“I’m not!” Beatrice insisted.
Declan shut her out and motioned for Stella to continue. She was crying now, the tears streaking down her cheeks. “I thought the original attacks were from somebody that Kirby was investigating. He was dealing with some dangerous criminals in those days.”
“Including Leonard Kane?” Eden asked.
Stella nodded. “This was about the same time that Kirby had to shoot and kill Leonard’s son.”
Declan’s heart began to race even more than it already was, something he hadn’t thought possible, since it felt as if his ribs were cracking. “Why would Leonard have gone after you?”
“Because he knew that Kirby loved her,” Beatrice said before Stella could answer.
And Stella didn’t deny it.
“I thought Jack Vinson could be behind the danger, too,” Stella went on. “After all, I was engaged to him. And I cheated on him.” That admission brought on more tears.
It also caused the room to go deadly silent.
Eden moved even closer to him. Slid her arm around his waist. Then they waited for Stella to finish. But that cheating confession was causing all sorts of thoughts to fly through his head.
“You cheated...with Kirby?” Declan asked.
“Who else?” Beatrice answered. “She never loved Jack. It was always about Kirby, and the moment she figured she could have him, she dropped Jack just like that.” She snapped her fingers.
“You can leave now,” Declan warned Beatrice, but he didn’t take his attention off Stella. “Say it. I want to hear you say it.”
Stella swallowed hard. “Kirby’s your father.”
Before he could stop it, a groan left his mouth, and even though Eden tried to hold on to him, he pushed her away.
Oh, man.
He hadn’t seen this coming. Kirby was a good person. He’d saved him and his five foster brothers. But Stella and he had withheld the truth, and that cut Declan to the bone. To the very core of his soul.
“Kirby?” Beatrice looked at Stella as if she’d lost her mind. “You wish. You wanted your lover to be your baby’s father, but we both know that Jack was.”
“It was Kirby,” Stella insisted. “I didn’t tell him because I knew he’d probably end up getting killed trying to protect me and the baby. So after I gave birth to Declan in Germany, I left him with people I knew would give him a good, safe home. I thought I had covered my tracks.” More tears came. “But obviously I hadn’t.”
“No, you hadn’t.” Declan wished he could cut her some slack. She was clearly hurting from all of this, but by God, the only family he’d known had been murdered.
“Does Kirby know now?” Eden asked.
Stella gave a shaky nod. “After Meg got sick, she called me to say she couldn’t keep Declan any longer, so I arranged to have him brought to Rocky Creek. I told Kirby then.”
Well, that explained why Kirby had taken such an interest in him. Except it hadn’t felt like any more special treatment than he’d given the other boys who’d become his foster sons.
“Kirby wanted to tell you the truth,” Stella went on, “but it was too dangerous. The threat was obviously still out there, and we didn’t know who had killed your adoptive family. The safest thing for us to do was keep you close to us so we could watch out for you.”
“So you changed his name?” Eden asked. “But he still had an Irish accent then. Didn’t you think that’d make the killer suspicious?”
“The fear was always there, breathing down our necks,” Stella verified. “But it wasn’t as if we had a lot of choices. And besides, as far as the killer knew, Declan was in Germany somewhere, not Ireland. Then Kirby pointed out that the killer would think that Rocky Creek was the last place on earth we’d put our boy. Hiding him in plain sight, so to speak.”
And it’d worked. He hadn’t been free of Webb in those days, but a killer hadn’t come after him.
There were so many questions that Declan wasn’t sure where to start. “Someone left me a lot of money a while back, and I wasn’t able to unravel where it came from.”
“It was from me. It was my inheritance. I wanted you to have it, but I couldn’t just give it to you, so I had it sent to you using a fake identity.” She choked back a sob. “I swear, all these years, I was just trying to keep you safe.”
“She’s lying,” Beatrice insisted. She pointed her finger at Declan. “I know you’re Jack’s son, and I know you want your hands on our money.”
“My money,” a man corrected.
Oh, man. It was Jack, and Declan didn’t want to see him or anyone else right now.
Beatrice looked as if he’d slapped her, and she dropped back a step from him. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Obviously. Because you were too busy accusing Stella of lying.” He walked closer, and his gaze connected with Stella’s. “Is it true? Is Declan my son?”
Declan didn’t realize he was holding his breath until his lungs started to ache.
Stella shook her head. “No. He’s Kirby’s. I got pregnant with him after you’d left on that business trip to Mexico.”
Jack studied her. So did Declan. Beatrice just continued to mumble that Stella was lying.
“Why would I lie?” Stella challenged. “By admitting that Declan is Kirby’s son, I’m not lessening the danger. I’m making it worse. And if I thought I had another choice, I’d take it. But despite everything I’ve done, I can’t stop someone from trying to kill him.”
Her voice broke, and she looked up at Declan. “I gave you up to save you.”
He would have had to be an iceman not to react to that, and part of him wanted to pull her into his arms and say that he understood, but he couldn’t do that. Not yet.
