No Turning Back (24 page)

The shock from his words kept her from saying anything. She looked at Declan and saw the rage boiling inside him. If he stood any stiffer, his bones would crack.

Ed tucked the envelope with the letter into his pocket. “Marc, stop this.”

Leah kept watching Declan, looking for any reaction. Ed now had the only copy, the only evidence. Declan just stood there.

No, all the reaction, complete with waving arms and loud voice, belonged to her father. “He turned Leah against me.”

Ed cleared his voice. “I think you’re doing it all by yourself.”

Her father’s frown turned to a feral smile. “Wait until the FBI gets ahold of you. And they’re coming. Callen first, but I will make it my life’s mission to have you be the number-two hit.”

That was too far. Too much. Leah would not let her father drag the brothers down with him. “Dad, listen to Ed. That’s enough.”

“Is this what you want for your life?” The question came from Declan in a deadly soft tone. “You want to be like your dad and wallow forever?”

“Don’t talk to her.” Her father took another threatening step in Declan’s direction.

Declan didn’t even blink. “She’s a grown woman.”

“She needs protection from you.”

Every fight she’d ever had with her father replayed in fast-forward in her mind. They always ended this way. He’d treat her like a child and she would back down so he wouldn’t get angry, or lately, so he wouldn’t wind up back in the hospital. It was emotional blackmail, and she was done.

“I can make my own decisions.” She responded to her father but looked at Declan.

“And you’ve chosen revenge and hate.” Declan blew out a long breath. “God, Leah, why? Learn something from my past. Let your life be easier.”

“Call Clay.” Her father looked around the floor, probably for his now-broken phone. “I want that boy arrested. He’s threatened us for the last time.”

Her father’s words broke the spell of Declan’s husky voice. She didn’t believe her father’s version. “He didn’t threaten you.”

“You don’t know what he said before you got here, young lady.”

“You should stop talking now, Marc. Upsetting Mr. Hanover is a mistake,” Ed said.

The last tiny doubt spinning in her brain slipped away. The royal indignation and threats. Her father used all his old games to cover up his years-old crimes. “It’s real, isn’t it? You were in on Charlie’s con in Sweetwater from the beginning.”

He didn’t try to deny. Just skipped right to blame. “Don’t believe that boy.”

“As I keep telling you, he’s a man.” Big, strong, dependable and just out of her reach. Probably forever so.

Her father turned his full wrath on her. “You did this. You let him into your house. You’re just like your bitch of a mother. You get on your back and let a Hanover use you. You believe his lies and then what happens? I have to clean up the mess. I get the call that you’ve been dumped.”

Shock vibrated through Leah. As the shouted words echoed through the house, her hand went to her mouth. “Oh my God. Mom knew. She left because she knew.”

Declan, who looked like he was headed out the door a second ago, crowded closer. His arm rubbed against hers and she welcomed his added strength. Let it hold her up when her body ached to flop to the floor.

“She left because she was a conniving, backstabbing bitch.”

“At least she never stole from the town,” Declan said.

Her father pointed at Declan with an arm shaking with fury. “You shut up.”

Leah saw it all now. It was so obvious that she wondered how the clouds hadn’t cleared earlier. “All those years I made excuses for your behavior. I blamed her and Charlie, and then his sons came to town and I sucked up your rage and transferred it to them.”

“You did more than that. You’re sleeping with him.” Her father actually spit on the floor at Declan’s feet. “Your taste in people has always been terrible. You don’t know who to trust or how to act.”

Her head wouldn’t stop spinning. “You’re not wrong about that.”

“Declan, I think you should go,” Ed said. “Leah, let me talk to your father. I need to explain a few things to him in private.”

“I’m staying.” Declan’s voice suggested no one argue.

She did anyway. Her world kept shifting and twisting. She needed five minutes to sit down and think it all through. Doing that would only be possible if her father and Declan weren’t sniping at each other. “Go, I’ll be fine.”

“How can you—”

She willed him to listen. Put her hand on his arm and stared at him until he closed his mouth again. “Please, Declan. Just leave.”

With one last burning look, he turned and walked away. The door slammed behind him with a crack that vibrated with a sort of finality. She stared at the space and fought the urge to call him back. He dealt with so much of his own family crap. He didn’t need to add hers to his load.

