by Doyle, S
“Yes.” She didn’t need to be reminded of how easily she had been duped.
“That’s what was in the safe. That and the thumb drive it’s saved on.”
“I’m sorry?”
“My mission was to enter the house, crack the safe, take the picture and the drive, and leave. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to cut off the security alarm, but I thought I would be able to crack the safe quickly enough so that it wouldn’t matter. Except the safe proved exceptionally difficult. Huntley spent a fortune on the damn thing. By the time I was leaving the house, the cops—or one cop, a rather beautiful cop…”
“You can cut the sidebar too.”
“Fair enough. Anyway, you were coming down the street. I didn’t know the area well enough to try and make a run for it. It was either take you out physically—”
“Take me out physically? I was an armed cop,” she said, insulted he made that sound easy.
“Take you out physically,” he repeated, “or see if I could talk my way out of it. I dialed the security company, so you would see it was the last number dialed, hung up and waited for you on the steps. I knew it wasn’t going to be an issue for me. I knew all the answers to the security questions because, as you’ve determined, my sister was married to that asshole.”
“Okay,” Sinead prodded. “Why is a stupid picture of you so damn important he had to keep it in a safe and you felt you needed to steal it back?”
He paused, as if searching for the words.
“Tell her, Declan. All of it. It’s the only way she’ll believe you.”
They both turned their heads in the direction of Mary. Once again Sinead was struck by how similar they looked. How crazy it was that she didn’t see that in the picture Huntley kept of them in his bedroom.
Mary was as beautiful as Declan was handsome. If only on a much smaller scale. Sinead had felt like an Amazon woman when she first shook hands with the tiny blonde.
“I figured it was safe to come down, and I wanted to make sure she at least stayed to listen to you,” Mary said, walking over to the bar. “I’m thinking drinks for everyone?”
“Only if she promises not to hurl this one at my head,” Declan said.
“I can’t make that promise,” Sinead stated.
Mary chuckled. “I think I like her, Dec.”
“Yes, everyone seems to love Sinead. Anyway, the reason that particular picture is important is because it’s the only photo of me that exists.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Uh, hello. You showed me ID that night, remember?”
Declan dipped his head. “Sorry. It’s the only picture of me that existed outside of my control.”
“Okay,” Sinead said suspiciously. “Go on.”
“A little over a year ago, I had recently come back from an… assignment only to find out that my dear sister was getting married. I met the bastard one day before the wedding, and unfortunately didn’t have the sense to stop it then, even though I knew she was making a horrible mistake. Therefore, disturbed as I was by the shocking turn of events, I got flat on my ass drunk at the reception and let that picture happen. A full on face shot. I had no idea it existed, as I didn’t spend a lot of time perusing my sister’s wedding album.”
Mary brought the drinks over on a tray and Sinead reached for hers.
“How many times do I have to tell you—he was different back then,” Mary said defensively.
“Um, one million and it still won’t matter. The next man you marry is one hundred percent going to be vetted and approved by me.”
“Wait a minute, Mary,” Sinead interjected. “You mean a man charmed you, swept you off your feet and then it turned out it was all a lie? You’re right—what a scumbag you hooked up with.”
Mary turned back to her brother. “Okay, I really like her.” She took her drink and sat across from them in a large sprawling chair.
“Okay. Why can’t there be any pictures of you?” Sinead asked Declan.
“Let’s just say I have a unique job. And the way I’m able to execute certain… tasks is because no one can pick me up through facial recognition programs. Because no one knows what I, that being a person with a reputation in the world theater, look like.”
“You understand how ridiculous this all sounds.”
Declan shrugged.
Sinead got up and started pacing. Thinking about what she knew. Thinking about everything he’d told her.
“Who is Garrett Huntley, beyond being a scumbag?”
“He’s a lawyer,” Mary answered. “He works for his father’s very high end, very unlawful I’ve since learned, law firm which specializes in international law.”
“How would he even know that a picture of you was valuable? I mean, I assume you don’t go around announcing you’re a…”
“Contract operative,” Declan supplied.
“Yeah, that.”
“I told him,” Mary said quietly. “Garrett wasn’t allowed to know he was my brother. Declan didn’t want any known familial relationships. However, Dec was introduced as a dear friend at the wedding. When Garrett first asked about him I alluded to his career, but I told him about the no picture thing. Just an offhand remark. ‘Oh by the way, he doesn’t like to have his picture taken. Make sure you let the photographer know.’”
“Mary, stop,” Declan interjected. “How many times do I have to tell you this is not your fault?”
“A million,” she said quietly. “And I still wouldn’t believe you. As I told you, the night Garrett… attacked me I had to be taken to the hospital. I had several bones broken. His father came to see me the next day. He said Garrett was sorry, and I needed to come back and be a family with him again. He was willing to offer me a ‘settlement’ to make that happen.”
Sinead winced.
Mary nodded. “Right. That’s when I knew deep inside what kind of people they really were. I told him to shove his money. I told him that if Garrett ever came near me again… I told him… Lucifer would make him pay.”
