Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
“ 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?”
Those words blasted through Declan’s head as he stared at James. The man who’d stepped in to be his surrogate father. The man who’d sworn he’d never abandon Declan again. The man who’d been at his side, day in and day out.
“All she had to do was tell me where the fuck your brother was. I got mad. Her dying was her own damn fault.”
Flames burned inside of Declan’s body. So much hate. So much rage.
“I was never like your twisted prick of a father.” James glared at Declan. Blood poured from his shoulder wound. Declan hadn’t been shooting to kill. If he had, the bullet would have gone straight into James’s heart.
My father taught me how to shoot perfectly long ago. A necessary requirement for Conor Flynn’s son.
And, apparently, being a good shot had been a necessary requirement for Conor Flynn’s stepbrother, too.
“When he hired me, I seriously thought I was going to be handling PR.” James shook his head. His blood kept flowing. “Schmoozing with clients. And then, two weeks in, he has me meet him at some rundown warehouse. I’m thinking, okay, maybe we’re doing some acquisitions. No, no. That prick had a guy in there that he tortured. Right in front of me.” The words came out feverishly. “Your dad had goons. They tied the man up. They broke this prick’s fingers. Hell, they used pliers to completely rip off a finger. The guy was screaming and begging and…he told your dad every damn thing he wanted to know in record time.”
Declan’s gun was dead steady on James. “You got a taste for torture that night, didn’t you?”
“What? No.” A fast, negative shake of his head. “I did not?—”
“Yes, you did.” From Marley.
Sonofabitch. Hadn’t he told the woman to leave? If he was going to shoot his best-friend-slash-father-figure in the face, he’d rather she not see him commit the deed.
And I am going to kill him. James is not walking out of this house alive.
“You liked the power you got, didn’t you, James?” She knelt beside Parker, with her hand on his throat. Parker didn’t seem to be moving.
Apparently, James hadn’t missed with his shot.
One to the heart and one to the head. Conor Flynn’s preferred execution style. The way most of his enemies had been taken out over the years. But his father certainly wasn’t the only one who enjoyed that style of death. It was a typical mob hit.
Marley wasn’t wrong about my family’s ties to the mob. I tried to sever them, but there are some sins that will haunt you forever.
“Did you help that night?” Marley asked. “Did you join in and torture that man so long ago?”
James was staring—no, glaring at her.
“Did Conor Flynn make you help?” Marley amended.
“Yes,” James hissed. “And I fucking vomited when they started cutting that SOB open but…he was begging and screaming and…”
“And did you like the sounds?” Marley’s careful question.
James smiled. It was a smile that Declan had never seen before on his old friend. James’s eyes seemed to shine with a bright light, and his face held absolute joy. “I liked it better when he stopped breathing entirely.”
“There it is,” Marley said. Her hand pulled away from Parker’s throat. She inched back. “I’ve seen that look before. Another man, another place. Some people are just really, really good at wearing masks, but even the best masks will eventually fall away to show what’s inside.”
James’s smile dimmed. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
“Evil,” she responded simply. “I see it in you. On you.”
So did Declan. Why hadn’t he seen it before? Because James had been good at wearing his mask? Or because…
Because I didn’t want to see it?
“Did you become one of Conor Flynn’s hitmen?” Marley asked as she rose to her feet. “Torture and death. Is that the kind of work you did for him?”
James licked his lips. “It was more fun than PR.”
Declan knew he was staring at a dead man. And he would be pulling the trigger to end James’s life. But he wanted answers first. He needed them. His brother needed them. “My father told you to kill my mother.”
Laughter burst from James. He took a step to the side. A step that put him closer to Marley.
“Stop,” Declan warned.
“You aren’t going to kill me.” James wagged his left index finger at Declan. His right arm was totally limp against his body and soaked with blood. “You can’t. I know the truth about your mother and father, and if I die, that big mystery will never be solved. The mystery that has haunted you for your whole fucking life.” Another wag of that thick finger. “If you wanted to kill me, the first shot would have done it. You didn’t. You just don’t have the taste for?—”
Declan fired.
This time, the bullet thudded into James’s right thigh. The leg gave out on him, and he slammed to his knees.
“That’s an awful lot of blood,” Declan noted, aware that his voice was ice cold. “Wonder if I hit an artery?”
James howled as he clamped his left hand around his thigh. Blood streamed from between his fingers.
“I believe you were telling me what happened to my mother,” Declan continued politely. “Because you see, you and my father aren’t the only ones who can use torture in order to get answers.” He took a step toward James. Rage wanted to blind him, but he fought to hold it in check. “You kidnapped me. You tied me up in a fucking basement. You were going to torture me for hours.” Another step.
James threw back his head to glare at Declan.
