CHAPTER FIFTEEN
DECLAN
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Stella is not fucking marrying that criminal; I won’t sit back and allow it. Fortunately, we’ve been making plans and the team are in agreement that action needs to be taken to keep her safe.
From herself...but that’s just my opinion.
But after learning that Marino has instructed her to cancel her protective detail, things just got a whole lot more dangerous.
We need her on board now.
During our video conference the other day, Ryder, Josh, and I had laid out a plan.
It’s obvious some form of coercion is taking place, but by who and what kind, Stella won’t say.
We still don’t know whether, with no solid evidence, our ‘more than a hunch’ is right. The team searched to see if anyone in Stella’s world was missing, kidnapped, or dead, and they’ve come up with nothing.
Something is forcing her hand.
But what the fuck is it?
Proactively, we’ve put eyes on both Charlotte and her mother, although the latter could be complicit. Victor Voss is clearly involved, and while I’d like to think he was a loving father, there was nothing in his demeanor the other day that said he was concerned for his daughter.
“The fact that her father was a conduit in introducing them is not lost on me,” I’d told Josh during that call. “And he didn’t use the word ‘introduce.’ He presented her to him.”
“Like a box of chocolates.” Ryder shook his head.
“Yes. Like a gift.” I gritted my teeth.
“We need solid evidence. Some money changing hands, or purchase of property or goods. Legal or otherwise. Travis and the boys are digging but can’t find anything digitally. It may have taken place in cold, hard cash.” Josh had said before we hung up.
“Has she said anything?” Ryder asked.
I shook my head and rubbed the back of my head.
“No. She’s scared, understandably. What pisses me off is that she doesn’t have anyone on her side to protect her. She’s keeping this to herself completely.”
“Jesus.”
“No wonder she hired us.”
The panic when she saw Charlotte getting close to the truth—whatever it is—was palpable. Stella was scared for her friend.
Fortunately, we’re on to it, and she has protection.
It was interesting that Stella never asked me any questions. She simply accepted it and let me take her to bed.
She’s in survival mode, preparing to leave her world. I’ve seen soldiers do this. Hell, I’ve felt myself do it when preparing to leave on a dangerous off-book foreign assignment.
“This plan could be the only way she gets to return to her life and keep her identity.” Ryder stood and walked into the kitchen to rinse his coffee mug.
Or it could go really fucking wrong.
We both didn’t voice it, but it’s true.
The stakes have changed.
He’s instructed me to cancel my security service.
Instructing you? Can you hear yourself?
This is what marriage is—
I won’t be at that wedding, but neither will she. We need her to talk, and the only way that’s going to happen is with a little intervention and understanding her fear.
I sent a message to Ryder and Josh when Stella was in the shower.
Marino has men watching her.
I noticed them a couple of days ago. I never acknowledged them, but if they’ve done their job and know I’m a SEAL, they’ll know I’m fully aware of their every move.
I am.
I’m aware of everything. For example, everyday Victor Voss rings and spends a good ten minutes on the phone with his daughter. I hear his loud voice as he gives her instructions and how her brightness seems to shrivel up.
The same light that is like a supernova when I’m deep inside her.
I order Thai food, and when it arrives, I carry it into the living room where Stella is tucked up on the sofa. The TV hums quietly in the background, which we don’t pay much attention to.
I haven’t apologized for being angry, and she hasn’t left. There is something going on that we haven’t discussed. I don’t mean this shitshow of a wedding. I mean us.
Her.
Me.
Us.
I’m thirty-fucking-six. I’ve slept with my share of women and even thought a few of them might be long-term partners. It’s never worked out. One I almost fell in love with, but in the end, she found life with me in the teams too hard, and I found her too needy.
I get it. A lot of women like the idea of a SEAL, until shit gets real. Until we’re out on a date, at a function, or I’m climbing out of bed in the middle of the night because my phone has gone off.
There’s no time to say goodbye; we can’t say where we are going or for how long.
And we can’t promise we’ll come home.
It’s a mind fuck.
I watched my SEAL buddies marry and have kids and wondered how much fucking harder it must be for them.
Much harder.
After Dad died, I only had Mom to concern myself with, and she never wanted me to opt out. All my friends are in the military, so they got it.
As I grab chopsticks and hand Stella a pair, feeling her softness beside me, I can’t imagine the phone pinging right now and having to leave her.
Can’t imagine her big blue eyes looking at me as if it could be the last time she sees me.
Or hanging onto the edge of a Black Hawk in the dark as we fly into enemy territory and wondering if I’ll ever get home and make love to her.
Jesus.
I’m falling hard for this woman.
“Stell,” I say, and she turns.
I grab her face and kiss her, lingering as I soak up all her goodness and beauty.
“Did we just make up?” She smiles.
“Eat,” I smirk, because there’s no way I’m saying yes to that. She’ll think I’m okay with her agreeing to cancel her bodyguard service.
It’s a moot point.
I’m not letting her out of my sight.
She just doesn’t realize it yet, but she’s about to.
“Oh, yum,” Stella says, assuming my smile was a yes, as she opens the first box. “Can we share?”
“Sure.”
I let her eat, playing it cool, as she hasn’t had much of an appetite for the past few days, and things are about to get crazy.
Stella thinks her fate is sealed.
She’s wrong.
I’m about to change the game.
––––––––
I CARRY THE takeout boxes into the kitchen and throw them into the trash. Josh hasn’t responded to my message yet, but I know they’ll be working behind the scenes.
