24. Declan

DECLAN

I wantto eat breakfast earlier than Bree, trying to get some time to myself, but my father is there already, chatting with Marisol.

He looks a little red when I come down, and I wonder what they were talking about.

I smile. "Am I interrupting?"

"Of course not." Marisol bustles back into the kitchen.

My father gives me a look like I'm definitely interrupting, and I chuckle.

"Why don't you go ahead and ask her out?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, boyo," my father says, shoveling food into his mouth so he doesn't have to answer.

I shake my head, thinking about my own relationship, and I lose my smile.

He looks at me and frowns. "What's up with you?"

"What do you mean?"

I take a page from my father's playbook and start to eat my waffles, not being able to talk while the food is in my mouth.

"You've been acting strange for weeks."

"No, I haven't."

He snorts. "Oh yeah? Is that why you totally zoned out during our morning meeting yesterday?"

I wince. I had just been looking into space, not listening to anything that was said, and Gray had nudged me when my father asked me the question.

"I guess I've just been worried." I shrug. "Murphy hasn't retaliated, exactly, and I don't know where or who he's going to hit."

"He hit you," he points out. "In the chest, remember?"

"But he knows he didn't kill me," I argue. "And if it were Paige or Lara in Bree's position?—"

"I'd kill the man on sight," my father says darkly.

"Exactly. So, what's the hold up?"

He shrugs. "He probably wants to steal us blind before he strikes like the snake he is."

"Maybe."

My mood is bad again at dinner, which Bree doesn't attend, having gone to bed early. She's been acting strangely, too, and I don't know how to deal with it. I don't know what it means.

Is it just finding out who her father really is, or is it something more? Did she betray me, or not?

I'm always thinking about it, in the back of my mind. It's like an obsession, and I can't get my mind off it.

"Why are you so quiet tonight?" Paige raises her eyebrows. "And where's Bree? Don't tell me you two are fighting again."

"We're not fighting."

Gray gives me a cool look, but I ignore him, remembering how he suggested she is a traitor just a few days ago. I will him not to say another word, and he doesn't.

"You're just being weirdly quiet." Paige chomps down on her lamb chop.

"It's okay to be quiet sometimes, Paige. I guess you wouldn't know that," I snap.

"Hey!" Da shouts. "You don"t talk to your sister that way."

It's like I'm twelve years old and sullen all over again.

Paige is pouting at me, clearly hurt, and I sigh.

"I'm sorry, kiddo," I tell her softly. "I've just been so busy lately. It's been stressful."

"It's okay." Her face softens. "Just don't be a jerk."

"Noted."

I'm just in my office making some calls when Gray bursts into the office

"Have we made any progress?"

"What?"

"On finding out more about the attack," he huffs, a frustrated tone to his voice. "Remember, the one where you were almost killed?"

"You know if we had, you'd know already. Why?" My jaw tightens. I know where Gray is going with this.

"Your wife." Gray narrows his eyes at me. "And that suspicious letter she sent."

"She didn't know anything! You know what?" I sigh, standing and thrusting the letter at him. "You read it and tell me how she possibly could have given him any information."

Gray scans the letter and then frowns, looking back at me. "Where's the one he sent?"

I huff out an angry breath and take the first letter from him, handing him the one Niall sent in response. He scans it, too, and his shoulders slump.

"There's nothing here."

"I told you."

"That doesn't mean there's not a code we haven't cracked," he insists. "And if I find out that she had something to do with it?—"

I take a couple of steps toward him. "Then what?" I growl. "What are you going to do?"

Gray clears his throat, throwing the letter down on my desk, staring at me.

"If that little bitch has anything to do with this, I'm going to?—"

I don't let him get the next word out, tackling him around the waist.

We burst through the half-open door, rolling into the hallway.

I punch him in the kidneys, and he yelps, finally managing to get me on my back by sweeping his leg under mine.

He hits me in the face once, twice, before I punch him in the solar plexus, taking his breath.

"Fuck you," I hiss, and Gray gasps in a breath, hitting me in the stomach and trading spots with me as I gasp.

"Póg mo mhóin."

"As if you could ever make me kiss a hairy ass like yours," I pant, still in a fighting stance, but Gray pulls away, slumping down the wall and holding his stomach.

"Fuck, that hurts," he groans. "I haven't been hit like that since high school."

