Page 67 of Declan

She holds her hand out and says, “Are you coming?”

I don’t hesitate, not even for a moment.

I take her hand, and she leads me out of the room.

25

Searching for Answers

Declan

IsneakawayfromIssa’s place just before dawn, leaving her asleep in her bed.

It pains me greatly to be walking away from her, wanting nothing more than to snatch her up and lock us both away for the rest of our days, laws and rules be damned.

I arrive back at my penthouse not too long after, and Tony and Dare are in the kitchen, fucking with my fancy coffee machine and most likely getting nowhere.

I drop my coat and keys on the table as I enter the room, hurrying over and shooing them away before their brutish ways end up busting my lovely machine. “If you don’t know how to use it, please don’t touch it.”

Tony makes a face as he replies, “I can assure you I know how to use it,” he pauses and points at Dare before continuing, “I just came in and was saving it from this knucklehead.”

Dare shows him his middle finger, then shrugs, “I just want a regular cup of coffee. Why is that so difficult now?”

“You sound like Nettie,” Tony answers as he sits on the other side of the counter, watching me work the machine with care. “I’ll take a double espresso since you’re in the coffee business, Dec.”

I quickly make their coffees, then make one for myself, and then we pick up our drinks and walk out of the kitchen and down the hall to my study. We don’t bother with the desk; instead, we settle in the seating area I have set up on the far side of the room, and then we sit there in silence as we all ruminate over our current predicament.

“So,” Tony begins. “Did you do it?”

I groan, turning to him as I say, “No, Tony. I didn’t fucking do it. Jesus fucking Christ, what’s wrong with you?”

Tony looks genuinely confused for a moment, and then he says nonchalantly, “No one would blame you if you had.”

I sigh and rub my hand over my face tiredly. Then, Dare says, “Well, it wasn’t Antoinette.”

I peer at him through my fingers and ask, “How do you know that?”

“The same reasons I know it wasn’t you,” he replies. “She said she didn’t do it, and if she had, there wouldn’t be a body.”

His logic is sound. Antoinette may be a fucking nut job, but she knows how to clean up her own messes. And she wouldn’t lie to Dare about it.

“But how the hell are we supposed to figure out who actually killed that weasel?” I growl. “I’m certain if we took a poll of all the people in Hollywood, at least half would say they had a problem with him. He was known to be a giant fucking dirtbag.”

“I know who did it,” a new voice interjects, and we all look across the room to see Mathias Shields standing in the doorway, looking frazzled and seriously unhappy to be here.

Dare’s eyes widen in surprise, and Tony snorts, waving his hand around as he says, “Of course you do.”

“Sorry it took me so long to get here,” he responds as he walks into the room and stands nonchalantly in front of us as if he didn’t just drop a huge pile of shit for us to sniff. “Flights were fucked up, so I hired a plane, but then they had issues getting clearance to land at LAX, so we detoured south, but then getting a car to drive back north was a huge fiasco.”

He stops speaking abruptly, finally reading the room and realizing his explanation is entirely unnecessary and unwanted, and he stands there rather awkwardly for a moment before finally saying, “What?”

I gape at him, rising from my chair as I respond, “What? That’s all you’ve got to say after you show up here all,” I make air quotes, “I know who did it.”

He stares at me for a moment and then lifts a shoulder, one of his hands coming up and waving around as he replies, “I suppose you have a point. But in my defense, I didn’t have a burner phone, so I just got here as soon as I could.”

I wave a hand at him dismissively, not giving one single fuck how or why. I have only one question at this point, so I ask, “Who was it?”

“I can’t tell you that,” he says firmly, and I can tell from the set of his jaw and stiffness in his shoulders that he’s not kidding.

---