Chapter 34

Keavy~

W e were back at Declan's place, and even if I'd wanted to leave again, I just didn't have the energy for that kind of adventure right now. The loss of blood had really done a number on me, and all I wanted to do was sleep for five days, though I'd take a solid ten hours at this point.

Instead, I was sitting in a bathtub full of bubbles, my shoulder protected by enough plastic wrap to outrage environmentalists everywhere. Luckily, none of my neighbors had been active this late at night, so no one had noticed my bloody shirt, and after changing my clothes, the trip to Declan's had been one without any concerns.

"How are you feeling?"

I didn't bother opening my eyes when I heard Declan's voice. I also didn't bother with lecturing him about walking in on me during my bath. After all, it wasn't like I had anything that he hadn't already seen before. It was also his house, so there was that.

Instead of answering him, I asked something that was none of my business, but since he kept talking like he had actual plans to marry me, I felt like I was owed an answer. "What's going on between you and Kasen Sartori?"

"Oh, fer feck's sakes," he bit out.

With my eyes still closed, I said, "I heard quite a bit when Noah was advising you to get rid of me, and now I'm curious."

I heard him sigh before he said, "There's nothing going on between me and Kasen Sartori. I'd be a dead man if there were."

"Then what was Noah talking about?"

"Kasen Sartori found herself in a…sticky situation, and instead of letting her husband come to her rescue, she handled business herself," he explained. "Yeah, Nero ended up annihilating an entire syndicate to avenge her, but she hadn't needed him to, and I respect that kind of strength. I was impressed enough to request a meeting with her, and without telling her husband, she had agreed." Declan let out a low chuckle. "However, she had insisted on the time and place, and then she told me and Noah that if we ever contacted her again, then it better be to kill her because she didn't have time to dick around with men that just wanted to waste her time."

"I like her already," I replied, meaning it.

"Mrs. Sartori and I have a mutual respect for one another, and that's it," he went on. "Nero doesn't appreciate it, which is understandable, and Noah just likes to bust my nads."

"And Nero Sartori let you live, why?"

"Because he's indebted to his wife for the rest of his life, so knowing that it would upset her if he killed me, he's chosen to take the high road," he answered drolly.

"Why would it upset her?" I asked.

"Probably because I was the first man, besides her father, to actually admire her determination and grit," he answered. "When she told me that no man deserved the love of a woman, I agreed. Instead of trying to put her in her place or defend men everywhere, I validated her opinion with the truth."

That had me opening my eyes, looking over at him as he sat on the toilet. "And you really believe that? That a man doesn't deserve a woman's love?"

"I do," he answered honestly. "We're flawed creatures, and if we're lucky, we'll find a woman that's willing to put in the effort to fix us. However, she'll be fighting that fight for the rest of her life because we're stupid at the heart of it all. So, yeah, I agree with her."

"So, what's the payoff for all that hard work?"

"Our utter love and devotion," he answered.

"Kasen Sartori is right," I said. "It doesn't sound like a fair trade off."

"It's not," he replied seriously.

Getting off the depressing subject, I asked, "So, what's the plan when the police come asking questions about Cooper Donaldson?"

"We're still sticking to the story that we concocted earlier. However, we're adding that we got into a fight when we got home, so that will account for why neither of us could be reached."

My brows furrowed a bit. "How does that explain that we couldn't be reached?"

Declan's blue eyes sparkled as he said, "After we fought, we ignored our phones to make up, and we were making up all damn day and night."

"I don't have any missed calls," I informed him.

"Neither do I," he replied. "Which tells me that they're making sure to have all their ducks in a row before they question us. In fact, I suspect that we'll be the last ones that they question, so that they can try to catch us in a lie."

"And are we going to talk to them, or do we have lawyers?" I asked.

"We're going to talk to them until we feel like we need our lawyers," he answered.

I leaned my head back against the porcelain, then closed my eyes again. "I'm not marrying you, Declan."

"Oh, but you are, lass," he countered.

"I don't think so."

"Keavy, this isn't up for debate," he said. "As soon as this shit dies down with Donaldson, we're getting married."

"I'm not marrying a man that I barely know."

"I'm afraid that you are, baby."

Deciding to save this argument for another time, I said, "I'm going after Klive Simpson."

Declan was quiet long enough that it made me open my eyes to look over at him again. His blue gaze was glittering with a look that always seemed to be reserved for me only, but there was no denying that it looked good on him. Anyone from the outside looking in would think that Declan O'Brien was the easygoing sort, but he wasn't. Honestly, if you were in a room with him and Noah, you'd almost believe that Noah was the head of the O'Brien organization with the way that they played off each other. However, it was in these rare moments-when Declan's eyes were flaring the way that they were-that you saw why Declan was the one in charge. Declan O'Brien's cunningness snuck up on you, and the worst thing that a person could do was underestimate his ‘easy' intentions.

"That's not how this works, baby," he said softly, and the low timber in his voice had me more concerned than when his accent came out in anger.

"That's not how what works?"

"Keavy, there isn't anything that I don't know about you now," he said, making me sit up straighter in the tub. "That's how I found the cabin."

"And, exactly , how did you find out so much about me?"

His chin went up a little. "I owe the Sartoris for everything that I know about you."

I could feel my eyes widen at that. The fact that Declan would seek out the Sartoris for a favor seemed unfathomable to me. I couldn't imagine how unsettling it must be to know that you owed your enemy, and knowing that Declan had crossed that line to find me had me feeling like I'd been wrong about everything since the moment that I met Declan O'Brien.

Pushing that newfound information to the back of my mind, I asked, "So, what all do you know?"

"Everything," he answered. "I know about your parents, Cian O'Connell, your upbringing, and almost everything else. The only thing that I didn't know was about that damn cellar."

"So, now what?"

"Look, I understand that you live a solitary life, and I also understand that O'Connell was your entire life before his death a few years ago," Declan replied. "So, I get why you might think that you have to take on the world's problems on your own, but you don't."

"Klive Simpson is hardly the world's problems," I huffed.

"Nevertheless, Klive Simpson is an O'Brien, Kotov, and Sartori problem," he stated evenly. "He's not your problem, Keavy."

"If his men know where my cabin is, then he is my problem," I fired back.

"Keavy-"

"I'm not like other women, Declan," I told him, though he already knew that. "So, if you're looking for someone that's going to stand back while you go save the day, then you're seriously barking up the wrong tree."

"My need to protect you has nothing to do with you being a woman," he shot back. "It has to be with the kind of man that I am, and if you think that I'm the type of man to let his woman do the heavy lifting, then you couldn't be more wrong."

"I'm going after Klive," I repeated. "As soon as my shoulder stops aching, I'm going after him."

"Da feck ye ere," he snapped.

"You can't stop me," I said, though I sounded a lot more confident than I felt.