“Lucifer?” Sinead asked.
Declan coughed. “It’s one of the names I’m known by… on the world theater.”
Sinead considered that. “It fits.”
“Thank you, love.”
“Anyway, I saw his face change,” Mary continued. “Like he knew what the name meant. He left, and Declan packed up my things and got me out of there, but then I remembered… the wedding album with the drive containing all the pictures in the box. I knew about the picture. I didn’t delete it because it was the only one of my husband and my brother, the two men I loved most in the world together. Smiling. I called Garrett from a burner phone and asked him to send the wedding album and box to a PO box in New York. Sentimentality, I told him. Nothing more. That’s when I think he knew.”
Declan swallowed his drink and stood, heading to the bar for a refill.
Sinead looked at the still-full glass in her hand and took a sip. It tasted expensive, which she figured was predictable.
Sinead put the final pieces together. “He puts together Lucifer with the wedding album and realizes he has an actual picture of you.”
“He doesn’t,” Declan said. “His father certainly does. Huntley Sr., after much investigation, has dealings with a nefarious set of international terrorist brokers. He would have known the name. He would have known what having a picture of Lucifer meant.”
“And you think his plan was to sell this picture to the highest bidder?” Sinead asked.
Declan nodded. “I know it was. Because I was his first call. Ten million and Mary’s address. Obviously, I refused. I told him he was ridiculous, that the picture was worthless. I didn’t know if he bought it, but I knew I had to secure it. Wouldn’t you know, a client in Shanghai had a critical situation that needed Huntley’s immediate attention?”
Sinead got it. Declan orchestrated that emergency to get into the house.
Declan—it still felt weird think
ing about him with that name. But it fit. So did the voice. It was the same when he was wearing a suit or hanging out in jeans. When he was fucking her or making love to her. They were all variations on a theme, but they were all him. He was like this fascinating instrument that could play all these sounds, but at the heart of him was this true note that seemed to call to her.
“Is it all making sense?”
“Why are you concerned about the threat level?” Sinead wanted to know. “All that crap about it being dangerous for me.”
“As you correctly stated, Huntley is the least of my concern. But as we’ve been monitoring him, some of the players his father has reached out to… well, let’s say some of them are very scary. I wanted total control over everyone’s movements until they all realized Huntley no longer had the goods. The tail you lost was mine. I couldn’t take any risks. But if someone else was monitoring your movements, well… let’s just say getting my picture would be a coup. Getting me would be… on another level.”
“I know how to make a tail and I was careful.”
“Fine. Then we can all bunker down here for a while once they realize they will get neither a picture nor me, and the threat should be lifted.”
Sinead thought about what that meant. Stuck in this house with him.
“I still hate you.”
“No you don’t, love.”
She hated that he was right. She hated it when he called her his love because she’d missed him so damn much.
“I think I’ll leave you two alone,” Mary said, clearly feeling a shift in the tension between them. “Dinner will be at seven.”
She left the room and Sinead watched as the tiny blonde held her head high. Not easy to do when you had to admit you were duped by someone.
Someone who later turned around and broke your ribs.
“It’s worse for her,” Sinead said when she was gone.
“Yes it was. I take part of the blame for not being around for her enough when she needed me. I think Garrett was simply a cure for her loneliness. She wanted to believe what he was telling her, desperately.”
Sinead looked at him, standing near the bar, his hair still a little ruffled from their sex.
Was that what he had been for her? Had she been lonely, really lonely, without realizing it and he was her cure?
“I wanted to believe everything you told me, too,” she said.
He joined her again on the couch. Pressing up against her. “The only real lie I told you was my name. Which you know. Because that’s how you were able to find me.”
That pissed her off. She popped off the couch, feeling the anger that had been banked during his explanation of things fire back up again. “What about all that stuff about your friends back in London and how jaded you are about everything?”
“All of that is real. Those people are real. That’s who I am back in London.”
“So you’re lying to them, too.”
He looked weary then, she thought. Older.
“I lie to everyone, Sinead. It’s what I do. I didn’t realize how tired I was of it until I met you.”
“What am I supposed to do now?” she asked, more to herself than him. If her father were here, he would tell her to kick him in the balls and get the hell out before he broke her heart even more than he already had.
If her mother were here, she would tell her that love isn’t something that should easily be dismissed. It should be cherished instead.
“How long is this all going to take? I mean before all the bad guys realize Garrett doesn’t have the picture.”
“I believe Huntley Senior was putting together some type of auction. To do that would require having proof. Maybe showing some portion of the picture. When he can’t provide that, things will disintegrate quickly and either they—the bad guys—will take care of the problem, or I have other backup plans in place.”
“Wait.” Sinead stopped him, suddenly chilled by a thought. Which was probably a bad thing if she wasn’t supposed to care for him anymore. “Proof. How do you know they just didn’t take a picture of it with their phone? They could have as many copies as they need…”
Declan shook his head. “It’s not the same. What’s on the drive is the only thing of value to them. That or an actual digital image of me, which as you know…”
“You don’t like selfies,” she said, remembering that night on Fisherman’s Wharf.
