Last Chance (Second Chance Book 3)

by Michelle St. James

  Kate pulled the car out of the garage and cracked her window as she started down the long drive that wound parallel to the cliff at the edge of the property.

  “Where are you Beth?” she murmured.

  The sun and fresh air should have made her happy, but a familiar melancholy washed over her. Ever since her father’s death, her life had been in turmoil. Some things had gone right — she was happy to be back in Boston, she had Declan in her life again, they were a family.

  But even that felt uncomfortably temporary, the lies in her parents’ marriage buried so deep, hidden so well, they made Kate question whether anything was real, whether happily ever after even existed.

  Maybe if you looked deeply enough, even the happiest of relationships were a lie. And what was she supposed to do with that as she started her life with Declan?

  It all felt like a house of cards built on top of the ticking bomb of Neil Curran, whatever he’d been planning when he’d had her father killed, and whether he was still out there, waiting for the right time to finish what he’d started.

  2

  Declan parked his Tesla at the curb and stepped out into the sun. It still felt strange to walk up the steps leading to the house’s courtyard, to cross the brick pavers and head for the door off the kitchen as someone who didn’t live there.

  Which wasn’t to say he wasn’t happy. In fact, happy was an understatement. He’d been over the moon when Kate asked him to move into the guest house with her and Griffin.

  Over the moon and surprised.

  Because while things had been amazing with Kate — the case against Neil Curran notwithstanding — he wasn’t dumb enough to think the battle was over.

  Kate had never made things easy. She wasn’t going to start now.

  He didn’t care. He loved everything about her. She would be a shell without her sharp mind, her determination to protect Griffin, her strength. The other side to those coin was part of the deal too. She thought everything through a hundred different ways, tried to plan for every contingency, protected Griffin not only from danger that was clear and present but potential danger too.

  They were all things that made Kate, well, Kate. Things that had drawn him to her in college, that had made it hard to forget her in the years they’d been apart.

  And now there was more, because even though she didn’t say it, he knew the revelation about her mother’s affair, the affair that had resulted in Beth, had rocked Kate to her core. Her parents’ marriage had seemed idyllic from the outside, fiercely independent Mac Walsh, a man with an iron will, well matched to Annie, who was no less strong but whose approach had been considerably softer.

  Coming face-to-face with the secrets of her parents’ marriage just when she’d finally decided to give Declan another chance was bound to create fear and doubt about their future together. If her parents’ marriage hadn’t been what it seemed, if there had been problems deep enough to result in an affair, what hope was there for the rest of them?

  He had a hunch her uncertainty was the reason her enthusiasm for Aiden and Miguel’s wedding seemed forced, why she hesitated to talk about her future with Declan in all but the broadest terms.

  He didn’t know if her asking him to move in had been a rare spontaneous moment or if she’d thought it through like she did everything, but he’d jumped at the chance to prove he could be a good dad to Griffin and a good partner to Kate.

  It had gone surprisingly well, the three of them falling into an easy routine of school for Griff, work for Kate and Declan, Sunday dinners at the big house with Annie, Aiden, and Miguel. On Saturdays they joined Ronan, Julia, Nick, Alexa, and Elise for days at the beach and epic frisbee tournaments. Sometimes Annie joined in, and Declan had been surprised how quickly and easily the two families meshed.

  Declan’s dad, Thomas Murphy, had even come to the family Fourth of July party at the Marblehead house. He and Annie had met before and had settled right into an easy friendship, and there was no doubt that Declan’s father relished his role as grandfather to both John Thomas and Griffin.

  And yet even with all the good stuff — and there was a lot of it — Declan knew he and Kate weren’t out of the woods. He would do everything he could to help Kate work through her feelings about her parents’ marriage, to reassure her that their relationship wouldn’t be like her parents’, that there would be no secrets, no lies.

  But that wouldn’t solve the problem of Beth or Neil Curran.

  Beth was a wound in Kate’s side, a slow bleed that threatened to drain her of life if she didn’t confront it. But Beth had been gone for nearly six months, surprisingly untraceable given her lack of experience staying off the grid.

