Page 76 of Cruel Ice

Her head swiveled toward the elevator. She sucked in a breath because if this was Pierre, now would be the perfect time for her to grill him. Declan probably thought she was crazy to go off on this tangent, but she’d woken early this morning, and the more she’d considered the people closest to Declan, the more afraid she’d become.

Declan won’t give me a list of his enemies. Is that because…is it because he thinks the enemies are close?She felt like he was holding back on her. Keeping his secrets when he should have revealed everything, and that crap needed to stop. Correction, itwasstopping.

If he was afraid she’d turn from him if she learned all the dark parts he kept hidden from the world, then the man was mistaken. She never intended to turn from Declan. Wasn’t even sure that she could.

The doors parted.

And Hunter McQueen strode out. “He’s not answering his door or his phone, boss.”

She let go of Declan’s hand. “What?”

“I took the liberty of breaking in his house, of course,” Hunter added with a shrug. “His place looks undisturbed. I don’t think he went home last night. My gut is telling me that the guy could be in the wind.”

She looked at Hunter and his stern, I-never-laugh-but-I-often-kill expression, then Marley peered at Declan and his unreadable face. “What is happening right now?”

Declan raised his brows. “I may have reached the same conclusion you did.”

“What?” Marley hated that she seemed to keep repeating the same, sharp exclamation.

“I haven’t been just sitting on my ass this past week either, sweetheart. I’ve been digging. Pulling financials. Ripping into the lives of those I should be able to trust. People like Pierre.”

Her heartbeat began to drum faster. “You suspect him, too? You suspect him and yet you still let me do that whole spiel about why he could be in involved in this mess?”

“Yes…and yes.”

“Declan,” she snapped.

“I wanted to see why you thought he might be guilty. Him, James, Cade…” He motioned toward a watchful Hunter. “Hunter.”

“Me, too?” Hunter grunted, but didn’t seem offended. “Yeah, I could torture the hell out of a person. I know all the tricks.” He sauntered forward, as if admitting he could torture someone for hours and wreck a person’s life was just a common confession. “Glad to know I made your suspect list, PI.”

She shook her head. Anger and confusion hummed through her. “You both think Pierre is guilty?”

“I found an offshore account the guy had yesterday,” Declan admitted. “Took some time, even for someone with my tech skills and connections.”

“Connections in all the wrong places,” Hunter murmured.

This was the chattiest she’d ever seen the former Ranger.

“He’d buried that account,” Declan added. “But I got access. And I saw the payments. Some that have been coming for a while now. One that hit the day after my abduction.”

Her breath shuddered out. “It’s him. Pierre’s involved.” She glanced back at the desk. “He knows you’re on to him. He’s run?” He must have. That was why he wasn’t at work. Why he hadn’t been at home when Hunter had checked that location.

And why does Declan trust Hunter so much? I thought he didn’t trust anyone.But he’d told Hunter about his suspicions regarding Pierre, and Hunter had gone out to track down the assistant.

The missing assistant. Who’d run and was hiding?—

“Or he’s just, you know, dead,” Declan concluded.

She jolted. “He was alive last night! Right here!” Her gaze flew back to him.

Declan stared straight at her.

Did you kill him, Declan?Her lips pressed together. She would not voice the question because, no, absolutely not, he hadn’t. Declan had been with her all evening.

“Doesn’t mean he’s still alive,” Declan said. “We’ve got a killer eliminating loose ends. If Pierre was another part of his hired help, he’d need to be eliminated, too.”

“Security doesn’t have a record of him leaving last night,” Hunter revealed. “Probably need to start a floor-by-floor search. Considering just how many floors there are in this beast of a building, that could take some time.”

---