Deleted Scene #3. Declan

Whether it’s opening a business, starting a relationship, or going to war with your sworn enemy after he killed a few of your men, the beginning of any new venture is the most important time. What happens at the start sets the tone for everything that follows.

My point is that when things begin badly, they have a tendency to stay that way.

Which, considering my current situation, is concerning.

Kidnapping a woman shouldn’t be this fucking hard.

“Go get her, Kieran.”

He snorts. “I like my balls where they are, boss.”

“It wasn’t a request.”

He looks at Sean, curled into a ball on the wet ground, his eyes squeezed shut in pain, cupping his groin and weakly groaning. Then Kieran looks at the woman standing over him in the street.

Chin up, fists clenched, eyes blazing. A defiant set to her mouth. Bathed in the glow of the streetlights, her dark hair glimmering with droplets of evening rain, she’s undeniably beautiful .

But her beauty isn’t that of a princess or a butterfly, delicate and sweet.

It’s that of a samurai sword, all deadly curves and sharp edges.

Sloane. It’s Irish for “raider.”

Should be Irish for “giant pain in the ass.”

From the second she regained consciousness in the back seat of the car, she’s done nothing but mouth off and fight. I’ve met rabid dogs who were more agreeable.

Kieran makes an impatient gesture with his hand in the dangerous beauty’s direction. “Oy. Lass. Get over here and get your arse back in the Escalade before I lose my temper.”

Her smile is grim. “You want me? Come and get me. Fifty bucks says I’ll make you cry even louder than your friend.”

Staggering as he tries to rise from the ground, Sean grunts. “Bitch.”

She looks at him down her nose and tosses her hair over her shoulder. “That’s Queen Bitch to you, fuckboy.”

I don’t understand this woman. Why isn’t she crying? Sobbing? Pleading for her life? She’s alone, unarmed, and surrounded by ten gun-toting men. She’s standing in the middle of a dark, rainy street, with no way to escape and nowhere to go if she did.

She’s been fucking kidnapped!

There must be something mentally wrong with her. That bump she took to the head when Kieran accidentally dropped her onto the asphalt back in the parking garage where we snatched her knocked something loose in her pretty skull.

Whatever the reason, I don’t have time for this shit.

I say coldly, “You have five seconds to get back in the car.”

She looks me up and down, green eyes assessing. “Or what? You’ll shoot me?”

“In three more seconds, you’ll find out.”

“If I’m dead, I’m useless to you.”

I drop my voice an octave and hold her gaze. “There are plenty of uses for a dead woman. Isn’t that right, Kieran? ”

“Aye, boss. Plenty of uses.” Licking his lips, he lets his gaze travel the length of her body, head to feet and back again.

Instead of putting the fear of God into her as I expected, it lights a fuse of fury under her ass.

Her nostrils flare. Her cheeks turn red. Her eyes burn two holes straight through me.

She folds her arms across her chest and snaps, “That’s sick, dude. You need help. The professional kind. Seriously, just… ew.”

After a beat, Kieran turns and looks at me. “Did she just call you dude ?”

He’s trying not to laugh, the son of a bitch.

Keeping my gaze on Sloane, I answer through gritted teeth. “She did. And if you don’t lock the fucking doors this time when I get her back into the car, I’ll let this crazy bird kick your balls even harder than she did Sean’s.”

Without waiting for an answer, I walk closer to where Sloane stands. She’s about fifteen feet away from the SUV she escaped from, taking advantage of the slowed speed when the car braked for a corner to leap out and run.

I realize I should’ve had Sean cuff her, but she was blacked out at the time, slumped against the door in the back seat and looking all kinds of defenseless and pathetic.

Two things I now know she’s not.

How long she was awake and pretending not to be, timing her escape attempt, is anyone’s guess.

I take my time approaching her and stop a few feet away. Far enough to be out of reach from that vicious kick of hers that took Sean down. Despite wearing heels and a skirt, she adopts a fighting stance, balancing her weight on the balls of her feet and raising her fists to eye level.

She’s ready to defend herself. To physically fight me.

Me, a man twice her size and weight with years of military background, weapons training, and hand-to-hand combat experience .

It’s ridiculous, but also oddly appealing.

Examining my expression, she says, “You think I’m funny? Take two more steps closer and you’ll never be able to have kids.”

“I don’t have time for this nonsense. Get back in the car.”

“Why, are you afraid to fight me? You should be. Even though I’m smaller than you, I’ll win.”

“I see you’ve taken the David and Goliath story to heart, but Biblical parables aside, there’s no universe in which we fight and you win.”

“I can break your jaw without breaking a fingernail.”

I want to sigh deeply, but don’t. “This is pointless. Get back in the car. Now .”

“You won’t think it’s pointless when I’m through with you. I’m a black belt, asshole.”

Looking at her trendy outfit, expensive haircut, and meticulous makeup, I lift my brows. “Really? In what, online shopping? Makeup tutorial videos? Savage celebrity takedowns in internet chat rooms?”

Her eyes glittering, she says softly, “Shōrin-ryū, you smug prick. And you won’t be the first man to underestimate me and find out fast he wishes he didn’t. Just because I’m girly doesn’t mean I’m a little girl.”

I’m aware of the men staring at us, and of the rain drumming softly on the roofs of the SUVs, and of my own impatience, a hot and prickly sensation inside my chest and on the back of my neck.

I’m also aware of her bare legs, full lips, and tits.

But more than all that, I’m aware that this defiance and self-confidence of hers is a strange, unexpected, and very powerful turn-on.

Fuck.

I decide to ignore that for the moment and try a different approach. Otherwise, we could be standing out in the cold all night .

“Okay. You’re a black belt in Sho-whatever. I apologize for insulting you.”

Sloane narrows her eyes at me. She doesn’t lower her fists.

“I have no intention of harming you. Neither do my men. My instructions are only to take you to see my boss. He wants to talk, nothing more. If you cooperate, this will be over very quickly. I’ll take you wherever you want to go, and you’ll never see me again.”

I pause for a moment to let that sink in. Then, staring straight into her eyes, I add quietly, “If you don’t cooperate, however, I’ll hurt you in ways you can’t imagine and won’t recover from. I say that not as a threat, but as a statement of fact.”

She swallows hard, the first and only sign of fear she’s shown so far.

“So you have no problem hurting a woman, huh, big guy?”

“You’re the ones who’re so adamant about equality, lass. You’ve gotta take the bad with the good. Now please put your fists down and get back into the fucking car before I’m forced to do something I don’t want to do.”

I step aside and hold out my arm toward the SUV.

She looks me over, taking her time, her jaw working, anger and ambivalence flashing in her eyes. Then she exhales, lowers her arms to her sides, and pulls back her shoulders.

“Fine,” she says tightly, not looking at me. “But only because you said please.”

With that, she walks past me, head held high, and climbs back into the SUV, slamming the door shut behind her.