  It made Declan worry — that she was holed up with Neil, or even worse, that something had happened to her and Kate would never get the closure she needed to move on with her life.

  As for Neil, it would have been easy to think he was gone for good. He’d gone to ground hard and fast, turning into a ghost untraceable by Clay, the world-class hacker MIS kept on their payroll, the Syndicate’s impressive cyber lab, and even the FBI.

  But Declan knew he’d be back, probably sooner rather than later. No one took risks like the ones Neil had taken in hiring Jimmy Ryan to tamper with Mac Walsh’s plane and making overtures to WMG’s biggest shareholders only to call it all off because they’d been outed.

  No, Neil would be back, and Declan welcomed it.

  He’d known from the moment Logan Hunt, his contact at the FBI, had told him Neil was gone that Kate would never be able to move on until Neil paid for killing her father.

  And Declan knew all about the need for justice. Hell, the only reason MIS existed at all was because he, Ronan, and Nick couldn’t let it go when their youngest sister, Erin, had overdosed on heroine. Erin had died and the man who’d gotten her hooked had gone on living right up until the day Declan and his brothers killed him.

  After that they’d realized there were a lot of people like Erin: people who’d gotten hurt, families left without closure, without justice. They’d spent the years since taking on affluent clients willing to pay millions of dollars for their services and pro bono clients who couldn’t pay a dime. They’d gotten rich beyond their wildest dreams, although it had never been about the money.

  He reached the door to the house, his mind pulled back to the present by the sound of water running in the kitchen through the open window. The smell of coffee hit his nose as soon as he opened the door.

  Ronan was sitting at one of the stools at the kitchen island, watching something on his phone, while John Thomas attempted to spoon cheerios into his mouth from his high chair. The puddles of milk in the tray along with a trail of soggy cereal told Declan his nephew was losing as much cereal as he was getting into his mouth.

  “Hey,” Ronan said, looking up in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

  “Giving Nick a ride into the office.” Chief, Ronan’s dog, trotted over to Declan and he ran his hand through the dog’s soft fur. “He said you were going in late and his car’s in the shop.”

  Ronan nodded and ruffled John Thomas’s hair. “The big guy here has a doctor’s appointment.”

  “Everything okay?” Declan asked, bending to kiss John Thomas’ head. He smelled like eucalyptus shampoo and milk and graham crackers.

  “Just a well check,” Ronan said, his eyes still on his phone.

  “Glad to hear it. What are you watching?” Declan asked.

  “News. Remember that guy Aiden thought was behind Mac’s murder? Back when he first tried to hire us?”

  “Connor Ferguson?”

  Kate’s brother had been sure Ferguson was behind Mac Walsh’s murder, mostly because the billionaire had tried and failed to buy Mac out. Aiden had been wrong, but like so many of the people MIS came across during their cases, Ferguson would always elicit a ping of recognition.

  Ronan nodded. “He’s buying up a bunch of blue-chip companies. Funny, isn’t it? Guy makes his billions in bleed
ing edge tech, then sells it all to go old school.”

  “New money trying to buy its way into old money. The world is crazy.” Declan got a cup and started brewing a cup of coffee, his eyes falling on a postcard from London. He turned it over to see a couple of sentences scrawled in their youngest brother Finn’s barely legible handwriting. “London. That’s… tame.”

  Postcards from Finn were usually from places like Morocco and Algeria.

  Ronan put his phone down. “I thought the same thing.’

  “It’s been a long time since anybody’s heard from him, right?” Declan asked.

  Ronan stood, removing John Thomas’ mostly empty bowl and carrying it to the sink. “I was about to have Clay run a search on him, but I guess he’s good.”

  “Cool.”

  Sometimes Declan almost forgot they had a younger brother. Their mother had died of cancer a few years before Erin’s overdose, and the remaining Murphys had handled the twin loss in different ways. Declan had joined his brothers to start MIS in an effort to help other families who deserved justice. Their sister, Nora, had moved to California and joined the FBI, although she’d eventually ended up working for a man in a business not dissimilar to MIS.