And after everything she had no idea where they stood. It was all so confused and entangled. She wanted to crawl into bed and cry it out . . . then beg him to come back.

“Leah, are you okay?” She didn’t realize she’d been standing there for almost a minute until Ed asked the question.

“I’m fine.” The real answer was the exact opposite of fine.

“She can stay. She knows the rules, and she’s finally come around.” Her father smiled at her. Acted as if everything was fine now and nothing had changed. “Took you a while, didn’t it, but now you see that Hanover boy for who he is.”

She glanced at the closed door one more time. “Yeah, but I think it’s too late.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Declan swore as he slammed the truck door and walked up the driveway. It wasn’t even ten in the morning, and his two brothers were sitting on the porch doing nothing. They each claimed a chair and balanced their feet on the newly reinforced porch bannister while drinking out of coffee mugs.

Declan guessed they were waiting for him to come home with a report. Boy, were they going to be disappointed.

Becks smile fell as Declan approached. “What did you do?”

He didn’t bother to sit down. Didn’t plan on being out there long enough. Instead, he leaned against the column and faced them both down. “Went to see her father. She showed up, got pissed and I left.”

Beck and Callen looked at each other, but only Beck answered. “Damn, that sucks.”

Worse than that, but Declan wasn’t ready to open up and dump his feelings about Leah all over them. And here came the hard part, the part Declan practiced fifteen times on the short drive from the Baron residence to here.

“I know I talked you guys into keeping the place and putting money into it, but this is over.” He hated the idea. And the possibility of never seeing Leah again left him empty and raw, like he was itching to crawl out of his skin. He wasn’t even disappointed. It would take him weeks, months maybe, to get there. No, he was stuck in a spiral of numbing pain.

“You sure?” Callen asked.

“I want to sell her the house and—”

His eyebrow inched up. “Run?”

More judgments. Declan was all out of patience for those. “Don’t do that.”

Callen dropped his feet to the porch. “It’s not your style, man.”

“How would you know?”

“I think you should calm down.”

“I don’t see that happening.” Declan pushed and picked because he couldn’t stop. All that energy racing around inside of him had to go somewhere, and at least this seemed safe. Callen already said he wasn’t going to run.

“You want to do this now?”

Declan needed a fight, needed to yell. “Why the hell not?”

“Fine.”

“Good.”

“I know because there hasn’t been a week of your life when I haven’t watched over you from a distance.” The strain showed on every inch of Callen’s face.

“What?
”

“The high school dance when you acted like a dumbass and drove drunk. I followed you to make sure you didn’t kill yourself or your date, and was prepared to jump in your place in the driver’s seat if you got into trouble. How about the meeting with the Army recruiter? I walked in behind you and asked a thousand questions. Or that idiot who tried to knife you in Seattle. I almost broke that guy in half.”

Declan came away from the column in a rush. He stood in front of his older brother as his mind tried to process. “What the fuck are you saying?”

“Do you want the rest of the list? I was there. Maybe not in the way you wanted, but in the way I could be.” Callen looked at Beck. “For both of you.”

“That’s not true.”

Callen threw up his hands. “Ask me anything.”

Shock pummeled Declan until his footing stumbled. All those years he believed he was alone. It didn’t seem possible there was another answer. “You should have stepped out of the shadows.”

“Maybe.”

The truth hit Declan out of nowhere. “You didn’t want to get in too deep. Your way gave you distance.”

Callen stayed in his chair and looked up with a bring-it look of challenge on his face. “You want to fight with me, fine, but we both know this isn’t about me or us or even Charlie. You fucked this up. Admittedly, Leah fucked it up first, but she’s had a blow, finding out the truth about her father. She’ll rebound in time, but you still have to face your role in crapping this up.”

The guilt Declan had been pushing out of his head flooded back in. He regretted the way he’d handled it, but he hated the way Callen drove right to the point. “I read a few files.”

Callen shook his head. “You snuck around because you were checking up on me. You wanted to know what Reeves might know, what this Kristin person might know. You didn’t ask Leah’s permission or mine. You just dove in, and that sucks.”

“Why would I ask you?”

