Page 9 of Declan

“Maybe we should give the two of them time to talk without an audience,” Max suggested.

“Fuck that,” Thad spat.

“Thad, come take a walk.” Brooks stepped in and Thad’s eyes shifted from Declan to Brooks, then to me.

“Please, for the love of God, tell me you’re not fucking him.”

Welp, there went my last hope to keep Declan clear of Thad’s wrath. I could lie, but I did a lot of screwed-up shit that blackened my soul. When I could, I tried my best not to add to my sins. I mean, I was already on the fast train straight to hell, there was no need to add to the speed in which I was getting there. When I finally left this earth, I’d at least like to see some of the scenery on my way down, even if it was in a fiery blur.

“I’m not sure who I’m sleeping with is any of your business.”

“Then you’d be wrong.”

“No, Thad, I’m right. I’m nothing to you. I’m nothing to him.” I pointed to Declan. “I’m nothing to any of you.” My arm swept the room. “We have a common enemy and when she’s no longer breathing and Omni falls, none of you will ever see me again. So it doesn’t matter who I’m fucking now, who I’m not, and who I will be in the future. Strotherby and Omni. That’s it. That is all that matters, that’s as close as you’re gonna get to me.”

Thad studied me. His deep brown eyes analyzed, saw too much, danced with fire, and suddenly I felt naked. But it wasn’t his gaze that made me shiver, it was the one that came from Declan. I didn’t dare take my eyes from Thad, him I could handle. Declan, I was discovering, I couldn’t. Declan knew me too well, he understood me. He and I were the same and that scared the living daylights out of me.

“You know, I’ve heard something similar to that once before,” Thad told me. “Only when your sister said it, it pissed me off because all I could think about was how much I loved her and how fuckin’ bad it hurt when she left me. But you? When you say shit like that, it cuts me to my core, because I know you believe it. I know you fucking believe you’re nothing. And that cuts. You mean something to me, to your sister, and to your parents.”

After that successful shot to my heart, he turned to Declan. “You and me got problems. Big fuckin’ problems now that I’m putting the last couple of months together. My wife’s sister’s been close enough for you to sneak off and fuck but you didn’t bother to share that with me. Fuck you for that.”

Thad stomped out of the room. His heavy footfalls pounded in my head and my chest started to ache.

Shit.

Me and my big mouth.

Declan was looking at me but he wasn’t talking to me. “Keep her in the house.”

Then he turned to follow Thad.

“Hell, no. I’m not staying in here.”

“You are, Autumn. What I’ve got to say to Thad is between me and him.”

“You’re wrong. This is about me and he has no right to act like an overprotective brother.”

“Not everything’s about you. He has every right to be pissed at me. I did know you were close. I did keep that from him. And I did it knowing he’d be just as pissed as he is. But that’s between me and him.”

“Dec—”

“Jesus Christ, babe. Once. Just once do as I fuckin’ ask and stay in the fucking house. Just one fuckin’ time, let me protect you.”

Protect me?

I didn’t need anyone to protect me. Not Thad and certainly not Declan.

Screw that.

I started across the room in the direction my brother-in-law had stormed off to but found myself halted by Declan’s big body. His hands went to my face, his palms rested on my cheeks, and he tipped my head back so he had my eyes. His reddish-brown irises were more red than brown, and astonishingly beautiful. I’d never seen eyes that color before. Now they were also deadened. I’d seen that look a lot when he’d first started coming to me, but in the last few weeks, it had vanished. I didn’t like seeing it again therefore in a moment of extreme weakness, my hands went to his forearms and I whispered, “Declan.”

“I’m beggin’ you, baby. Stay in the house. I don’t want you seeing what’s gonna happen.”

“I don’t want the two of you fighting,” I told him softly.

He looked like he was going to lie to me, tell me that wasn’t what was going to happen, but then he blinked and said, “Let us work it out how we need to.”

“Dec—”