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Declan parkedhis Tesla at the curb and stepped out into the sun. It still felt strange to walk up the steps leading to the house’s courtyard, to cross the brick pavers and head for the door off the kitchen as someone who didn’t livethere.
Which wasn’t to say he wasn’t happy. In fact, happy was an understatement. He’d been over the moon when Kate asked him to move into the guest house with her andGriffin.
Over the moon andsurprised.
Because while things had been amazing with Kate — the case against Neil Curran notwithstanding — he wasn’t dumb enough to think the battle wasover.
Kate had never made things easy. She wasn’t going to startnow.
He didn’t care. He loved everything about her. She would be a shell without her sharp mind, her determination to protect Griffin, her strength. The other side to those coin was part of the deal too. She thought everything through a hundred different ways, tried to plan for every contingency, protected Griffin not only from danger that was clear and present but potential dangertoo.
They were all things that made Kate, well, Kate. Things that had drawn him to her in college, that had made it hard to forget her in the years they’d beenapart.
And now there was more, because even though she didn’t say it, he knew the revelation about her mother’s affair, the affair that had resulted in Beth, had rocked Kate to her core. Her parents’ marriage had seemed idyllic from the outside, fiercely independent Mac Walsh, a man with an iron will, well matched to Annie, who was no less strong but whose approach had been considerablysofter.
Coming face-to-face with the secrets of her parents’ marriage just when she’d finally decided to give Declan another chance was bound to create fear and doubt about their future together. If her parents’ marriage hadn’t been what it seemed, if there had been problems deep enough to result in an affair, what hope was there for the rest ofthem?
He had a hunch her uncertainty was the reason her enthusiasm for Aiden and Miguel’s wedding seemed forced, why she hesitated to talk about her future with Declan in all but the broadestterms.
He didn’t know if her asking him to move in had been a rare spontaneous moment or if she’d thought it through like she did everything, but he’d jumped at the chance to prove he could be a good dad to Griffin and a good partner toKate.
It had gone surprisingly well, the three of them falling into an easy routine of school for Griff, work for Kate and Declan, Sunday dinners at the big house with Annie, Aiden, and Miguel. On Saturdays they joined Ronan, Julia, Nick, Alexa, and Elise for days at the beach and epic frisbee tournaments. Sometimes Annie joined in, and Declan had been surprised how quickly and easily the two familiesmeshed.
Declan’s dad, Thomas Murphy, had even come to the family Fourth of July party at the Marblehead house. He and Annie had met before and had settled right into an easy friendship, and there was no doubt that Declan’s father relished his role as grandfather to both John Thomas andGriffin.
And yet even with all the good stuff — and there was a lot of it — Declan knew he and Kate weren’t out of the woods. He would do everything he could to help Kate work through her feelings about her parents’ marriage, to reassure her that their relationship wouldn’t be like her parents’, that there would be no secrets, nolies.
But that wouldn’t solve the problem of Beth or NeilCurran.
Beth was a wound in Kate’s side, a slow bleed that threatened to drain her of life if she didn’t confront it. But Beth had been gone for nearly six months, surprisingly untraceable given her lack of experience staying off thegrid.
It made Declan worry — that she was holed up with Neil, or even worse, that something had happened to her and Kate would never get the closure she needed to move on with herlife.
As for Neil, it would have been easy to think he was gone for good. He’d gone to ground hard and fast, turning into a ghost untraceable by Clay, the world-class hacker MIS kept on their payroll, the Syndicate’s impressive cyber lab, and even theFBI.
But Declan knew he’d be back, probably sooner rather than later. No one took risks like the ones Neil had taken in hiring Jimmy Ryan to tamper with Mac Walsh’s plane and making overtures to WMG’s biggest shareholders only to call it all off because they’d beenouted.
No, Neil would be back, and Declan welcomedit.
He’d known from the moment Logan Hunt, his contact at the FBI, had told him Neil was gone that Kate would never be able to move on until Neil paid for killing herfather.
And Declan knew all about the need for justice. Hell, the only reason MIS existed at all was because he, Ronan, and Nick couldn’t let it go when their youngest sister, Erin, had overdosed on heroine. Erin had died and the man who’d gotten her hooked had gone on living right up until the day Declan and his brothers killedhim.
After that they’d realized there were a lot of people like Erin: people who’d gotten hurt, families left without closure, without justice. They’d spent the years since taking on affluent clients willing to pay millions of dollars for their services and pro bono clients who couldn’t pay a dime. They’d gotten rich beyond their wildest dreams, although it had never been about themoney.
He reached the door to the house, his mind pulled back to the present by the sound of water running in the kitchen through the open window. The smell of coffee hit his nose as soon as he opened thedoor.
Ronan was sitting at one of the stools at the kitchen island, watching something on his phone, while John Thomas attempted to spoon cheerios into his mouth from his high chair. The puddles of milk in the tray along with a trail of soggy cereal told Declan his nephew was losing as much cereal as he was getting into hismouth.
“Hey,” Ronan said, looking up in surprise. “What are you doinghere?”
“Giving Nick a ride into the office.” Chief, Ronan’s dog, trotted over to Declan and he ran his hand through the dog’s soft fur. “He said you were going in late and his car’s in theshop.”
Ronan nodded and ruffled John Thomas’s hair. “The big guy here has a doctor’sappointment.”
“Everything okay?” Declan asked, bending to kiss John Thomas’ head. He smelled like eucalyptus shampoo and milk and grahamcrackers.
