Page 93 of Declan

“This shouldn’t take long. Maybe they can postpone a few hours.”

I was so taken by his smile I couldn’t speak, so I nodded my acknowledgment.

“You care,” he whispered.

I slowly blinked and drew up all the courage I could. This was Dec. I trusted him. I could drop the tough-chick act and be real. Admit things I wouldn’t tell another soul. He’d keep my secrets, but more, he’d understand.

So when I opened my eyes and took in his handsome face, I said, “I do. My sister’s having a baby. She needs her family. She needs Mom. I want her to have that and I want my parents to know their grandchild, to know Thad. They’re good parents. We just…lost our way. Everything got messed up but it’s time to piece it back together.”

“And where do you fit into that?”

“My dad killed Stanley James.”

“Say again?”

I sucked in a lungful of air, kept my eyes on Dec, and explained what had really happened to Stanley and his wife.

When I was done, Declan didn’t look the least bit phased. As a matter of fact, his face was carefully blank.

“You protecting people,” he mumbled.

“What?”

“You protected your dad.”

“Well, yeah, he was sloppy. He didn’t wear gloves. His prints were all over the house, and even if he was Stanley’s partner, the cops would’ve questioned him, and my dad would’ve caved.”

“You protected Emerson.”

“Of course I did, she’s my sister. She was in way over her head. She was running a good scam, she’s smart, but the part of the plan she couldn’t follow through with was taking out all her targets. She was leaving too many men breathing. Eventually, it was going to catch up with her. Someone needed to take her back.”

“You care,” he repeated. “You protected the people you love the best way you could. You were lost, alone and hurting, but you never stopped taking care of them.” There was a long pause and during this time, I remained silent. “Where do you fit into this family reunion?”

Shit.

“I don’t know.”

“Do you blame your dad for what happened to you?”

Shit, shit, shit.

“I did at the time. I did after I was rescued. But I don’t anymore. And the hurt I’d been carrying around all these years I let go of when he and I talked.”

“So what’s holding you back?”

“Emerson,” I whispered. “I took the most from her.”

“The choice is yours. But I want you to listen carefully. Emerson doesn’t blame you. Not for anything. Nothing, baby. I can’t say I know her as well as the rest of the team but I know her well enough to know she wants you in her life. She searched for you—”

“That’s the problem. How do I face her when I knew all those years that she was looking for me? I knew where she was, what she was doing, and there were times—a lot of times—we were in the same room and I hid from her. She wasted her life looking for something that wasn’t lost. Years she stayed away from Thad all because of me.”

Something that looked downright painful washed over Declan and he frowned.

“I understand that guilt.” Declan brushed my hair off my shoulder but kept a hank in his hand and started twirling it around his finger. I was so lost in how good that felt I almost missed him mutter, “I knew about Violet and I didn’t approach.”

It took me a moment to realize he was talking about his twin sister, Violet, and not his daughter.

“Yeah?”