  Finn had run. The ink had barely been dry on his high school diploma when he’d used his graduation money to buy a backpack and one-way plane ticket to Thailand. Their father had been angry and frustrated. Thomas Murphy was a veteran of the Boston Police Department. At the time Ronan had been with the SEALs and Nick had been following in their dad’s footsteps at BPD, Nora on her way to the FBI Academy.

  An aimless son traveling Asia with nothing but a backpack hadn’t been on their dad’s bingo card.

  But Finn had gone anyway, and none of them had seen him since, except for Ronan, once, when he’d been on a mission on the Korean peninsula. According to Ronan, Finn had been hardly recognizable, a beard obscuring most of his face, his frame turned tall and lean.

  Every few months, he sent postcards like the one on the counter. Once in a blue moon, they even got a call. But other than that, Finn might as well have been a figment of their imagination.

  “Hey!” Julia entered the kitchen, her dark blonde hair falling in waves around her face. “What are you doing here?”

  “Giving Nick a ride,” Declan said.

  She moved to lift John Thomas out of the high chair. “Let’s get you cleaned up for the doctor, little man.” She looked at Declan. “Can you ask Kate if she’ll bring that lobster salad of hers Saturday? I’ve been dreaming about it.”

  Declan laughed. “Sure.”

  “Great.” Julia looked at Ronan. “Want to leave in ten?”

  He bent to kiss her. “I’ll be ready.”

  Declan liked watching them together, liked watching them share responsibility for John Thomas. He’d missed the first six years of Griffin’s life. Watching his brother go through all the stages Declan had missed was a way to experience it himself.

  Becoming a father had changed Ronan, rendering his giant of a brother, a man who had killed other men with his bare hands both in service to his country and in service to MIS, gentler and more thoughtful. It made Declan wonder how things might have been different if he’d been spent his freewheeling years with Griffin instead of trying to forget Kate with bar fights and one-night stands.

  “How are Kate and Griff?” Ronan asked.

  Declan thought about Kate, about the way she still roamed the cove by herself, her gaze pulled out to sea, an expression of frustration lighting her mossy eyes. “Good.”

  Ronan lifted his eyebrows. “You sure about that?”

  Declan sighed. Their business had made them too good at reading people, at cataloging tics and tells. Secrets were impossible. “She’s frustrated. We both are.”

  “We all are,” Ronan corrected.

  Declan nodded. “Anything new from Hunt and the Feds?”

  “Not last I heard.”

  Declan had enlisted Logan Hunt’s help through an introduction by Nolan Burke, head of the Syndicate’s Boston territory. It had been a long shot, but the information they’d given Hunt had been enough to secure a search warrant for Neil Curran’s apartment. The fact that Neil had disappeared was an embarrassment, but it had also served to make Hunt and his team invested in finding Neil, and that was a win for Declan, even if the Feds hadn’t turned up anything new just yet.

  They needed all hands on deck, and between the Feds, the Syndicate’s cyber lab, and Clay’s team, all the bases that could be covered were covered.

  Not that it had done them any good.

  “Morning.” Nick entered the kitchen smelling like soap and expensive aftershave. As usual, he was dressed in a suit, a formal foil to Declan’s jeans and T-shirt. Nick’s dark hair was cut to a length that was neither as short as Ronan’s military-style cut nor as long as Declan’s, overdue for a trip to the barber.

  “Morning,” Declan said. Normally Nick and Alexa were attached at the hip, working and living together and everything in between, but apparently she had something else going on, which was why Nick needed a ride.

  “Let me just grab some coffee for the road and we can go,” Nick said, pulling a travel mug down from the cupboard.

  Declan made small talk with Ronan while Nick made a cup of coffee. Then they were on their way stepping out into the courtyard and heading for Declan’s car.

  “How’s Alexa?” Declan asked as he pulled out into traffic.

  “She’s good.” Nick turned his face to the window and hesitated. “We’re thinking about adopting actually.”

  Declan looked over at his brother. “Really?”

  Even before he’d learned he was Griffin’s father, it had made him sad to know Alexa couldn’t have kids because of a car accident she’d had as a teenager. Nick and Alexa had never spoken openly about wanting children, but they were so good with John Thomas that Declan had assumed it was in their future.

