Page 72 of Dark Secrets

“Out of the kindness of your heart?”

“No. Because I’m in love with her.” He held up his hand even though Brogan made no move to speak. “I know what you’re going to say. I’ve already heard it from Aidan. I need to do this so I can let her go and know she’ll be safe.”

“And what exactly did you hear from Aidan?” Brogan asked, brows raised.

“That I should never have let it get this far with her.”

Brogan bit off a curse. “Well, I fucking hate that.”

“That I’m in love with her?”

“That Aidan and I actually agree on something.”

James clenched his jaw. He didn’t need another lecture. “Are you going to help me or not?”

“What do you need from me?” Brogan asked after a beat.

James closed the distance between them and handed Brogan the paper where he’d jotted the extra details Delaney had given him over the last few days. “I looked into him some on my own. He’s as well connected as she says, so we probably can’t actually make him disappear. As much as I might want to obliterate him off the face of the fucking earth.”

Brogan keyed in the details and brought up several newspaper articles. “Yeah. Too many questions. Plus, I assume you don’t want your girlfriend to think you murdered him.”

“Correct.” James blew out a breath. “I don’t want her to think that.”

“We could do an accident.”

Brogan pulled up a blank window, and his fingers flew over the keys, adding a string of neon numbers and letters that James couldn’t decipher. When he hit enter, a series of windows flooded the screen that looked like official records.

“Your boy’s an attorney?”

“Criminal defense, yeah. Why? Is that going to be a problem?”

“Shouldn’t be. But why’s a criminal defense attorney so chummy with the mayor and the superintendent of police? Don’t they tend to like the guys who aren’t putting criminals back on the street?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t we ask the mayor of Philadelphia what he thinks about Declan’s extracurricular activities?”

Brogan snorted. “Bit different, but I see your point.” He sifted through the windows until something caught his eye, and he let out a low whistle. “Well, well, well. This might prove useful.”

James moved closer to get a better look at the monitor. “A DUI.”

“Multiple DUIs over the last year. Never charged for any of them, though.” More typing. “According to internal and unofficial records, there was another one about two months ago. Wrapped his car around a tree. Lucky to have survived. Single car accident, no charges filed. Looks like a drunk driving accident where he isn’t so lucky might be your best bet.”

James rolled the idea over in his mind. There were multiple ways to stage an accident and make it look real. His main concern would probably be getting in and out as quickly as possible and not leaving any witnesses behind who might be able to identify him. Then again, if Devereaux had a habit of drinking to excess and running his car into things, it wouldn’t raise much suspicion if the accident scene looked right. Open and shut case.

The trick would be James getting away for long enough to take care of it without letting Declan or Aidan know what he was up to. It’s not like he could take a spontaneous vacation without raising some eyebrows. It would be a quick trip down to New Orleans once he had more information and knew Devereaux’s patterns better.

“This woman really that important to you?”

Brogan’s question drew James out of his thoughts, and he leveled his cousin with a steely stare. “Was Libby that important to you when DiMarco demanded you hand her over?”

“All right then,” Brogan agreed. “Whatever you need to take this fucker out, I’ll get it for you. And when you’re ready to go down there and end him, I can cover for you.”

“Thank you.” James shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “Can you get me some surveillance on him? Is that possible from this far away?”

“Difficult but not impossible.”

Heading for the hall, James paused at the door. “And Brogan? Can we keep this between us? I already know how Aidan feels about Delaney and me. I can’t imagine Declan will take the news any better.”

“You can’t help who you love, James. Even if you don’t get to keep them. Something both of my brothers forget when it’s convenient. I’ll get you everything I can in the next day or two.”

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