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His gut never steered hi but had also known his hands were tied because he couldn’t overtly act on that knowledge or he’d lose her They’d all lose her Calling Wade Sterling so at least soe because he’d feared losing her and if Gracie’s reaction, her bald statement, was true then he’d lost her anyway

Goddamn it! He’d made an emotional decision and he never made emotional decisions But with Lizzie, he had and he’d fucked up He stared frozen at the envelope, terrified to open it but tiainst Had to know if it was too late to rectify the biggest mistake of his life

He fu so badly it took several tries before he et the letter out of the envelope and unfold it so he could read it Everyone was tense, alert and expectant I the worst

He quickly scanned over Eliza’s handwriting, usually neat, elegant and feible, hastily scraords that he had to read multiple times to make sense of and, worse, in several places, the ink was smeared and what looked to be a tiny stain to the paper indicating that she’d been crying when she wrote it

But when he forced himself to look beyond the evidence of her upset and sorted through the first several ra froze And then it unfroze because he felt it leave his body, draining as if he’d suffered a massive injury that sucked away his life’s blood

His knees locked then unlocked and his legs shook So badly that he sank into the chair he’d vacated when Gracie had burst into the conference room with a panicked, scared out of her uely noted his men’s reactions, a mixture of shock because Dane never lost his cool and was always steady under pressure A rock Unbreakable And the other part of thatfear and worry that was rocking hiht

And then the room erupted into a chorus of what the fuck’s and yells and de on Worse, the one question he couldn’t answer Is Eliza okay?

"Jesus," Dane whispered The only word he could e

Then he held up his hand for quiet and the roory, worried and pissed Eliza was his, yes But she was also theirs She was his partner Closer to him than anyone else at DSS The only person he’d allowed that close He’d hired her Trained her personally, though her skills were already impressive He’d just honed theed to every other h they’d only had the opportunity toby their expressions, she’din the dark than the rest

Caleb and Beau bristled with fury, edging toward Dane, jaws clenched, eyes stor on with Eliza?" Beau de off whatever his brother had been about to say because Caleb’s mouth opened and then promptly shut when Beau made his outburst

"Eliza’s supposed to be on vacation," Caleb said, opening his ?"

The insinuation that Dane had lied to them about Eliza’s leave of absence pissed hi Caleb know exactly what he thought of that insinuation, but each second wasted on bullshit was a second they weren’t getting to Eliza