Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Declan, I love you.
Chaos. That was what he had. The entire building had been evacuated. Firefighters and the bomb squad and more cops than Declan could count filled the scene. Most of the street had been roped off. Security had locked everything down. After assuring that all personnel had safely exited his building.
And everyone was safe. No injuries. Except, of course, for the dead assistant. Pierre LaRene. The guy who had fallen on the conference room table after taking a bullet to the brain and one to the heart. According to Hunter, there had been one hell of a blood spatter scene to tell the story of what had happened.
The crime scene team wasn’t actually even in the building yet. The bomb squad hadn’t given the all-clear for them. Instead, the bomb squad had their dogs in the building. Sensors. All kinds of equipment. There was a whole lot of space to search. Too many floors. Too many places to hide explosive devices.
The structural integrity of the building would need to be checked. Declan didn’t want any risks taken with the people who worked in the high-rise. Already, though, he knew that most of the damage was restricted just to the top floor. The blast had taken out Pierre’s work area. And the majority of Declan’s office. One of the bomb guys had told him that the device had been positioned so that the bulk of the explosion would shoot straight toward Declan’s office.
“Why didn’t he just plant the device in your office?” Marley suddenly asked.
They were in the limo. Down the street and in the designated safe zone. Watching the chaos unfold. He hadn’t yet told Andy to get them the hell out of there because Declan had been waiting, hesitating because he’d hoped there would be more news.
Cade had rushed to the scene as soon as he’d learned what happened. After checking in with Declan, he’d gone to grill some of the cops. And the bomb squad members. Certain individuals in those groups owed Declan. They would tell Cade as much as they could.
Maybe they’ll give me something to track the bastard.
Meanwhile, Hunter was gathering his intel from his own contacts.
“Declan?” Marley touched his hand.
“My office has extra security. I always activate it when I leave.” He could activate the system from his phone. A bit of tech he’d created. “Full camera surveillance and additional locking mechanisms on the door. No one gets in the office when I’m not there.” So the SOB had just done the next best thing…
He’d gotten into Declan’s assistant’s office space.
“I’m guessing you have checks running on every security camera in the building?” Marley wanted to know.
Yeah, he did. “I already know that Pierre deactivated some of the systems last night.” Particularly on the floor where the bastard had died. “Cade is working to pull up footage from the stairwells and the elevators now.”
Speaking of Cade…he was jogging toward the limo. Andy stood guard on the side of the vehicle, but he opened the door immediately for Cade. Cade ducked in. Slid into the seat across from Declan. Grimacing, he announced, “You chose wisely.”
Declan frowned at him.
“Could have been the elevator or the stairs, am I right?” A nod from Cade. Also, a long exhale. A heavy expulsion of air that seemed too loud in the quiet limo. “You realize there is a bomb. Maybe bombs planted to kill you . You have seconds to figure out how the hell to get out with your lady.” A wave toward Marley. “What do you do? Elevator or stairs? Usually, when there is a fire, you’re told to never use the elevator. To always take the stairs.”
What was the point of this ramble? “There wasn’t a fire.”
Cade grimaced once more. “There’s a fire now. It’s still smoking. The sky is black, and every news crew imaginable is just past the barricade point.”
Yes, Declan was aware.
“Some people would have gone for the stairs. I think that’s what he expected you to do.” Cade held his gaze. “And when you opened the stairwell door, you would have set off another explosion. The perp was prepared. He thought that was how you’d flee, but you didn’t. The bomb squad just found the device he’d left in the stairwell for you.”
Declan felt a knife stab into his chest.
“If you don’t mind me asking, boss, why did you choose the elevator?”
“Because it was right there. Because I wanted Marley behind the doors—I wanted to get her down and out of that place, and if I could do nothing else, I was just going to throw her inside so…” He stopped. I was going to throw her inside. Seal her in. Make sure she was safe even if the blast hit me. Rapid, churning thoughts. “Fuck it, I wasn’t thinking clearly.” Gruff. Rough. “I just wanted her out. My damn mind shut off.”
We’re lucky to be alive. A wrong choice would have killed her.
