Page 66 of Declan

Before I could ask, Thad beat me to it, “You spoke to Ashaki Maloof?”

“Yes. She came by the house yesterday to speak to Autumn. Very nice woman.”

“Is Autumn okay? Where is she? Did she leave with Ashaki?”

My heart started to pound, if Ashaki made a house call and needed a face-to-face meeting with Autumn, they could be anywhere in the world by now. She’d be on the hunt without backup. I needed Garrett and Tex to track her down. I needed to find her. She shouldn’t be alone…

“Autumn’s fine,” Justin responded, but offered no more.

“I’m Magdalene Pierce, but everyone calls me Meggy.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am. Where’s Autumn?”

The woman smiled even though I was being rude.

“She didn’t go with her friend. Actually, Ashaki fired her.” Meggy’s smile grew wide. “We didn’t know you were having a party or we would’ve called.”

Meggy was looking at Emerson, Justin was staring at me, but I lost his attention when I felt a light touch on my shoulder.

“Hi, I’m Violet, Declan’s sister.”

More pleasantries were exchanged. I heard Emerson’s choked sob, Thad’s deep rumble consoling his wife. More of my teammates had gathered and their voices were drifting around me.

But I paid them no mind, I was too busy trying to tamp down my rising temper. Too late. I knew it when my vision started to blur and the knot of impatience grew until I couldn’t stop it from exploding.

“Where’s Autumn?” I growled.

“Ashaki was right,” Meggy repeated, smiling.

Justin continued to stare at me like I was a bug to be crushed.

Fuck this.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket to ring Garrett when the man finally spoke. “She’s at her house. She wanted to give us time alone with Emerson and—”

I heard nothing else. That was because I was jogging through Thad’s backyard.

I didn’t remember the ten-minute drive to Autumn’s. I didn’t remember walking into her house. My next cognitive memory was finding her in her kitchen staring at the dishes I hadn’t washed.

But she knew I was there. Her body had grown stiff even though her shoulders were hunched forward.

“You’ve been staying here?”

“I needed to be close to you,” I answered.

“Why?”

“Because I can’t fucking breathe without you.”

Her head fell forward and she shook her head.

“What are we doing, Declan? We’re a mess. Both of us. Two broken people with more demons than we know what to do with.”

She was not wrong. Both of us were riddled with demons. Insurmountable pain that neither of us knew how to deal with.

“When I lost Juliana and Violet, I thought my life had ended. Hell, I wanted it to end.”

Autumn swayed and reached for the counter to balance herself.