by Lora Leigh
“Last time I saw him, I’d guess forty or older, probably closer to forty-five. Stocky but muscular. A mustache and goatee sprinkled with gray. Shaven head. Broad face. His eyes were a little narrow, a little longer than normal. He gives off a very professorial air. Studied bastard.”
Jordan nodded as he made notes. “His cover was Paul Blade?” he verified.
“Definitely a cover,” Mac said firmly. “He’s deep cover, too. I knew his handler for a while before he was killed. I mentioned Paul to him once and his expression was very uneasy. Told me to steer well damned clear of him.”
“And did you?”
“Hell, Malone, I steer well damned clear of everyone. You know where I’m stationed. All I see are the teams going out or coming in. Not a lot of chances to get into trouble there.”
No truer words were ever said. And what a stroke of fucking luck. “Get over here,” Jordan decided. “I’m not going to risk tipping him off. We have pictures taken of every figure that’s passed the apartment building or entered it. We have stacks of the damned things here as well as pictures of everyone Risa associates with or will associate with. Let’s see if you can ID him for us.”
“On my way,” Mac promised.
“Use the stairs, not the elevator,” Jordan warned him. “We know there’s a security camera there that’s been wirelessly hijacked several times. We’re trying to get a GPS on the signal, but he haven’t managed it. We have more intel coming in and might have to move fast.”
The line disconnected as Jordan lifted his head and grinned at Tehya where she watched the monitors trained on Risa’s apartment door.
“Bingo.” He grinned with a show of teeth. “He contacted Knight wanting intel on Micah. Knight’s done drinks with him, talked to him. He’s in the bag.”
Tehya’s brow lifted. “Counting your chickens, Jordan?” she asked cynically.
He couldn’t help but laugh at her reply. “Praying the chickens are laying is more like it.” He pushed his fingers through his hair and repeated the prayer that the eggs all dropped in one place and that he was there to crack them.
“Call in backup. Let’s get a game plan together. Whoever he is, he’s CIA. That explains the leak in Russia. It also explains his employer’s ability to track investigations against him. A sweet little network, don’t you think?”
“Very sweet,” she agreed, her chin propped in her hand as she continued to watch the monitors.
Jordan glanced at them, then back at her. “Call in the backup, Tehya.”
She rolled her eyes, pulled out her cell phone, and made the call, all without taking her eyes off the door to Risa’s apartment.
“What the hell do you see?” He frowned at the monitors, then back at her.
“A casualty,” she sighed, and shook her head before turning her gaze to Jordan. “Are you going to tell him he doesn’t have to leave her?”
Jordan stilled and stared back at her. “He has no choice but to leave,” he told her, his voice turning cold. “You know the rules. He’s dead. His life is property of the Elite Ops.”
“Noah has a wife, a child,” she said softly. “Morale is going to seriously suck around here if Micah has to leave her.”
“He’s a dead man,” Jordan reminded her. “He knew what he was doing when he signed those papers. Noah’s case is different. It always was and they’ve always known that.”
She shook her head. “Big mistake, boss. Very, very big mistake.”
He waited until she rose from her chair and turned her back on him before he let a grin twitch at his lips. They’d see whose mistake it was, and Jordan was betting it wasn’t his.
CHAPTER 23
RISA STARED AT the gown laid out on the bed, then lifted her gaze to Micah.
“You should have warned me,” she said carefully. She was furious. He had sprung the information that she had to attend the ball on her. Micah had merely stated they were going; he hadn’t given her the option of refusing.
“You’ve avoided this party every year that you’ve received an invitation,” he stated. “Why?”
“Because I don’t like doctors,” she said between clenched teeth. “Maybe a better way of saying it is that I despise the bastards. I can barely tolerate my own. How’s that?”
“Not a good enough reason.” His smile was tight and cool, his black eyes flat and hard. “But no one else will expect you to be there either, especially the doctor determined to kill you.”
It was his determined expression, and she was growing to highly dislike it. It usually did not bode well for her.
“You’re trying to force me into remembering who did it,” she said angrily. “You’re trying to make me identify him.”
“Identify your rapist and we identify Orion when we question him. The most elite of the medical field in the world will be at these parties. Orion’s employer and your rapist was rumored to be one of the most advanced scientific minds in the world. He’ll be there.”
“Then why should I be there?” Risa could feel the panic building in her chest, along with the fear. She avoided doctors like the plague, just as she avoided anyone who had been associated with Jansen Clay. “You said it yourself; all you have to do is capture Orion. He’ll tell you who his employer is.”
“Or vice versa,” he said quietly. “If we identify the scientist quickly, then he can’t escape if he’s not American.”
“He’s American.” The words burst from her lips before she even realized the truth of them.
“You’re remembering more.” He stood across from her, watching her closely. “What have you remembered since the dream, Risa?”
She pushed her fingers through her hair as she turned from him, tightening them in the strands as she fought against the fear trying to overwhelm her.
“I don’t want to go to this party,” she breathed in roughly. “You can’t make me go.” She swung around to face him again, glaring back at him fiercely.
