Page 61 of Cruel Ice

Royal cleared his throat. “Here I am, living my unconventional life, and then, one day, this billionaire with my face appears in Savannah. Pretty much right in the midst of carnage because some deadly shit is happening. He sees me standing over a dead man, and you know what he says?”

Marley shook her head.

Royal’s gaze was on Declan. “He asks if I need help burying the body.”

Declan waited for Marley to snatch her hand from his. She had to be horrified by his brother’s revelations. After all, Royal wasn’t bullshitting. He was telling the cold, hard truth.I did offer to help him bury the body. And I would have done it in an instant.

Not like it would be the first time that Declan made a body vanish. Not the first, and certainly not the last.

“The dead man was a killer,” Marley said. “I told you, I am familiar with this story. Just didn’t connect the Ice Breakers—and you—to Declan. I should have.”

“I didn’t know the dead man was a killer at the time.” Why had he just pointed out that fact? Declan didn’t know.

“You were being a good brother,” she assured him.

Uh, no. He didn’t think aiding and abetting counted as a brotherly duty. “I don’t thinkgoodentered the equation,” he returned.

“I appreciated the offer,” came Royal’s wry voice. “And in return, I wanted to help out the man wearing my face. So when I learned he was looking into our mother’s murder—well, I said I’d be happy to assist. That I could connect some friends to probe into the events of that long ago time. After all, I want the truth, too. I want to know how I got ripped from my brother’s life and how my mom wound up in the ground when, apparently, all she wanted was to protect her sons.” Grief and pain flashed in his eyes only to be quickly masked.

“The Ice Breakers.” Marley nodded. “They are the friends. You’ve been using Ice Breaker resources to help.”

“Yes.” Royal crossed his arms over his chest. “But like I said, this is a very classified case. But the small team I’ve assembled has been digging. Stirring up the past. Trying to figure out justwhat happened—or rather, who the hell forced our mother’s car off the road and sent her to a fiery death. Declan thinks it was our sadistic freak of a dad. That the man couldn’t handle the fact that his wife was leaving him. And so far, all signs do point to that version of events.”

“So whatever the Ice Breakers are doing,” Declan had to point out, “it’s not related to my abduction. Because my mother’s killer seems to be dead.”I killed him.“And the dead can’t reach out from the grave and kill again.”

“They’d better not,” she muttered. Her shoulders squared. “Okay. Fine. We’ll let that investigation remain separate, for now. But, Royal, I want to know everything about the recent attack on you. Every detail you can remember. Maybe you and Declan just have a family trait of pissing off dangerous people and having them go ballistic. Could be two separate enemies gunning for you.”

“I do have plenty of people who hate me,” Royal confessed, seemingly modest. “But this particular attack…so close in time to what is happening with Declan…hell, I can’t help but be suspicious.”

Declan was plenty suspicious himself.

“Me, too,” Marley revealed. “I’m highly suspicious. And in order to get to the truth, you two…” Her gaze swung between them. “Need to both be completely honest with me. No secrets. No lies.” Her shoulders rolled back. Squared. “Who out there hates you so much that torture and death is the path of vengeance that he’s taking?”

Sometimes,you could kill two birds with one stone. Wasn’t that the old saying? As he waited in the darkness and peered at thedistant lights of the mansion that belonged to Declan Flynn, rage twisted and seethed inside of him.

Garrison Flynn had come home. Not that the man called himself Garrison these days.Royal Boudreaux.That was his new name. But names didn’t matter. It was the bodies—the souls that mattered. And Royal would have a soul as twisted and dark as Declan’s.

Just like their father’s soul.

He’d seen Royal outside of Declan’s high-rise. Watched the man slip into Declan’s limo. Watched him be welcomed into that limo when he did not belong in Declan’s world.

He hadn’t followed them right away. What would be the point? He’d known exactly where they were heading. And there had been other business to attend to. Another loose end to cut. With Declan gone from the high-rise, with security lowered for the night, it had been so easy to get inside and leave a few surprises behind.

He did enjoy surprises. Would Declan enjoy the surprises as much? Probably not. But wasn’t that the point?

There are lots of forms of torture in this world.Some were the physical tortures. The ones he’d planned for Declan in that basement. Breaking bones. Ripping skin. Pain that would make you shriek.

But other forms of torture were emotional. Psychological.That’s when you are playing with your prey.Sometimes, those methods of torture were the worst.

So he’d played a bit. He wanted Declan to know there was no one in his life that truly gave allegiance to him.You are surrounded by enemies, Declan.And even the pretty Marley Jones wasn’t safe.

She intrigued him. Fascinated him. But…disappointed him. Because she was supposed to see evil, yet she ran to Declan ather first chance. She should have left. Turned from the monster. Instead, she seemed drawn to the darkness.Such a mistake.

He had planned to be fairly merciful with Royal Boudreaux. A quick end because the man was just in his way.You should have died when you were a child. Then I wouldn’t have to hunt you now.But Royal had seen the SUV coming as it barreled toward him on the Savannah street. He’d escaped the attack so quickly. Only been left a bit bloody and with bruises. The driver he’d hired for the attack had been apologetic. He’d sworn that he wouldn’t fail a second time.

I don’t give second chances.He had given the man two bullets. One to the chest. One to the head.

Royal had left Savannah. Probably hadn’t even learned that a dead man had been found inside an abandoned SUV. And now Royal was here. In a place he should not be. The man should have realized that it wasn’t safe to come home, not ever again.

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