had turned six, while her mother had tried to lead Sorrel and his men away from her.
Within months Francine had sent word that Sorrel possibly knew their location. Tehya remembered Sister Mary wakening her, the room so dark she had stumbled as the sister helped her dress, urging her to hurry.
They had left the convent by way of a small tunnel hidden behind the stone wall of the wine cellar in the basement. As they had exited the tunnel into the heavy forest, Tehya had heard gunfire in the distance and a woman’s screams. The remaining nuns had died horribly that night.
Within three years the nun had put Tehya under the protection of a former CIA agent she had known while in college. He had managed to keep Tehya safe for only a few years.
He had been killed mere days after putting her on a bus and sending her across the country to a friend who lived in the Washington mountains.
The same scenario had played out so many times. A short period of peace. Then as soon as she began learning how to sleep without fear, it had begun all over again.
Tehya had been fifteen when she had received word of her mother’s death. After that she had to run on her own. She couldn’t bear to be the cause of anyone else’s death. To see more bloodshed for a child who was no more than a curse to anyone who cared for her.
And now it seemed, the past was returning with a vengeance.
The thought of seeing these men and women risking their lives, the love they had found in each other, for her, was too much to face.
“We would try interrogation, but we have enough suspicion they’re unaware of his identity that at the moment it’s riskier than we’d like. We don’t want to tip them off that we’re aware of them at this point,” Lilly explained.
Tehya clenched her fingers into fists and tried to beat back the fear and the panic. “I can’t deal with this!” The exclamation shocked herself as much as it did the rest of them. “You should all leave. You shouldn’t be here, risking yourselves this way. For God’s sake, go home.”
She didn’t wait for a response from any of them. Walking past the two women, she strode quickly to her bedroom to escape. She couldn’t bear to see the love between the two couples and know what they were risking if they involved themselves in this fight. She’d tried. She’d fought this fear, but it was her only weakness besides Jordan. No one who had ever tried to help her had survived it.
Even more, she couldn’t allow Jordan to take this risk. Knowing she had been the cause of his death or any of his family’s would destroy her soul in a way she knew she would never survive.
The Elite Ops had given her six years of peace, what more could she ask for? It wasn’t their fault that the team had disbanded, that their contracts had run out. It wasn’t their fault that she was haunted by a past her father had created.
“Tehya.” Lilly’s determined tone had her pausing at the bedroom door, her hand on the knob. “We’re friends. Wouldn’t you help Travis and me if we were in trouble?”
She turned back just enough to see them, her gaze flicking to Jordan. “But I don’t have anyone who would give a damn, Lilly, in the way you and Travis care for one another. So that really doesn’t apply, does it? Perhaps that’s something all of you should think about. You have families. The others have children. You have something to live for. Do you really want to risk that for someone who isn’t worth it?”
Yanking the door open, she walked into the bedroom, slamming and locking the door behind her before rushing to her dresser.
Her small emergency backpack was there on the side. A weapon, cash, credit cards, and an extra set of keys to the car were inside.
She doubted there was a chance in hell of getting to the car, but she had to leave the house. She had to get away from the acceptance and love she could feel between the two couples. She was so desperate to have it herself, and the knowledge that they were risking what they had to help her made her die a little inside.
Thinking straight, thinking logically, wasn’t going to happen here with Jordan demanding to protect her, and the other four backing