Page 81 of Declan

She shakes her head and sighs, then looks at Matt and asks, “How do you even know she’s in there? Maybe they sent the wrong address to throw you off, and they’ve taken her somewhere unknown.”

“Well, if she’s not there, the person who is there will know something,” I reply.

“And they’re going to tell you?” Jessica asks quietly.

Again, I smile and say nothing, and after a moment, she sighs again and shakes her head, muttering incoherently. We all grab weapons, and Matt handles the COMs, giving one to me and taking the other for himself, knowing how we will divide and conquer once we get there.

“We’ll walk from here,” Matt says. “She should be in the building about one hundred yards north.”

We head out at a decent pace, in a hurry but not wanting to draw too much attention to the motley crew trekking the perimeter of a parking lot.

Once the building comes into sight, we split up, Matt and Jessica taking off in one direction. Dare, Tony, and I head off in the opposite direction with the idea we’ll meet in the middle once we’ve circled the perimeter, assuming nothing urgent comes up before then.

We’ve just circled the far side of the building when Matt comes over the COMs that they’ve found a way in, so we double-time it around to the side he’s on and enter to find Matt and Jessica waiting for us.

We creep further into the building, and soon, the room opens up, and we hear men talking; then Issa comes into view, tied to a chair with three men surrounding her and an SUV parked nearby.

One of the men rips the duct tape off her mouth, and she makes a loud pained noise and then says loudly, “You’re gonna wish you’d been nicer to me.”

He frowns at her and replies, “Why the fuck would I wish that?”

“You obviously haven’t met my husband,” Issa mutters rather belligerently, and my eyes widen in surprise. “He’s kind of a dick, you know. I have a feeling he’s going to take this whole ordeal very personally.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“He’s gonna fuck you up,” she retorts. “That’s what I mean.”

The man laughs humorlessly and then steps closer to her, drawing his hand back and backhanding her across the face. Her head jerks to the side, but she doesn’t cry out, and when she faces him again, she laughs. “You’re going to regret that.”

He frowns at her, opening his mouth to reply, but then he stops and looks around, asking, “What the fuck is that noise?”

All of the men surrounding Issa are looking around now, and she does the same, so I look around as well, only to find my own people staring at me with wide eyes.

And that’s when I realize that fucking noise is me.

Rage explodes inside me, any semblance of reason and rationality leaving me as I focus solely on Issa, on getting her out of harm’s way.

I step forward, and Matt attempts to stop me, but I shove him to the side, only to be met by the brick wall known as my brother. I meet his eyes, my hands fisting in his shirt as I growl, “Move.”

He raises his brows at me, and I half expect him to argue, but then Tony grabs Dare’s shoulder. “Let him go. We’re right behind him.”

Dare searches my eyes briefly then nods, and steps out of the way, and I rush out of the shadows in a fury, my eyes on Issa as she smiles widely and says, “Boys, meet my husband, Declan Hughes.”

30

A Damsel Damseling

Issa

Well,thisislessthan ideal.

I had just made it to the street outside of the courthouse when someone grabbed me and shoved me into the back of an SUV. I couldn’t even attempt to scoot out the other side because there was a man there blocking the way, so I went willingly in the hope I could avoid getting knocked around.

This plan worked until one of them put his hand on my leg, and my reflexive response to elbow him in the mouth got me in trouble. I was relieved one of the men in the front told them to keep their hands off me, but that didn’t prevent them from tying my hands and putting duct tape over my mouth.

I can’t even imagine which douchebag was so pissed off by my shocking testimony at Declan’s hearing that they’d snatch me directly out of the courthouse. I did attempt to avoid the public spectacle, but the man from the DA’s office seemed to think that I valued my own safety and reputation more than my husband’s future, and he likely was in a world of shit when the higher-ups involved realized his huge mistake.

I’d muted my phone when I entered the courtroom, knowing exactly what I was going to do. My recording from my earlier ridiculous statements had indeed disappeared, so I knew that wasn’t going to be a problem, especially since that was a strategic move on my part in the first place. I considered letting Jessica in on my plan, but I knew it would be easier to pull off without having too many people involved. The fewer people who know your plans, the less likely it is for those plans to get thwarted unexpectedly.

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