Chapter 11
Feels good to be home
Declan
Iawake surrounded by voices I recognize. A bright light illuminates the ceiling that belongs to a guest room in Widow’s Keep, the house I grew up in. It’s where my family lives. The only place on earth where I am safe.
Immediately, the stress I carried with me since Selnoa evaporates, and I sigh, relieved that I’m home. My head itches. I scratch at gauze and tap around with my fingertips. My head is wrapped.
“Uh-oh,” I comment to myself.
Or at least I thought it was to myself until my twin’s face pops into my line of vision and blocks the light above me.
Connor wags his eyebrows. “I paid a hooker to come and kiss you twice while you slept, my beauty.”
I roll my eyes. The simple movement hurts, and I wince as I sit up. Why am I still wearing my tactical pants? Where is my shirt? They probably cut it to get to the scratches and bruising I never tended to at Dina’s apartment.
My uncle Endo, a tall, wide-shouldered man wearing black pants and a button-up white shirt, walks into the room. He smiles when he sees me sitting up.
“How are you feeling?” He pats my shoulder.
“Not bad. What day is it?”
“Thursday.”
“I went under on Tuesday, didn’t I?”
He nods.
“What’s the situation with Uncle Cass?” I brace for bad news.
My other uncle, Endo’s brother, Cassian Macarley a.k.a.
Cass, made a shipping deal with a man named Daniel Pembroke, who double-crossed him and enlisted my dad to finish off Uncle Cass forever.
My dad was all too happy to try to off either of my uncles, but he didn’t account for Uncle Endo kidnapping Pembroke’s daughter and forcing an exchange. The man’s daughter for Cass.
My dad scrambled to remain in control and, at the last minute, set up a luncheon where all parties were to meet.
But we knew he and Endo couldn’t possibly eat at the same table, not when my dad kept poking at Scarlett Pembroke, a woman Endo respected and maybe liked more than he was willing to admit.
“Cass is resting in his room,” Endo says.
“Great news.”
Endo arranges the pillows behind my back so I can lean against the headboard.
“And what happened to Doc?” I ask. Scarlett Pembroke is a doctor. The town enjoyed her services while she stayed with us. I didn’t mind her. She was sharp, if a little cold.
On my left, Connor shakes his head.
“I take it Scarlett is a sore subject?” I’m treading carefully. Endo is particularly sensitive when it comes to Scarlett Permbroke, the woman he kidnapped and held here as collateral until Cass was returned. Cass is here. Scarlett is not. Mission accomplished.
But Endo grew to like her and probably hated her for making him care about her. Not that I think Scarlett forced him to feel anything. We own our feelings, good or bad.
Dina sparked some feelings inside me. I own them. They’re mostly good feelings that, if acted upon, would end badly for her, so I stop thinking about her.
I forget her.
Her normalcy has no place in my world.
There, forgotten. See how easy that was?
Endo points to my ankle. “Can you stand?”
“Let’s see.” I swing my feet over the bed and touch the cold floor. When I stand up, the room spins, but I can stand, and so I remain upright for a while to get used to being vertical again. Slowly, I take a few steps and tilt a little, but regain my balance quickly.
“What’s going on with my head?” I ask.
“Besides the concussion that hit your center of gravity, the sprained ankle on which you can barely stand, your cuts, bruises, and the massive scratch on your back, nothing. You’re fine. Want to go for a run?”
My uncle Endo is a sarcastic asshole. I love him. But he’s an asshole.
“Glad to see you’re in one piece,” he says, then lets me use his shoulder for support as I walk to the bathroom to do my business. One wobbly step at a time, I walk back to the bed and sit on it.
Connor left, so I use the opportunity to ask about him. “How’s he been?” I ask Endo.
Endo shakes his head. “Worried sick that you wouldn’t wake up.”
“Is he taking his meds?”
“He says he is, but…” Endo shrugs. “He’ll be fine now that you’re up and about.”
Connor returns with a walker. “Ta-da. Look what I found. It’s Grandpa’s walker.”
“Bro, I’m not using that thing.”
“Oh, but you are, Decky.” Connor gives me a deranged smile.
I know better than to argue when Connor is trying to express how much he wants me to get better. “Okay, brother.”
He thrusts the walker toward me, and I rest my hands on it and walk a little. “This thing is actually helpful.” I walk back and forth until my ankle starts throbbing. “I think the meds are wearing off.” I climb back into bed. “How long before I’m up and about?”
“With aggressive rest, a few days.” Endo sits at the foot of my bed and scrubs his jaw.
