Page 10 of Declan

Antoinette’s gasp turns my focus to her as she whispers, “Forced marriage.”

Carolina shakes her head. “Could be marriage of convenience.”

I shake my head at both women and look between Darius and Tony and say, “They like this all the time?”

They both nod, and Darius says, “It grows on you. I caught myself doing it the other day, so it must be contagious.”

Antoinette gives him a fond look then waggles her brows at him, and the heat in the room goes up a few notches. It’s then I realize I’m surrounded by couples. “Where the fuck is Matt?”

Tony rolls his eyes and sits back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “He couldn’t take time off. He’s been trying to manage some work-life balance since he changed precincts, but it’s been a little bit more work than balance. He said he’d come out at the end of the week if we’re still here.”

“I can’t decide if he’s the dumbest fucker ever born or just an evil genius attempting to tow that line between being a fine upstanding citizen and a criminal overlord.”

“There’s no questioning that the guy is smart,” Tony responds. “And it appears he knows everyone regardless of where he is, so that’s exceedingly helpful.”

“Do you think he’ll ever quit?”

“It’s more likely he’ll be forced to quit or end up fired. Hopefully he doesn’t end up in jail at the same time. It doesn’t matter how careful you are, something is gonna catch up to him eventually.”

“Do you think he’ll be upset if he has to end his career in law enforcement?”

Everyone nods emphatically, and Dare answers, “Definitely. It’s gonna be fucking terrible, but it’s inevitable.”

Antoinette pushes her chair back and rises from the table, reaching over and grabbing some plates to take to the kitchen, and I say, “You don’t need to do that. I have staff to take care of the cleanup.”

She frowns at me as she continues to pick up plates and silverware, and then a throat clears behind me. I glance over my shoulder to see Clementina standing in the doorway, appearing rather anxious as she says, “Mr. Declan.”

Clementina is an older woman of Spanish descent who has worked with me since before I made it to the big time. She manages my household and requires very little oversight, but she gets nervous when other people come in and attempt to do her job. “Everyone, this is a Clementina, my right-hand lady for everything domestic. If you need anything at all, just ask her, and she’ll take care of it. And please for the love of God, stop doing her job for her. It’s bad enough Tony cooked breakfast.”

Antoinette beams a smile at Clementina and abandons her pile of dirty dishes as she walks over to her. She stops in front of her and says animatedly, “You sure run a tight ship around here. Your pantry is amazing. Don’t even get me started on the wall of alcohol.” Then, without one iota of hesitation, Antoinette leans in and wraps her arms around the older woman, pulling her into a tight hug.

Clementina stares at me over her shoulder, her eyes wide as she stands woodenly in Antoinette’s prisoner hug. Then Dare says from across the room, “Come now, Antoinette. Release the poor woman.”

Antoinette releases Clementina and steps back, directing her glare at Dare as she says, “Stop trying to make my friendliness awkward, Darius.”

“I would never,” he says with a straight face, though I see the corners of his lips attempting to turn up. “How could your friendliness ever be awkward?”

Her eyes narrow, and she crosses her arms over her chest but says nothing, so he smiles, his eyebrows raised expectedly. Eventually, she hmphs then turns back to Clementina and says, “I’m going to help you clean up. I want to hear all your stories. You can tell me what a huge pain in the ass Declan is. If he’s anything like his brother, I can only imagine.”

This earns her a small smile from Clementina, who gives me a questioning look, and I reply, “Oh, speak freely. She’ll get it out of you, one way or another.”

Antoinette grins and nods. “Always a good plan.”

Clementina frowns slightly but heads over to the table and begins clearing it. Everyone chips in, and it doesn’t take long for the table to be cleared and all the leftovers and dirty dishes moved into the kitchen.

I attempt to help, but Clementina slaps my hand a couple of times until I give up. I imagine this is because she thinks since she works for me that means she’s required to clean up after me but she’s more willing to accept help from the people who don’t pay her.

I’ve offered to hire her more help since she’s not getting any younger, and other than offending her, it didn’t go very well. She does allow me to have someone come in to do some deep cleaning a couple of times a month, and the groceries are delivered, but the first time I offered to get her help in the kitchen, you’d have thought I’d fired her. I finally had to tell her it would be more like a sous chef, somebody she can train to handle things for when she wants to take time off, and eventually, she agreed, and it worked out well.

It works well for me because I don’t want to have too many people in my personal space for fear of snooping and gossip. I’ve had it happen in the past where my hired help released images of me or did interviews, and while I understand why somebody might do so, given how lucrative they can be, if they’d just come to me for more money, I would’ve given it to them.

That’s one thing I tell all my new employees. I’m rich. You need something, tell me first and at least give me the opportunity to pay for silence before divulging my personal information to the public.

Once things are situated in the kitchen, the girls decide to hang out with Clementina, and we guys move outside to the main deck, where we can see Flora out on the back lawn playing with some kids she met last time she was here.

I turn to Tony and say, “She looks good. Happy.”

He watches her with a fond smile and nods. “She hasn’t missed a beat, that kid. As resilient as they come.”

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