His head swung toward her. All logic had fled. He’d just wanted to get out. To get her to safety. He’d fucking panicked, and they were lucky as all hell.
Declan, I love you.
Had she really said those words? Or had he imagined them before the blast? When he’d felt the boom, he’d been terrified that the cables holding the elevator would snap. He’d pictured them plunging down, and Marley screaming.
Marley dying.
No. That would not happen. It could not happen.
“Yeah, well, good, panicked choice.” Cade exhaled. A much lighter exhale this time. His hand reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. “Why do I have the feeling that shit is going down that I don’t know about? Can’t help but get the impression I’m in the dark and more is at play.”
Because you’re on my suspect list. You’re on Marley’s, too. How much do you hate me, Cade? “I know what happened.” Flat. Seemed like the best way to get it out in the open. “I know why you started working for me.”
Cade’s hand dropped to his lap. His expression—normally warm, open—hardened in an instant. “ I don’t know what you mean, boss.”
Yes, you do. “Collateral damage.” It was everywhere he turned. “Your parents were informants, Cade. They turned on my dad. Before they could testify to the Feds, they were killed.” More bloodshed that went back to Conor Flynn.
Cade swallowed. “Bullet to the head and a bullet to the heart.”
“OhmyGod.” From Marley. She grabbed Declan’s hand. “Seriously, you knew this, and you kept Cade close? You had him watching your back?” Her hold tightened on him. “Declan, what— why? ”
Cade’s mouth twisted into a half-smile. His gaze never left Declan’s face. “I wanted to destroy you.”
“ Not going to happen,” Marley retorted. “Don’t you even think about it.”
Ah, but he knew Cade had done more than just think it. Time to bring all his enemies out into the open. That bomb explosion had rushed his timeline. No more playing.
The limo door opened again. This time, Hunter slipped inside. Declan had seen Hunter approaching through the tinted window. Once Hunter was in, Andy closed the door behind him.
Hunter glanced at a tense Cade, and then, with no hesitation at all, Hunter pulled out his gun.
“What is happening ?” Marley demanded. She surged forward.
Gently, firmly, Declan pushed her back against the seat. “I’m facing the past, sweetheart. Time for a reckoning.”
“I hate reckonings,” she whispered. “I think they really, really suck.”
Yeah, well, Cade was on your suspect list, too. This reckoning has to happen.
“Don’t mind me. I’m just making sure things don’t get out of hand,” Hunter announced to the group. “Uh, Declan, I thought the plan was to wait until I was with you for this chat?”
“Saw you coming. Knew you’d jump right in the car.”
“Yeah, well, it wouldn’t have killed you to wait just a few more minutes.” Hunter had his weapon pointed right at Cade.
“Are you shitting me right now?” Cade blasted at Hunter. “You have your gun on me? We are friends. I let you use my season tickets for the Bears!”
“So does Declan. He lets me use his tickets all the time.” Hunter raised one eyebrow. “And he has box seats.”
“Fuck.” Cade’s lashes flickered. “So what’s the consensus? I’m evil, and I’m about to be driven away—while dozens of cops watch—just so I wind up with two bullets in me, exactly like my parents? ” Rage infused his voice.
“I’m sorry for what happened to your parents.” Declan meant that. He was damn sorry. “My father was a twisted bastard, and he let no enemies escape his wrath.”
Cade wet his lips. “I used to think you were exactly like him.”
“Many people think I am.” The charge hardly surprised him. But it did piss him off. I am not my father.
“You aren’t him . ” Fierce. From Marley. “Declan, stop playing the devil. You’re not an angel, but you don’t belong in hell, either.”
He was far, far from an angel. And he’d been living in hell for a very long time.
“You paid for my college,” Cade suddenly said. “Bought my older sister a new home, too. Took me ages to figure that shit out. To figure out how we went from having absolutely nothing one day to her almost winning the lottery and having money to get my niece the treatment she needed for her cancer. Luann—she’d raised me when my parents died. She was eighteen, and she took over the care of a ten-year-old brat with way too many anger issues. We struggled and fought to survive…and in a blink, everything became easy.” His chest rose and fell. “Nothing in this world is supposed to be easy, but suddenly, life was. We had all the food we could eat. New cars. It was all too good to be true.”
