“I thought you’d see it my way.” Jordan nodded. “Our only contact with Kell or Senator Stanton will be no more, no less, than required as a close acquaintance and business associate unless we have no other choice. Our first contact will be made at the party tomorrow night.”
“Mikayla has Tehya’s wardrobe nearly completed. She was able to use the sizes from the weekend attire she made for her just before we disbanded.” Nik was proud of his wife, a successful dressmaker whose name was increasingly being shared among the elite as “unique” and a “must-have” when it came to their social attire. Fortunately, with the additional seamstresses she’d hired, she was able to get the dresses Tehya would require completed quickly.
Jordan gave a short nod as he forced himself not to hold Tehya too close. He wanted to pull her close enough that she melded with his flesh. That he could heal her pain simply by wishing it done. Damn, he couldn’t bear what he knew tonight had done to her.
“Stanton and Krieger are going to require updates as well as mission planning,” Noah said quietly. “Arranging that could be difficult if we’re going on acquaintance only and using your real identity.”
Jordan gave a shake of his head. “We’ll invite them to lunch at the Four Seasons to discuss various business concerns Kell and I share. We can take care of everything there.”
“We’ll need to come up with explanations for our presence as well,” Noah reminded him.
“We weren’t expecting this, and you didn’t plan for it.” There was an edge of smugness in Noah’s tone.
“Don’t bet on it,” Jordan snorted. “When we arrive at the Four Seasons, contact John and Travis; they’re already there and you’ll find our suites are waiting for us.”
Nik chuckled lightly. “Haven’t you given up trying to catch him without a plan, Noah?”
Noah snorted. “Not in this lifetime. One of these days, I’ll catch him, though.”
Jordan’s lips quirked at his nephew’s response, but Noah wasn’t kidding. He’d been trying to catch Jordan without a plan for as long as he’d been walking. Thankfully he just hadn’t been around to see the effects when Jordan overlooked an angle. There was a reason he was so fucking careful.
“I wouldn’t bet on that,” Micah chuckled. “Hell, you’re just like him, Noah. We all are since working with him. One of these days it will be our kids trying to catch us without a plan.”
Noah and Nik both responded with amused groans, but Jordan couldn’t regret the training he’d drilled into them for so many years. Even Tehya hadn’t escaped, and the proof that she had listened lay in the carefully packed emergency bag she’d had ready when it came time to run.
Just as Noah had proved himself when he contacted a nearby retired Special Forces commander and two of his men to move into the apartment over his garage and watch over his home and family on the small rise next to it. And the others had made arrangements for their families as well. Just in case.
“Make sure the men we hired to cover Grandpop, Sabella, and Grant are in place,” Jordan told his nephew. “I don’t expect trouble there, but I’d rather be safe than sorry once we begin flushing out whoever is giving the orders here.” Contingency plans, back up positions. He was accused often of being a paranoid son of a bitch, but that was preferable to the alternative.
“We’re moving up on the Four Seasons,” Micah said as he maneuvered the Hummer through the streets toward the exclusive hotel.
“Contacting John and Travis,” Nik announced, his harsh voice darker, deeper than normal as he glanced back at Tehya sleeping in Jordan’s arms.
She was like the kid sister of the unit, Jordan knew. During the months they had been out of touch with her, they had tried to maintain their distance, believing it was what she wanted.
None of them had ever imagined that Killian had used the time he had been at the base, before the group had disba
nded, to reprogram her phone.
The satellite phone and the Viper had been “gifts” from the Ops that would allow them to always be in contact with her. Just in case their identities were cracked or the team were somehow threatened.
“Travis and John are taking care of camera surveillance at the hotel while Lilly and Bailey are running interference,” Nik reported as he held his phone to his ear. “We’ll pull up to the rear entrance where Lilly and Bailey will get you to the suite without being seen. Micah, Noah, and I will take care of the Hummer and collect another secured vehicle.”
Jordan gave a tight nod before maneuvering Tehya carefully in his arms, wincing at her mumbled moan.
The small, drowsy whimper pierced his heart. The painkiller he had given her was a powerful one and still, the pain had slipped past it enough to pull a low cry from her as he moved her.
“In ten, Jordan,” Micah advised him. “Ten, nine, eight…”
At one, the vehicle slowed to a crawl as Jordan pushed the door open and stepped from the vehicle with Tehya in his arms.
Lilly Harrington Caine, Travis’ wife, was at the door, swinging it open as Jordan rushed past her. Just inside, John Vincent’s wife, Bailey Seaborne, a former C.I.A. agent waited patiently.
“We have twenty seconds on surveillance interference,” Bailey told him quietly. “We’re using the staff elevator.”
They stepped inside the open elevator as Lilly followed then quickly inserted an electronic key, overrode the normal controls, and hit the button for the top floor.
“You have the Presidential,” Bailey told him. “John checked you in night before last. Micah, Nik and Noah have the attached suites on each side. We’ve received the intel on the attack on the house via Commander Reece and we’ll have that to you as soon as John and Travis return.”