Maverick

Maverick <Chapter 4>

“Micah,” he began.

“Noah, you want to stop now.” Micah’s voice had hardened, and Noah hadn’t thought that possible. “I know how to deal with Miss Clay. This is a meet and greet, nothing more. A chance to gauge her reaction to me, and therefore her reaction to the plan we intend to put before her tomorrow afternoon. Rest assured, I know how to treat a woman.:

He might know how to treat one,

Noah thought ,but he sure as hell might not know how to present an unthreatening demeanor.

“Hell, what was Jordan thinking giving this op to you?” Noah questioned his uncle’s decision roughly. “You’ll terrify her.”

“I demanded this op.”

Noah glanced back at him in surprise. “Why?”

Micah’s expression hadn’t changes. His face was still closed, set. His eyes were like black ice and his voice like frozen air. It was enough to give a person frostbite.

“Why is for me to know.” Micah shrugged. “it’s your place to accept. Now if you wouldn’t mind, your chattering is getting on my nerves. Perhaps Jordan could find a muzzle that would fit you.”

Noah grimaced and tightened his hands on the wheel of the car as he made a turn behind the cab and gauged the distance to the hotel where Risa was heading.

Hell, she deserved better than the operation that was going to be thrown at her tomorrow. She deserved more than to be used as he knew this operation would use her. She wasn’t mentally or emotionally capable of handling the stress it would lay on her fragile shoulders.

He’d mentioned his fears to his wife, Sabella. Worried that this operation would tax the girl’s ability to heal and to get on with her life. But they had no choice. This wasn’t just their best chance at capturing an assassin whom no one could seem to pin, but also their only chance to save her from a horrifying death. Risa was beginning to remember what everyone had believed she would never remember: the night of her kidnapping and rape and the man who had been in league with the father who had masterminded it.

Those memories could be the death of her.

“Risa Clay isn’t a broken woman.” Micah’s comment surprised Noah into glancing back at him.

“What makes you think that?” Noah asked.

“You know the same things I do,” Micah stated. “The trips to the spa, the shopping trip, and the clothes she bought. The intimate toys found in her bedside drawer . No, Noah, she is not a broken woman. She is a woman trying to heal.”

“And you think handing her over to you will complete that healing?” Noah snorted. “Hell, from what I’ve seen you cant keep a woman past the time it takes to fuck one, Micah You’re like a robot, man. That’s fine with a woman that’s not looking for anything more.”

“Noah, you are becoming a mother hen.” Micah sighed. “You remind me much of one here of late. I need to discuss this with Sabella. She’s becoming a bad influence on you.”

Noah grinned. Damn, his Sabella was a lifesaver.

“She’ll just laugh at you,” he promised the other man,

“I have no doubt she will laugh, simply because she knows you are a lost cause.”

Noah let the argument go. There was obviously no convincing Micah that charming a woman took more than an invitation to his bed. Especially a woman like Risa, one who had known the horror she barley remembered. She may think she had forgotten details and faces due to that fucking Whore’s Dust, but Noah knew her mind remembered, her body remembered.