Page 88 of Cruel Ice

“You obsessed him, just like she obsessed his father. I killed her, and I’ll kill you, too.” His smile widened even more as he began to pull the trigger.

She tried to leap to the side. To just get out of the way even as her heart raced in her chest, and the thunder was so loud and wild, and it wouldn’t stop and she?—

Declan slammed into her even as the gun erupted with a blast of thunder far louder than her heartbeat. She hit the hard floor, the impact jarring her body, but it was just bruising. Aches. She hadn’t been shot. She was safe.

Declan’s head lifted. He stared down at her with eyes that blazed with his emotions. “Get the fuck…out of here.”

“I love you, too,” she threw back.

His eyes widened. But then he was rising. Rising and whirling and he had a gun in his hand. Where the hell had he gotten that?

Her frantic gaze jumped across the room. Parker was slumped on the floor, his gun missing from his outstretched hand.

So that’s where Declan got the gun.

James laughed as Declan faced off with him. Marley inched away. The last thing she wanted to do was distract Declan or present a target for James. She needed a gun of her own. Some sort of weapon. And she also needed some help.

Her fingers pulled out her phone. She had Hunter and Cade programmed into her phone, so she sent out a desperate text to them.James is the bad guy. Get your asses here. Hurry!

“You don’t have the killer instinct, son,” James said. He laughed. “You type out commands on a keyboard, but that shit is nothing like pulling a trigger and seeing the life fade from a person’s eyes. That calls for a special kind of darkness. You’re too weak for that. Your father always told me you were weak. He tried to beat that weakness out of you and he?—”

The bullet blasted from Declan’s hand and slammed into James’s right shoulder. James howled in pain even as the gun fell from his fingers.

“He did beat out the weakness.” Declan took a slow step forward. “I stopped being weak the day I killed him. You think he was the only one? You have no idea what I’ve done or whereI’ve been. Hunter could tell you stories about our times in hellholes that would chill your soul.” Another step. “Government contracts are given to me for a reason. Because I get shit done.”

James was frantically trying to staunch the flow of blood that poured like a river down his arm.

“You always thought you knew me, but you didn’t know jack. You abandoned me when I was a kid. Came back when you thought you could position yourself to get money. And that’s what this is all about, isn’t it?” Declan stood about two feet in front of James. “You decided to kill me when you realized I was leaving half my fortune to Royal. Pierre told you, didn’t he? You were paying him to keep tabs on all my business, personal and professional.”

Marley kept the two men within sight as she crept toward Parker, using the furniture to shield her body as much as possible. Was he still alive? He was face down, with his right hand in front of his body, and he didn’t seem to be moving at all.

“That little shit brother of yours should have died years ago!” James raged. “Your mom wouldn’t tell me where she’d stashed him. Not when I put my gun to her heart. She just stared straight at me…and she said I was as bad as Conor was. Can you believe that? I was just doing my job! He’d sent me after her when she ran. I was following orders. I wasneverlike Conor!” Spittle flew from his mouth.

Marley sucked in a breath. She knew each word had to be torture for Declan.James killed his mother.

She reached Parker. She bent to her knees beside him. Her fingers slid toward his neck.

I can’t find his pulse.

“All she had to do was tell me where the fuck your brother was,” James snarled. “I got mad. Her dying was her own damn fault.”

A faint beat shivered beneath her fingers.Alive.

“You hear me, Declan? It was her own damn fault!”

“The hell it was.” Declan’s voice. Burning with fury. So much emotion.

Enough hate to kill a man.

Chapter Twenty

“Your mom wouldn’t tellme where she’d stashed him. Not when I put my gun to her heart. She just stared straight at me…and she said I was as bad as Conor was. Can you believe that?”

Those words blasted through Declan’s head as he stared at James. The man who’d stepped in to be his surrogate father. The man who’d sworn he’d never abandon Declan again. The man who’d been at his side, day in and day out.

“All she had to do was tell me where the fuck your brother was. I got mad. Her dying was her own damn fault.”

Flames burned inside of Declan’s body. So much hate. So much rage.

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