Maybe not ever.
Declan didn’t say anything, couldn’t, but Eden must have realized what he needed right now. She didn’t waste any time moving both Jack and Beatrice aside. However, Eden did look back at Stella. “I’ll call you later.”
Maybe because she felt the pain that Stella was going through. Declan felt it, too, but he had to fight his way through all the other feelings first.
“Wait!” Jack called out. “I want to take a paternity test.”
Declan didn’t stop. He just kept moving. He had to get the hell out of there now.
“This isn’t over,” Jack added. “One way or another, I will learn the truth.”
Yeah, so would Declan. After he came to grips with the world that’d just come crashing down hard around him.
Chapter Thirteen
Declan stormed out of the building so fast that Eden had a hard time keeping up with him. This had to be tearing him apart inside, yet he still gave their surroundings a lawman’s glance before he got her into the parking lot and into his truck.
“I’m sorry,” she said. The words were so useless, not nearly enough to help, but she wasn’t sure anything would help right now.
Declan drove away fast, headed out of town and away from Stella. His mother. Even Eden was having trouble coming to terms with that, and she barely knew the woman. Or Kirby. But Kirby was also Declan’s father.
If Stella had been telling the truth, that is.
Beatrice had been so adamant that she was lying, but as Stella had said—why would she lie about something that would ultimately only put Declan in more danger?
She wouldn’t.
And that meant all these attempts on their lives were likely connected back to Kirby. It certainly made Leonard a stronger suspect. Of course, Beatrice had been very upset at the idea of sharing her husband’s millions with a potential heir, so that gave her a serious motive to end Declan’s life.
Without saying a word to her, Declan took out his phone, and Eden saw from the name he pressed that he was calling Wyatt. His br
other answered right away, and Declan pressed the speaker button and put the phone on the seat between them. Maybe because he had a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel and didn’t want to risk crushing the phone in his hand.
“I just talked to Stella,” Wyatt said. “She’s in pieces, Declan, and she’s worried you’ll do something reckless. That was her word, not mine. I’m worried you’ll do something stupid. Where are you?”
“With Eden. I need a favor.” But he didn’t continue for several long moments. “I need to know if Kirby’s really my father.”
“Already working on it. But even if it’s true, you shouldn’t be out there right now without backup. I don’t have to remind you that someone wants you dead.”
“No reminder needed. Let me know what you find out.” And despite the fact that Wyatt was saying something, Declan hit the end call button.
It didn’t take long, just seconds, for Wyatt to call back, but Declan silenced the ringer and put his phone on vibrate before he shoved it into his pocket. “I can’t turn it off,” he mumbled.
No, because they were in the middle of a complex investigation. One they couldn’t put on hold, because she doubted these attempts to kill them would just end. Updates would be coming in. And possibly the culprit’s capture.
Or so she hoped.
“Are you going to talk to Kirby?” she asked.
“I can’t.”
She understood, but she also knew it wasn’t a conversation that Declan could delay for long. Kirby might have the answers they needed to blow this case wide open. Of course, that would mean talking to Kirby about this bombshell that’d just been dropped on him.
Declan drove toward the ranch, but when he reached the fork in the road he stopped, as if trying to decide if he should go to his own place or the family home.
“The ranch has a security system,” he finally said as if reminding himself, and he headed that way. “Once we’re inside, I can get started on some calls. I need to find out if either Beatrice or Jack had any contacts in Germany at the time my family was killed. I also need to check their bank records to see if there’s been any money siphoned off to pay for those gunmen.”
“It can wait.” Even if it shouldn’t.
Declan didn’t answer her. He brought the truck to a stop near the back door of the ranch, caught her hand and hurried her inside. They’d barely made it to the kitchen when he locked the door, engaged the security system and started making one of those calls.
However, Eden put her hand over his phone to stop him. “Want to talk about it first?”
She was certain he’d say no, but he groaned and leaned against the door. “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to deal with this.”
Eden had to shake her head. “I don’t know, either.” But she pulled him into her arms and hoped that just the small gesture would help.
His heart was racing. She could feel it beating against her own chest. Could feel the tight muscles in his back and arms, too. He didn’t say anything, but he leaned in, brushed a kiss on her forehead. Eden wasn’t even sure he was aware he was doing it.
“I have a lot of questions.” His voice was a whisper now. “But I don’t think I can ask them yet.”
She eased back just enough to meet his gaze. “You’re angry with Stella and Kirby.”
He nodded. But then shook his head. “I think I’m pissed off about everything.”
“Well, for an angry man, you’re doing a good job keeping it together.”
“Poker face,” he mumbled and tried to smile.
Eden didn’t even try to return the smile or make light of this. His pain went bone deep, and it was going to take more than a few hours at home for him to come to terms with it.
He stared at her, pushed a strand of hair off her face. “How are you holding up?”
“Fine. I didn’t just have my life turned upside down.”
“No, but you had bullets fired at you.”
