With Every Breath (Slow Burn #4) - Maya Banks Page 0,3

horrifying ordeal she’d experienced. None of which she’d done. Hadn’t had time to do because she was too busy saving the rest of the world. Everyone but her own pretty ass.

Gracie looked even unhappier. “No one knows but they’re all worried. She isn’t herself. Hasn’t been for some time but especially over the past several days. Everyone has been on tiptoe around her but you know Eliza. She’s very private and extremely tight-lipped.”

“What the hell do they expect?” Wade snapped in a louder voice than he’d intended.

Damn it. She didn’t even have to be anywhere in the vicinity and she still managed to rattle his iron composure. He needed to get laid. Work her out of his system and damn sure out of his every waking thought. The problem was, when he looked at other women with sex on his mind, all he saw was . . . her. And that pissed him off.

Gracie recoiled at the fury in his voice, her eyes widening in surprise at his vehemence.

Wade’s jaw ticked with irritation and he held up his hand, ticking off points one by one on his fingers.

“Let’s see. She gets kidnapped, tortured and fucking waterboarded. She came this close to dying,” he snapped, pausing to lift his hand and hold his thumb and first finger an inch apart before resuming once more. “And she doesn’t even take a goddamn day off to rest and recover before she’s back on the job and we go after the fuckers that hurt her, you and Ari. She damn near gets killed again, but I took the bullet meant for her. If I hadn’t been there? She’d be in the ground right now. Does she take any down time then? Fuck no. She’s back at work like nothing ever happened and now suddenly everyone is worried about her?”

He shook his head, his anger simmering like a cauldron.

“Is she sleeping at all?” he demanded.

Gracie blinked. “I-I don’t know, Wade. How would I?”

“You can read her damn mind, can’t you?”

Gracie flushed and Wade immediately felt guilty.

“I’m sorry, Gracie,” Wade said in a low voice. “That was uncalled for and a shitty thing to say. Damn it! That woman infuriates me.”

“I could read her mind if I ever saw her,” Gracie said quietly. “I think . . .”

“What?” Wade said sharply.

“I think she’s avoiding me for that very reason,” she said with a frown. “It’s like if I run into her or I go to the office to see Zack and she’s there, she immediately finds a reason to disappear. What else am I supposed to think?”

Wade swore viciously under his breath. Oh yeah. The little hellcat likely did have something—a lot—to hide. Like the fact that she was probably running on empty and barely existing on fumes. He wanted to track her down and beat some sense into her, and he would if it weren’t likely she’d kick his ass. Or at the very least rearrange his nuts for him. And well, he was finished with the little vixen. She was trouble with a capital T. If it were all the same, Wade was done with her and DSS and anything to do with them or their missions. He had enough on his plate without trailing after a brazen woman who was bent on saving the world while he had the unfortunate task of saving her.

Ungrateful heifer. She’d spit on him before ever acknowledging that he’d saved her snarly ass. Not even a thank-you. A fuck off, yeah. Thank you? No. Instead, all the thanks he’d gotten was that he couldn’t look at another woman and see anyone but her. Couldn’t imagine having sex with anyone but a petite, snarly-mouthed, sassy, short-tempered blonde. He snorted, causing Gracie to look at him with an odd expression on her face.

“Eliza is a coward,” Wade said. “She won’t want to set foot in a place owned and run by me. After I took a bullet for her, she conveniently finds a reason to be elsewhere if I’m anywhere around.”

“Join the crowd,” Gracie said, a hint of hurt to her voice.

That settled it for Wade. Eliza could get over whatever was up her ass. No matter what the little spitfire was afraid Gracie would pick up from her thoughts, she would attend. He wasn’t going to let anything or anyone ruin Gracie’s night to shine.

“She’ll be here,” Wade said grimly. “If I have to haul her here over my shoulder, she’ll be here.”

Gracie immediately looked alarmed. “Uh, Wade, never