn’t. For some reason, the bullets had seemed carefully placed. As though the wound was meant to confuse and frighten her, nothing more. Make her vulnerable and easy to capture.
The low-level explosion in her living room had been more for effect and noise than anything else. Each move had been designed for one purpose, to corral her. To weaken and disorient her.
As Noah drove to their destination, Jordan let his fingers play with the curls that cascaded over the arm wrapped around her shoulders.
He’d managed to get a painkiller in her by lying and telling her it was an antibiotic. The dosage had been more than enough to knock her out and force her to rest during the drive. There wasn’t a chance in hell she would have taken it otherwise. Tehya detested taking pills for any reason. Even the brutal headaches she often suffered were simply dealt with rather than drugging up, as she called it.
She would be madder than hell once she awoke, though. The last time he had slipped a painkiller into her, she had suffered from a brutal headache that lasted more than a week. That last day he’d gone to her suite to check on her and found her nearly incoherent with pain. At that point he had simply had enough.
But she had awakened without a headache. She’d been mad enough to throw a glass at his head, but she had been refreshed and clear-eyed rather than weeping in pain. It was a choice he made easily. Especially this time. What he saw in her eyes made him insane. He had to find a way to force her to rest.
Force her to close those haunted emerald eyes and ease the pain that filled them. Force the ragged, uneven breaths that were holding back sobs to even out.
She was breaking his heart.
From the moment those wide eyes had met his as they realized someone was attempting to gain entrance into the house, they had shattered with the knowledge that her security was being stolen.
Knowing she had been found, knowing someone was following her, wasn’t nearly as destructive to her as the attack on her home. What they had done to her tonight, Jordan could easily kill over. The men who had violated her home had damaged it so severely, that they might have irreparably damaged the roots she had finally found the courage to put down.
“We’re ten minutes out,” Noah said quietly. “Nik is texting Kell Krieger.”
Jordan gave a brief nod. “I want to get her to the Four Seasons. We can’t layover at the senator’s place. The risk to Kell’s family is too high.”
“We haven’t been followed,” Micah protested irately. “Damn, has Tehya’s lack of confidence in me, fucking affected you too, Commander?” There was no heat in his voice, but there was definitely irritation.
“Would you bet Risa and your children’s lives on it?” Jordan asked him. “Would you take us into your home if you had any other choice?”
Jordan stared into the rearview mirror, watching the former agent’s expression. He knew Micah’s training, and he knew they weren’t being followed. That didn’t mean they couldn’t be tracked.
Micah grimaced. “Four Seasons,” he stated.