It was strange that she could push something like that aside. She certainly wasn’t accustomed to having people try to kill her, or her father caught in the middle of an attack, and she prayed it never became routine. But it wasn’t routine for her to see Declan hurting like this, either.
He leaned in again. Kissed her. It had no trace of the dark emotions that had to be boiling inside him. No trace of anything but a simple, sweet kiss.
And then it wasn’t so sweet.
Declan made a sound. A groan of pain that came from deep within his chest. He eased his hand around the back of her neck, urged her closer and kissed her until Eden’s legs felt wobbly. Until the heat seeped through every inch of her.
But this was wrong.
The kiss was past being good. Declan’s always were, and she was getting maximum benefit from his mouth on hers. But it felt as if she was taking advantage of him. He was in a very bad place, and the kisses he was using to shatter her into a thousand little pieces were kisses he was using to try to deal with the pain.
Better than punching something.
Not better, though, than trying to deal with it.
Still, he didn’t stop and neither did she. Eden just let herself dissolve into his arms and let his mouth take her to the only place she wanted to go.
Eden heard the buzzing sound, and for a moment she thought it was part of the heat firing through her body. But then Declan cursed, took out his vibrating phone and she saw the screen lit up with a call from Unknown.
“Marshal O’Malley,” Declan answered, caution in his voice, and he hit the speaker button.
“It’s me, Zander. I need to speak to my daughter.”
The relief was instant. But short-lived. “Are you all right? Were you shot?” she asked.
“I’m okay. I was wearing a bulletproof vest. It saved my life. Now, I need to know what the hell is going on. Who’s trying to kill us?”
“We’re not sure,” Eden said.
Declan picked up where she left off. “We’re still investigating it, but I haven’t taken you off my suspect list.”
“Well, you damn well should,” her father insisted. “I was nearly killed today, and if that bullet had hit me in the head instead of the chest, I’d be a dead man. I’m not stupid, and I wouldn’t have set up a fake attack that could have killed me and my daughter.”
Declan only gave a heavy sigh, and she couldn’t tell if he believed him or not. “Where are you? You need to turn yourself in.”
“I will. I just need a little more time to prove my innocence. Did you find out anything useful with those bank records I gave you?”
“Nothing so far, except that they can’t be used because they were illegally obtained. How’d you get them?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Her father mumbled something she couldn’t understand. “Someone sent them to me. And I don’t know who. The package didn’t have a postmark and was left with a friend who knew how to get in touch with me in case of an emergency.”
It hurt to know that he’d trusted someone else and not her in case of an emergency, but Eden wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Her father might have thought the marshals would have her phone tapped.
And they might have.
It would have been too risky for him to contact her.
“Keep looking for something. Anything,” her father added. “And keep Eden locked inside wherever it’s safe.”
She wasn’t sure such a place existed. Their attacker seemed to have a lot more information about them than they did him or her.
Her father hung up, but Declan didn’t put his phone away. He scrolled through the numbers to call Clayton.
“People are worried about you,” Clayton greeted. “Me included.”
“I just need a little downtime,” Declan said. He glanced at her mouth, and she w
ondered if the kiss had been just that. Downtime. An outlet for all that dangerous energy brewing inside him.
It’d be easier if it were.
But this attraction, for Eden, was the real deal. That didn’t make it easier, but it did leave open the possibility that she’d walk away from this with a severely broken heart.
“Zander just called about those bank statements.” Declan brushed a kiss on her cheek, stepped away from her.
Even from the other end of the line, she could hear Clayton take a deep breath. Maybe because he wanted to discuss his brother’s well-being rather than the case. “The records seem to prove Leonard Kane took out a large sum of money from his offshore account around the same time someone tried to kill that witness who’d testified against Zander Gray.”
The witness her father had been accused of trying to kill. But the problem was, this couldn’t be used to prove anything. In fact, Leonard himself could have sent the records just as a way of adding some mental torture to this already torturous situation.
“The most recent records indicate that Leonard might be doing the same now,” Clayton went on. “He transferred about a quarter of a million just a week ago.”
“About the time someone was planning to hack into Eden’s computer,” Declan provided.
Oh, mercy. A quarter of a million could buy a lot of hired guns and bribe plenty of people to get whatever information he needed. But then, maybe someone was setting up Leonard.
Like Beatrice or Jack.
“Since we can’t use the records, we’ll have to try to find where the money was spent.” Declan checked the clock on the wall. “I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”
“No, you won’t. Saul’s orders. He told me to tell you to stay away from the office for the rest of the day.”
Declan closed his eyes a moment. Not from relief. She could see the frustration all over his face. “I need to be there working.”
“No, you need to be guarding Eden. Saul’s put her in your protective custody.”
Eden wasn’t exactly surprised by that. She needed some kind of protection, and Declan was her best bet for that. But it did make her wonder if Declan’s boss had heard rumors of the attraction simmering between them. Declan’s brothers had certainly picked up on it.
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