Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Sebastian Glass is dead. The monster from my past is gone. Killed in a prison riot. Stabbed with a shiv.
Stabbed…the exact same number of times that he’d sliced her with his shiv so long ago.
They were back at Declan’s home. Behind the security guards and the massive gates and all the tech that he had to protect them. Declan and his tech. She was beginning to realize the tech was like a spider web that he’d spread out into the world. It let him do almost anything. Reach anyone.
Destroy anyone.
They hadn’t spoken again during the limo ride. Not since she’d asked her question. Declan…what did you do? He’d just stared back at her, and she’d known the truth. Declan did it. He arranged to have Sebastian Glass killed.
The house felt cavernous and cold as she made her way across the marble floor in the foyer. She knew at once that he’d arranged for all staff members to be away. The better for them to talk in private about the little matter of a murder.
The murder of a man who’d spent his life terrorizing others. The man who’d given her nightmares for years. Who’d nearly killed her.
Sebastian Glass.
And he was…dead.
She heard Declan’s steps behind her, but didn’t turn around. There was no need to turn around. Everywhere she looked, she saw Declan. We had sex right here. And he carried me up the stairs and he…
With a burst of speed, she entered the den. The lights were on. To the right, heavy, dark curtains blocked the French doors that opened onto a stone terrace that led to a garden—a garden she’d strolled in during the week when Declan had sidelined her. She’d expected the garden to be perfectly maintained. Filled with the most perfect of things but…
It had been overgrown. Unkept.
Cold and sad as if… was this your mother’s garden, Declan? Did it die without her? Like I fear a part of you died?
She hadn’t gotten the chance to question him about the garden. There had been far too many other questions to ask.
The coldness lingered inside. And then she realized that maybe it wasn’t the house that was cold. Maybe it was her. Chill bumps covered her arms. The cold is inside of me.
“You’re afraid of me.” The first words he’d spoken.
She whirled around in a fury. “You killed him.” Not a question. A statement.
His hands were shoved into the pockets of his expensive suit coat. Declan looked like he was posing for some business or tech magazine. The perfect executive. Handsome. Controlled.
And you killed Sebastian Glass.
“I believe another inmate is responsible for stabbing Sebastian Glass. From what I can gather, Glass was swarmed by people who weren’t—well, who weren’t fans, shall we say?”
“Declan.”
His chin lifted. “Marley.”
“You did this.”
He stared at her. She waited for a denial. She waited for something that would tell her?—
A shrug. “He was dead the minute I learned about what he’d done to you.”
Marley shook her head.
But he nodded. “He terrorized you. Stole your joy and replaced it with fear. You were still afraid when you said his name. I could hear the fear in your voice. You were afraid of him. Even though he was behind bars, you feared he’d come for you again.”
How many nights had she woken up, choking on a scream, because she feared that Sebastian had gotten to her? How many times had Eb or Jake run to her and promised her that she was safe?
Only she’d never really felt safe because Sebastian Glass was still out there. Still alive and…
And there were whispers that deals were going to be made with him. A new attorney general who wanted to find the missing victims. A man sentenced to death, but talk of changing his sentence—something that should have been impossible, and there were rumors of letting him ? —
“He raped and murdered his victims. He attacked you, Marley. As far as I’m concerned, his death was too easy.”
Her breath shuddered in and out. “How did you do it?”
“This will never be traced back to me. It can’t be. It was a prison riot. How could I possibly be responsible for such an event?”
“Declan.” She stormed toward him. Stood toe to toe with him as she tipped back her head and stared at his dark, dangerous features. “How did you do it?”
Everyone else had been sent from the house for a reason. She knew it. So that Declan could tell her his secrets.
“Sometimes, you just have to arrange a situation. Predict the behavior of others. Glass was hated by the other inmates. Everyone doing max time wanted the bragging rights to say they’d offed Broken Glass, as you called him. It was about creating the right moment. A technical glitch indicated that Glass should be out in the yard at a certain time. The guards simply followed the orders on their screens.”
The chill bumps got bigger. The cold deeper. Technical glitch, her ass. “I’m guessing your tech is used in the prison.”
“Your guess would be correct.”
“Declan.” She couldn’t think what to say beyond that. “ Declan.”
“He left marks on you, Marley. He killed all those other women. Are you truly going to mourn for him?”
No. She wasn’t. She just?—
“Right and wrong. James told me that he thought the line between those two was particularly thin for me. He’s right. Because when it comes to eliminating a bastard who hurt you, putting him in the ground was the right thing for me.”
She stared up at him. Marley didn’t know what to say. Or do.
“I did try to warn you,” Declan rasped. “Understand me now?”
Her breath came in and out. Not deep. Too shallow and fast.