I was trying to fix what my father had broken.
“Then I started digging, tearing through all the BS red tape and bureaucracy crap out there, and I realized it was you. You’d made your company into a success. You were paying all of our debts. You were helping my sister and her kid and you…fuck, I hated you. You were barely older than me, and you were doing that shit like it was nothing. Shoving blood money at us to wipe away your sins.”
“Declan earned that money,” Marley fired at him. “His dad left him with nothing but heartache and ashes, so don’t you tell him that?—”
“I know. ” Cade lifted his hands. His palms faced Declan and Marley. “Ease up on me. I realized that shit fast, okay? My niece got better. I quit college and joined the SEALs because I needed to do something. I was twisting in rage, and I was lost. I’d dragged my sister down for too long. It was time to stand on my own, and I did. But I saw things in my service…did things…” A swallow. “Life isn’t black and white. And fucking Declan Flynn provided tech that helped my team, again and again. I saw you in hotspots, Declan. I saw you. You were in places where some rich prick should never have been.” A shake of his head. “Why the hell were you over there? Why not stay in some safe high-rise far away from danger?”
Declan felt his own lips curl in a humorless smile. “High-rises aren’t nearly as safe as you might believe.”
A sharp bark of laughter came from Cade. “You crazy sonofabitch.” A shake of his head. “I wanted to hate you. I did hate you for so long. Then I got out, and I got a job at your company. Didn’t think you knew who I was, but you did, didn’t you? All along?”
“Yes, all along.”
“Declan.” Marley’s low murmur. “We seriously are going to have a talk about hiring people who want to kill you. It is not good form. Your HR team needs an overhaul.”
“I don’t.” A quick denial from Cade. His gaze was straight on Declan. “I don’t want to kill you. You’re not your father. Thank Christ. But your PI is right about one thing, though. You’re no angel. You will never be a saint, either. But you’re not the devil. I’ve seen the things you do. When you think no one is watching. I know you try to fix the chaos that your father left behind. And you try to stop the evil out there. Probably because you know personally just how fucked some monsters truly are. We can’t let them keep attacking the innocent, can we?”
This time, Declan was the one to shake his head.
“What does that mean?” Marley whispered.
It means you are going to learn that I have more than a few bodies shoved in the ground.
“I’m not your enemy. I don’t want you dead. Fuck me, but I think of you as my friend, Declan.” Cade slanted a glance at Hunter. “You, too, asshole. Even though you’re pointing a gun at me, I still think you’re my friend. And with friends like you two pricks, why the hell do I need enemies?”
Silence. Tension.
“If I wanted Declan dead,” Cade continued as his shoulders thrust back, “I’ve had plenty of opportunities. That’s not what I want.” His stare returned to Declan. “I’m not behind the attacks. But I do have some news for you about who might be.”
“Don’t keep us in suspense,” Marley muttered. “Share with the group.”
“I like her,” Cade said. Then he clarified, “Most days.” He scraped a hand over his jaw. “I talked to the lead guard on the lobby level. Called him at his house. I wanted to know if he’d seen anyone who didn’t belong around here last night. He said a police detective was here. Wanting entrance to the building a little after ten p.m. Guy flashed his badge. Tried to act like he was on official business, but Fitz isn’t a fool. He also knows he’d get his ass fired if he ever let cops stroll through your building without a warrant.”
“Who was the cop?” Declan asked. But, come on, he already knew. It had to be?—
“Parker Ellis,” Cade revealed. “Fitz told me he knew some cop from Georgia didn’t have jurisdiction here. He told the cop no way was he getting in without a warrant. He thought the cop left.” Cade’s eyes glinted. “I’m figuring he just found another way inside.”
Parker has a motive. He has the skills to do the hits. And he was from Augusta. Now, the prick is in my town, and he was at my building last night. The evidence seemed to be piling up against Parker.
I also just don’t like the bastard because he’s stuck on Marley.
“Want me to hunt him down?” Cade asked. “I do enjoy that kind of work.”
