Page 83 of The Endless Want

I drag in a breath. “Meaning?”

“We work together,” he says. “No more secrets. No more acting alone. No more assuming the worst about each other.”

His voice dips, weight settling into each word.

“And when it comes to her, you don’t get to storm in like a soldier and demand obedience. That’s not what she needs from you.”

“I don’t know what she needs,” I say honestly.

“Try listening,” he says. “Before reacting.”

I huff out a humorless breath. “That’s never been my strong suit.”

“No,” he agrees, “but now’s the time to learn.”

We sit there, the car quiet except for the faint hum of the city outside. He studies me a moment longer, then adds, “You’re going to be a father, Declan.”

The sentence lands with quiet force, sinking deep, anchoring itself somewhere I didn’t know existed.

A father.

Liam sees how hard it hits me and nods once as if that settles something between us. “There’s more,” he continues. “Nadia has offered access to old contacts. Russians. People who owe her favors or information.”

My breath stills. “You… you’re bringing her into this?”

“I wasn’t going to,” he admits. “But after today—after they got inside Ailish’s clinic files, after they photographed her ultrasound—after they proved they know exactly how to hit below the belt—I’m done pretending we can fight this with half our resources tied behind our backs.”

My vision sharpens.

“We call in those favors,” he says. “And you’re part of that process.”

“You’re trusting me with that level of intel again?”

“Yes,” he says simply. A weight I didn’t realize I’d been carrying loosens by an inch. “We’re a team again,” Liam adds, quieter this time. “We protect her together.”

I nod, slow but certain.

“And Declan,” he finishes, “don’t go to her until you can speak without scaring her. She deserves calm. She deserves patience. She deserves to believe you want this baby.”

“I do,” I say immediately.

“Then show her.”

He squeezes my shoulder once—a gesture I haven’t felt from him since before the fractures started.

Then he steps out of the car, closes the door behind him, and walks back toward the compound without looking back. For several long seconds, I just sit there, breathing in the silence he leaves behind. Not the suffocating silence from earlier. A different kind. A steadier kind.

For the first time in months, my path feels clear. I don’t know how to be a father. I don’t know how to fix everything I broke with her. But I know that I want her and our child.

And I will burn every inch of this city to ash before I let anyone take that from me.

CHAPTER 25

Declan

Rory talks too much when he’s nervous, and tonight he won’t shut up. He’s pacing behind the speakeasy bar, checking bottles, counting crates, muttering numbers to himself like if he says them fast enough they’ll stop being wrong.

They’re not wrong. Everything is fine. Business is fine. The flow of cash is better than it has been in months. The place is thriving and humming and alive.