“The mission was accomplished,” I say. “What’s bugging you?
” Besides Scarlett Pembroke. That woman crawled under Endo’s armor, and because he’s so closed off, now that she’s lodged there, she remains protected from everyone and everything.
Even from his good reason that says she’s better off without him.
Those damn civilians, I tell you. They’re living their normal lives, and then they cross paths with people like me and Endo, and then their normalcy hits us like the third shot of tequila at midnight. It floors us with how simple and pleasant civilian life is.
I’m a professional assassin. That’s pretty far from the norm, I’d say.
“Ivan Holloway declared war on us,” Endo says.
My father’s cousin on his mother’s side, since my dad is related to Uncle Endo through his father’s side.
Endo’s mother never allowed my dad or us to take the Macarley surname.
She was adamant about her sons being the only heirs to the Macarley fortune.
I don’t blame her. My dad was a sociopath at best, a dark triad at worst.
Ivan is a native-born Selnoan and one of the men my dad might’ve considered his successor.
Connor and I were logical choices for succession, but we hated him, and he knew it.
He violated our mother, and because of him, she couldn’t bond with us.
Con and I were forced upon her. She had moments when she loved us as much as a violated woman could while also being reminded of her powerlessness every time she looked at my brother and me.
Connor explains. “Last night, he rounded up all our assets and executed them.”
Dina.
She’s not my asset.
Forget her. I run a hand over my head, catching the gauze I forgot they put there. “How did he know who the assets were?” The government operates with assets. So do we.
Silence.
My brother stares at the floor.
Was it because of something Connor did? Did he leak data?
“I tried to find the person who called me to pick you up,” he says, gaze on the floor. “I thought I would get ahead of Ivan or the police. That day, I thought you were dead, I was coming for them all. I was going to burn the city down.”
“Oh no.” Connor lost his shit.
“I’m sorry, Dec,” Connor says, looking up.
“I’m sorry. I told you I wouldn’t. I told you I would listen to you and follow the plan you laid out, but I felt sick to my stomach, and I couldn’t tell if it was because I ate something bad or because you were dying.
And I breached their systems, set the computers inside the offices ablaze, but while I was doing that, I wasn’t paying attention to their viruses.
One of them snuck in, and they shut me down.
They also got the names of all our assets. ”
“But I told you I would hole up if I thought I couldn’t survive otherwise!”
Connor closes his ears and rocks on his heels.
“Damn it!”
Endo shakes his head. “They tagged his probe and used it to sneak into our network, but they stripped only three names before he fried their computers and buildings and…well, you know how it is when Connor gets carried away.” Endo sighs.
“One of the three assets kept a damn list of contacts. For insurance against us, I’m sure.
Ivan gave the list to his men, and they executed them all in one night. ”
“We have nobody in Selnoa now? Not a single soul?”
Endo shakes his head. “Not one, and even if there was one, I wouldn’t want to risk contacting them.”
Essentially, we’re at war without spies amid the enemy. We have no idea what Ivan’s plans are for us or when he plans to execute his missions.
“Would any of Massio’s rivals report to us?” I ask.
“Maybe the Townsteads, but Cass made those connections, and they hate me.”
“Why?”
“Reasons.”
When I keep staring, Endo rolls his eyes. “I sank Townstead’s billion-dollar yacht.”
I scrub my face. “Fuuuuuck.”
“Hey, guys, I’ve been thinking,” Connor says.
When Endo looks like he might throw up from worry, Connor looks to me for solidarity.
I shake my head. He can tell me what he’s been thinking about in private.
My uncle’s already barely tolerating Connor’s behavioral issues, and now he’s cost him all our assets.
Many lives were lost to save mine. For Connor, the price is worth paying. My brother would burn the world for me.
I wish he wasn’t that way.
If my uncle thinks Con is taking his meds and meditating, he’s more inclined to let Connor stay with us.
But if he thinks Connor isn’t doing his part, meaning working on himself, Endo will make him leave the family.
Connor is very bright and is brilliant with computers.
His absence would not only hurt him but also the family business.
“I’ll tell you later, Dec,” Connor finally says, thankfully.
“Now that we’re not thinking as much,” Endo says, “let’s get going.” He stands and stretches, flexing his muscles. “Con,” he says. “I need you back on the Gregory pipeline.”
“I’m on it.”
“Now.”
“Five minutes.”
“Now.” Endo keeps the door open, and Connor slides out.
My brother will sneak back in here in five minutes.