“No. I don’t.”
Sinead considered that.
“The bad guys will still know what you look like. If they did take a picture of the photo.”
“Yes, but appearances can be changed. Computer software designed to penetrate those disguises is the true challenge. Which is why digital photos have to be avoided at all costs.”
“You must have been really drunk.”
Declan laughed, but with sadness instead of mirth. “I was shitfaced. And bone tired. And heartbroken. Because I could see it. Even in that one day, I could see how he was with her. Always holding her hand, never letting her go to have a chat with me or her friends. Always within reach of her.”
“Some might have seen devotion.”
“I saw ownership,” Declan said baldly. “Later, when I started to do some research on his father’s law firm, I realized what a bad actor the father was. I wondered if maybe it hadn’t been some kind of setup. If perhaps someone had discovered our connection and Huntley Senior had some plan to use her against me.”
“Is that true? Did Garrett know who she was?” Because that might make it worse. To know the man she fell in love with only married her to be a pawn.
Declan sighed. “I don’t think so. Nothing ever came of it. I think it was just a bit of bad luck. Mary worked at one of the Huntley adjunct law offices in DC. That’s where she met Garrett. While I was relieved, I was still not happy about the situation. I considered removing her from the marriage, but every time I spoke with her she sounded so damn happy and in love. I know now that was an act. My darling sister is a lot like you. Stubborn. To a fault, it seems.”
“She was in love. She didn’t want to admit she’d made a mistake.”
Declan nodded. “Yes, I know. But it cost her terribly.”
There really wasn’t anything more Sinead could say to that. Sinead had been duped. She had been made to feel like an idiot. That was the extent of it.
Mary had to be hospitalized.
“The deal then, is I have to stay here for a while with you, and then you’ll let me go?”
He got up from the couch and set his drink softly down on the table, then in a flash he had her scooped up and over his shoulder.
“Hey, what the hell?”
She grabbed on to his waist to steady herself as he made his way out of the game room, back into the foyer, and up the long, winding staircase that looked like something out of magazine. Chandelier and all.
He apparently wasn’t lying about the money either, because even upside down Sinead could see this place was the bomb.
Finally, he had her in what appeared to be a grand bedroom and he locked the door behind him. Only then did he put her down.
“You’re not getting me, I think,” he said calmly.
“I’m getting you’re a caveman on top of being a fucking dickhead.”
“I love you.”
She flinched. It was still too hard to hear that.
“I want you to stay. With me. Like forever.”
Sinead had to struggle to keep her breathing even. “We hardly know each other.” Of all the excuses she could come up with, it was pretty lame. She knew him deep in her bones. Time wasn’t going to change that.
“Now who is lying? We know everything about each other and you know it. It was only three weeks, but they were the happiest three weeks of my life. I know you’re going to have a hard time believing this, but I was thinking… I was thinking of asking you to come with me.”
Sinead closed her eyes. It was definitely too hard to hear that. Not when she knew she’d planned to as
k him that very thing.
“I didn’t know how I was going to work you into my life. I thought I could show you London and maybe make you believe that my business trips… were just that. But downstairs, when I was so deep inside you, I knew that would have been ridiculous. For this to work”—he moved his finger back and forth between them—“us, you needed to know everything about my life. Now you do. There are only three people who know what I do, who I really am. You’ve become the fourth, and if you think I’m going to let you go after three weeks, or three years… you’re foolish.”
Sinead jutted her chin in the air, not liking the word foolish. “You can’t make me stay.”
“No,” he said, moving toward her. “But I can make you want to stay. Now do you want to fuck or make love?”
Chapter 15
In the end he did both. Sinead was lying in his bed, staring up at the ceiling wondering what kind of idiot she was. He’d lied to her. Maybe worse than that, he’d left her.
Then there was that letter.
She turned on her side and brought her fist down hard on his stomach. He made a woofing sound, but the truth was his abs were rock solid.
“What was that for?”
“Your obvious innocence, if lack of judgment…” she quoted.
He had the good sense to wince. “At the time I wrote it, I was hoping to make you hate me. That it might help you to move on with your life. I was in fact being noble.”
“It pissed me off.”
“I see that,” he said as he turned on his side to face her. “Hence your arrival here. I’m beginning to see that I might have underestimated you.”
“You totally underestimated me,” she scoffed. “You kept saying how innocent and virginal I was. You forgot I was a cop. Raised by another cop.”
“Right. You should know you’ve upset my co-worker very much. He doesn’t lose people very often.”
She laughed. “That was the trick. I took him to the airport and lost him in long-term parking. I wanted him to think I was flying. Instead I left the airport and drove across the country. Two days of straight driving. Almost twenty hours each day. Then I got here and had to find the damn farm. It was a good thing I was so mad at you. It’s the only thing that kept me from falling asleep at the wheel.”