Chapter 16 Declan #2
I’m calm as I enter the main reception flanked by Dermott and Liam, three more armed men covering our backs. We don’t make a sound. The warehouse is silent apart from the low hum of electricity running through the cables.
Liam gestures to the STAFF sign.
It feels too easy. The monster didn’t gain his reputation by making rookie mistakes. Or maybe the news that he had a daughter he never knew about threw him off-balance.
Dermott and Liam cover me, guns ready, and I kick open the door, entering first with my finger on the trigger.
The lights are off, and when my men flick the switch, nothing happens. I don’t see Amelia to begin with, but as my eyes adjust to the gloom, I notice her on the floor in the corner of the room behind a table and chairs, knees pulled up to her chest, protecting the baby in her womb.
But she isn’t alone.
Michael Morran is sitting behind her, using his daughter and her unborn baby as a human shield. And he has a gun pressed against her temple.
“What took you so long, Declan? Is there something amiss in the Byrne household? Most men know where their new brides are when they’re not in the bedroom.” There’s a hint of amusement in his voice.
“Let her go. She’s pregnant.” I step closer, gun aimed at his head in the shadows.
I can’t tell if Amelia is unconscious or pretending to be.
But he isn’t going to relinquish his leverage. He didn’t earn the ‘monster’ label by having a heart, and Amelia means nothing to him. She’s a means to an end, the end being a substantial sum of money and a target on the Byrne empire when he kills the boss.
“Congratulations, Declan. Under different circumstances, I’d buy you a Guinness and we could put the world to rights between us. Two powerful men. Two family men.”
Another step. “Amelia is family too. But I guess you don’t understand the meaning of the word.”
I pause, assessing the situation. I can’t risk shooting him while he’s holding Amelia hostage.
But there’s a faint patch of gray from above our heads.
A skylight. My men entering from the roof will create a distraction.
I’ll only need a fraction of a second to take him down. Until then, I’ll keep him talking.
“Do you know where your son is right now?”
He hesitates. I swoop in, close enough to see the rise and fall of Amelia’s chest.
I’m going to save you, my sweet Amelia. I only hope that she believed me when I said that I would always protect her. No matter what.
“Nice try, Declan. It won’t work. In case it slipped your attention, I’m the one with the hostage here.”
“You’re sure about that, are you?”
His eyes flicker to the rest of my team standing behind me, his fist applying pressure to the gun at Amelia’s temple at the same time.
Steady now. That’s my wife you’re holding hostage, you fucker.
I count in my head. One… two… three.
Then I hear Dermott shoving our own leverage into the spotlight.
Monster Morran and his wife waited years to produce an heir to his unstable empire. Rumor was that nature had taken matters into its own hands. Until his wife finally gave birth to their only child, a son, now approaching eighteen. A son who would rather be an artist than a mafia boss.
His eyes settle on his son briefly, but his face shows no emotion.
“Two lives for one. You know that’s not how it works, Declan.”
“Let her go. Your son will be unharmed. We’ll all walk away from this a little wiser.”
His grin is macabre in the gloomy shadows. “Do you take me for a fucking idiot?”
I won’t answer that. It’s disrespectful in front of his son.
“This situation was your choosing. Time to own your mistakes, which is what I’m trying to do.”
I’ve seen the faint glimmer of movement in the patch of gray from overhead. My men are in place. I don’t know if Amelia can hear me, but I’m going to bare my heart for her, and then I’m going to kill the bastard who thought he could use her as collateral damage.
Not on my fucking watch, asshole.
“I am in love with my wife. I allowed my ego and pride to cloud my judgement for a while, but Amelia and the baby she is carrying are more important to me than my own life. You see, the difference between you and me, Michael, is that I will put my life on the line for the people I care about.”
His gaze flickers again to his son. I don’t need to look around to know that Dermott is holding a gun to the teenager’s head.
I’ll give the lad credit for not making a sound since we picked him up outside college.
He has more integrity and courage than his father ever will; he would make a great mafia boss. Or artist.
Monster Morran cricks his neck from side to side. “You don’t have the fucking balls, Declan. But I do.”
I hear the click of the trigger as his finger applies pressure to the gun at Amelia’s temple. My heart leaps into my mouth. It’s all about timing, and if we’re a fraction of a second out of synch…
It all plays out in slow motion inside my head.
The click behind me as Dermott shoots Morran’s son using a silencer. The muffled thud as the lad collapses onto the floor. The reaction in Morran’s eyes—shock, disbelief, pure fucking rage. The split second between him registering what happened and firing a bullet into my beautiful Amelia.
But a split second is all it takes to place a bullet into his shoulder. I don’t want to kill him. Not yet. At the same time as the bullet penetrates his flesh and muscle and loosens his hold on the weapon, the skylight opens, and the room fills with my team of armed men.
I fire a second bullet into his left shoulder.
He rummages around for the gun that he dropped, but I pump another bullet into his arm, and another. Closer. Close enough to smell the fear and regret on his breath. He took a chance and played it wrong. But there are no second chances in this game.
I scoop Amelia into my arms as two of my men flank Michael Monster Morran. His right arm is a mess of bloody flesh and sinew. His eyes are fixed on his son, lying motionless on the floor.
“You murdered my son, you bastard,” he mutters. “You’ll live to fucking regret crossing me.”
“Mistake number one, Morran. Measuring me by your own low standards.”
I half-turn and give Dermott the signal.
The lad stands up slowly, unharmed, and faces his father.
Monster Morran’s mouth forms words that remain silent. I see the moment the adrenaline crashes and the pain hits behind his eyes.
“The bullet was a blank.” I lock eyes with Amelia’s abductor. “Unlike you, I’m not in the habit of murdering innocent people.”
“Cillian…” he addresses his son, drawing raggedy breaths. “I would never have hurt her.”
“I don’t believe you, Pa.” Cillian shakes his head. “When I was a kid, I wondered why they called you Monster. I guess now I have my answer.”
The lad walks to the door, and my men don’t stop him.
“Cillian.” Morran’s voice cracks. “Don’t walk away from me, son. I’ll cut you out of your inheritance, don’t think I won’t.”
Cillian turns around to face his father, one hand already on the door handle. “Go right ahead, Pa. If you’d ever spent any time with me, you’d know that I never wanted any part of it anyway.”
He closes the door gently behind him as he leaves.
But the man on the floor didn’t get his reputation by conceding a fight either. His bloody hand closes around the weapon on the floor, aiming to finish what he started.
I kick it away from him, and he lunges forward, wrapping his arms around my legs and drawing a knife from nowhere.
I feel a flash of blinding white pain as the blade slices my thigh.
I don’t move. I’m holding Amelia in my arms, and I will carry her out of this building if it’s the last thing that I do.
Liam drags Monster Morran off me. The men part, allowing me an escape route with my wife in my arms, and I don’t look back as I carry her to safety.