Page 7 of Declan

Even at the close distance, I didn’t have a clean shot. The man was using Autumn as a shield. Three inches of his mask-covered face was the only target I had—it was going to be messy.

Before I could pull the trigger, Autumn elbowed the man, bent forward, and grabbed his wrist. With surprise on her side as well as the angle from the stairs, she cocked her hip, used his forward momentum rolled him over her shoulder, and he hit the stairs with a thud.

“Move.”

Once again, Autumn didn’t listen. She was on top of the man in a flash.

Fucking hell. Her tiny fists rained blow after blow to his face.

We had no time for her fury. Ignoring the pain in my arm, I hooked her around the waist, took aim, and popped off a single shot to the man’s face. Autumn jolted and I dropped her to her feet.

“Don’t pull that shit again,” I fumed. “Last fucking warning.”

Her body went stiff. Then she pushed away and bent to pick up the man’s gun. She straightened and looked me dead in the eyes. No words were spoken. None were needed. She was pissed way the fuck off. I didn’t know and I didn’t care one way or another if her anger stemmed from me cutting her fun short or barking orders.

“And stay the fuck in front of me once we’re on the street.”

I needed eyes on her at all times. She was goddamn crazy and had proven I couldn’t trust her to follow simple commands.

“Whatever you say, Declan.”

The woman was going to be the death of me. Literally, the death. She was impulsive and lacked the ability to keep her temper in check.

I’d spent years avoiding any sort of emotion. Years of nothingness. Years living in a black hole where I shielded myself and others from the monster I’d become. But Autumn showed up and ruined my carefully crafted asylum. The emotions that now coursed through my body and hummed in my veins were unwanted.

Unwelcomed.

Yet, I was drawn to Autumn in a way that I knew would kill us both.

Chapter 3

Five men paced the living room like a pride of ferocious lions ready to pounce. That was unfortunate because I was their prey.

Unfortunate for them.

They were about to learn I was like no other woman they’d ever met. I was not a mission, an objective, nor was I a woman they needed to rescue.

My gaze went from my brother-in-law Thad to Declan.

Thad looked confused, Declan looked murderous.

Oh, well. It wasn’t like I wasn’t used to Declan being in a bad mood. And pissing off men wasn’t new for me. Over the years, I’d dealt with a variety of angry males, though the anger normally came right before I put them down like the scum they were.

Lowlife criminals from the dregs of hell. Those were my normal targets, not deadly mercenaries. Not that I planned to put down Declan’s team, just thoroughly piss them off.

I unwound Declan’s keffiyeh that he’d demanded I use to cover my hair and tossed it on the back of the couch. Dec’s eyes dropped to the scarf then came to mine.

“You planned that shit,” Dec seethed.

“Yep.”

There was no sense denying it. I had one hundred percent planned for Madeleine Strotherby and her men to know I was in Afghanistan. I wasn’t stupid nor was I wet behind the ears. If I didn’t want them to know I was close, then they would’ve never known. But I was done with the cat-and-mouse bullshit. It was time to end the game, and what better way than to announce my presence and make them come to me.

“What the fuck!”

“What the fuck, what, Declan?” I returned with equal sarcasm.

“That stunt could’ve killed both of us.”