had seemed to care about. And all she had left to remember her time with him.
A damned car. How sad was that? Even sadder was the fact that having it gave her some small measure of comfort.
Loping across the street, she moved quickly to the shadowed area where she had parked the car as she held the large key she carried for safety between her fingers.
When she stepped to the curb she hit the ignition switch to the Viper remote. Lights came on, the motor revved. Rounding the back of the vehicle, she pressed the door locks and within seconds was sitting securely in the driver’s seat.
Before sliding the car into gear, she programmed the security device attached to the vehicle and waited for a notification of any potential devices that could have been attached to the undercarriage.
A tracker or explosives. Either would have been all she needed to tell her that itch at the back of her neck was right.
There was no notification. “System Clear.” The words flashed against the digital screen, assuring her the car was secure.
She had lived too long in the shadows, spent too many years hiding and worrying before Jordan had taken her into the Elite Ops. That had to be the reason for her growing paranoia now. She simply wasn’t used to any sense of freedom.
Accelerating out of the parking lot and pulling onto the street, Tehya tried to tell herself those years were just catching up on her. She didn’t know how to relax and live rather than fight and run. She simply didn’t know how to be free. Even driving home, the roads nearly deserted, and still, she was searching for shadows.
The drive back to her small house was quick, the lack of traffic on the streets assuring her she wasn’t followed. But her neck was still aching, her senses still on alert.
At any other time in the past, she would have left the area once this feeling hit. She would have packed up and run. Hell, this was the longest she had ever lived anywhere other than the suite at the Elite Ops base, anyway. She had lived there for six years. For a while, she had had something resembling a family and a home. She hadn’t realized how thin that resemblance had really been, though, until it was over.
Once the team had broken up there had been no contact. Everyone had gone their separate ways, and although she still had the secure satellite phone, the secure number she had been given, there hadn’t been a call. They had forgotten her.
Mocking amusement flitted through her mind. Had she really expected anything more? She was the daughter of the man who had ordered the torture of one of their own. Who had aided in the kidnapping of a young woman who had become the wife of one of their own. The man who had murdered the parents of one of their own.
There were days she had been amazed they had even allowed her to live. Of course, killing her own father might have contributed to the tolerance they had given her in the breathing area, but they hadn’t needed to allow her to become part of the team.
They had protected her. They had given her a secure life for the time she had been there. She had to admit, she hadn’t expected them to desert her once it was over, though. She had thought she would receive a call at least from Kira, perhaps Bailey. She hadn’t expected to be forgotten.
Running wasn’t an option, she realized. She had grown tired of running even before she had joined the Ops. She had finally put down roots, and until now, she hadn’t realized how deep, how firmly entrenched, those roots had grown until now. Until she had begun to sense danger and decided to try to face it rather than running.
As she pulled into the small driveway of her home, the garage door slid open, allowing her to drive smoothly inside. As the doors closed behind the car and the security display once again flashed the words “system clear,” Tehya turned off the ignition and set the parking brake.
There hadn’t been so much as a Girl Scout selling cookies at her door. Her neighbors didn’t visit often, but they did wave when they saw her. Sometimes, when she was cutting grass or pruning her flowers, they would stop to chat. Once, a nice young couple at the end of the lane had invited her