She nearly choked on the words, on the admission that she was struggling and needed time to put herself back together. God, she hated this, putting doubt in Dane’s mind that she was no longer capable of pulling her own weight 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 my office, go get 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? I . . . worry about you. You have my word that no one will call you and I’m not asking you to check in with the others. This is purely off the record. Friend to friend. Just let me know how you’re doing and that you’re okay.”

She smiled, a genuine smile and one she hadn’t been able to pull off no matter how hard she tried since her life had irrevocably changed course.

If she hadn’t been so relieved to have gotten past Dane without him being astute enough to know something was definitely going on, other than her sudden desire for an impulsive vacation, she would have remembered that nothing 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 windows 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 humble himself enough to ask for help from a man who set his teeth on edge. But for Eliza, he had no pride. For Eliza, her safety and ensuring she remained safe, he’d do the unthinkable.

“Wade Sterling,” Dane nearly growled into the phone. “Tell him Dane Elliot is calling about . . . Eliza Cummings.”

If there was one man Eliza couldn’t steamroll, it was Wade, a man who’d taken a bullet for her when he went up against every single member of DSS and told them what flaming dumbasses they were for allowing an injured, tortured woman who hadn’t had sufficient time to recover from participating in the takedown of the men who’d hurt her so horrifically.

And when it became a battle of wills, with Eliza showing more fire and determination than Dane had ever seen from his usually unflappable partner, and her refusing to back down under Wade’s intimidating, ferocious decree, he’d simply honed in on the mission, insisting on going along even though he in no way worked 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 much taller frame had caused the bullet to lodge into his arm and even then, the bullet used had been an armor-piercing bullet and had torn through the flesh of his arm, missing bone, thank God; and because Eliza had time to turn, the bullet had gone through Wade’s arm and had wedged 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 claim on Eliza that any man in a ten-mile radius could recognize. 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 was worth 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 small courtyard which was surrounded by a privacy fence to give her seclusion not only in the front of the homey end unit but all the way around the townhome, encompassing the slightly larger backyard where she’d obviously spent a lot of time landscaping and making 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 domain. The few times he’d approached her in the parking 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 complex—on the outside. Wade would bet everything he owned that the inside likely resembled the control room of the CIA or FBI. The image amused him. Hell, she amused him, and, he’d grudgingly—finally—admitted that not only was she a source of rare entertainment for him, but she intrigued and fascinated him. It wasn’t a feeling he was accustomed to when it came to women.

He wouldn’t go as far as to say he was an expert on females. Who in the hell in their right mind would ever make, much less convince others to believe, such an absurd statement. Women, especially their moods and temperaments, changed with the wind.

Except Eliza Cummings. He found that interesting indeed, because he was certain there were a multitude of things buried deep inside. Feelings, 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 freedom.

He wondered just what it would take to unleash tightly controlled emotions. Then he shook his head in disgust. While he was skulking around her apartment building, not paying attention to his primary objective, she could have easily given him the slip and he wouldn’t have known until it was too late.

As it was, Eliza would be pissed and likely shoot him on sight if she knew he was this close to her and that she was so completely unaware of his presence. Something that pissed him off.

A woman who made her living in security, protecting others, but, most importantly, keeping her own hide from being kidnapped, tortured or riddled with bullets just as she’d been a few short months ago should damn well have better instincts than this. And leaving her door wide open in the middle of the night without once doing a perimeter sweep set his teeth on edge. Was she just trying to get herself killed? Did she have some sort of morbid death wish and that was why 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 damn keeper, something 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 seemed to slowly grow deeper. She had a burned-out look that said if she didn’t have her shit sorted in short order, it was only a matter of time before she got 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 mild of a term. It pissed him right the fuck off.