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Dane

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His vision tunneled and he couldn't hear anything except his own heartbeat thundering in his ears.

It was happening. It was happening. His father was making his move. Dane knew it like he knew his eyes were green and Lila slept curled up like a child.

He knew Lila was there, in front of him, speaking and touching his chest, his face, his arm. But he couldn't hear her.

It was only a matter of time.

Tish was already paying the price for being close to him—why hadn't he even thought about the risk to her? Why hadn't he seen that his father would target her, if for no other reason than she knew Dane's life, his rhythms. He knew exactly what had happened: His father had made a play for Lila and not been able to get to her, so this was plan B. Distract, divide security, and learn more about Dane's weak spots from someone who was weaker and less motivated to protect him.

"He tried…" he muttered.

"What? Dane what are you saying." Lila swam into focus in front of him, her face worried and pale. She was touching him, trying to get through.

He took her by the arms. "He must have tried to get to you and he couldn't. So he's taken her instead—to try and find a weak spot. She knows… everything."

"Dane, stop—"

"He will destroy her."

"Dane, listen to me—"

"We can't take any risks, Lila. Not a single one. Please, you can't stay away from me now—I know I did it all wrong. I know I hurt you. I'm sorry. But please, please don't let yourself be alone. Don't take a single risk. Not for a pure second."

"Dane, shhhh. It's okay. I won't."

"I'm serious. You stay at my side, or at Chris's unless you're in the Penthouse. You take a car and a full security team to the fucking bathroom, I don't care, you don't step foot outside this office or our home without security. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, Dane, but please—"

"Promise me, Lila. Promise me. No risks at all—never alone. Not for a second."

"Dane—"

"PROMISE ME!"

"I promise! Dane! Listen to me—I'm not going anywhere!" she said, her voice too high, but still very quiet. Her little hands on his chest. "I'm with you or with Chris, always. I'm listening. I don't walk out without a team and a car. I believe you. Okay? Do you hear me? I believe you."

He nodded and his breath came a little easier, though still far too quickly. His heart pounded against his ribs so he wondered if he was going to have a heart attack. He pulled her into his chest and she came willingly, clinging to him. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice husky. He wrapped her in his arms, wishing he could just hide her from the world. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" she said, pushing back to look him in the eye. "Seriously, Dane, what have you done that you should be sorry for?"

"I brought you into this. I should never—"

"Do not speak another word," she hissed through her teeth. "Don't you dare tell me you wish we weren't together, or you hadn't married me. Don't you dare." She had that finger in his face that he remembered from the first time they met. He wanted to take it in his hand and kiss the tip of it.

Instead he laced his fingers with hers, and brought the whole hand to his chest. "Of course not. That wasn't what I meant."

"Liar," she said, but she softened as he used his free hand to claw through his hair and stared down at her through pained eyes. "Dane… I know this is awful. I'm praying this thing with Tish isn't what we think—but if it is, there's nowhere safer for me than next to you. I know that. I'm grateful for it. Please… don't blame yourself for the actions of a madman."

He pulled her back in for another embrace so he didn't have to answer. He knew what she meant. He wasn't the person killing people. But he also knew, all of these people would have been safe—at least from this threat—if they'd never known him. And he hated himself for it. Despised himself for his weakness in letting them get close enough to be at risk.

"I love you," he whispered into her hair.

"I know. I love you, too," she whispered back.

He needed to let her to. To get to work. To find Tish. But he couldn't let go. He couldn't physically release her—

The door to the office swung wide so fast his entire body startled. He whirled, shoving Lila behind him and reaching for the gun at the back of his belt—

"Dane, it's Chris!" Lila shrieked, putting her hands to his arms before he was able to get the gun past his belt. He was going to have to teach her how not to interfere if they were ever in a bad spot. Her grabbing him like that could be the difference between life and death if they were ever surrounded.

But just this once, he was grateful that she'd slowed him, though his heart pounded so hard he saw stars and he could hear the blood rushing in his ears by the time he let go of the gun and straightened to find Chris storming in, ranting.

His brother stopped halfway across the room and gaped at him. "Were you about to shoot me, Dane?"

Dane glared at him. "I'm a little on edge, Chris. Maybe we could do less of the bursting into rooms unannounced, and more finding Tish?" he said through his teeth.

Chris just stared and shook his head. "You have serious problems."

"Noted."

"Well, should we get to it, then?" Chris asked, motioning towards the table. "We've got some tough choices to make about where we're spreading staff, because we literally don't have enough bodies to do everything now. So put your big boy pants on, Dane, and pray the press don't get wind of us taking the back-up teams off our clients."

Dane nodded and pulled Lila over to the table, pulling out a chair for her, then taking the one right next to her. He rubbed his face and tried to concentrate while Chris outlined what they'd found at Tish's apartment, and which teams they had to choose from to steal manpower for the search, and added security for Lila and Dane.

"Did you track the phone?" Dane asked.

"Yes. It hasn't moved from her apartment since Friday when I got her home."

"Did you find it?"

Chris grimaced. "I forgot to ask the team to retrieve it. No one noticed it. I'll send a guy back—right after we figure out where we're assigning people. Dane, I'm not joking. We're stretched too thin already. This is getting risky. We have to take some of the extra shifts off the Tier Two clients and reassign them. But even then, our overtime is going to be monstrous. We can't keep this up…"

"Worry about it after we find Tish," Dane said. Lila looked at him worriedly. He knew his voice sounded dead, hollow. But he was sinking again. He didn't know how else to cope. If he didn't let himself go cold, he was going to go insane.

Literally.

He gripped her hand under the table and prayed she'd forgive him.

*

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