“It’s not the first time I’ve destroyed a life with the click of a few keys on the computer.” His wooden voice was back. The unemotional one. And his gaze had gone unblinking. “I discovered that talent long ago. My father had other methods for eliminating enemies in his world. My father would have been ever so disappointed with my tactics. Bankrupting someone with the tap, tap, tap of my keys as I slide into their accounts. Setting up meetings that prove the SOBs are smuggling guns and trafficking women and children—getting the fools to talk straight with cops when then they think are talking to other dealers. It’s all so easy, really. I can destroy a life and never even break a sweat.”
Her breathing was shallow, but each beat of her heart echoed in her head like thunder. “That’s what you do? Work with cops to put away criminals? That hardly seems so bad.”
His hand lifted. He brushed back a lock of her hair. “Oh, sweetheart, I am the criminal, and we both know it.”
They knew?—
“You sonofabitch.” A shadow surged from behind the heavy, billowing curtains to the right—the curtains that blocked the terrace doors. In that desperate instant, she finally realized that the terrible chill in the air? The chill wasn’t just from her fear. A door was open. Someone else had been using the garden terrace—using it to gain entrance to the house.
The intruder lifted a gun and pointed it?—
Declan jumped in front of Marley. He shoved her behind him.
“I knew you were guilty as fuck!” A bellow from the intruder. “And I just heard your confession. Heard every damn word! You’re going to jail, you bastard.”
She knew the voice—knew the shadow. Detective Parker Ellis. He’d gotten into Declan’s home, and he was aiming his gun at Declan. “No!” Marley screamed.
“ Yes!” Parker shouted right back. “He’s dirty, Marley. As fucking dirty as they come—you heard what he did! How many times do you think he’s tapped with his tech and ended lives? Snuffed out people like they were nothing? Just like his father! He’s just like his father!”
She tried to surge forward. Declan shoved her back once more and?—
Boom.
She screamed at the explosion of sound. Screamed because she thought Declan had been hit and his blood would cover her, and she’d lose him, and she didn’t care about Glass or—or?—
“Stay the fuck behind me, Marley,” Declan rasped.
He…he hadn’t been shot. He was still on his feet.
And still using his body to shield her.
But she peeked around him, and she saw that Parker was weaving on his feet. He had his gun in his hand and a mixture of shock and horror and pain covered his face. “How…” Parker’s knees hit the floor.
“He set off the alarm the minute he entered the terrace door.” James’s voice. And James was striding into the den with a gun in hand. A gun he’d fired at Parker because she could see the blood on Parker’s chest now. The deep bloom of red that spread too fast. “As soon as I got the alert, I came at once from the guest house. The cop’s gone rogue, just like I warned you, Declan. He wanted you dead because of what your father did to his family.”
“Marley…” Parker still had his grip on the gun. He waved it toward her and Declan. “H-help me…”
“Get the fuck behind the couch,” Declan growled at her. “No, get the fuck out of here,” he corrected. Then he was lunging forward. Rushing straight to Parker. “I didn’t get a security alert.”
“Maybe it was a glitch. Those do happen, I hear.” An odd note had entered James’s voice. “Don’t worry. I’ll end him,” James promised. “I must have missed his heart. That’s not like me. Let’s try again?—”
“No!” Marley yelled.
“No.” A snarl from Declan as he—as he put his body in front of Parker’s. “You’re not killing a cop in cold blood.”
James frowned at him. “But…he was going to shoot you, son! There is no cold blood about this. I just saved your life!” His breath heaved in and out. “We have to finish him.”
Marley inched toward the couch. Declan wants me to get the fuck out of here, but I ? —
“Call nine-one…” A gasp tore from Parker. “Call?—”
“No one is calling nine-one-one.” James was definite. His gun was pointed at Declan.
A Declan who seemed to be the only thing between Parker and death. “You can’t do this!” Marley cried out. “He’s a cop! This is all a misunderstanding. Parker can’t die!”
James shook his head. “Didn’t I warn you about her, too, Declan? I told you that she was talking too much with the cop. I bet she told him to come here. Bet she promised him that they could get a confession from you.”
Declan’s gaze darted toward her. She could not read his gaze to save her life.
“No.” Marley shook her head. She hadn’t tried to set up Declan. Wouldn’t.
“You can’t trust her! I told you, over and over. I warned you. She probably wanted you to kill Glass just so she could get the confession—she and Parker are working to take you down. But I’m here to protect you. I’m the only one you can count on.”
Marley thought that she’d been cold in that den before. She’d been wrong. Absolute ice seemed to pour from her veins as Declan stood with James’s gun pointed at him…and a weak Parker still holding a gun behind him.
Either man can shoot Declan at any moment.
She stopped inching toward the couch. Screw that. She took a step toward Declan.
