Page 81 of Cruel Ice

Cade’s mouth twisted into a half-smile. His gaze never left Declan’s face. “I wanted to destroy you.”

“Notgoing to happen,” Marley retorted. “Don’t you even think about it.”

Ah, but he knew Cade had done more than justthink it.Time to bring all his enemies out into the open. That bomb explosion had rushed his timeline. No more playing.

The limo door opened again. This time, Hunter slipped inside. Declan had seen Hunter approaching through the tinted window. Once Hunter was in, Andy closed the door behind him.

Hunter glanced at a tense Cade, and then, with no hesitation at all, Hunter pulled out his gun.

“What is happening?” Marley demanded. She surged forward.

Gently, firmly, Declan pushed her back against the seat. “I’m facing the past, sweetheart. Time for a reckoning.”

“I hate reckonings,” she whispered. “I think they really, really suck.”

Yeah, well, Cade was on your suspect list, too. This reckoning has to happen.

“Don’t mind me. I’m just making sure things don’t get out of hand,” Hunter announced to the group. “Uh, Declan, I thought the plan was towaituntil I was with you for this chat?”

“Saw you coming. Knew you’d jump right in the car.”

“Yeah, well, it wouldn’t have killed you towaitjust a few more minutes.” Hunter had his weapon pointed right at Cade.

“Are you shitting me right now?” Cade blasted at Hunter. “You have your gun on me? We arefriends.I let you use my season tickets for the Bears!”

“So does Declan. He lets me use his tickets all the time.” Hunter raised one eyebrow. “And he has box seats.”

“Fuck.” Cade’s lashes flickered. “So what’s the consensus? I’m evil, and I’m about to be driven away—while dozens of cops watch—just so I wind up with two bullets in me,exactly like my parents?” Rage infused his voice.

“I’m sorry for what happened to your parents.” Declan meant that. He was damn sorry. “My father was a twisted bastard, and he let no enemies escape his wrath.”

Cade wet his lips. “I used to think you were exactly like him.”

“Many people think I am.” The charge hardly surprised him. But it did piss him off.I am not my father.

“Youaren’thim.” Fierce. From Marley. “Declan, stop playing the devil. You’re not an angel, but you don’t belong in hell, either.”

He was far, far from an angel. And he’d been living in hell for a very long time.

“You paid for my college,” Cade suddenly said. “Bought my older sister a new home, too. Took me ages to figure that shit out. To figure out how we went from having absolutely nothing one day to her almost winning the lottery and having money to get my niece the treatment she needed for her cancer. Luann—she’d raised me when my parents died. She was eighteen, and she took over the care of a ten-year-old brat with way too many anger issues. We struggled and fought to survive…and in a blink, everything became easy.” His chest rose and fell. “Nothing in this world is supposed to be easy, but suddenly, life was. We had all the food we could eat. New cars. It was all too good to be true.”

I was trying to fix what my father had broken.

“Then I started digging, tearing through all the BS red tape and bureaucracy crap out there, and I realized it was you. You’d made your company into a success. You were paying all of our debts. You were helping my sister and her kid and you…fuck, Ihatedyou. You were barely older than me, and you were doingthat shit like it was nothing. Shoving blood money at us to wipe away your sins.”

“Declanearnedthat money,” Marley fired at him. “His dad left him with nothing but heartache and ashes, so don’t you tell him that?—”

“Iknow.” Cade lifted his hands. His palms faced Declan and Marley. “Ease up on me. I realized that shit fast, okay? My niece got better. I quit college and joined the SEALs because I needed to dosomething.I was twisting in rage, and I was lost. I’d dragged my sister down for too long. It was time to stand on my own, and I did. But I saw things in my service…did things…” A swallow. “Life isn’t black and white. And fuckingDeclan Flynnprovided tech that helped my team, again and again. I saw you in hotspots, Declan.I saw you.You were in places where some rich prick should never have been.” A shake of his head. “Why the hell were you over there? Why not stay in some safe high-rise far away from danger?”

Declan felt his own lips curl in a humorless smile. “High-rises aren’t nearly as safe as you might believe.”

A sharp bark of laughter came from Cade. “You crazy sonofabitch.” A shake of his head. “I wanted to hate you. Ididhate you for so long. Then I got out, and I got a job at your company. Didn’t think you knew who I was, but you did, didn’t you? All along?”

“Yes, all along.”

“Declan.” Marley’s low murmur. “We seriously are going to have a talk about hiring people who want to kill you. It is not good form. Your HR team needs an overhaul.”

“I don’t.” A quick denial from Cade. His gaze was straight on Declan. “I don’t want to kill you. You’re not your father. Thank Christ. But your PI is right about one thing, though. You’re no angel. You will never be a saint, either. But you’re not the devil. I’ve seen the things you do. When you think no one is watching.I know you try to fix the chaos that your father left behind. And you try to stop the evil out there. Probably because you know personally just how fucked some monsters truly are. We can’t let them keep attacking the innocent, can we?”

---