Page 1 of Declan

Prologue

Declan

It’s dark, the rain pouring down in sheets, but I can barely feel it. My heart pounds so hard inside my chest that it feels like it might break free. Dozens of my men are scattered near the lake at the park. I clench my fists until my knuckles turn white. Kian is already here, waiting. The look in his eyes says it all.

Fuck.

“Where?” My voice is rough, trembling as if I’m barely holding it together. My hands are fists again, knuckles still white. This can’t be real. Not her. Not now. She’s everything to me.

Kian glances ahead, his face tightening. “Don’t, brother. You don’t want to see her like this.”

Fuck that. It’s Elva. My Elva. I push past him, ignoring his calls. My insides twist painfully, a knot of dread tightening with every step. I know what I’m walking toward. He’s right—Ishould’ve stopped. But I can’t. I need to see her. My legs feel like lead, dragging through the mud and rain as if the world itself is trying to hold me back.

My chest shatters.

Elva. My beautiful Elva.

The ground beneath me sways, and I collapse to my knees, my body buckling under the crushing weight. The pain rips through me, raw and relentless, as if something vital has been torn away. My eyes burn, tears blurring my vision, but I won’t blink them away. I don’t want to look. I can’t bear to.

Why her? Why now? She doesn’t deserve this. She’s an angel. My angel.

Her body is still, drenched by the rain. The blood has stopped flowing, but I can see where they shot her—straight to the head. Those fucking cowards. The rain mixes with her blood, washing it into the earth, but it can never erase what they’ve done. Nothing ever will.

I lean into her, my hands shaking as I reach for her, desperate to hold her, to feel her skin one last time. My fingers brush her cold cheek, and my breath catches. “Elva, baby,” I whisper, my voice cracking. A desperate part of me waits for her to respond, to open her eyes and laugh like this is some sick joke. But she won’t. She can’t.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. We were supposed to be safe now. The Dark Wars are over, and the Irish Consortium is at peace. What the fuck went wrong?

“Dec, brother.” Connor’s voice slices through the chaos in my head—quiet, firm. “The police are here.” His tone drops. We both know the chiefs here, too. He knows exactly what this means.

And so do I.

I rise, my hands shaking with rage as I look down at Elva’s lifeless body. I don’t care who did this or where they are. I willfind them. I’ll fucking burn this city to the ground if I have to. Someone had the guts to kill my fiancée, and I’ll make them pay. No matter what.

The pain is like a knife in my chest, twisting deeper with every second I stare at her. The world narrows to this one brutal moment where everything I ever wanted is gone, stolen from me. It tears me apart, each breath jagged and raw as the rain keeps falling. But then I hear it.

“Mister Callaghan.”

His sharp and grating voice rips me out of the haze of grief, pulling me back. The Chief’s voice echoes behind me—slimy and insincere. “My condolences,” he says, but I can hear it in his tone; he’s shaking, not from the cold.

I turn slowly; fists clenched at my sides. My vision blurs with the anger boiling over, but as I face him, something shifts. The pain… doesn’t fade, but it hardens and twists into something cold, something sharp. His eyes flare when they meet mine, his cowardice plain as day. He stutters through the lie: “We will do everything we can to find who is responsible for this tragedy.”

Liar. He won’t do shit. He’s never done anything worth a damn. The only thing the Chief’s good at is selling himself out to the highest bidder—and for now, that’s us. But I don’t trust him for a second.

Elva was here, in this park, doing her usual late afternoon walk. Two of my best men were with her. Now, all three are dead. An ambush, pure and simple. This was no random attack; it was planned and precise.

My hands flex, the muscles in my jaw tightening so hard I think my teeth might crack. I glance at Kian, barely needing to speak. “Kian.” That’s all it takes. He meets my gaze, eyes red, fighting the tears. A single nod passes between us. He knows exactly what needs to be done. There’s no more room for hesitation. No more mercy.

I take a slow, deep breath, letting the cold settle deep in my chest. The grief, the agony—they’re still there—but I push them back, locking them behind walls of ice. My heart hardens, closing off from anything that might break me again. This is who I have to be now. Cold. Ruthless. Focused. The man who could love died with her.

What’s left is the man who will tear this fucking city apart.

Nothing else matters now but the blood I’m about to shed. I’ll hunt down the ones who did this. I’ll make them suffer in ways they can’t even imagine. And when I find them, when they beg for mercy, I’ll remind them of this moment—the rain, the blood, Elva’s lifeless ]body. I’ll make sure they regret every second they dared to breathe after taking her from me.

I turn to the Chief, my voice low, deadly. “You won’t find them,” I say, cold and stoic. “But I will—and when I do, I’ll make them wish they’d never touched her.”

Chapter 1

Declan

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