Page 23 of Curvy Hostage Mate
One of the reasons I have no intention of telling her anything about this.
Declan stared at me, still unsmiling as he continued to scrutinize me. Then he seemed to come to some sort of conclusion.
“Jackson, I need to talk to Chris alone for a bit,” Declan said. “Go check to make sure Cain has left the building. See if we can’t find someone to tail them to find out if they’re holding up somewhere nearby, or if they’re going back to the Underside.”
Jackson nodded. He glanced at me once, but didn’t say anything. He turned and walked out the door.
The instant the door closed, Declan said, “You have her. That wasn’t a bluff?”
“Yes, I have her,” I answered.
Declan closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before opening them again. “Tell me the whole story,” he ordered.
I did. Declan listened with his trademark stoic expression, arms crossed as he nodded along. I tried to read his expression, to figure out just how up to my knees in shit I actually was. I couldn’t get a good read on it. Still, he needed to know, so I kept going, despite the growing anger burning just behind his eyes.
“You do realize how incredibly stupid and risky all of this was, right?” he asked after I finally finished.
“Very,” I muttered through gritted teeth.
“You jeopardized the mission, put Trent and Nolan on Cain’s radar, and took the one thing Cain would be hellbent on getting back.”
“Well-aware,” I retorted.
“Why did you do it?”
I blinked, some of my defensiveness crumbling at the question. I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting, but not that question. The weird thing was, I didn’t know how to answer Declan. It had just sort of come over me. There had been a strange sort of connection to Morgan, then impulse took over. She’d been in danger, and I’d wanted to help.
Only that didn’t explain everything. I didn’t know how to explain how I had felt about her, how I still felt about her. I didn’t know how to articulate how much I’d hated the thought of seeing her and doing nothing, of having her fate be out of my control. How I couldn’t just stand idly by.
And it was Morgan. Any other woman, I might have been able to keep my composure. But something about seeing her had made me lose it in a way I couldn’t explain.
Declan was still waiting, and I didn’t know how to explain. I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I’d never been good at showing emotion. And this was complicated.
“I was trying to help Kendra,” I finally said, the defense sounding weak even to my own ears. “You know how stressed out she’s been about Morgan.”
“I’m pretty sure Kendra would have been okay with us waiting to get her sister out of it if it had meant keeping Cain off our scent and getting him out of the picture for good,” Declan said flatly, about as polite a way of him saying he thought my explanation was complete bullshit.
“I… didn’t want Morgan there any longer than she had to be,” I said. “She’d already been through enough. All the girls there have been, but none of them are tied to Cain. I saw her, and I needed to help her.”
Declan nodded. “Do you regret it?”
The question took me by surprise. I’d expected yelling, or him to call me a massive idiot. Maybe he just assumed I already knew all of that.
“Not in the slightest,” I responded without a moment of hesitation.
“Is she worth it?”
“Without a doubt,” I growled.
Another nod. Declan let out a puff of air as he lowered his hands to the desk, knitting his fingers together.
“I’ll do what I can from here,” he said. “In the meantime, keep her safe.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“Don’t thank me yet.” Declan gave a feral, angry grin. “You’re still in deep shit for ruining a mission and putting two of your team at risk. And we’ll have words about that. But right now, we have enough on our hands without adding extra punishment. We’ll circle back to all of that once we take care of Cain.”
I nodded. Whatever punishment Declan decided on for me, it’d be fair.