“Because it’s my life you were digging in. After meeting Reeves, you wanted more information.” The shout spread out, seemingly hitting every inch of the property’s rolling acres.

It blared through Declan’s brain. He knew Callen wasn’t perfect, but . . . “I never thought you did anything wrong.”

“Shit, Declan. I know that. You were trying to help me. I get it, but your methods were all screwed up.”

Beck continued to rock his chair. “What did Leah say at her dad’s?”

“Exactly what you think. She told me to get the fuck out.”

“She said it that way?” Beck looked entirely too pleased at the thought of her using those words.

“I added the fuck for emphasis.” Declan mind went back to that uncomfortable room and Leah’s defeated look. She looked ready to drop, and it took all his willpower not to reach out and hold her. He wouldn’t have been able to handle her slapping his hands away. “Or maybe her dad said it. I don’t know.”

“In other words, she got mad and you bailed.”

Sounded like they were finally getting it. Declan hoped so because that meant he could stop explaining and just go to bed. “Yes.”

Beck looked at Callen. They shared some sort of told-you-so nod. “Callen’s right, you’re running. It’s kind of pitiful for a guy who’s supposedly so good with battle and weapons and stuff.”

Whatever brother-bond thing Beck and Callen had perfected in their few minutes alone ticked Declan off. “Since when do you two give a shit about my choices or my dating life?”

“Since we had a front-row seat to it and are astounded at how bad you are at this,” Beck said.

“At least I’ve had a woman in the last few weeks.”

Callen shifted in his seat. That’s all it took for the attention to zoom back to him. “Is that all she was? Seemed to me you fell for her.”

Declan didn’t bother to deny it. Sitting down hard on the bannister, he let his body slouch and his muscles downshift off high alert. “And doesn’t that make me the stupid asshole.”

“You could try fixing your mess.” Callen finished with a long sip of coffee.

“It’s over.”

Callen glanced over Declan’s shoulder. “Is it?”

Declan looked around. Leah stood right there, next to her car. It was the second time she’d snuck up on him. Correct that, drove up without him even noticing.

Before he could say anything, she walked over and stopped at the bottom of the porch steps. With big sad eyes, she stared them all down. “I know you don’t want me here.”

Callen finally stood up. “No one said that.”

They all followed his example. Mom had driven that into their heads years ago. When a woman came into the room, men stood. That applied to outdoors as well.

Declan glanced at his brothers. He didn’t want an audience for this scene, not if it looked anything like the last few shouting matches, but he doubted Beck and Callen would slink away willingly. If anything, Beck looked like he was one inch away from pulling out his phone and taping it.

Declan didn’t have any choice except to go down the stairs to Leah. And ignore the morons he was related to.

“I didn’t go to your father to threaten or blackmail him. I wanted him to get his head out of his ass. He’s treating you like shit, and it hurts you, and I wanted him to stop.” He started in the middle because that was the point he most wanted her to get. “Once I found that document and recognized it from my file, the pieces came together. All his hate and the obsession directed at us, the anger with you for not solving the problem. It was his problem. His guilt. He dumped it on you and it pissed me off.”

“But this is your chance.”

Not really the answer Declan expected to his big speech. She’d lost him with a few simple words. “For what?”

“Revenge.”

There. Her father’s reason for existence and the one lesson he made sure she learned as a child. Declan used to dread she’d compare him to his father. Now Declan worried if the real threat to their relationship was having her compare him to hers.

“Do you honestly think I care about that?” he asked.

She stepped closer. He stood on the bottom step, and she hovered right below him. “You should. He’s made your life impossible. Lined people up who had grievances with your dad and convinced them to pile the hate on you.”

“We’ve dealt with worse.” Declan heard his brothers grunt in agreement to that one.

As if she thought she needed to explain to all of them, she shifted to the side and scanned the entire porch. “Dad was in on Charlie’s Sweetwater con and refuses to take any responsibility.”

“They know. I filled them in.” Declan stepped in front of her again, forcing her to focus only on him. “But none of that makes Charlie less guilty. Hurting you or ruining your dad now doesn’t solve anything.”

“Listen to the man, Leah,” Callen called out.

“I thought for sure you, most of all, would want to use this information against the Barons.” She shot Callen a shaky smile. “Unleash the vengeance.”

