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Kate looked at him and bit her lip. “How about here?” She hurried to continue, obviously anticipating his objections. “Not the guest house — the big house. Griff and I can move in there with my mom. Beth too, even Aiden if he wants. You can add to the security at the gate, post some men on the grounds. It would be harder for Ferguson to come for ushere.”
“It’s not exactly suburbia.” Declan picked up a shell resting near his feet and rubbed the pearlescent surface between his fingers. “It’s not like you can run next door if there’s a problem. Not easilyanyway.”
“No, but it’s not as isolated as the mountainseither.”
She wasn’t wrong. Declan would be busy until MIS removed Ferguson from the board. They didn’t know yet where he was or how well protected. Clay was running it all down, along with more on the rumors surrounding Ferguson’s shadyconnections.
Did Declan really want Kate and Griff two hours away in themountains?
It was a tough call. On the one hand, he wanted them as far from Ferguson as he could get them, and Ferguson was in thecity.
But that meant farther from Declantoo.
“It could work,” Declansaid.
“And Alexa, Julia, and Elise are staying at the house in Back Bay right?” He looked over at her and she shrugged. “I talked toAlexa.”
He swallowed his annoyance. He was glad Kate and Griff had blended so seamlessly with his family, but at times like this a little distance wouldn’t be a badthing.
“Then you already know the answer to that question,” Declansaid.
“If the city is safe enough for them, for John Thomas, Griff and I should be okay outhere.”
Declan scrubbed a hand over his face. “Jimmy’s murder has mespooked.”
She reached for his hand. “I know. It sucks. I keep thinking about hisdaughter.”
Declan had been thinking about the little girl too. He’d even talked to Ronan and Nick about setting up an account for her college expenses. It wasn’t their fault Jimmy was dead. No one had made him take the job tampering with Mac’s plane, a move that had guaranteed Mac’sdeath.
But Ryan had been a gambling addict, in debt up to his eyeballs. Neil had taken advantage of his desperation by offering him a lot of money. MIS had tried to keep him safe in a rental in the Berkshires when they’d hoped to use him as a witness against Neil, but after months in isolation, Jimmy had called an end toit.
They’d explained the risks to him, but they’d been his risks totake.
“I just…” Declan shook his head, his throat clogging with emotion. "I can't let anything happen to you and Griff. Ican’t.”
She took his face in her hands and looked into his eyes. “Nothing is going to happen to us, Dec. We’re going to be right here.” She kissed him. “Don’t send us away when we need each othermost.”
“Okay,” he said. “We’ll work it out. I’ll come up with a security plan for the property. But you and Griff have to stay in the big house. Beth too if she wants protection. And you can’t go into the office until we have a handle on Ferguson. I’m sorry, but it’s too hard to protect you when you’re movingaround.”
She wouldn’t like missing work, but she’d wanted compromise, and this was what it looked like. At least she’d be close to the office, and Aiden could come and go with paperwork if he refused to stay home, as Declan suspected hemight.
“Deal.”
He put his arm around her and drew her close, her words echoing in hismind.
Don’t send us away when we need each othermost.
He did need her, probably a hell of a lot more than she needed him, which was why he would make sure she was safe and kill Connor Ferguson, last in the line of people who had hurt her, who would still hurt her if Declan allowedit.
He wouldn’t. He would set up security for Kate and Griff. Then he would end Connor Ferguson, end the turmoil in their lives, once and forall.
