Amy's Advantage (20 page)

Jordyn’s hand settled around hers and gently tugged her
death grip off the offending coat. Once she let go, he effortlessly removed the
jacket from the clutches of the bus seats and smoothed out the sleeve that had
been the cause of her sudden little war.

Raising the armrest between them, he calmly turned her and
guided her to lean back against his chest, draping the offending jacket across
her front. This time it stayed put, held in place by Jordyn’s arm wrapped
around her.

She slipped her hand out from under the jacket and patted
his forearm. “What? No
quantar
?”

“Public transportation and weapons don’t mix well in this
land,” he said, his voice pitched low enough to keep from carrying beyond her
ears. “I wouldn’t be any help to you if I got arrested.”

“What did you do with it?”

Jordyn sighed and tucked her hand back under the coat. “I
gave it to Amdyn until I return. Now rest,” he instructed, his voice pitched
intimately low as he bent his head to speak in her ear. “Everything will be
okay. Chloe is in good hands and you’ll be with her soon. Until then, I’m doing
what needs to be done to make sure you make the next portal. Any other
questions you may have can wait until we’re not surrounded by strangers.”

He shifted slightly beneath her to accommodate her more
comfortably. Sinking against him, she let the hardness and strength of his body
curl around her in comfort and assurance.

“You’ve had a long day and right now you need to give
yourself a chance to recover.”

She tucked her chin down and closed her eyes. “Long day,
hell,” she muttered. “I’ve had a long year. It’s going to take more than a nap
on a bus to recover.”

“Then it’s only fair that we post a warning to all the
malevolent winter coats out there not to mess with you.”

“Are you laughing at me?” Twisting her head around to glare
up at him, she realized too late that it was a mistake. One, because it made
her head hurt again, and two, because once again she was inches from the most
mesmerizing eyes she’d ever seen. The shifting shards of silver in their depths
glinted as moonlight on a mountain lake and made her want to dive in.

The laughter that had been in his gaze quickly heated to
something intimate and the distance that had been stiffly held in place the
last couple of days evaporated. The instantaneous sexual charge that flashed to
life between them skimmed over her skin with featherlight fiery fingers and
stirred an awakening tingle of awareness through her.

His eyes darkened as his gaze moved from her eyes to her
mouth. “No,” he said. “I am definitely not laughing at you.”

Abruptly, he looked away and shifted his shoulders, sliding
her back into place. “Get some rest. We still have a long way to go.”

* * * * *

Amy aimed the remote at the hotel TV and changed the
channel. A car commercial. She switched the channel again. Local news. She
switched it again. A police drama. Tossing the remote onto the pillow beside
her, she flopped back on the bed to stare at the ceiling.

Jordyn had left early that morning after waking her up every
hour the previous night to make sure she wasn’t suffering any ill effects from
the fall and possible concussion. Other than being increasingly grumpy at
having her sleep interrupted, she’d felt fine with no nausea and no pain save
the dull body and head aches from the various bumps and bruises. Nothing
Tylenol hadn’t been able to dissipate.

Sitting up, she fluffed the pillows and looked around at the
large, beautiful room. Instead of going to Chicago, Jordyn had directed her to
get off the bus in Denver. They’d taken a taxi ride from the bus station to a
gorgeous
downtown hotel where he’d set her half hidden in a corner while he checked
them in. When she’d questioned him about the expense, he’d shrugged it off.
Apparently the Ilyrians didn’t live in a world that needed quite as much
budgeting as hers did.

Her amazement had continued to grow when she stepped into
the room and found herself looking out of a bank of windows framing a horizon
of scenic mountain peaks. Yesterday, once she’d gotten into the room, she’d
been too tired to do much more than strip down to a t-shirt and underwear and
fall into bed. She’d had plenty of room to stretch out as Jordyn had chosen to
sleep in a chair.

Giving up on the TV, she ate another piece of fruit that had
been delivered with her breakfast and wandered around the suite, making herself
comfortable with the room’s amenities. Jordyn had left instructions to use the
concierge desk to fill in the gaps in her current wardrobe and arranged an open
line of credit for anything she might need. Other than that, his only
instructions had been that she not leave the room for any reason short of fire
or national disaster.

