With Every Breath (Slow Burn 4)

For once, Eliza was grateful it wasn’t over just yet. She needed a few more precious minutes to prepare herself to face her partner, a man she considered her closest friend and her only confidant. And then lie through her teeth to him.

SIX

DANE bit his tongue and stifled his impatience. He was every bit as eager to get bullshit over with as everyone else was. Yeah, he got that his new recruits needed to be introduced and integrated into the fold, but now was not the time when everyone was bored as fuck, impatient and ready to blow this joint. The others hadn’t exactly rolled out the welcome mat for Dex, Zeke, Shadow and Knight. Not that the men would give a fuck. But still, mentally he arranged a better time to meet up with the newest operatives so everyone could receive their assignments and who each of the new guys would be assigned to during training he didn’t expect to last more than a few weeks at most.

He’d hired guys who were smart, knew their shit, didn’t have egos and had what it took to get the job done. He hadn’t hired men who needed hand-holding and an A to Z instructional manual. He needed men who could learn under fire, adapt and overcome any obstacle. And he’d chosen well. They’d all passed a series of very rigorous, intense tests, not only determining their physical skills but also their intelligence. Their ability to make split-second decisions, the ability to think quick on their feet, and how they reacted to the unexpected. He’d been impressed, and he wasn’t a man who was easily impressed. He had no doubt the men he’d hired would fit in seamlessly into DSS with no dick sizing or pissing matches, because just as he hadn’t hired men with egos and something to prove, neither did anyone currently working with him suffer any such issue. All of the men—and Eliza—were confident without being too confident and had no problem calling in backup when they knew they were in over their heads or were outmatched or outnumbered.

They needed the extra muscle and manpower but that wasn’t all they needed. They needed men who were not new to the game, and it was obvious after reading the extensive background checks he’d performed that the new recruits were anything but rookies. They had more than proven themselves capable in all situations Dane had thrown at them. He hadn’t been easy. He’d been brutal, pushing them to their very limits, putting them through countless scenarios, many of which he hoped to fuck they never encountered with DSS, but he couldn’t afford to assume anything. Not with all the shit that had gone down over the last year. And he’d made it abundantly clear to the new guys, that while, yes, they worked for DSS and they would be taking missions that DSS took on, their first and most important priority was keeping the women DSS claimed as their own safe. At all costs.

He was really fucking tired of their women—Tori, Ramie, Ari, Gracie and yes, even Eliza, though she’d have his balls for including her—being targeted, threatened, at risk and being fucking tormented and brutalized by goddamn animals. Every single woman had suffered. Each of them bore the scars, some you could see and some you couldn’t but existed nonetheless, and yet they came out alive, not unscathed, but alive and they were all fierce. Not many women could survive what their women had survived with their sanity intact, and not only survive but kick ass while carrying on. He admired and respected every single one, but Eliza most of all.

And right now, she had more of his attention and focus than the other four women. Ramie, Ari and Gracie each had a husband who was more than capable of protecting them, helping them work through their demons and soothe the nightmares they endured. Tori had not only her three older brothers but every single member of DSS who’d die before ever allowing her to fall into the hands of a brutal monster again. She was so much more fragile than the other women, but then she had reason to be. Yes, they’d all suffered, but Tori the most of all.

Eliza had no one except the people she worked with. But every night she went home alone to deal with her demons in private. God knows he’d pushed as hard as possible without pushing her away to confide in him, to let him help her, but he’d hit a fucking brick wall, as had anyone else who’d attempted to get Eliza to talk about the hell she’d endured. At the mere suggestion she might need someone, she’d take your goddamn head off, not to mention your balls. But that didn’t mean he didn’t worry. He worried every fucking day, and instead of that concern diminishing over time, it only got worse when she showed no sign of ever allowing anyone inside her carefully constructed barriers.

She was more than someone he worked with. More than someone who reported to him. She was his. All the DSS operatives were his, but Eliza more so. He worked more closely with her than anyone else. She was his partner. His equal. He counted on her judgment, her gut. He sought her out on more than one occasion to bounce ideas off her, to get her opinions, because not only was she solid, she was smart as hell, with a mind like a computer. She called it like she saw it, never held back when he asked her opinion or what her gut was screaming. And in addition to being smart and thinking fast and well on her feet, she was tough and could kick ass as well as the rest of his operatives and better than most.

Her advantage was in being underestimated, a mistake someone made only once before learning they’d been a stupid fuck not to take a small but fierce-as-fuck pretty blonde as anything more than a blonde airhead with nothing between her ears. Dane would never admit it, but he thoroughly enjoyed watching what happened when someone overlooked Eliza or disrespected her. Or worse, didn’t consider her the threat she was.

He watched as Caleb got wound up again, talking and saying shit that he said every goddamn meeting, shit that as Eliza had so eloquently put, they could recite in their sleep. He had to stifle a smile over the “state of the union” because the name had been coined by Eliza, ever the irreverent one of the bunch, and, well, he had to agree. It was a pointless meeting that in no way required every man to be pulled from their jobs to assemble in the DSS offices to give report and status on past, current and potential jobs that DSS may or may not take.

But Caleb was an anal bastard, and even if he’d for the most part turned the day-to-day running of DSS to his younger brother, Beau, he still kept his finger solidly on the pulse of everything going on. Every mission, every request for help.

Dane glanced sideways at Zack Covington, who made no attempt to disguise his scowl, or the fact he’d checked his watch every three minutes for the last twenty and Dane had to look at Eliza or risk bursting into laughter that would likely have the rest of DSS thinking he’d lost his mind.