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She nearly choked on the words, on the ad and needed ti doubt in Dane’s ht in a job she loved But then it wasn’t as if she had a job to come back to, so what did it really matter? Dane’s expression immediately softened and his hand went to her shoulder and squeezed
"I have no doubt you’ll be fine, Lizzie I won’t have it any other way Now get out of et packed, if you aren’t already But do me a favor please? Would you check in every once in a while just for my peace of mind? Iworry about you You haveyou to check in with the others This is purely off the record Friend to friend Just letand that you’re okay"
She senuine smile and one she hadn’t been able to pull off no ed course
If she hadn’t been so relieved to have gotten past Dane without hi on, other than her sudden desire for an i ever got by Dane And she was an idiot for thinking so
Not five minutes after she left and Dane lifted one of the slats of the blinds covering his office s to ensure her vehicle was gone, he then went back to his desk and sat down, punching in a phone number that only served to further blacken his mood
Never in a million favors would he ask the favor he was about to request from the man he was about to ask it of He’d never considered any situation where he’d huh to ask for help froe But for Eliza, he had no pride For Eliza, her safety and ensuring she re," Dane nearly growled into the phone "Tell his"
If there was one man Eliza couldn’t steamroll, it was Wade, a ainst every singledu an injured, tortured woman who hadn’t had sufficient ti in the takedown of the men who’d hurt her so horrifically
And when it beca more fire and determination than Dane had ever seen fro to back down under Wade’s inti, ferocious decree, he’d si even though he in no orked for DSS; and furthermore he was a man who lived cloaked in shadows and Dane didn’t trust him as far as he could throw him
Only, he’d stepped in front of a bullet that Lizzie’s vest wouldn’t have protected her from It would have struck the vulnerable flesh of her neck and killed her instantly Instead, Wade’s e into his ar bullet and had torn through the flesh of his ar bone, thank God; and because Eliza had tih Wade’s ared itself into Eliza’s protective vest as Wade had taken her down, covering her body with his own
Yes, if anyone could find out what Eliza was up to and the source of so much pain and shadows in her eyes, and worst of all the fear Dane had seen clearly reflected in a tenth of an unguarded second before she’d visibly collected herself, it was Wade Sterling
Dane may not like the man, but he owed him a hell of a lot, and he wasn’t stupid Wade had made a clainize Eliza, on the other hand, was oblivious, but then she was clueless as to her effect on the male population Always had been
He could almost feel sorry for Eliza because Dane was effectively throwing her to the wolves--or rather wolf One large, surly lone wolf But even losing her trust, friendship and loyalty orth it if the end result was her safety, and one thing Dane had learned in very short order was that what Wade Sterling considered his, he protected with his every breath
Eliza couldn’t be in safer hands Even if she didn’t yet realize it
SEVEN
WADE Sterling stood inside the open gate to Eliza’s sive her seclusion not only in the front of the ho the slightly larger backyard where she’d obviously spent a lot of ti it into her escape from the rest of the world He’d made sure he blended with the shadows so his presence wasn’t detected until he was ready to reveal himself
Not that he’d ever been invited inside her private do lot in front of her building, she’d made it clear there would be no invitation into her inner sanctum Her apartment looked like all the others in the co he owned that the inside likely resee aly--finally--admitted that not only was she a source of rare entertainued and fascinated hi he was accustoo as far as to say he was an expert on feht mind would ever make, much less convince others to believe, such an absurd stateed with the wind
Except Eliza Cu indeed, because he was certain there were a s, emotions, reactions she never allowed to surface because of training and rigid self-discipline that enabled her to suppress them, control them and never allow them their freedohtly controlled eust While he was skulking around her apart attention to his priiven him the slip and he wouldn’t have known until it was too late
As it was, Eliza would be pissed and likely shoot hiht if she kneas this close to her and that she was so co that pissed hi others, but,kidnapped, tortured or riddled with bullets just as she’d been a few short o should da her door wide open in thea periet herself killed? Did she have some sort of morbid death wish and that hy she was an unstoppable force for DSS, always taking assignments even if she’d just come off of one after three days of no sleep? She needed a da he’d voiced to her before, and that hadn’t gone over too well Not that it was a huge surprise But she couldn’t continue her current pace Even if her coworkers couldn’t see it, Wade could see the shadows in her eyes that seerow deeper She had a burned-out look that said if she didn’t have her shit sorted in short order, it was only a ot killed on a job And for reasons he refused to examine or dwell on, that bothered him It bothered him a hell of a lot Hell, bothered was too ht the fuck off