With Every Breath (Slow Burn 4)

He heard Dane’s sudden, vicious intake of air and when he spoke, his words shook and he suddenly sounded a hundred years old.

“She’s that scared?” Dane whispered. “You said she fell apart?”

“You have no idea,” Wade said coldly. “Now start talking.”

“Jesus, she’s on some kind of goddamn suicide mission,” Dane choked out.

And then he outlined in harsh, broken sentences everything in Eliza’s letter. Only, Wade wouldn’t allow him to paraphrase any of Eliza’s words. This was too important. He couldn’t take in Dane’s biased account so he made Dane read the letter verbatim.

He closed his eyes and swore viciously, sparing none of his anger, fear or torment. When he directed Dane once more, there was no deference in his voice. No acknowledgment that Dane and Eliza’s other coworkers had any right to be afraid, to intervene or that they were in any way in control of the situation. Wade was calling the shots.

“You sit on every one of your men, Elliot,” Wade ground out. “You do not send off a bunch of half-cocked, pissed off operatives into this situation. Not when Eliza’s life is at stake.”

“She’s ours,” Dane said viciously. “Do you honestly believe we’re going to sit here and do nothing?”

“She’s mine,” Wade said in a fierce, pissed off tone. “You need to get that and you need to let it sink in. Right the fuck now.”

“If anything happens to Lizzie, there will be no safe place for you to hide. I’ll devote the rest of my life to hunting you down and taking you apart with my bare hands.”

“Nothing is going to happen to Eliza. Second, you’re welcome to try and good luck with that.” Wade paused a moment and then quietly added, “If something ever happens to her, it will be pointless for you to hunt me down because I’d take care of the matter myself.”

After a long moment, and just as quietly, Dane responded, “So it’s like that.”

“It’s exactly like that,” Wade said harshly.

He shook off the simmering emotion to clear his head of unwanted images of something terrible happening to the woman he had handcuffed inside the house.

“You sit on your men and you goddamn sit on yourself for at least twenty-four hours,” Wade said forcefully. “Give me time to get the story from Eliza and to make my play. After those twenty-four hours, you get your team together, make damn sure they know what’s at stake and make very certain they have their heads on straight and then you get your asses to Calvary, Oregon, which is where I found her, and start discreetly poking around and see what you can dig up. In the meantime, I’m going to plant a few seeds. Make it clear that Eliza was there and that she left with me and I’m not going to make it hard for me to be found.”

“Jesus,” Dane muttered. “You’re using her as fucking bait?”

“No, the fuck I’m not!” Wade bellowed. “I’m making myself the goddamn bait. She’s made it clear to you and to me that she isn’t worried about herself. She’s worried about anyone she’s associated with. Whatever the fuck is going on with her, she knows enough about the threat to know that she won’t be the target. Which is why she’s on this goddamn suicide mission. She’s sacrificing herself for everyone who matters to her. Don’t you think if she were the target, that if she feared for herself, that she would have the sense to confide that in you so her team could have her back? Come on, Elliot. You’ve worked with her. You call her your friend. She’s not stupid. When has she ever been stupid? She’s not afraid for herself. She’s fucking terrified that everyone she loves is going to die. I’m setting myself up to be an easy target and to draw this son of a bitch to me. And Eliza will not ever have the opportunity to take anything for me.”

“I get it,” Dane said sharply. “I don’t like it, but I get it. We’ll check in when we have any intel. I’d appreciate it if you did the same.”

“When I know something, I’ll clue you in.”

With that, Wade ended the call and stood there several long seconds, composing himself for the most difficult hurdle yet. Confronting Eliza. Finding out what godawful demons she’s lived with for far too long. And why she’s never shared them with anyone.

THIRTEEN

QUIETLY, Wade returned to the table where he’d left Eliza cuffed, to find her staring seemingly a long ways away, her gaze fixed on some distant point. At first, she didn’t register his presence, and when she did and brought her gaze level with his, the sadness in her usually vibrant, teasing eyes clutched at his heart.

He thought back to the letter Dane had read to him. Words penned by Eliza. This wasn’t a woman on a quest for absolution. She’d already condemned herself and thought herself beyond redemption for whatever sins she carried. Nor was this woman out for revenge. She wasn’t angry enough. Not cold enough to be plotting revenge.

He’d seen her in revenge mode, when she’d been so adamant about going after the bastards who’d tortured her and made Ramie, Ari and Gracie’s lives hell and taking them down. This was a woman grieving for people she’d already resigned herself to losing, not because they’d die, but because she would.

Which meant she had no illusions about surviving either her attempt to bring justice against someone who’d escaped it or the punishment for killing a man.

Dane coining this a suicide mission was chillingly accurate.

Doing his best not to succumb to the ice invading his veins, making his blood sluggish and slowing his reaction time down, he went to her and bent to one knee so he could unfasten the cuff from her wrist. When she would have pulled her hand away from him, he caught hold of her wrist, turning it so he could inspect her flesh.

Cursing when he saw the faint red marks, he pressed a gentle kiss to the damage he’d done.

“I’m sorry. It wasn’t my intention to hurt you.”

She yanked back her hand as if he’d scalded her, clutching her wrist to her chest, covering it with her other hand in a protective measure. Shock rounded her eyes as she stared at him, clearly bewildered by the tender gesture.

“Let’s go where we have more privacy,” he said, helping her to her feet.

He propelled her toward one of the bedrooms, one that had no windows to the outside and he secured the lock behind them after flipping on the lights. She glanced wildly around as if assessing her escape options and then her shoulders sagged when she realized she had none.