He came to the edge of the porch and rested his palms on the bannister. “No.”

“Why?”

“When you’ve lived your entire life seeing what revenge does to people, you lose your appetite for it.”

Beck nodded. “None of us intend to say anything about your dad. That’s between the two of you and, honestly, I hope you can figure it out.”

Declan appreciated the backup. Most of all, he loved that his brothers truly meant what they said. They had every reason to exact revenge. With their father, they should have been the types to jump on this sort of thing. But they were better men than Charlie even pretended to be in his best con.

“How? Everything I’ve believed is messed up and sideways.”

The yearning in her voice drove right to Declan’s heart. “We can help you with that.” That much he knew. After all, he’d lived with it his entire life.

She jerked as if someone whispered something to her. She lifted her arm and took out a large manila envelope she had tucked there. Declan expected her to hand whatever it was over to him. Instead, she walked past him and handed the envelope up to Callen.

“Kristin Accord’s name sounded familiar. She stopped me at the diner and asked me to help her meet with you, but I said no.” Leah turned to Declan. “That’s all that was.”

He didn’t need more explanation than that. For some reason, her assurance was enough. “I believe you.”

“It took me until this morning to remember where I’d seen her name.” Leah nodded at the file in Callen’s hands. “It’s in there. It’s about you. Only you, and it’s not easy to read.”

Ever the lawyer, Beck was the first to jump in. “What is it?”

“Callen gets to decide if he wants to open it. Think long and hard about it. I think you’ve all had enough or now and, really, in all the ways that count the information doesn’t matter.”

He let it fall from his fingers and dump on the porch. “I agree. Whatever it is can wait, possibly forever. I’m tired of looking at documents right now.”

“You all deserve better.” Leah’s voice cut off and her eyes got all shiny. “I . . . I have to go.”

No big exit this time. She scurried to her car, fumbling in her purse. Twice she dropped her keys and once kicked them down the driveway.

Callen sighed. “Go after her or I will beat you senseless.”

Beck slapped Declan on the back. “And stop talking about selling the house. We’re staying. You’re right. The town will eventually get used to us being here. Most people are okay already.”

“We’re in this, Declan. Together.” Callen grabbed his coffee mug off the bannister. “Now, go drag your woman back here. Doesn’t look like she’s slept. We’ll let Beck talk law to her and she’ll be out in a second.”

Declan heard their words behind him and looked ahead to where the woman he loved rattled her keys and reached for the car door handle. The mess hadn’t cleared, but the air had changed. A sense of hope stole over him.

He loved her, deep to his soul and back loved her. By coming here today, she was saying she loved him. He just didn’t know if she realized it yet.

He’d educate her if he had to. The thought made him smile. “Thanks for the offer, but I want her awake.”

Callen chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Declan took two steps then turned around again. There was so much he wanted to say to his brothers. He went with the most heartfelt. “Thanks.”

Her fingers kept slipping off the damn handle. For some reason, she couldn’t get a good grip. It was as if every muscle and cell had gone into shutdown mode.

“Leah, stop.” Declan’s voice was close now. Like, maybe a foot away.

Not surprising since his stride was double hers and she barely had the strength to talk. She rested her palm against the cool glass of her window and breathed in, trying to regain some of the energy she’d lost as the morning hours wore on. “I can’t do this. I have to get out of here.”

“You can’t drive. Come inside.”

She dropped her forehead against the door and let her body relax. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”

With a gentle touch, he turned her around to face him. Those eyes, so filled with hate earlier, showed only concern now. That handsome face, the one she thought showed nothing, had dark circles under the eyes and lines around the mouth. It was like staring into a mirror and seeing her exhaustion displayed on someone else’s face.

“What are you talking about?” His voice was soft, so tempting.

“How can you even look at me?” She was disgusted with herself and her father. With everything.

Declan trailed the back of his fingers down the side of her face. “That has never been a problem.”

Her heart jumped. Actually did a little flip and landed again. “My dad—”

“They’re his sins, Leah. No one is a bigger expert in separating out father from child than I am.”

The words lured her in. She wanted to believe that through all the corrosion and despair she could find her way out again. “Why do I still love him? I mean, I stormed out of the house and all I could think about was him lying in a hospital bed. If he has another attack after this—”