Yeah, he knew that Cade did. Tracking was his specialty. “Find him,” Declan ordered. “Bring him to my house. It’s time for a long one-on-one chat with the detective.”
“Is ‘chat’ another way of saying we’re putting him in the ground?” The question came from Hunter. “Because I like to plan out my full day in advance. And so far, this day is not going according to any plan I had.”
It wasn’t going according to Declan’s plan, either. Nearly getting blown into a thousand bits hadn’t been on the agenda. “Bring him to my house,” Declan repeated. “Go together,” he told Hunter and Cade with a wave of his left hand. “Track him. Find him. Secure him. I don’t want the guy in the wind. Eyes were supposed to be on him.” Anger seethed in his words. “Somehow those eyes lost him when he hit Chicago.” A point he hadn’t been able to mention to Marley until now.
“Uh, you had eyes on him?” Cade frowned. A furrow appeared between his brows. “Why didn’t you give that job to me? You know that when it comes to stalking, there is no one better.”
Yes, normally, that would have been Cade’s job but… “I thought you might be a murdering SOB who wanted me dead. So I had to give the job to someone else in security.”
Cade straightened. “And am I still on the suspect list?”
Yeah, you are. But… “Don’t know why you’d wait so long for your vengeance if you wanted me dead. You could have killed me on day one. I gave you the opportunity. Met you alone in my office. Was unarmed. It was after hours.” He ticked off all the pertinent details for that initial meeting. “You could have blown a bullet into my brain and walked out.”
Cade seemed to pale. “Always wondered a bit about that meeting. Thought it might have been a test. That you had someone hiding close by. I was afraid you knew who I was—I mean, afraid you knew about my past.”
“I did know.”
“And you hired me anyway.”
Yes.
Cade’s lashes flickered. “I did things during my SEAL days that haunt me. Like I told you, I know the world isn’t black and white. I also know what it’s like to be right next to evil. Real evil.” His stare cut to Marley. “You know, too, don’t you?”
She nodded.
His gaze swept back to Declan. “Killing you isn’t on my agenda. I don’t think it ever was. But sure as shit not once you became one of the closest friends I’ve ever had.” Emotion boiled in his voice. “I would not hurt you. But I would fucking kill someone who tried to take you out. Believe that. ”
Declan wanted to believe him. He also did believe that Cade wouldn’t casually take out innocents. And the blast in that building? It had been too uncontrolled. Others could have been hurt. Cade wasn’t the type of man who would allow collateral damage. Would he take out his enemy? In a heartbeat. But he wouldn’t let an innocent die. He would never risk innocents.
“So, I still have a job, right? Assuming I do, since you want me to go with Hunter to find our missing Augusta detective.”
“You still have a job.”
“Great.” A tiger’s smile. “And, Hunter, good buddy, how about you move that gun so it doesn’t keep pointing at me? Not that I think you’ll get twitchy with the trigger, but friends don’t point guns at friends.”
Declan inclined his head.
Hunter holstered his weapon. “Nothing personal.”
“Oh, I am sure it wasn’t,” Cade agreed. “Not personal at all.”
“Just couldn’t have you killing the boss. I like my paycheck.”
Cade grunted. “You think I don’t know he saved your ass? Try that shit with someone else. I know Declan was on the ground with your unit. Taking care of classified tech and drones and who the hell knows what else. He should have been a million miles away.” Cade’s brows rose as he studied Declan. “But you like to get your hands dirty, don’t you? I know all about how you picked up chatter about the attack on Hunter. How you took a damn Jeep, hauled ass, and got him to safety. I also know that he’d probably murder in cold blood for you without hesitation because you saved his life. You can’t buy loyalty like that. That’s just not how it works.” He flicked his fingers toward Marley. “And don’t even get me started on her…”
Declan stiffened. “Yes, don’t even think of getting started on her.”
But Cade was studying Marley. A Marley who had gone uncharacteristically quiet. “Declan would murder for you with no hesitation,” Cade told her. “What would you do for him?”
Declan opened his mouth.
“Whatever needed doing,” Marley replied coolly. “And if you betray him, I’ll make sure you regret that unfortunate life choice.”