After a quick discussion with a perky-voiced concierge named
Shelby who had already been briefed by Jordyn on his way out that their luggage
had been lost and she would need to replace clothes and toiletries, Amy slid
into piles of fragrant bubbles up to her ears. Jordyn had left the bottle of
Tylenol on the bedside table, but she’d opted for a nice long, hot soak in the
deep marble tub instead. There was no point in letting jets and bubble bath go
to waste. At some point as she lay luxuriating in the soapy water, a few
pertinent thoughts became clear.

One, she was basically under house arrest for the next
several days. Two, the chemistry between Jordyn and her was still extremely
active and she was sans child for the first time in years. And finally, she had
an open line of credit and a very accommodating concierge who had promised to
help her acquire whatever she needed.

Sparks of anticipation pricked her excitement as she began
to plan what to put on her next list of “necessities”. If Shelby managed to
fulfill her promise and helped her pull this off, she was going to make
sure
she got a really big tip.

* * * * *

“What do you mean they aren’t coming back?” Ellen had done
more pacing in the last two days than she could remember ever doing in her
life. She had paced through the house all yesterday morning, wondering if Chloe
and Amy had made it safely through the portal. Once she’d heard about the
attack, she had paced all yesterday afternoon and most of the night, worrying
about where Amy had gone with Jordyn and if she were truly okay. She had paced
throughout today, waiting for news from Amdyn’s meeting with Jordyn.

Amdyn’s statement had brought her to a dead stop in the
middle of the kitchen.

“I mean just what I said.” Amdyn reached around her to grab
a coffee cup and fill it from the carafe on the counter. He gestured toward her
with the mug, offering, but she shook her head no. With long strides, he moved
to the table and wearily sat down, his legs stretched out in front of him.

He hadn’t gotten much sleep last night either and strain had
stamped itself on his face. It was the first time she could remember ever
seeing Amdyn allow the price of his years on this mission to show. Since they’d
been telepathically connected at times, she’d been aware of the weight he was
carrying to a certain extent, brushing up against it in his thoughts once or
twice. But even when they were alone, he’d never let his guard down enough to
reveal how deeply this mission had cost him.

After being so intimate with the man—how much more intimate
could you get than having a man inside your mind while he was inside your
body?—it was disconcerting to know there were so many more possible layers to
him that she’d not even guessed at yet. A sudden unwelcome yearning to know
this man better warmed through her.

She turned from him and took a teacup down from the
cupboard. “So, what’s the plan now? I’m sure Amy is anxious to get to Ilyria
with Chloe there already.”

“And I’m sure he’ll get her there. Which brings us to
getting you to Ilyria. It’s getting too dangerous for you to stay here.”

She heard the steel in his voice, and when she turned to
look back at him, all trace of vulnerability was gone. Once again he was
wearing the mantle of his authority with all power. “Seriously? You’re going to
try to scare me to get me there by using what happened to Chloe and Amy?”

“I’d be willing to try anything,” he growled. “If I could
force you through a portal, it would already be done.”

“If you could force me through a portal, you’d still be
looking for me.” She shook her head. This topic was covered daily in some way
or other and they both knew she wasn’t going to return to Ilyria anytime soon.
She wasn’t even sure
if
she would return to her homeworld.

“Do you realize that no one knew where the portal was until
an hour before it appeared?” Amdyn asked. “Yet we nearly lost both Amy and
Chloe to Slayers anyway. There is someone much too close to us who is tracking
our movements and reporting to the Sleht.” There was an anguish in his eyes
that underlined the anger. “I wish you were with Amy and Jordyn, wherever they
are, instead of here in the middle of it, too close to a traitor I can’t find.”

“I’ve never once been attacked.”

“The River Walk.”

“The Predators followed Amy.”

“You don’t know that.” His voice was hard and biting.

No, she didn’t. But she did know she wasn’t ready to leave
this world. Not yet. She still had options here. Still had fallback plans to
regain her life once she was sure all her sisters were found, safe and as close
to happy as could be hoped for.