“Don’t.” A snarl from him. “Get the fuck out, Marley.”
Her eyes widened.
“I don’t want you here. You betrayed me, and we’re done. Get out, now. ”
No, he didn’t mean that. “Declan?”
“Go,” he gritted. “ Go now.” And emotion…emotion broke through those words. The faintest hint of…fear.
Her eyes widened. She started to run.
And James’s gun swung to point toward her.
Marley froze.
Hate glittered in James’s eyes. “Dammit, Declan, I knew you were getting emotionally involved with her. The man who pretends he doesn’t feel. Utter bullshit. You fell for her just like your father fell for your mother. Guess you could each love one thing in this world, huh?” He sent Marley a small smile. “You aren’t going anywhere. Because if you leave this room, you’ll just call for help. That’s not the way things are going to end. You don’t call in the cavalry. You don’t get to save the day again for him, PI.”
She put her hands up. It seemed like the right thing to do. To show she wasn’t a threat. To try and calm James down. “You don’t need to point that gun at me. I’m not armed.”
“Come here, Marley,” James ordered.
She didn’t move a step.
“Come here, or I will shoot you in the heart right here and now.”
“ No!” A roar from Declan.
Marley sucked in a sharp breath.
But James smiled. He smiled , and she knew that he was going to pull the trigger, whether she came to him or not and she?—
“You obsessed him, just like she obsessed his father. I killed her, and I’ll kill you, too.” His smile widened even more as he began to pull the trigger.
She tried to leap to the side. To just get out of the way even as her heart raced in her chest, and the thunder was so loud and wild, and it wouldn’t stop and she?—
Declan slammed into her even as the gun erupted with a blast of thunder far louder than her heartbeat. She hit the hard floor, the impact jarring her body, but it was just bruising. Aches. She hadn’t been shot. She was safe.
Declan’s head lifted. He stared down at her with eyes that blazed with his emotions. “ Get the fuck…out of here. ”
“I love you, too,” she threw back.
His eyes widened. But then he was rising. Rising and whirling and he had a gun in his hand. Where the hell had he gotten that?
Her frantic gaze jumped across the room. Parker was slumped on the floor, his gun missing from his outstretched hand.
So that’s where Declan got the gun.
James laughed as Declan faced off with him. Marley inched away. The last thing she wanted to do was distract Declan or present a target for James. She needed a gun of her own. Some sort of weapon. And she also needed some help.
Her fingers pulled out her phone. She had Hunter and Cade programmed into her phone, so she sent out a desperate text to them. James is the bad guy. Get your asses here. Hurry!
“You don’t have the killer instinct, son,” James said. He laughed. “You type out commands on a keyboard, but that shit is nothing like pulling a trigger and seeing the life fade from a person’s eyes. That calls for a special kind of darkness. You’re too weak for that. Your father always told me you were weak. He tried to beat that weakness out of you and he?—”
The bullet blasted from Declan’s hand and slammed into James’s right shoulder. James howled in pain even as the gun fell from his fingers.
“He did beat out the weakness.” Declan took a slow step forward. “I stopped being weak the day I killed him. You think he was the only one? You have no idea what I’ve done or where I’ve been. Hunter could tell you stories about our times in hellholes that would chill your soul.” Another step. “Government contracts are given to me for a reason. Because I get shit done.”
James was frantically trying to staunch the flow of blood that poured like a river down his arm.
“You always thought you knew me, but you didn’t know jack. You abandoned me when I was a kid. Came back when you thought you could position yourself to get money. And that’s what this is all about, isn’t it?” Declan stood about two feet in front of James. “You decided to kill me when you realized I was leaving half my fortune to Royal. Pierre told you, didn’t he? You were paying him to keep tabs on all my business, personal and professional.”
Marley kept the two men within sight as she crept toward Parker, using the furniture to shield her body as much as possible. Was he still alive? He was face down, with his right hand in front of his body, and he didn’t seem to be moving at all.
“That little shit brother of yours should have died years ago!” James raged. “Your mom wouldn’t tell me where she’d stashed him. Not when I put my gun to her heart. She just stared straight at me…and she said I was as bad as Conor was. Can you believe that? I was just doing my job! He’d sent me after her when she ran. I was following orders. I was never like Conor!” Spittle flew from his mouth.
Marley sucked in a breath. She knew each word had to be torture for Declan. James killed his mother.
She reached Parker. She bent to her knees beside him. Her fingers slid toward his neck.
I can’t find his pulse.
“All she had to do was tell me where the fuck your brother was,” James snarled. “I got mad. Her dying was her own damn fault.”
A faint beat shivered beneath her fingers. Alive.
“You hear me, Declan? It was her own damn fault!”
“The hell it was.” Declan’s voice. Burning with fury. So much emotion.
Enough hate to kill a man.