Maverick (Elite Ops 2)

For the first time in her life, Risa felt complete.

CHAPTER 14

JORDAN ANSWERED his cell phone on the first ring, his gaze locked on the surveillance cameras tapped into the apartment across from Micah and Risa’s.

“Jordan,” he answered the call.

“We need a safe house,” Micah’s voice came over the line, heavy with regret and something more that had Jordan wincing. “I want her out of this. We have a chance of convincing Orion that I’m simply keeping her in the apartment and forcing him to make his move. I want her out of danger.”

Jordan wiped his hand over his face. “That’s what the FBI thought two years ago when they learned someone was gunning for a senator’s wife. He killed the agent and the wife’s bodyguards at the safe house. She ended up with her wrists sliced, Micah. You know that.”

“The FBI didn’t know who they were dealing with,” Micah argued. “I want her out of this, Jordan. Now.”

“Your emotions want her out of this,” Jordan stated quietly. “You can’t let your emotions affect an operation.”

Jordan was aware of Tehya as she sat silently on the couch on the other side of his chair, watching him too closely.

“Are you going to fuck with me on this, Jordan?” Micah’s voice was dark, dangerous.

At any other time, Jordan would have definitely fucked with him. Jordan was in command, not Micah. But in this case Jordan had a feeling Risa would have more to say in the matter than Jordan could come up with.

He’d seen her eyes at that meeting with the attorneys. She was stronger than anyone was giving her credit for. Risa would want to know the risks, she’d weigh them, and Jordan had a feeling she would give Micah a fight he hadn’t anticipated.

“We’ll discuss it,” Jordan finally relented. “I’ll be over there this afternoon. We’ll let Risa know what she’s looking at and see if she’s willing to go to the safe house. We can’t force her into it; remember that.”

“She’ll go.” Micah’s voice hardened. A second later the call disconnected.

Jordan closed the phone, laid it back on the table, and watched the surveillance videos thoughtfully.

“He has a weakness,” Tehya said quietly. “You didn’t anticipate this, did you, General Malone?”

He flicked her a cool look. He wasn’t a general. He never had been. The mockery in her voice assured him that she was well aware of that.

“He’ll get over it.” Jordan shrugged, though he knew better. He’d seen Micah’s eyes in the limo, seen how he held Risa. The man was a goner. He was so damned caught up in what he was feeling for Risa that he didn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.

“He’ll get over it?” Tehya asked as she twirled a long strand of fiery red hair. “You don’t just get over love, Jordan. Once it’s there, it’s there to stay.”

“He’s not in love; he’s in lust,” Jordan argued, even though he knew better.

Tehya’s soft laughter was tinged with mockery. “You don’t believe in love, do you?”

“Nope.” He didn’t believe in love. He believed in possessive instincts; he believed in a lust that sometimes went too deep. That was what was happening with Micah, he assured himself. Just a surfeit of lust.

“Then explain Noah,” she challenged him.

“Noah was a Malone. There’s no accounting for the insanity that runs in our family sometimes.”

Noah had once been Nathan Malone, Jordan Malone’s nephew. Now he was Noah Blake, one of the best damned agents Jordan had. Noah was also the man who had reclaimed the wife he had once known, and a soul Jordan had feared his nephew would never find again.

“But that insanity can’t touch you, right?” Tehya pointed out.

He didn’t take his gaze off the pictures displayed by the monitors set up.

“Have you known me to show insanity?” he asked her rather than answering her question.

She breathed out heavily. “Stone man,” she muttered. “No, Jordan, you’re never insane.”

“Then you’ve answered your own question.”