“No.” He shook his head. “I can’t force you to go, Risa. But if you let fear control you, then you’re never going to have the life you’ve dreamed of having.”
“What do you know about my dreams?” she charged him, her voice rough. “As far as you know, Micah, I don’t have a single dream.”
His lips quirked in an oddly sad curve. “I know you dream, Risa. You have the pictures and plans of the home you want one day. It even has a white picket fence around it. You keep the picture on your desk. I know you don’t splurge in your money, but you want to. You want the pretty, sexy clothes, but you’re afraid to wear them. I know you dream of a family. A husband and children.” Something flamed in his eyes then; some emotion flashed across his face that she couldn’t decipher.
“Every woman’s dreams.” She shrugged his perception off.
“You want to go to the desert,” his voice lowered. “You want to feel the caress of a breeze that feels as though it’s come from the sun itself.”
She turned away from him. That dream had come to her in the middle of the night as she heard him describe Israel to her. But it was only a part of the dream. She dreamed of being by his side as she felt it.
“You need to do this, Risa. You need to take your life back. Are you going to let Orion or the man that tormented you rule your dreams and hold them back forever?”
She hated his logic. She hated that look in his eyes, the one that said he knew she would do what she needed to when she wasn’t so certain herself.
She looked at the evening gown again. It was simply gorgeous. The dark gold and bronze beaded color shimmered beneath the light. There were bronze heels and a small clutch purse. There were even bronze panties.
The fabric of the dress shimmered with the tiny beads as it ran from dark gold and bronze, steadily darkening to a rich, vibrant black at the hem. It looked as though it glittered with stardust.
“You definitely intend to make me stand out,” she murmured.
“A woman learning her own sexuality and her effect on her love
r would want to stand out,” he said, his voice dark, rough. “A woman of your courage, healing from the trauma you suffered, would become bold, adventurous, when her lover encouraged it in her.”
“You’re daring me,” she sighed. “I hear it in your voice.”
“Daring you to live?” he asked. “Yes, Risa, that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m daring you to live.”
She wrapped her arms across her breasts and stared at the dress again.
“And if I break down?” She couldn’t look at him now. “If I see him, know him, and I break down?”
“I won’t let you break down. You’ll hold on to me. You will know you’re safe, in my care, and protected, Risa. You won’t break down. You’ll tell me who you suspect, and later he’ll be investigated and questioned. That simple. And he’ll break. Then it will all be over.”
Just as Bailey had broken, Micah thought sadly. His cousin was currently resting in a secured location. Jordan was reluctant to call her director now. The news that Orion was CIA changed many of the team’s options in regards to the assignment.
Bailey hadn’t broken easily. It had taken her longer to break than it had during her training. She had fought the drugs, she had cursed Travis. But in the end, she had revealed what she knew and why she was there.
She was definitely there for Orion, but only because she believed her cousin, David Abijah, would be tracking him. She was searching for her last blood relation. The one she had never believed to be dead.
His past was coming back to bite him on the ass, he thought as he watched Risa run her fingers down the shimmering material of the gown.
She nodded slowly. “What time do we leave?”
“We leave here at eight along with Tehya and Jordan. We’ll meet your grandmother, along with her escort, and Ian and Kira at the hotel where the ball is being held.”
“A matter of hours,” she murmured. “You didn’t give me much of a head start, did you?”
Micah moved around the bed then. His hands cupped her shoulders as he turned her to him.
“I didn’t give you time to worry over things that you shouldn’t worry over,” he said quietly. “You have time to dress. There will be a buffet dinner at the ball if you’re hungry.”
She shook her head; the multi-hued streaks of silken blond colors rippled around her shoulders. “I won’t be hungry.”
“Risa.” He lifted one hand from a shoulder and cupped her cheek.
Raising her head, he stared into her worried eyes.
“Do you believe I’ll protect you?”
She nodded. “You won’t let him take me.”
“I won’t let him take you,” he promised. “We’re going to make this work, you and I. And you’re going to shine at that ball like the beautiful, vibrant woman you are.”
“Beautiful to you,” she whispered.
“Beautiful, period.” He stroked his thumb over her lips. “You are pure beauty, Risa. And tonight, you’re my woman. My beauty. The woman who holds my entire attention.”
It was no less than the truth. She held every fiber of his soul.
“I need to shower.” She inhaled deeply, but her face was still pale, her expression tinged with fear.
How had she survived? he asked himself as she pulled away from him and headed to the bathroom. How had she endured the past eight years and still managed to retain that air of innocence and unaware beauty?
She wasn’t cynical. She wasn’t a coward. She was facing her fear, her demons, and the danger surrounding her with a grace that amazed him.
Breathing out roughly, he flipped open his cell phone and placed a call to Jordan.
“Yes?” Jordan answered on the first ring.
“She’s agreed to go,” he stated.
“Good,” Jordan murmured. “We have everyone in place. Mac Knight secured an invitation as well. He’ll let me know if he sees Orion. We have the information Bailey gave us on the doctor. It was scant. American, broad, large hands, according to a few reports of surviving victims. But she did remember the names of several doctors that the Russian double agent had been in contact with. James Walters was one of them. We managed to get confirmation from our contact, the man we suspect is Orion’s handler, that he has made plans to attend the party tonight. Everything will be in place.”
