Page 27 of Monsters in the Dark

“’Ave ye lost yer feckin’ mind?” Declan snapped, ignoring his cousin’s pointless remarks.

I threw my head back to hit Declan in the face, but he quickly dodged out of the way as Noah said, “We all know that move, lass.”

“No doubt,” I retorted as my right foot came down on Declan’s shoe, my left arm escaping.

“Jesus feckin’ Christ,” Declan swore, and it wasn’t until Declan, Noah, and one of the two guards had me subdued that I stopped fighting.

“Maybe we should call Lochlan,” Noah suggested.

“Inna druggin’ ‘er again,” Declan snapped, making me feel marginally better. I felt his chest expand against my back before he added, “Take care o’ Tyler, an’ I’ll handle this.”

As soon as the other two men let me go, Declan had a gun pointed to my head, and while I wasn’t afraid to die, there was still a chance of me getting out of here alive if Declan wasn’t already shooting me dead. I had no idea what he had planned next, but my odds would be better if it was just me and him in the room.

“Are you sure?” Noah asked him, and if Declan was offended by the question, he didn’t show it.

“I’m sure,” Declan bit out.

“If ye say so,” Noah muttered.

I didn’t say anything as Declan wrapped his hand around my arm tightly, almost making me wince. “We’r gonna go upstairs, an’ if ye give me any trouble, I will kill ye.”

Like a dutiful captive, I let Declan walk me upstairs, and my eyes scanned everything that they could during the trip to wherever we were going because the more I learned about this place, the better. Cian had taught me to fight for my life until my last dying breath, and that’s what I planned on doing. No matter what awaited me when Declan finally got me to where we were going, it wasn’t over for me.

When we finally reached the second floor, Declan pulled me with him down the hallway towards the left side of the landing, and I was surprised when he opened the last door on the right, pushing me into what looked like someone’s bedroom. There were enough personal effects scattered around that you could easily tell that it wasn’t a simple guest room.

I turned around when I heard the lock on the door engage, and my back straightened when I realized that a two-story fall might sprain an ankle or break a leg, making my escape a little more complicated now. Of course, there was still the option of running right through Declan O’Brien, but I had a feeling that I’d have better success with the window.

“What now?” I asked as Declan still held his gun on me.

His dark blue eyes raked me from head to toe, and that heated feeling was back, something that I still didn’t appreciate. We were already playing a dangerous game without throwing attraction into the mix, and since I wasn’t one to lie to myself, it was plain as day that I was attracted to the man that currently would love to do nothing more than shoot me on the spot.

“Now? Now, yer gonna stop killin’ my men,” he bit out, still angry.

I lifted my chin at that order. “I will as soon as you and your men leave me the hell alone.”

Declan slowly made his way across the room, his steps measured and purposeful, the predator eyeing his prey, though we both knew that I wasn’t quite the prey that he was used to. Halfway across the room, I watched as he placed the gun on a shelf that was too high for me to reach, but that didn’t mean that I still wouldn’t try. The gun also looked out of place next to some knickknacks and a picture of him and a bunch of other guys that looked like him, presumably more O’Briens.

When Declan stopped in front of me, his hand shot up to circle around my throat, but I didn’t try to fight him off because I wanted to see where this was going. Curiosity had me playing my cards close to the vest, especially since we both knew that he should have just killed me already.

“You and I are going to come to a little understanding, or so help me God, I will put a bullet through your beautiful head, then just call it a day,” he threatened, no longer angry.

“I thought I already told you that you needed permission to touch me,” I said defiantly.

“You killing three of my men gave me all the fucking permission that I needed,” he shot back.

Chapter 17

Declan~

She was covered in Tyler’s blood, and I didn’t like it. In fact, I didn’t like anything about this entire clusterfuck. When Noah had finally noticed what’d been happening on the computer screens behind me in the office, we had both raced off, Darrin and Leo automatically joining us, knowing that something was up as we’d been running across the house.

Now, while I had expected to see Keavy trying to make a run for it, I hadn’t expected to see her aiming a gun at me, and how in the fuck did she get loose? Over the years, we’d held a lot of motherfuckers down in that basement, and not one of them had ever gotten free. I had no idea who the fuck this woman was, but I wasn’t letting her go until I found out.

“So, what now?” she challenged. “You rape me to put me in my place?”

My fingers squeezed tighter around her neck. “Oh, baby, ma’e no mistake,” I hissed, offended that she’d dare accuse me of such a thing. “My bed’s neva cold. I donna need ta take unwilling women ta get my dick wet.”

“Then what’s the plan?”

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