Page 57 of Midnight Escape

They’d just finished tucking their shirts into their pants when the knock on the door sounded. He couldn’t do anything about the bulge proudly displayed in his pants. It’d go down in no time, but it might be noticeable to their guest, who was apparently someone they knew.

When he answered the door, several emotions ran through him—anger, worry, relief, to name a few. Justin—whose girl he almost took to bed—stood on his doorstep, looking worse for wear.

“Come in,” Danny said. As his brother entered, he noticed the sling holding Justin’s arm tight to his body. The bruises had purpled but the swelling in his right jaw remained. “Have a seat.”

Moira gasped and squeaked when she saw Justin. Before he could ask another question, Moira was lavishing attention on his brother. Technically, her boyfriend, or so he’d assumed. And if that was the case, she’d cheated by kissing him. But he wouldn’t say anything. He would ask Justin to step back though. Unless he loved her too.

Whoa, wait a minute, love? Impossible. She hadn’t been here that long. Okay, it had almost been four months. However, they hadn’t even had sex yet. How could you love someone without having sex? Heck, they’d just kissed for the first time. Okay, the second time if they counted the tavern kiss. Still, maybe he just liked her a lot. He knew he wanted to be with her both in and out of clothes all the time. More than he had any other woman.

“He knows you’re alive,” Justin said to Moira. “I barely got out of there myself.”

“What happened?” Danny dropped in the chair opposite the couch where Justin and Moira sat close together.

“It’s the money. Declan pulled funds. Dead men don’t pull funds.”

Damn. He forgot to talk with Devon about a safe way for them to access their funds. Since Moira hadn’t needed any, he’d forgotten about the situation. If only he’d done so at the beginning, maybe they wouldn’t have been found. “Does he know where?”

“No. And he tried hard. I had a dislocated shoulder”—he pointed to the shoulder with a sling on his arm— “and some bruises, but luckily, no internal bleeding and nothing broken.”

“How’d you get away?”And did you lead them here?He wanted to know because, right now, he wasn’t sure whether to trust his brother. Danny figured if Boyle had found out about Justin, his brother would probably be dead or close to it.

“Boyle chose the wrong guy to beat the truth out of me. It was too easy to overpower him. Maybe he didn’t try hard because everyone loves Diana, and they don’t want Boyle to find her.”

“Excuse me,” Danny said, before standing and walking down the hall to his bedroom. Directly into his comms mic, he said, “Heads up. Stay alert.”

“We already are,” John answered.

With John and Cowboy on duty tonight, he felt safe. No one would get by those two. He still was glad John hadn’t kicked Cowboy’s ass yet. Then again, their night partnership was young. “I’ll brief you as soon as I have the facts.”

“Roger,” Cowboy said.

Rejoining Justin and Moira, his stomach lurched as Moira gingerly traced the bruises on his brother’s face. Tenderly. With emotion. But was it love? Heck, she didn’t love him either, but he hoped she’d come around if they were a couple and had the chances other couples did. It’d be tough with her in protection—especially now—but it wasn’t impossible.

“Tell me everything.” He regained his seat and focused on his brother’s beat-up body, not Moira reacting to it.

“Someone at the bank alerted Boyle. I’m not sure why they didn’t tell him where it came from, since they’d surely know. So he came to me first. I almost had him convinced someone had hacked the account, but, in the end, he didn’t want to believe that. He wanted to exact his form of punishment.”

“Kill them, you mean,” Danny said.

“Yeah, including Moira, but not because of Diana and Declan. Boyle figured out she was outside the door during that meeting and won’t take the chance that she heard something she shouldn’t have. But don’t get me wrong, he wants Declan in a fierce way.” He took a deep breath and appeared to be in pain doing it. Ribs possibly. Justin was probably right about being allowed to break free. Unless he brought them here. But with the way he looked at Moira—with caring not guilt—Danny began to doubt he’d brought Boyle with him.

“At least he doesn’t know where we are. It’d be tough to find us in this country,” Moira said.

“That doesn’t mean less protection here. If anything, it will be tighter,” Danny told her.

“It won’t take long,” Justin said, “for Boyle to browbeat the banker for a location. Since there’d been no need, no one’s protecting Diana and Declan.”

“Who do you think is Boyle’s priority?”

“Moira. You heard her recording. That’s the priority. Diana is—” Justin paused, “—just family business.”

Fear clouded Moira’s features, and he wished he’d asked that question out of her earshot. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“Yeah. I had to see a doc about the shoulder, and he checked me out. The ribs are bruised with small fractures, nothing to be concerned with.”

Danny narrowed his eyes. Except his brother’s jaw was still swollen. And there might be more. He hoped not.

“Thank goodness,” Moira said.

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