Chapter 8 - Finding Declan Mercer
Audrey found him in Brooklyn.
Not in a penthouse.
Not behind armored glass.
In a neighborhood community center.
She almost walked past him.
Declan was wearing jeans and a dark sweater, carrying boxes from a delivery truck.
No bodyguards were visible.
No expensive watch.
The tattoos remained.
So did the impossible shoulders.
But everything else seemed different.
A little boy ran toward him.
“Mr. D!”
Declan caught him before he collided with the boxes.
“Walking is a useful skill, Mateo.”
“You said you’d fix the basketball hoop.”
“I said Saturday.”
“It is Saturday.”
Declan checked his watch.
The child crossed his arms.
Audrey covered a laugh.
Declan heard it.
He turned.
The box nearly slipped from his hands.
“Audrey.”
For several seconds, neither moved.
Mateo looked between them.
“Is that your girlfriend?”
Declan nearly choked.
“No.”
Audrey raised an eyebrow.
“Very decisive.”
“You surprised me.”
Mateo grinned.
“She’s pretty.”
“Yes,” Declan said automatically.
Audrey’s cheeks warmed.
Declan cleared his throat.
“Go inside.”
Mateo ran away laughing.
Audrey approached.
“What is this?”
“A community center.”
“I gathered that.”
He put down the box.
“A large portion of my remaining legitimate assets went into restitution funds. This building was one of the properties I kept.”
“And now?”
“Job training. Legal assistance. Youth programs.”
Audrey stared at him.
“Who are you?”
“Still working on that.”
They walked along the waterfront.
Declan told her everything.
He had stepped away from Mercer Holdings.
Gideon now managed the remaining legitimate security operations.
Declan had testified against Hale.
Thomas’s name had been cleared.
And Declan had created the compensation fund Audrey once demanded.
“You actually listened.”
“I occasionally do.”
“Not when I worked for you.”
“I was less intelligent then.”
She laughed.
He stopped walking.
Audrey looked at him.
“What?”
“I missed that.”
“My insulting you?”
“Your laugh.”
Something vulnerable entered his expression.
Audrey’s heart accelerated.
“Why didn’t you call?”
“You asked for freedom.”
“That didn’t mean you were forbidden from speaking.”
“I didn’t trust myself to know the difference.”
That answer hurt in a beautiful way.
They reached a bench.
Audrey sat.
Declan remained standing.
“Nathan?”
“He’s my business partner.”
“Only?”
She smiled.
“Jealous?”
“Extremely.”
At least he had learned vocabulary.
“Only.”
Declan sat beside her.
Their shoulders nearly touched.
“What happens now?” he asked.
Audrey looked at the river.
“I don’t know.”
He nodded.
No pressure.
No demand.
That was when she understood how much he had changed.
Not because he had become gentle overnight.
Not because the dangerous parts of him had magically vanished.
But because he was learning that loving someone was not the same as controlling whether they stayed.
Audrey turned.
“I’m angry with you.”
“I know.”
“I might always be angry about some of it.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want gratitude confused with love.”
“Neither do I.”
“And if anything happens between us, I make my own decisions.”
“Yes.”
“My career remains mine.”
“Yes.”
“You do not investigate men who bring me flowers.”
Declan hesitated.
Audrey narrowed her eyes.
He sighed.
“Fine.”
She laughed.
Then he smiled.
Audrey had almost never seen Declan smile genuinely.
It changed his entire face.
Without thinking, she reached toward him.
Her fingers touched his cheek.
Declan became completely still.
“Can I kiss you?” he asked.
Four years earlier, he would have assumed.
Three months earlier, he might have demanded.
Now he asked.
Audrey closed the remaining distance.
“Yes.”
The kiss was gentle.
Almost absurdly gentle for two people whose relationship had begun beneath half a million dollars of debt and ended up surviving kidnapping, federal investigations, and the destruction of an empire.
When they separated, Declan rested his forehead against hers.
Then Audrey’s phone rang.
Nathan.
She answered.
His voice was tense.
“Audrey, we have a problem.”
“What happened?”
“Someone broke into our Chicago office.”
Audrey stood.
“What did they take?”
“That’s the strange part.”
“Nothing.”
Nathan paused.
“They left something on your desk.”
“What?”
“A photograph.”
Audrey’s stomach tightened.
“Of what?”
Nathan answered quietly.
“Your mother.”
Audrey stopped breathing.
May you like
Because her mother had been dead for twelve years.
And the photograph had been taken three days ago.