“Seriously, I can like you so much sometimes.” He flashed a smile toward her. Then grabbed for the limo’s door. “Come on, Hunter. Let’s go track down that sketchy detective.”
Cade and Hunter exited the vehicle. When they were clear, Andy ducked his head inside. “Are you ready to leave? Or do you need to speak with the investigators more?”
“Get us the hell out of here,” Declan said.
A curt nod. Andy shut the door with a soft click.
“Marley, I—” he began.
His phone rang.
She quirked a dark brow. “Better get that. The way your life is exploding, it could be life or death.”
He’d already yanked out the phone to peer at the screen. Royal. Hell. He put the phone to his ear. “I suspect the coverage is far worse than it looks.”
“You sure about that?” Came his brother’s dry reply. “Because where I’m standing—about ten feet from your limo, by the way—it looks like a clusterfuck. The sky is black, and I’m pretty sure someone just tried to blow you straight to hell.”
Royal would not be wrong about that situation.
“No injuries?” Royal queried. “You and your PI good?”
Declan turned his head and found Marley’s dark eyes on him.
I love you, Declan.
He swallowed. “We got out in time.”
“How near of a thing was it?” Royal pushed. Tension bit through the words.
“You sound like you care. Touching. Really.”
“How. Damn. Near. Was it?”
His grip tightened on the phone. “Pretty much as close as you can get.” And if I’d tried to flee via the stairwell, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
“Heard there was a dead body inside the building.” Low. Careful. More controlled. “Glad to know it wasn’t you.”
“Again, there you go—sounding like you care.”
“Because I do. Don’t get that fool ass of yours blown to hell. Told you already, I don’t want your cash or the creepy house. So stay alive, would you? Stay the fuck alive.”
The limo pulled away.
“I see that you’re on the move,” Royal noted. “Let’s plan to meet at your place later. I’ve got some leads I’m running down. Bet you do, too, huh?”
“I want you out of town, Royal.” Flat. He kept staring at Marley.
She nodded. Then mouthed, good idea.
“Excuse me?” Royal’s voice hardened as it poured into Declan’s ear.
“I want you to pack your bags and get the hell out of town. Now. Don’t run down leads. I’ll handle things. Get out. Go back to Violet. Protect yourself. When it’s safe, I’ll notify you.”
“You mean when you’ve killed the bastard, you’ll notify me.” No judgment. “Don’t you get that eliminating murderous SOBs is literally my main skill set? I’m happy to do the grunt work on this for you.”
Yes, he knew all about Royal’s…hobbies. “Thought you’d given up that life.”
“I can make an exception for this perp. He came after me. He came after my brother. Normal rules of engagement won’t apply.”
“He’s mine, Royal.” A vow. “Get out of town. Get back to Violet.”
“Beau has Violet under careful watch. She’s safe. Always. ”
“Then go back to Beau.” Royal’s brother not of blood, but of choice. Beau was not a good man—not even close to good. But Beau was a man who would do anything for Royal. “I’ll end this.”
Royal laughed. “It’s cute the way you think I’ll do what you say. Nice try, bro. See you soon.” He hung up.
Sonofabitch. Declan shoved the phone back into his pocket.
“Like…do the secrets you keep choke you? Because there are so many of them.” Marley gripped her phone in her hand. He realized that she’d been holding it…
How long had she been holding it? He tried to replay the scene in his mind. He couldn’t remember when Marley had pulled out her phone. What is she using the phone for? Not to call someone. But to…shit. Shit. To search for info?
Marley had gone silent while he talked to Cade. She’d gone silent because…
He tried to see her phone’s screen.
“There’s some news out of Georgia,” Marley noted. Her voice broke a little on Georgia. “Sebastian Glass is dead. He got caught in a riot—he should never have been with general pop, never. But there was some sort of glitch. A computer glitch of all things. And his guards got orders to take him out and he…” She sucked in a deep breath. “He was killed. Stabbed with a shiv.”
That’s called fucking justice.
“Declan…what did you do?” Horror filled her eyes. Shock.
And he realized that, finally, Marley was seeing him for exactly who and what he was.