Page 51 of Catch Him
Declan didn’t flinch at the word. Too many of his stories. He knew that, but he had still shared. With her. Because he’d wanted her to know about his mother, his sister. Him. He’d even told her about his grandfather’s farm in Virginia. Had he done that on purpose? Subconsciously, was this the result he wanted?
“Sinead. With me. Now.”
“I don’t remember you being this bossy.”
“You don’t remember me telling you how I liked my cock sucked, love?”
Mary gasped and Sinead blushed, which was exactly the reaction he wanted. He needed them both to know he was not fucking around. His sister’s life, and now Sinead’s life were in his hands to keep safe.
“You’re a dick,” she said tightly as she approached him.
“And you shouldn’t have come. But we’ll get to that. Now if you would follow me.”
He led her to a back game room in the house. It was large and open and sprawling, but he knew Mary well enough to know she wouldn’t attempt to eavesdrop. She wouldn’t consider it polite. No doubt she was taking herself upstairs to retreat into her bedroom.
A strategic move on her part.
Dec walked to the bar and poured himself an Irish whiskey neat. He held the crystal decanter in offer to her.
“Sure.”
It was another thing he’d liked about her. She didn’t always drink, but when she did she could hold her own with him. And she didn’t mind occasionally really letting go. Their drunk sex after the day at the vineyard had been epic.
Only he couldn’t think about that now. Any of that. This was business with Sinead, because she’d crossed the line and entered his sister’s home.
Mary was at risk of further pain.
Declan’s function in life was to make sure Mary was not at risk. Something he’d failed spectacularly at recently.
He handed Sinead the drink and thought about how to approach this conversation. With lies? With truth? Then he decided this was not his decision. He was not the one who had been deceived.
She was looking around the room. “Yeah, this is some shack you’re stuck with here.”
He didn’t bother to explain he’d made… improvements to his grandfather’s place. Instead he wanted to get to the point.
“What do you want?” he asked her quietly.
“What?”
She seemed not to expect the question.
“What do you want? You did this thing. You found Mary and you discovered her connection to me. Why?”
“Garrett Huntley is going to pay me twenty-five percent of whatever I recover.”
Declan shook his head. He didn’t think of the ramifications of what her in league with Huntley meant. He had to deal with the first problem.
“That’s not what you want. You made a deal with him, an inauspicious one I might add, but that’s not why you came looking for me. I’ll ask it again. What do you want? To hit me? To kill me?” He paused. “To fuck me? What do you want?”
She’d always been genuine, his lovely Sinead, and she wasn’t any different now. The rage in her expression was real. Nearly frightening.
“I want you to feel pain.”
It shouldn’t have hurt as bad as it did. It should have been expected. Of course she would want that. He’d inflicted pain, she would want to avenge that. Still, the idea of her wanting to hurt him… he sighed.
Then quickly ducked as she hurled the glass of whiskey she’d been holding at his head.
“No! You don’t get to do that. You don’t get to be sad.”
