Page 32 of Vengeful Vows

“Something like that.” I chuckle.

“Paige and I tried to tell you that Declan isn’t such a bad guy.”

“He’s not, but he still drives me crazy.”

She laughs out loud, and the sound echoes in the large kitchen. “That’ll never change.”

We chat for a bit longer before I head back up to the bedroom. When I slide back into bed with Declan, he instantly rolls toward me, putting his arms around me.

I feel warm and safe and almost like home.

This is supposed to be my enemy. I can’t feel like this. What the hell is wrong with me?

9

DECLAN

The way that Bree acted two nights ago confuses me. It’s not just the sex. From the first time I touched her it was clear she was as into it as I was. So, that’s not the problem. The problem is everything else.

The way she wanted to know more about me, how she cuddled up next to me.

What is she trying to pull?

I can’t deny that she’s better this way than depressed like she was at dinner the other night, but it’s so different than her fiery anger that I’m a little concerned. Especially because this side of her pulls me in even deeper than angry Bree.

Fuck me. I don’t have time to muse about it. It’s time to meet with Niall Murphy and finally take the next step in my master plan. I can’t wait.

My hope is he tries to start a war immediately so that I can take him down with a bullet between his eyes.

Gray is coming with me, of course, and there’s a light in his blue eyes I haven’t seen in a while. He loves shit like this, and usually, I don’t. But Niall Murphy is different. It’s personal between us, and I can’t wait to see the look on his ugly face.

“You ready?” Gray grins.

I grin back. “I was born ready.”

We’re taking Sean and Finn O’Toole, two of our guys. They’re fraternal twins, one is blond, and one is dark-haired. They are massive and it’s even more clear when they pile into a second car as Gray and I take one of his convertibles.

It’s about a twenty-minute drive out to Niall Murphy’s place, and I frown when we pull up at the gates. “How do we get in?”

“Oh, I called ahead.” Gray’s still grinning. “He called me every name in the book, but I told him we had information about his daughter.”

Good. He’ll already be angry. Maybe it’ll spur him to do something stupid like try to shoot one of us.

I pull up to the intercom and it buzzes immediately.

“Aw, he didn’t want to talk to us,” Gray says with a decidedly evil cackle, and I smile back as we drive up to the main house. It’s a bit smaller than ours, but no less opulent.

The doors are covered in wolves, the Murphy family crest, and it’s a bit tacky, if you ask me, even though they seem to be carved from marble.

Sean and Finn pull up behind us and get out, adjusting their suits. We look like a bunch of mobsters today, all wearing suits as if we’re going to a wedding.

Or a funeral.

The door opens before I can ring the doorbell, and a truly giant man stands there, glaring down at us.

“It’s the Wolfhound,” Gray whispers, seeming awed.

The man has close-cropped red hair, a full but well-kept ginger beard, and he towers over me by at least three inches, which is crazy since I’m six-foot-two. He’s as wide as he is tall, almost, his shoulders barely fitting in the huge doorway.

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