Micah shook his head. “It’s not Walters. She was too calm. Her subconscious knows who her rapist was. She hasn’t seen him or she would have remembered him already. We’re looking at a potential mess with Orion and the rapist in the same ballroom as well.”
“I agree,” Jordan stated. “But this is our best chance to acquire at least one of them. That’s all we need. Tehya and I will leave ahead of you. Travis will have your limo; Nik will be following behind you. We’ll meet in the lobby of the hotel along with the grandmother, and Ian and Kira Richards.”
“Check,” Micah murmured as he watched the bathroom door.
He wanted to shower with Risa. He wanted to watch her curvy body, love her to distraction, and ease the fear filling her. But there was no time. There was simply no time.
He had run out of time.
He disconnected the call before moving to the closet and pulling free the silk suit that had been delivered along with Risa’s dress.
He took it and the hunger to shower with her and left the room to retreat to the spare bedroom where he would shower. Alone.
He needed to remember what being alone was like. Soon he would be without her, and he needed to prepare himself for that. If tonight went as planned, then by tomorrow night, Risa would be safe.
And he would be leaving. Without her.
Without her.
It echoed in his mind, his heart, and his soul.
He would be leaving, without her.
THE GOWN WAS gorgeous.
Risa felt the swish of the skirts around her as she and Micah walked along the hallway to the elevator. He held her hand and kept her close to him. She could feel the warmth of him, the power, and the tension that radiated in his body.
It was a tension that seeped into her as well. She could feel her stomach tightening with fear, her heart racing with it as the elevator doors opened and they stepped inside.
The moment the doors closed, she found herself in Micah’s arms, against his chest, his lips on hers as he kissed her with a hunger that seared her to the bone.
“You’re making me crazy,” he groaned as he lifted her against him, pressing her hips into his so she could feel the erection raging beneath his slacks. “You look like a banked, glowing flame in that dress, Risa. So beautiful you take my breath.”
Her lips parted as she saw the hunger in his eyes, his expression.
“You should have built some time in for a nap before we left,” she murmured.
“Just a nap?”
“Well, we’d have found something to do in that bed if we didn’t sleep.” She tried to tease him; she tried to ease her fear and his tension.
“Many things,” he agreed as the elevator beeped a warning that it was reaching the lobby. “Things that would have made us incredibly late.”
He released her as the elevator doors opened, though he kept his hand on the small of her back.
“Ah, Miss Clay, you shine like the brightest star.” Clive Stamper was standing in the lobby, his smile beaming as she walked toward the door.
“Thank you, Clive.” She smiled back at him nervously as he held the door open.
“Have a very nice night, Miss Clay, Mr. Sloane.” He nodded as they passed.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispered as the chauffeur opened the door and Micah helped her into the passenger area.
He moved in beside her, his arm going around her as he pulled her into his lap. The door closed behind them, and seconds later the limo was pulling away from the building.
“I’m here with you, baby.” He held her close to his chest, his hand stroking her back as he pressed a kiss to her neck. “Nothing or no one will touch you tonight
but me. Okay?”
She pulled in a hard, nervous breath. She wanted to scream at him. She wanted to fight. She wanted to demand that he turn around and take her back home.
“Do you remember the night we met?”
She felt his breath against her neck and shivered with the pleasure. She nodded.
“I watched you walk into the nightclub. I was sitting at the bar when you entered. You looked around nervously. Your eyes were wide with fear, but you forced yourself to walk across the room. Your courage amazed me. Awed me.”
She shook her head. “That was different.”
“How could it have been different?” His nose brushed against the lobe of her ear in a curiously gentle caress.
She almost grinned. “I already knew I was going to go to bed with you. I decided before I ever arrived at that nightclub.”
He stilled against her. “You had already decided? You didn’t know me, Risa.” There was a warning edge to his voice that had the grin tugging at her lips.
“Emily told me you were completely handsome.” She looked up at him, her hand curling around the side of his neck as she took in his black eyes, his black hair. “She was right, Micah. You’re devastating to a woman’s senses.”
He grunted at that. “And you decided to sleep with me based on that?”
“Sorry.” She gave a small laugh. “I did. But when I saw you—” She swallowed tightly at the memory. “When I saw you, Micah, I knew I had to. I didn’t want to change my mind. I didn’t want to run from you. I just wanted you.”
She wanted him to hold her, to kiss away her fears, to show her what pleasure was, rather than pain.
“You terrify me with your courage, Risa,” he sighed as his lips whispered over hers.
“I don’t know about the courage part.” She looked outside; they were only minutes away from the downtown exit and then would be even closer to the hotel where the ball was being held. “I’m so scared, Micah.”
“There’s no reason for fear, sweet.” His fingers brushed back a few loose strands of hair that had slipped from the loose upswept style she had chosen. “Tonight, we’re going to mingle with our friends, we’re going to dance, and we’re going to people-watch. Nothing more.”