She wasn’t immune to the irony that to accomplish all that,
they all needed to find their way back to Ilyria, yet she was certain the same
path didn’t hold contentment for her. She needed more. What exactly that
more
was, she didn’t know. Yet. But now that her sisters were finding their way
home, a yearning to be free from that home was beginning to gnaw at her.
Freedom from the guilt and worry she’d carried since she could remember.

Footsteps rushing from the front of the house toward the
kitchen snapped her back as Shyrana burst into the room, her long black hair
streaming wildly around her shoulders. She spun around, looking first at Ellen,
then at Amdyn. “Where are they?” she demanded. Before Amdyn could answer, Kayn
joined Shyrana and Kirry was only moments behind him.

“Safe,” Amdyn said, leaning back in his chair.

“Safe where?” Errant strands had fallen across Shy’s eyes
and she shoved them back from her face. “Is Amy okay? Has she seen a doctor?
When are they coming back?”

“What she said,” Kayn drawled drily, crossing his arms and
planting himself behind Shy.

Irritation flashed across Amdyn’s face. Kirry shooed them out
of her way, easing some of the immediate tension in the room.

“We’re all concerned about Amy. Sit down and I’ll make a
fresh pot of coffee,” she inclined her head toward Ellen with a smile, “or tea,
and Amdyn can tell us all the news.”

Reluctantly, Shy and Kayn followed Kirry’s instructions, Shy
sitting stiff and angry on one chair and Kayn sprawled on another with one
elbow on the table and his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. Other
than Kayn’s hair being so much shorter than Amdyn’s, the two brothers could
easily be mistaken for each other. They even wore the same expression of
arrogance, though Kayn’s was tinged with dislike for his brother and Amdyn’s
was traced with disapproval for his.

Kirry took the teacup from Ellen’s hand and said, “Go on and
sit down. I’ll take care of this.”

Ellen chose a chair across from Shy and Kayn, and like them,
waited for Amdyn to explain.

“There’s not much to tell,” Amdyn said. “Jordyn called and
said he’d meet with me at the little diner in town.” Amdyn accepted his cup
back from Kirry. She’d filled it with the last of the coffee. Absently, his
gaze followed her back to the counter where she started a new pot brewing. “The
plan is still to get Amy to Ilyria as soon and as safely as is possible.”

“And?” Shy pushed. “How are they doing? How hurt was Amy
from her fall? Did you tell her that Chloe is with Aurora? Was she worried?”

“Jordyn will tell her about Chloe. Amy wasn’t with him, but
she’s doing well.”

“He left her by herself somewhere? How do you know how she’s
doing if you didn’t see her?”

“She is fine, Shyrana,” Amdyn answered with the steely calm
and patience that Ellen expected. Even so, she was beginning to know the man
well enough to sense the tension beneath his words and spot the slight
movements and changes in his mannerisms signaling that under the composed
exterior, something else entirely was going on.

“But
where
are they fine?” Shy persisted. “Why didn’t
they come back here where Amy could be protected?”

“Jordyn probably has her tucked away in a tiny motel,
somewhere in the middle of nowhere,” Kayn interjected. “A place where he can
see trouble coming for miles.”

“He believes she’s safer with no one knowing where she is,”
Amdyn said.

“Well, did he tell
you
at least? What if something
happens to them and we don’t know where they are to help?”

“Jordyn isn’t going to let anything happen to Amy,” Amdyn
said.

Kayn nodded. “She’s probably the safest woman on Earth right
now.” Kayn glanced at Shy before he returned his attention to Amdyn. “But how
is he planning on getting her to Ilyria now that she missed the portal?”

“He didn’t say.”

“That’s not good enough!” Shy insisted. “We just found her
and now she’s out there by herself again. You’re his commanding officer
and
a
fucking telepath. Why didn’t you demand he bring her back, or at the least, get
the information from his mind about where they were so we could make sure she
was okay if something happens to him?”

Slowly, Amdyn leaned forward over the table, the weight of
his authority bearing down on Shy. “There’s a reason he’s our top officer for
this mission,” Amdyn stated, his words clipped and precise, his tone brooking
no debate. “He knows what he’s doing. I trust his judgment.”