"You deserved it then, too," I spit, panting and sitting up with a grimace, my chest and shoulder aching something fierce.

Gray chuckles. "Probably. But I don't know why you're going so hard for some girl you didn't even want to marry."

"She's not just some girl. She's my wife."

Gray raises an eyebrow, still panting. "So, you're actually accepting it?" He shifts, grimacing. "You sound like you like her."

All I can do is put my head in my hands.

Gray whistles. "Shit, Declan. You do like her. What the hell?"

"I know," I groan. "I don't know why it happened. I don't know how. She's a Murphy, for fuck's sake."

"Well, she's a Burke now," Gray says almost cheerfully, standing up unsteadily and coming over to help me up. He claps me on the back before pulling away.

"What am I going to do?" I ask, hoping for some brotherly advice, but instead Gray just shrugs.

"I don't know, brother. You'll figure it out."

And then he just walks off toward his room, rolling his shoulders.

Great. What a good chat.

I figurethat Gray will go to Da right away and tell him about the fight, about his suspicions about Bree, but he doesn't. Da doesn't even approach me until after dinner the next night.

Bree has already gone up to bed, and I'm drinking Scotch with Da since Gray is out on a job.

"I need you to go and pick up this next shipment," Da says.

I raise an eyebrow. "Not Gray?"

"Gray's otherwise occupied," he says. "You can take Kael with you, he's back home now, aye?"

"Aye." I keep my eyebrow raised. "What's the trouble?"

"You were attacked when we went to check that shipment. I'm worried there's a rat in our midst."

Things have ramped up since that first attack.

I'm afraid Bree might be the rat, but how could she? She sent one letter weeks ago. Even if she said something then, nothing that has happened since can be her fault.

Murphy is retaliating with all he has, trying to get us out where he can slaughter us. That's the only explanation I can see.

But did Bree betray us? Betray me?

I'm still knocking it around my head, trying to figure out the potential code. I've read those letters dozens of times, and I've come up with nothing.

"Is this a test?"

"Not for you," Da says. "For Jimmy. I told him the wrong location."

"You suspect Jimmy?"

Da sighs. "I don't want to suspect anyone, son, but you know how this business works. He wouldn't be the first man to be swayed by Murphy's money."

I nod slowly. This will help me, too. If it turns out to be Jimmy, I can stop suspecting my wife.

If not… I'll cross that bridge when I get there, I guess.

"Call Kael and see if he's available," Da says. "Six in the morning, the westside warehouse."

After I finish my Scotch, I go up to my office, thinking I'll probably be sleeping there. I can't be around Bree without wanting her, without touching her and kissing her, and it's just making me more confused.

I call up Kael, and he answers on the third ring.

"What's up?"

"I've got a job for you," I tell him. "Easy. Just picking up a shipment."

"Hell, yeah," he says. "I've been missing working with you."

I snort. "There won't be any heads to bust, so don't get excited."

"Boo."

I can't help but laugh. I've missed him while he was away.

"See you at six in the morning, the westside warehouse."

"I'll be there."

I go to the linen closet down the hall and grab a blanket and a pillow, heading back to the office.

Bree has come out into the hallway, looking around, wearing her pink negligée and looking good enough to eat. She frowns in my direction.

"You're sleeping in your office?"

"Just for tonight. I've got a really early morning."

"I don't mind," she says, and I'm tempted to go into the bedroom and climb into bed with her, but I don't.

"I do," I say softly. "Don't want to wake you."

She pouts a little. "Just one night?"

God, she's so beautiful. So sweet when she wants to be. But could she secretly be a snake just like her father?

"Just one night. See you tomorrow."

I close the door to my office, sighing.

Staying away from Bree is harder than I thought.

Kael is already therewhen I roll up with the rented truck, and it's only five-forty-five.

"You really did miss me." I chuckle as I get out and head into the warehouse.

"I checked the perimeter," Kael says. "No one around for miles."

"Good."

I look at my phone and nothing. No text with news of an attack anywhere.

Is this good news or bad news?

I can't say anymore. I'm so screwed up in the head right now.

"Why do you seem so depressed?" Kael asks.

"All is clear on all fronts."

"And that is a bad thing? You can't have hoped there was a rat."

"I kind of did," I admit. "Because if there isn't.... the attack on us that day could be my wife's doing."

Kael nods as he takes a crowbar to the first crate.