“I will not hesitate to do the same to you,” Declan promised. “Hours.” A promise. “I will spend hours giving you pain until you tell me what happened to my mother. What happened and why. ”
“Declan?” Marley’s hesitant voice. “We have to get help for Parker. He’s still alive…”
James smiled. A twisted smile of pain and glee. “She’s seeing you now, too. Seeing the evil that you hide.” He huffed out a breath and kept his hand clamped to his thigh. “Tell her that you don’t intend for the cop to get help. You’re content to…” Another huff of breath. “To let him bleed out right in front of you. N-not like you can let him s-survive. You’ll go to jail.”
Declan didn’t take his gaze off his prey. But from the corner of his eye, he was aware that Marley had bent next to the cop again. She struggled to roll him over. Parker’s body was completely limp.
But when she did get him to turn…
“That’s so much blood,” Marley cried out.
Declan took another step toward James. At this point, he could almost lift his gun and press it to James’s forehead. “You found out that I was leaving half the estate to Royal. You wanted everything. You wanted all my fortune, didn’t you?”
“Before he came along…” Sweat trickled down James’s temple. “ I was the heir.”
“Guessing I was gonna die before you did, huh? So you could inherit everything.”
“You do have a lot of enemies.”
The front door flew open. It thudded into the wall. Then slammed shut. A loud, echoing slam.
“ Declan!” A wild shout.
Declan’s body jerked in surprise.
“We’re in here, Cade!” Marley called back. “ Hurry! Parker has been shot, and we need help!”
Cade rushed into the den with his weapon drawn.
“A lot of enemies,” James repeated. “More than you know.” And the smirk was back on his lips.
Cade took in the scene in one frantic glance.
“He’s dying!” Marley yelled. She’d put her hands on Parker’s chest to try and stop the blood flow.
Cade rushed toward her.
“No!” Declan bellowed.
But it was too late.
Cade grabbed Marley. Wrenched her to her feet. And he shoved the nozzle of his gun into her side.
Everything shifted focus for Declan in that instant. He didn’t look at Marley’s face. Couldn’t. If he saw the fear in her eyes, he’d lose his control. The control he’d always worked so hard to maintain. The control that had kept him sane when the world went to absolute madness around him.
Cade wasn’t looking at Declan. His frantic gaze was on James as he stared in growing horror at the blood covering the older man.
“Fuck,” Declan breathed as he understood just how deep the betrayal had really been. “It’s always about family, isn’t it?” He could see it now. In the angle of Cade’s jaw. The eyes were a different color. So was the hair. But the jaw was the same. The shape of the eyes were the same…
He just hadn’t seen it before.
“Like father, like son, am I right?” Declan mused.
“Declan?” Marley’s trembling voice.
Do not look at her face. Not yet. You have to kill these two bastards and get her out alive.
He also had…dammit, he had to keep standing. A hard task because James had always been a good shot. And when Declan had tackled Marley earlier, the bullet meant for her—it had gone into him. Blasting into his abdomen. His suit coat covered the injury or, hell, maybe it was getting soaked with blood. The pain had been red-hot at first. Surging through his body. But now it was a steady throb. Pulsing as the blood left him and weakness wanted to slither through his veins.
Keep standing. Kill the two men you thought were friends. Save the woman who is your fucking life. An easy enough to-do list, huh?
Because suddenly the past didn’t matter. No, no, it did still matter. Getting the truth about his mother mattered, but it didn’t matter more than Marley. Nothing mattered more than her.
“Thought this was supposed to be an easy scene,” Cade muttered. “Set it up to look like Declan found Marley with the cop. He killed her in a jealous rage, and then Declan and the cop shot each other. Put a nice little bow on the scene, and we were done. ”
James’s hand was inching down toward his ankle.
Did the bastard really think Declan had forgotten that James kept a knife strapped there? You’re the one who told me how important it was to always have a weapon on you, James. He’d learned so many lessons from James over the years.
“Cade, you were on my suspect list,” Marley said. She didn’t sound scared. More angry. “I really wanted to be wrong about you.”
“He’s my father,” Cade retorted. “Sorry, but family comes first. Told you before, I realized that this world is not black and white. We have to make our own shades of gray. And like Declan just said, it’s about family.”
“Not exactly.” Declan got the big picture. “It’s also about the money. Just so you know, that’s all it has ever been about for James. Let me guess…he’s the one who found you, isn’t he? He’s the one who convinced you to come and work for me? While he was doing all of that convincing, did James tell you that he was a hitman for my father? Hell, he could have even been the one who killed your mother!” A total bullshit guess designed to throw off Cade?—
“He killed her because she left him!”
Sonofabitch. His guess had been right?
“She went to the Feds. She stole me from him!” Cade’s voice rose. “And she lied to me for my entire life. She told me that lame bastard who raised me was my dad, but she was lying. She’d cheated on him—cheated and then hid me from my real father. I knew…fucking knew when my niece got cancer. We did all of these tests. My sister and I—we were only half -siblings. I hated not knowing who my real dad was—or where he was. Or who the hell I really was.”
“So you went off to battle. You learned about your shades of gray and you got really good with weapons and your dear old dad finally came to you.” Marley’s voice held disgust. “Got a news flash for you. James didn’t pull you into his world because he missed his son. He did it to use you! I’m betting he always knew about your existence. He didn’t care. He still killed your mom when the time came. And he left you alone for years.”
