Safe at Last (Slow Burn #3)

Anna-Grace gave her a reassuring smile. The other woman was so nice and the last thing Anna-Grace wanted to do was make her feel as though she’d done something wrong.

“You can call me either. Truly. I don’t mind. Zack is the only one who ever called me Gracie. It was his pet name for me.”

She couldn’t control the spasm of pain that wrinkled her features when she spoke of Zack, and recalled the giddy pleasure she’d always experienced when Zack had used the affectionate endearment.

Eliza gave her a look of sympathy and impulsively reached out to squeeze her hand.

“Where . . . where is Zack?” Anna-Grace asked hesitantly.

She didn’t want to appear eager, but after spending every single minute with her since her attack, it seemed odd that he was nowhere to be found. Had the revelation from the night before unnerved him? Was he through keeping up his pretense of innocence and had left as a result?

But he’d been so . . . adamant that he’d done nothing. And Zack had always been stubborn. She couldn’t imagine him simply giving up and walking away.

Eliza and Wade glanced uneasily at one another and tried to cover that they had, but Anna-Grace didn’t miss the quick exchange. She frowned and pinned Wade with her stare since Eliza was likely more loyal to Zack and may or may not tell her what was going on.

Wade sighed and ran a hand through his immaculate hair, and astonishingly didn’t mess up a single strand. But that was Wade. Always impeccably dressed and perfectly put together. Anna-Grace had no idea how he managed it. But his appearance—like everything else in his life—was well ordered, without a single thing out of place.

“He left,” Wade said hesitantly.

Anna-Grace was stunned, but more unsettling was the fact that she was . . . upset? Disappointed? After the events of last night, she couldn’t imagine him simply leaving, but perhaps she shouldn’t at all be surprised.

“Oh for God’s sake,” Eliza said in exasperation. “Leave it to a man to completely fuck up an explanation.”

Wade shot Eliza a glare and she glared right back at him. The animosity between the two was tangible, and it puzzled Anna-Grace. They’d disliked one another on sight, but then they’d had contact before Anna-Grace had been pulled into the picture, so perhaps something had occurred between the two that she had no knowledge of. Whatever it was must have been serious to have sparked such an intense reaction.

“Come on, Gracie,” Eliza said, taking her hand and gently pulling her toward the breakfast table.

She pinned Wade with an imperious stare. “Make yourself useful and get Gracie something to eat while I pour her a cup of coffee, and I’ll explain everything to her.”

Wade didn’t look at all pleased to be ordered about by Eliza, but then he was a man used to doing the ordering. But he didn’t argue and began taking out items from the refrigerator and banging pots and pans about as he pulled out two skillets.

Eliza set a steaming cup of coffee down in front of Anna-Grace and then sat down catty-corner to her with her own cup.

“First, and most important, you will not be left without protection,” Eliza said emphatically. “Wade and I are staying with you here, and members of my team will rotate through so that there is always a third present here as well. And well, also because Wade is a civilian, so he doesn’t really count.”

Wade slammed down one of the skillets and turned, a fierce scowl on his face.

“I’d pit my skills against one of your pansy-ass operatives any day of the week,” he said in an icy tone. “And I can damn sure protect Anna-Grace better than you can. You aren’t much bigger than she is, for God’s sake. What exactly are you going to be able to do if faced by two or three much larger and stronger men who aren’t exactly deterred by the fact that you’re a woman? Are you just trying to get yourself killed?”

Anna-Grace’s eyebrows rose because she could swear mixed in with the obvious irritation was actual concern for Eliza.

“I wasn’t dick-sizing you, Wade,” Eliza said dryly. “Nor was I implying that you were some ball-less *.”

Anna-Grace coughed trying to stifle her laughter and ended up wheezing when her mouthful of coffee went down the wrong way.

“I was merely suggesting that as refined and as highbrow as you are, you likely aren’t used to what I—and my coworkers—deal with every day.”

Wade’s eyes glittered, and his expression grew deadly, suddenly giving Anna-Grace the impression that despite his outward appearance, he was something quite different underneath. And his next words confirmed that fleeting thought.

“Don’t let the outward trappings fool you even for a moment, Eliza,” Wade said, his tone sounding . . . lethal. And dangerous.

Anna-Grace shivered, because he suddenly sounded like someone you did not want to cross. Ever.

“You may very well be surprised by what I’m capable of. I didn’t get to where I am with good looks and charm.”