We start unloading the guns, putting them into the truck and replacing them with money, which the Russians would pick up later tonight. We changed all our routines and started doing these shipments like this to protect our men ever since Murphy attacked.

"And you've fallen in love with the enemy's daughter." Kael chuckles and shakes his head. "I can't leave town for a few weeks without you or Cillian doing something stupid."

I laugh. "Bet you didn't think it'd be me."

"I didn't."

We continue piling the guns into the truck. He bangs on the back of the truck once we get it all done.

"You want to go get some breakfast?"

I'm hoping for any reason not to go home yet, and Kael hops up in the truck's cab with me.

At the diner, I order a big breakfast with a short stack of pancakes, and Kael orders steak and eggs. My mind goes to Bree feeding me Marisol's steak and eggs the other day, and my shoulders slump.

"What are you going to do?" Kael asks.

"What do you mean?"

"If it was her," he says. "Are you going to do it yourself?"

I shiver just thinking about it.

I know what Da would tell me. He'd say she's a Murphy, that she's just like her father. That she needs to be dealt with.

"I can't even think about it," I admit.

"Will you forgive her?"

"It's not up to me to forgive," I point out. "She's put the whole Burke clan in danger, if it's true."

"But you can't kill her."

"I don't know what I would do," I say honestly. "I guess I'd be angry, but I'd try to get around it, somehow."

I sigh. "I don't think Gray would forgive it."

He nods. "Gray can be kind of a hard ass."

"He's been pretty against it since the beginning."

He'd been shocked when Da suggested it. So had I, but so many things had changed since then. "But she's grown on even him, I think."

Kael raises an eyebrow. "Paige likes her?"

"Paige especially likes her," I say, and Kael snorts.

"Didn't know she liked anybody."

I blink at him.

Paige likes everybody, or at least everybody but Kael. But I don't say that, not wanting him to feel worse.

"She"s a good person," I say. "Despite being born of a snake, she's got a really good heart."

"You do love her." Kael looks at me with wide eyes.

"Is that so hard to believe?"

"It is to me. Just never saw you as that kind of guy."

"I didn't either," I say honestly.

I'd never thought I would ever get married, never thought I would ever have a family outside of the rest of the Burkes. I didn't know that someone would fit so well into my life. Now, it feels strange to have even slept in my office last night, felt strange not having her in my arms as we slept.

"What's it like?"

"Hm? What?"

"Being in love."

"Jesus." I chuckle. "It's rough. Like there's always butterflies in your stomach. But when you're with them... it's like nothing else matters. Like no one else matters."

"I can't imagine that."

"Neither could I, until it started happening. I'm honestly as surprised as you are, Kael."

He laughs, finishing up his breakfast and sipping coffee. "Well, you should get back to your wife."

I frown. "I don't want to. Not until I really know what's going on."

"Have you asked her?"

"It's not like she's going to admit to it." I shake my head.

"She might. If she feels the same way?—"

"She doesn't," I grumble.

Bree probably still hates me for what I've done, for kidnapping her, and I can't blame her. That may be why she did it in the first place. She wanted me gone.

The idea makes my heart drop into my stomach.

I hate the way it feels when I think about Bree betraying me. She acts so sweet, acts so loving, but I don't know how she really feels.

Kael doesn't argue, but we fight over the bill for a moment before I slip cash into the server's apron. Kael's still complaining about it when we get back into the truck.

I drop him off at his car a couple of blocks from the warehouse.

When I make it back home, Bree's in the living room, stretched across the couch and dead asleep. I smile a little, crouching next to her.

"Princess?" I call, and she snorts awake, yawning.

"Oh, you're home," she says. "I couldn't sleep last night without you."

She pouts again and this time, I do give in, scooping her off the couch and carrying her bridal style up the stairs.

She wraps her arms around my neck, nuzzling into my neck.

"You should get some more rest," I tell her, and she makes grabby hands at me when I put her in bed.

"I won't sleep unless you're here," she whines.

I chuckle. "All right, then."

I shed my shirt so the buttons won't be uncomfortable, and slide into bed next to her.

She cuddles up to me like she does every night, her head against my chest.

It's like she's meant to fit there, like we're two puzzle pieces.

Bree drifts off while I stroke her hair.

What the hell am I going to do?

I'm in love with my enemy's daughter, and there's nothing at all I can do about that.

What will I do if she has betrayed me?