Page 26 of Cruel Ice

She didn’t even look at the scar. “You must have been so happy.”

Happy? Yeah, he guessed that was how he felt. Maybe. Hard to say for sure because he hadn’t been happy many times in his life.Not real certain what happiness feels like.Maybe he’d just been stunned. “He didn’t remember me.”And I could never forget him.

Her hold tightened on him.

“He had a new name. A new life. A new family.” His lips twisted. “Even a new brother.”

She didn’t just hold his hand. She threw her arms around him and held on tightly.

“Marley?” Why was she hugging him?

“You can have more than one brother,” she declared as she held him as if her life depended on it. “And you can love them just the same.”

His hands hovered over her back. Was he supposed to embrace her, too? The embrace she was giving him wasn’t passionate. Wasn’t about sex at all. He didn’t normally embrace women if sex wasn’t involved. This hug was odd. And it made him feel different. Too uncertain.

“Don’t give up on him. Doesn’t matter who else is in his life now.” She gave him another squeeze, then seemed to realize that he wasn’t holding her in return.

She pulled away just as he began to curl his arms around her.

Marley took a quick step back. She almost bumped into the window. “Don’t give up,” she urged again. “Some people are worth fighting for.”

He nodded, slowly. “They absolutely are.”

Her smile flashed at him, and Declan stopped breathing. It was a real smile. Big and beautiful. Maybe the most beautiful thing that he’d ever seen in his entire life. It lit her eyes. Made the darkness shine, and he realized that Detective Parker Ellis was dead wrong. There was nothing broken about her.

There was only beauty.

A beauty that he would happily kill to protect.

She is going to be mine.

And Declan never, ever gave up what belonged to him.

“Are you ready to hunt the bad guys?” Marley asked him.

Oh, darling. You’re staring straight at the worst guy out there.Maybe she’d figure out that truth at some point. Maybe she wouldn’t. After all, he was very good at pretending. So Declan just nodded once more and said, “Absolutely.”

I’m not just going to hunt these fools. I am going to destroy them.By the time Declan was done, they’d be begging for mercy. Too bad for them, he had never been the merciful sort.

If his father was still alive, he could have vouched for that truth. Sometimes, Declan’s father’s cries still played in his head. The way his father had begged at the end…

Don’t, please…don’t!

But his father had died. And Declan had walked away, covered in his blood and with a scar to remind him that a monster had truly been born that long ago day.

“I heard what Parker said about the bartender.” She grimaced. “Don’t hate me, but I was eavesdropping.”

He wasn’t sure he could hate her.

“I’m not sure the guy is going to cooperate with us after being grilled by the PD.”

“He’ll cooperate.” Declan was certain on that point. “He’ll have no other option.”

“You…just so you know, you kinda sound scary.”

He laughed. “Darling, Iamscary.”

Chapter Six

---