deserved, a touch he craved to render. But not at the expense of her life and no fucking way would she sacrifice herself for him. Did she honest to God think for one fucking minute that he’d hide behind her and let her take the fall for him? She didn’t know him very well if that was the case, but he was going to remedy that in short order.
He clenched his teeth and lowered her feet to the ground beside the vehicle he’d parked in the back so she wouldn’t see it right away. Without saying a word, he shackled one of her wrists with a firm grip while he opened the passenger door with his other hand.
When she began to struggle, he hauled her up against his tall frame, his arms a steel band around her slim waist.
“Don’t fight me, Eliza,” he said tersely. “You won’t win, and I’m not backing down. Someone has to protect you because you sure as hell aren’t. And if you think I’m going to allow you to be a sacrificial lamb led meekly to slaughter in order to protect everyone else, get over it quick because it ain’t going to happen. Now, what is going to happen, is that I’m taking you some place safe and you’re going to eat and then you and I are going to have a long talk after which you’re going to get some fucking sleep. I’ll sedate your ass if I have to, so don’t push me because I’m hanging on to my temper by a very thin thread.”
She opened her mouth and he promptly clamped his hand over it and proceeded to shove her into the vehicle. Using his arm across her body to hold her in place, he reached with his other hand into the glove compartment and pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
Her mouth fell open and her eyes widened in dismay.
“Surely you didn’t think I was bluffing, Eliza. Come on. You should know me better than that. When have I ever made hollow threats?”
He secured one cuff to her left wrist and then attached it to the center console. Then he withdrew, leaving her looking shell-shocked and so damn defeated that it took everything he had not to lose his shit right then and there. He stalked around to the driver’s side sucking in deep breaths, trying to pull himself together as he slid into the driver’s seat.
He wasted no time putting as much distance between the place she’d been staying and where he was taking her. To his surprise, she said nothing. She was completely still, her gaze rigidly fixed forward, her jaw clenched tight.
A sigh of relief nearly escaped him. At least she was no longer crying. He could deal with surly, pissed off Eliza. He had no idea what to do with fragile as an eggshell Eliza. A tearful, vulnerable, scared out of her mind Eliza. He was furious, not at her, or at least mostly not at her, but with what or who had put such fear in her eyes, who had broken one of the strongest women he’d ever known.
Taking advantage of her momentary silence, and to try to calm his murderous thoughts, he picked up his cell and punched the contact already brought up and waiting.
“This is Sterling,” he bit out. “We’re coming in hot and I have no fucking idea what we’re dealing with yet, so make damn sure the safe house is secure and I want extra security on around-the-clock surveillance. No one and I mean no one gets within a mile without us knowing, and any threat is to be dealt with immediately.”
“You got it,” Derek said shortly and then the line went dead.
Wade’s men, like himself, were short on words and big on results.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw her staring at him, a mixture of bewilderment and a complete what-the-fuck look on her face. He nearly smiled. That had gotten her attention.
“Who the hell are you?” Eliza whispered.
“The man who’s going to keep your ass alive and make damn sure no one so much as touches a hair on your head. Except me.”
She yanked her cuffed wrist angrily, her cheeks puffing outward as she blew out her rage. Good. He needed her pissed off. Alive. Fighting. Anything but the defeated, resigned to her fate woman who’d fallen apart on him.
Then she banged the back of her head against the headrest and closed her eyes, letting out another long sigh.
“God,