Page 86 of Cruel Ice

The chill bumps got bigger. The cold deeper. Technical glitch, her ass. “I’m guessing your tech is used in the prison.”

“Your guess would be correct.”

“Declan.” She couldn’t think what to say beyond that. “Declan.”

“He left marks on you, Marley. He killed all those other women. Are you truly going to mourn for him?”

No. She wasn’t. She just?—

“Right and wrong. James told me that he thought the line between those two was particularly thin for me. He’s right. Because when it comes to eliminating a bastard who hurt you, putting him in the ground was therightthing for me.”

She stared up at him. Marley didn’t know what to say. Or do.

“I did try to warn you,” Declan rasped. “Understand me now?”

Her breath came in and out. Not deep. Too shallow and fast.

“It’s not the first time I’ve destroyed a life with the click of a few keys on the computer.” His wooden voice was back. The unemotional one. And his gaze had gone unblinking. “I discovered that talent long ago. My father had other methods for eliminating enemies in his world. My father would have been ever so disappointed with my tactics. Bankrupting someone with the tap, tap, tap of my keys as I slide into their accounts. Setting up meetings that prove the SOBs are smuggling guns and trafficking women and children—getting the fools to talk straight with cops when then they think are talking to otherdealers. It’s all so easy, really. I can destroy a life and never even break a sweat.”

Her breathing was shallow, but each beat of her heart echoed in her head like thunder. “That’s what you do? Work with cops to put away criminals? That hardly seems so bad.”

His hand lifted. He brushed back a lock of her hair. “Oh, sweetheart, I am the criminal, and we both know it.”

They knew?—

“You sonofabitch.”A shadow surged from behind the heavy, billowing curtains to the right—the curtains that blocked the terrace doors. In that desperate instant, she finally realized that the terrible chill in the air? The chill wasn’t just from her fear.A door was open.Someone else had been using the garden terrace—using it to gain entrance to the house.

The intruder lifted a gun and pointed it?—

Declan jumped in front of Marley. He shoved her behind him.

“I knew you were guilty as fuck!”A bellow from the intruder. “And I just heard your confession. Heard every damn word! You’re going to jail, you bastard.”

She knew the voice—knew the shadow. Detective Parker Ellis. He’d gotten into Declan’s home, and he was aiming his gun at Declan. “No!” Marley screamed.

“Yes!”Parker shouted right back. “He’s dirty, Marley. As fucking dirty as they come—youheardwhat he did! How many times do you think he’s tapped with his tech and ended lives? Snuffed out people like they werenothing?Just like his father! He’s just like his father!”

She tried to surge forward. Declan shoved her back once more and?—

Boom.

She screamed at the explosion of sound. Screamed because she thought Declan had been hit and his blood would cover her, and she’d lose him, and she didn’tcareabout Glass or—or?—

“Stay the fuck behind me, Marley,” Declan rasped.

He…he hadn’t been shot. He was still on his feet.

And still using his body to shield her.

But she peeked around him, and she saw that Parker was weaving on his feet. He had his gun in his hand and a mixture of shock and horror and pain covered his face. “How…” Parker’s knees hit the floor.

“He set off the alarm the minute he entered the terrace door.” James’s voice. And James was striding into the den with a gun in hand. A gun he’dfiredat Parker because she could see the blood on Parker’s chest now. The deep bloom of red that spread too fast. “As soon as I got the alert, I came at once from the guest house. The cop’s gone rogue, just like I warned you, Declan. He wanted you dead because of what your father did to his family.”

“Marley…” Parker still had his grip on the gun. He waved it toward her and Declan. “H-help me…”

“Get the fuck behind the couch,” Declan growled at her. “No, get the fuckoutof here,” he corrected. Then he was lunging forward. Rushing straight to Parker. “I didn’t get a security alert.”

“Maybe it was a glitch. Those do happen, I hear.” An odd note had entered James’s voice. “Don’t worry. I’ll end him,” James promised. “I must have missed his heart. That’s not like me. Let’s try again?—”

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