Read Online With Every Breath by Maya Banks - Free Book Online Page A

“Are we done now?”
    The others caught on and Caleb and Beau began the wrap-up and for a moment Eliza thought she was safe from Dane’s scrutiny. Years working for this man and she still made a rookie mistake by underestimating him.
    â€œWhat’s wrong, Lizzie?” he asked in a low enough voice not to be overheard. “Is everything okay?”
    She smiled brightly and if it was too bright, oh well, she was hanging on by a thread here and anything she could do in order to survive the coming private conversation with Dane once the others had dispersed, she’d latch on to with both hands and hold on to for dear life.
    â€œJust wondering when the fuck our esteemed leaders became so goddamn long-winded,” she muttered, because it was such an Eliza thing to say.
    To cover the brightness of her smile, she bared her teeth in a barely noticeable snarl, because that too was so her . “Don’t they have wives to go home to and make cutesy eyes at instead of wasting our time by covering shit we could recite in our sleep?”
    Dane gave a light chuckle, relief flaring in his eyes, and she did a mental fist pump in victory. Getting anything over on Dane was cause for self-congratulation because the man did not miss a goddamn thing. He always had his eyes on every single person, his ears glued to every conversation, attuned to the slightest differences in tone, body language. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear the man was psychic because his powers were superhuman.
    And it wasn’t as though DSS wasn’t accustomed to dealing with some pretty freaky shit. Pain flashed through her chest, temporarily robbing her of breath. The women that had married the men of DSS all had kickass powers. Powers that defied scientific explanation. But then Eliza had no problem believing in the extraordinary. Because the man who’d once held her in his thrall was nothing like these women. They used their powers for good. They were good. They were everything that was right in a fucked-up world, filled with monsters who preyed on the innocent. And Eliza had allowed this man in her life, had allowed him to give her all the things she’d wanted, craved, had never had in her young life and that made her every bit as guilty as he.
    â€œLizzie?” Dane murmured, so the others wouldn’t hear. “What the fuck is wrong and swear to God if you tell me nothing, I’ll wring your pretty neck.”
    Oh well, it was now or never, and it wasn’t as if she had any plans of disappearing without a damn good cover story and telling the man she directly reported to that she planned a long vacation. He just didn’t have to know the reason behind her leave of absence.
    He’d likely be relieved. None of them, especially Wade Sterling—just thinking of the overbearing ass made her teeth clench and put her in a foul mood—had wanted her involved in the sting operation to take down the last of the people hunting DSS, and in particular Ramie, Ari and Gracie. A request for vacation to recover from her “injuries” would probably be met with relief and an order for her to take as long as she wanted and not to hurry back to work.
    She felt a moment’s guilt for deceiving Dane. She was leaving the comforting camaraderie that her position at DSS offered. The first true home she’d ever had. The justice system had failed her. It had failed the countless women Thomas Harrington raped and tortured and murdered. She still heard their screams at night when she closed her eyes. Many nights she couldn’t sleep for the sounds of torture playing over and over in her broken heart and in the shattered pieces of her soul. Knowing it was her fault. She had done this to so many women because she’d been weak and needy and too stupid to know that behind the face of kindness—of love—lurked a monster with abilities of unlimited power and a sick, twisted mind to utilize