Page 74 of Cruel Ice

“I…wanted you to be clear from the doc.”

Was he talking about those stitches again? Like a few stitches—or a dozen—would slow her down for long. “I can hunt with you just fine. Time for you to cough up your list of suspects. I want to know your enemies, Declan. I want to know every secret that you possess. Share everything with me. That’s the only way for us to get to the truth. I need to know it all. Good. Bad. All the sins that you want hidden, you have to share them with me.”

His hold tightened on her.

He didn’t speak. Just held her. The minutes drifted past. Slumber pulled at her. Her eyelids sagged closed. Declan kept holding her close.

And, just as she began to drift off, she heard… “Be careful what you wish for, sweetheart. Very, very careful.”

Chapter Seventeen

Marley pausedbeside the empty desk just outside of Declan’s office. She’d expected to see Pierre sitting there with his back perfectly straight. With his eyes glinting at her from behind the frames of his glasses. A slightly angry glint. Maybe a judgy one.

She’d prepared for battle.

Only…

Pierre wasn’t there.

Declan strode past the empty desk and toward his office.

“Probably giving someone hell someplace.” He unlocked his door. “Pierre is good at that sort of thing. Come on inside.”

But Pierre’s computer was turned off. And the desk chair was in the exact position it had been in the previous night. She remembered because she’d glanced over to make sure Pierre was long gone when she and Declan had left. “I don’t think he’s been here yet today.”

Declan waved her inside. “Why are you obsessed with Pierre?”

She did not go inside his office. “Because your assistant strikes me as the type who is never late. I mean, the man was still here with you at 8 p.m. last night. Everything about Pierre screamed devoted-to-the-job.” And something just nagged ather. “Has he ever been late?” Because it was nearing ten a.m. Declan had just wanted to swing by the office to collect files to use in their investigation. Or at least, that had been his story.

They’d been trailed by Cade and Hunter all the way to the elevator on the lobby floor. The men had just stayed below because they’d been certain the building was secure.

But the nagging continued as she eyed the desk.

“Pierre is always on time.” Declan ambled away from his now open office. Frowned. “Maybe he’s sick?”

Maybe. And maybe… “He really did not like me yesterday.”

“Pierre doesn’t like many people. That’s why he’s good at his job. He’s great at telling people to fuck off when I’m not interested in talking with them.”

Yes, she could see where Pierre would excel in that department. But she could also see… “He’s your personal assistant.”

“Uh, yeah. The term he prefers is executive assistant.”

“He knows everything about you.”

“He knows my business. Not my personal life.”

She shook her head and crept toward the desk. Her hand slid along the back of the chair. “You are so wrong. There would have been a million conversations that he’d heard over the years. Conversations you thought were private. Assistants hear everything. They always know the best gossip. When I did the real estate bit, the agency’s owner had this insanely organized assistant who knew everything. And I meaneverything.Where the owner took his mistress for dinner. How many times the guy had cheated on his wife. Where every single body was buried.” She reached for the top desk drawer. Pulled it open. Tried to, anyway. It was locked.

“You think Pierre knows where I bury bodies?” An amused rumble of laughter. Dark laughter. “Obviously, darling, you don’t get that when I bury bodies, no one finds them again.”

Her head whipped toward him. “Are you making a joke?” A bad one.

“Maybe I’m sharing all of my deep, dark secrets with you. You wanted to hear them, didn’t you?”

She wanted the truth.

He closed in on her. “Pierre nearly fainted when one of the interns tripped as she was—literally—running with scissors, and she cut a gouge in her hand. The man can’t stand the sight of blood. I hardly think he’s the type to set me up for a torture party.”

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