“You don’t know anything,” Cade jerked her. Hard.
“He’s getting you to do his dirty work!” Marley claimed. “You just told us he killed your mother ? —”
“Shut the bitch up!” James yelled. “Now, shut her?—”
That’s it. Done. “No one calls her names. Enjoy hell,” Declan told him.
James let out an inhuman shriek. He jumped to his feet. Tried to, anyway, but mostly stumbled as he drove his knife toward Declan’s stomach.
Declan fired.
One shot to the heart.
Because you fucking broke my heart, you lying piece of shit.
James stumbled back. His eyes were wide open. Stunned. “S-son?—”
“I’m not your damn son.”
“I am!” Cade roared.
James fell to the floor.
Declan whirled toward Cade. He knew he had to fire. Fast. But he couldn’t risk hitting Marley. She had to get the hell out of the way?—
Marley had already broken free of Cade as he stared in shock and fury at Declan. She surged toward the wall.
Declan smiled at him. “Guess we’re taking each other out, huh?”
“You aren’t leaving this room, you sonofabitch. Everything you have should be mine! Everything should be ? —”
Marley slammed a painting into his back. The wood of the frame hit his head and shoulders. Cade jerked and shuddered, and he whirled toward her even as Declan tried to lunge forward.
“ Hey, asshole.” Royal burst from the curtains near the terrace. “You don’t screw with my brother, got it?”
And when Cade started to fire at Royal…
Royal took the shot first. And so damn fast.
Two hits. One to the heart. One to the head. Zero hesitation.
Cade hit the floor with his mouth hanging open in a scream that he never got to voice.
Declan’s breath shuddered out. His grip was too tight on the gun, but he couldn’t force his fingers to relax. He was too tense. Too certain that another attack would come.
A door slammed into a wall. The front door? Again?
Footsteps pounded toward them. “Declan!”
Hunter’s voice this time.
Don’t be another betrayal. Don’t be.
“Need me to kill him?” Royal asked.
Hunter burst into the den. Took in the scene with wide eyes. Then… “Declan?” Wooden. “Declan, all that blood on you…is it theirs or is it yours?”
A sharp cry escaped Marley as she bounded toward him. She reached for his coat.
Fuck that. He reached for her. He hauled her against him even as he heard Hunter calling nine-one-one.
“Yeah, yeah, I told you heroes to get here fast—I need faster. My best friend is bleeding his ass out all over the place. Hurry,” Hunter ordered, voice blasting.
“You were shot.” Marley shuddered against Declan. “Why didn’t you say something?”
Little too busy killing my father figure, sweetheart. Little too busy. “Guess I’m like you,” he managed instead. “It’s just a scratch.” No, it wasn’t. “No need to mention it.”
She pulled back. Stared up at him. “I love you, Declan Flynn.”
“Am I dying?” He felt his body weaving. “That why you’re lying to me now?”
“It’s not a lie, and you’re not dying.” Her jaw hardened. “You’re not , understand? Because if you try, then I will follow you to heaven and drag you back to me.”
His legs gave way. Shit. He hit the floor.
Or almost did. Hunter grabbed him from behind. Carefully lowered him down. Went to work on the wound that Declan couldn’t even feel any longer.
“How the hell was he on his feet?” Hunter demanded.
Marley touched Declan’s face. “ I love you. ”
“Not going to heaven.” He knew this. She did, too. “Always bound for hell.”
Marley bent toward him. Her lips brushed over his ear. “Then I guess I’ll just go to hell and fight the devil until he gives you back to me. I’m not scared of evil, and I know it when I see it.” She pressed a kiss to his scar. Lifted her head. “I know it when I see it,” she repeated. “And I know love when I feel it.”
He did, too. His love for her was something that had been there…hell, since the basement. Growing and growing until she filled the heart that had always felt cold and withered but now beat so incredibly fast. Fast not because he was afraid of dying, but because he didn’t want to leave her. He wanted to be with Marley. To have a life with her. To have something more than ashes and pain and a past that gutted and twisted.
He wanted his Marley. Maybe he didn’t feel love the way others did. Who cared? She was it for him. The one he would always love. “I would die for you…a thousand times.”
“You’d better not,” she snapped back. “Not even once, understand me? Not even once. ”
Royal’s head was suddenly next to hers. “Yeah, bro, so…we have two dead bodies here. Need me to hide them before the cops arrive?”
One cop was already there. Was Parker still alive? “Save…the detective…”
“We’re not burying any bodies.” Marley was adamant. “We’re saving Parker, and Declan is going to recover fully. You hear me, Declan? You are recovering fully. ”
His eyes wanted to drift closed. He didn’t let them. He couldn’t. If he was going to leave this world, she would be the last thing he ever saw. No darkness. Only light.
Only his Marley.
“I love you,” he told her.
“About time you said it.” Marley’s fingers skimmed over his cheek. “About time.”