The details don’t matter. My job is to kick off the conversation and let her know there are other options.
I can’t kidnap her. Much as I’d like to. A year on a tropical island while this all passes wouldn’t be horrible. Sex, cocktails, fresh seafood...sex.
It’s not a horrible idea.
I could tend bar, and she could have my babies.
In reality, that’s illegal without her consent, so I push that down to Plan C for the meantime.
Settling back on the sofa, I lay my arm behind her, playing with her hair. She leans into me and I kiss her head.
“It’s time.” My voice is rough, the pit of my stomach gnawing.
“You want me to go?” Stella’s face drops.
I take her chin. “I never want you to go. Ever. It’s time to talk. To tell me everything, sweetheart.”
She pulls in a breath, her eyes growing bigger, fear front and center.
I want to kill whoever is doing this to her.
“I wish—”
“No more wishing. No more platitudes, Stella. You hired me to protect you, and that’s what I’m doing. Even protecting you from yourself,” I say firmly.
“What do you mean?” her voice is small. “What are you going to do?”
“I mean...” I shift to face her better. “Forget your fucking NDA. You need to tell me everything, and once you do, then I can help you. I’m not signing away my rights that could cost you your life.”
“That’s not—”
“Talk.”
“Don’t speak like—”
“Talk,” I growl, knowing I have to be firm to cut through her fear.
She begins to move, and I grab her, not letting her go.
“Declan, you’re scaring me.” Stella cries.
“What does Marino have on you? Who is he threatening to harm unless you marry him?” I demand.
She gasps.
I wait.
“No one. That’s. It’s. No. I just...” Stella tapers off, and for a split second, I feel a flicker of happiness that she’s struggling to lie to me.
Telling me she wants another man doesn’t sit right with her. So, because I’m training to do this, I push down the part of me that doesn’t want to hurt her and use it against her.
To protect her.
“What was that? You want to marry him? You like the man, do you?” I lift my brows. “Can’t wait to fuck him?”
She turns away, not liking where this is going.
Neither do I, but I see it working, so I go even deeper.
I take her chin. “Tell me, Stella. Say it. Speak the words. Tell me you want to put those panties he sent you on under your wedding dress. That you want Tony to spread your legs and shove his tongue inside your pussy. To taste you.”
Fury at the images my words are producing races through me so violently, if I was armed, I’d probably pull the weapon out and shoot the fucking TV.
“Stop it!” Stella shoves me and launches across the room.
I stand, planting my hands on my hips.
I’m mad at her, at Marino, at life, at my fucking father for dying, at my mother for her own subtle coercion and making me think I have to prove myself outside of the Navy.
So what if I fail?
So what if I do end up working in a bar on an island? But what I won’t do is let this woman die.
Mom needs to get over my father and live her life as he’d want her to. The Navy has honored his life every year since his death and still will. If she still wants to stay part of the community, that’s on her. Life has seasons. I’m moving on.
I’m proud as fuck of what I did as a SEAL, and if my country needed me, I’d put my boots back on. But not because I feel like I’m having to fill my father’s shoes to keep mom happy.
How the hell I’ve done it this long I don’t know. But watching Stella paralyzed by her own situation has snapped me out of my own inactivity. That and whatever the consequences of me protecting her are, I don’t give a fuck. She’s my priority now.
She feels like my everything.
“How dare you speak like that to me?”
“Do you? Do you want his cock inside you? More than mine?” I continue pushing her to the edge until she confesses it all.
“No! Stop. Don’t confuse me!”
I lift a brow and take a step. “Confuse you? Confuse you? You don’t know whose cock you want more?”
She’s breathing hard, and I realize I am, too.
Stella shakes her head rapidly. “No, no, no.”
“Who have they got?”
“No one.”
My phone beeps, and I’ll bet my last dollar it is Josh. “Who are they threatening? Is this about your mother? Your father?”
Color drains from her face.
Bingo.
“Is that it? Is your father forcing you to marry Marino?”
“STOP! Declan. Don’t do this. Stop, stop, stop, stop! I can’t—”
I grab her arms, slightly shaking her. “Stella. This man is dangerous. You cannot destroy your life. I won’t let you.”
She stills, and wet, terrified, and desperate eyes lift to mine. Then, quietly, almost deathly quiet, in a tone that sends shivers through me, she says, “It’s not up to you. The decision is made.”
I let her go.
My heart beats so loudly it’s almost deafening as her feet pad across the beige carpet.
“Then walk out that door and tell me you feel nothing for me,” I challenge.
Her mouth parts, and I see fear flash in her eyes.
Fuck.
If she leaves, it's going to break something inside me, and I’m not sure if I’ll ever recover. Even if I went after her, things between us would never be the same.
Do not leave, sweetheart.
Regardless of what she decides, I won’t let this entrapment continue. I’ll do whatever it takes. When she doesn’t move, I cross the room and take her in my arms once more, then cup the side of her jaw.
“Let me help you.”
She breaks down on my chest. “You don’t understand.”
“Yeah, sweetie. I do. This is what I do,” I reply roughly.
I’m going to do absolutely everything in my power to free Stella from this untenable and dangerous situation. Then, if she still wants me at the end of all this...I don’t think that far.
Right now, my job is to protect her.
Things are about to get even more uncomfortable for her, but at least she didn’t walk away from me.