  It was something Declan tried to be sensitive to when he was tempted to wax poetic about the joys of parenthood, a topic he’d never been entirely sure how to broach with Nick. Was it something his brother wanted to talk about or something he wanted to ignore?

  With Nick you never knew.

  “Why do you sound surprised?” Nick asked, turning his green eyes on Declan as they came to a stop at a red light.

  Declan shrugged. “You never said anything. I wasn’t sure if it was something you wanted.”

  “I don’t think we were sure either. That’s part of why we waited. Lex wanted to make sure she didn’t make the decision just to prove she could.”

  “I can see that.” Alexa had been an Assistant Attorney General when she’d met Nick, a woman who had overcome all odds to survive the car accident that had killed her best friend. She’d learned to walk again, had gone to law school, earned a coveted job at the AG’s office. Achievement was coded in her DNA. Like Kate. “What about you? How do you feel about it?”

  “I’m all in,” Nick said. “I’ve been all in since before she mentioned it. I just didn’t want to push.”

  “That’s awesome. You and Lex will be amazing parents.”

  Doubt shaded Nick’s eyes. “You think?”

  “I know. You’re great with JT, and Griff loves you. Have you started the process yet?” Declan asked. “I mean, I don’t know much about adoption, but I guess you have to sign up with an agency or something?”

  “That’s one way of going about it,” Nick said. “We could also foster with the hope of adopting.” He sighed. “I don’t know. We haven’t done anything but talk about it yet, but we’re open to all the possibilities. The main thing is the house.”

  “The house?”

  “Whatever we decide, the vetting process will be pretty serious. They’re going to want to interview everyone in the house, run background, come and check things out.”

  Nick didn’t need to elaborate. On paper, MIS was aboveboard, a garden-variety investigative firm with a solid paper trail of paying clients,
properly filed tax returns, and a multi-year history of turning a healthy profit.

  But they’d been investigated by the AG’s office after the job that had saved Elise. It was how Nick had met Alexa, and while they’d ultimately been cleared of wrongdoing thanks to the Syndicate’s connections, it was all on record for anyone to see.

  “Won’t the business be a problem regardless of where you live?” Declan asked.

  “To some degree,” Nick said. “But the case was dropped by the AG’s office, so I don’t think it’ll be a serious barrier.”

  “So why the worry about the house?”

  “I don’t know. It’s just another layer. It’s stressful enough to imagine someone interviewing me and Lex. Add in everybody else and it just seems like at least one of us will fuck it up.”

  Declan laughed. “We lie for a living. Plus, Ronan’s ex-military, Julia’s a computer nerd, Lex is a lawyer, and Elise is — ”

  “Elise was sex trafficked.” Nick hurried to continue. “Not that it’s her fault. I don’t even think it would come up. She was never named in any of the public documents about Manifest.” He sighed. “I’m probably being paranoid, but Lex has been through so much. If we do this, I want it to be as easy as possible for her. Plus, things are starting to feel a little tight at home.”

  Declan pulled into a parking spot next to the curb near MIS’s offices. “So you’re thinking of moving?”

  “We haven’t figured it out yet, but everything’s on the table,” Nick said.

  “Wow.” Declan got out of the car and spoke to Nick over the hood. “That’s big.”

  “Yeah,” Nick said. “I just want Lex to be happy. Whatever it takes to make that happen, I’m all for it.”

  A few years earlier, it had just been Declan, Ronan, and Nick in the big house, barely speaking to each other outside of work. Back then the house had seemed absurdly big, Declan and his brothers mostly sticking to their private quarters in lieu of the common spaces.

  But over the past few years, everything had changed. It had started with Julia and Elise, who had moved into the house after Elise’s rescue from Manifest. Then John Thomas had been born and Alexa had moved in with Nick. Declan might have helped ease the tightness of their quarters by moving into the guest house in Marblehead with Kate and Griff, but they were all still at the Murphy house at least once a week, and it was more common than not for the house to be overflowing with people, laughter, takeout, reality TV, and epic games of Cards Against Humanity.