she was sitting on the side of the bed and glaring at him. “Answer me,” she bit out, her voice strengthening marginally. “What would have happened if we had been attacked on the road and I was unconscious? I would have been dead weight, Jordan.”
“Good thing you don’t weigh much,” he quipped, then watched as she dropped her head, shaking it slowly. She wasn’t even considering the other side of the coin. She would have been vulnerable to enemies with an unknown agenda. All she was considering was whether or not she would have slowed him or the team down.
“I had everything covered, Tehya,” he promised when she said nothing more. “It was an hour-and-a-half trip and you were hurting like hell. You’ve lost sleep, and you’re riding on nerves. I wasn’t going to let you suffer like that when I knew the pain medication would help. Besides, there was an antibiotic with it. You have a head start on fighting back an infection.”
Tehya lifted her head and stared back at him, outraged. She couldn’t believe he had drugged her. How dare he have taken such a decision out of her hands?
“I fucking hate drugs,” she snapped, realizing her voice was still too weak to really hold any force. “And I was fine. It hurt. I was pissed off that my home was invaded, but if you had trusted me you wouldn’t have drugged me. What did you have to do, Jordan, that you didn’t want me to see or hear?”
Jordan always had plans. He was especially good at those contingency plans that no one was aware of but him. Had that had something to do with the reason he had drugged her? Was there a part of what was going on that he didn’t want her to know?
She watched as his gaze narrowed, his expression tightening with a hint of anger and disbelief that she had asked the question. “I’ve always trusted you, Tehya.”
“Whatever,” she snorted back at him as though it didn’t matter, and she didn’t believe him in the least.
But she wanted to believe him. God, she needed to believe him right now, because she felt as though her entire world were being jerked out from under her. “Where’s the shower? I stink of blood. God, I hate that smell.”
She needed to clear her head and clean the feeling of betrayal from her senses. Even more, she wanted to escape the memories that the scent of blood triggered.
Her mother’s blood, fresh, oozing from a knife wound that was too deep and refused to clot. “I’m okay.” The sickening iron stench invading her nostrils as she tried to help her mother apply a tourniquet. “It’s okay, sweetie. See, Momma is fine.” Her mother, so weak and still trying so hard to smile despite her pain.
It was too much. She didn’t want to remember, she didn’t want to feel what she had felt each time her mother had nearly been caught.
“Let me help you up.” Jordan didn’t take no for an answer. Before she could evade him, he moved to her and all but lifted her from the bed.
She pushed away from him as soon as she was standing steady on her feet, the irritation combining with the drugged, out of sorts feeling. If she had the strength, she’d kick his ass. She wished she just had the strength to kick him.
Well, she’d try to kick his ass. She might consider it anyway. Threaten him. She wouldn’t get far.
“Drug me again, Jordan, and I’m out of this little game. I’ll show you and my would-be captors exactly what I’ve learned during my time in hiding and disappear for good.”
She hoped he believed her. She prayed he did. Because if he ever did anything so asinine again, she might very well end up trying to kill him herself.
“Tehya.” His hold became firmer on her arm as the expression on his face hardened to pure make dominance. “Don’t threaten me. And don’t run. I promise, if you run on me I’ll make damned sure you understand the error of your ways within twenty-four hours flat. Are we understood here?”
She stared back at him furiously.
“I’ll tie you to a bed and fuck you until you can’t consider running ever again, sweetheart. I’ll make sure you’re so tired, the memory of pleasure so deep, the ache for more so ingrained inside you that even the thought of running will be erased from your mind.”