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.
“It’s time you told me what’s going on, Eliza. I want the whole story. Everything.”
She whirled away from him, but not before he saw the panic blazing in her eyes. She put as much space between them as possible, but the room was small and his size overwhelmed it—and her.
He crossed his arms and folded them over his chest, leaning back against the locked door as if to further drive home the point that she couldn’t escape him. Not again. Not ever.
Her teeth dug into her bottom lip and it was all he could do not to go to her and thumb away her lip before she broke the skin.
“Eliza?” he prompted, her continued silence only spreading the apprehensiveness already clinging to him like a stubborn vine.
She shuddered violently and just as quickly shut down, shutting him out. She closed her eyes and turned her back, choosing instead to fix her gaze toward the blank wall she now faced.
“Eliza,” he said in warning. “My patience is at its fraying point. Don’t push me right now.”
She whirled back around, eyes wild, hands clenched into tight fists at her sides. Her snarl of rage sent a surge of desire rolling over him like a tidal wave. There she was. His Eliza. His relief was stark as he watched her fury ignite into flames.
“Where the hell do you get off telling me not to push you?” she seethed. “Have you lost your goddamn mind? I didn’t ask for you to be here. I didn’t ask for you to hunt me down and I damn sure didn’t ask for you to handcuff me to your fucking table, told to eat like an errant two-year-old who can’t get up from the dinner table until her plate is cleaned.”
He shrugged. “If the shoe fits.”
She sent him a look that would likely shrivel his dick if it weren’t so damn hard for her already. Meek, beaten-down Eliza was not a good look on her. Ever. Fierce, pissed off, magnificent, enraged Eliza was a look guaranteed to