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Jordan shook his head. “It’s not a fucking test. It’s a choice. If he’s strong enough to claim her, knowing what he’s facing, then he’s strong enough to keep her no matter the obstacles they face. That simple. It’s a decision each one of you makes, on your own, without help.”
Noah’s lips pursed thoughtfully. “He left with Tehya,” he said softly.
Jordan looked back to the parking lot and the rain pouring down. “Yes, he did.”
“Some men can find comfort in another woman’s arms.” It sounded like a warning.
“Then some men aren’t as smart as I originally thought.” Jordan shrugged and let the door slam closed, cutting out the rain, cutting out thoughts he was better off not thinking. “Let’s start cleaning out. I want Miss Clay transferred to her grandmother’s home after Abigail arrives here. Clint and Kell can return with them and debrief her; let the two of them know what can be discussed and what can’t. We’re still on a job. Orion’s still alive.”
“He won’t be for long,” Noah stated.
Jordan glanced at him questioningly.
“I saw the pendant Micah took off Risa’s arm. Orion left him a message. He knows who he is and he knows how to control Micah. Micah won’t accept it. It’s a threat to Risa. He’ll make damned sure Orion is eliminated.”
That was a problem. No one should know who any of Jordan’s operatives were in their former lives. Those men had to stay dead; the complications of their ever coming back to life were too extreme.
Jordan blew out a hard breath. “Let’s just hope Micah remembers the word ‘teamwork.’”
“Do any of us?” Noah asked then with a grin. “Really, Jordan, you act like a damned father. You should have gotten married years ago and had a passel of kids. It would have kept you out of other people’s problems.”
He snorted at that. He didn’t regret it. If he had lived that dream, he knew now, he would have lived it with the wrong woman.
But he couldn’t have the right woman, either.
Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t. It was the story of his damned life some days.
And it was raining to boot.
CHAPTER 26
Six Weeks Later
Atlanta, Georgia
THE SUN ROSE every morning; it set every evening. Risa stared into the darkness each night; most mornings she greeted the dawn. She stared out the window of her bedroom in her grandmother’s home. Some nights Risa sat on the balcony and watched the shadows, imagining that she saw Micah in them. That he was watching her, that he lingered just out of sight and touched her with his eyes, caressed her with his thoughts.
How silly was she?
She touched her stomach beneath the cotton of her T-shirt and felt that surge of elation that she felt each time she thought of the child she carried there.
She was pregnant. She hadn’t believed it at first. The doctor had warned her that the birth control she was on might not be effective during sexual relations because of the weaknesses of it. She wasn’t using it at the time for birth control so much as regulation of her cycles. Evidently this was one of those pieces of information that she hadn’t exactly listened to.
She thanked God she hadn’t heard it, because she was carrying Micah’s child now.
She rubbed her fingertips against her stomach and gazed into the darkness. No one knew yet. She hadn’t told her friends yet, but she would soon. She would have to swear them to secrecy for a while. If their husbands knew, she knew Micah would soon find out. She didn’t want him to regret leaving her. She didn’t want his heart burdened more.
He loved her.
With her other hand, she touched the pendant she wore. She had finally found the nerve to do a search on the Hebrew phrases he had used.
How many times had he told her he loved her and she had never known? How many times had he whispered his regret that he couldn’t stay?
For whatever reason, he was unable to be there with her. She accepted that. If he could be there, he would have been. He wouldn’t have left her crying; he wouldn’t have left her bleeding inside.
And she still cried. She still bled. She still stared into the shadows of the night and imagined he was there.
“Micah,” she whispered his name, and felt the loss of breath, the weakness that assailed her as the pain washed over her. “I miss you, Micah. I miss you so much.”
