Declan + Coraline by J.J. McAvoy Page B

at the dock.
    I still had work I needed to do, and it couldn’t wait for sunset.
    “Cora.” I turned back to find her searching through the bag she’d packed before we left the villa.
    “Yes?”
    “I’m going run into town to drop something off for my uncle. Do you want to wait here or would you prefer to go into town and shop?”
    “Shop.” She grinned.
    And I nodded as I reached for my wallet.
    “Declan, it’s okay, I have—”
    “My card is already out.” I took her hand and placed it into her palm. “So accept it. Besides, whatever clothes you buy, you’ll be wearing it for me anyway.”
    “Fine,” she said with a sigh as she shook her head.
    “Do you want me walk with you?” I asked as I slid into a pair of jeans and grabbed a black shirt.
    She shook her head, and lifted up a blowdryer and flat iron. “I don’t want to make you wait. I wouldn’t be surprised if you came back before I finished getting ready. Go ahead, I’ll be fine.”
    I didn’t like just leaving her, but I didn’t have a choice.
    “I’ll have two men here, Eric and Patrick. They’ll take you into the city, and back to the villa.”
    She placed her hand on my face. “Declan, I’ll be fine. Besides, you brought way more security than we needed. If anyone saw us they’d think you were some sort of big shot drug dealers or something.”
    “Ha! Yeah.” It was all I could think to say. Part of me wanted to ask her ‘so what if I am?’ But I simply kissed her forehead and walked towards the door. Glancing back, I could see that her attention was already back on her things as she tried to unwind the cord of her blowdryer.
    At the bottom of the stairs and at the back of the boat, both Eric and Patrick stood waiting. Eric handed me my jacket, gloves, and a gun, which I quickly placed behind my back and out of sight.
    “You two will both be staying here.” I took second pair of keys and pulled out my phone.
    “What?” Eric questioned.
    “I want you both to stay with her and follow her as she goes shopping. Watch over her while I take care of business, and remember—she’s the woman in my bed, while you’re the men on my family’s payroll. The order of importance should be clear. Do you understand me?”
    They both nodded.
    Patrick spoke out when I climbed out of the boat and onto the docks.
    “Are you going to do this alone?”
    “I have a lot more friends in Cancun than you realize.” And where there were friends, there were also enemies. Which was why I needed them with her.
    “Check-in in thirty?” Eric asked, and I nodded, already moving towards the old, black Sudan parked behind the Range; I preferred her in that one.
    Once I started the engine I dialed the number of my contact. The phone rang exactly three times before he answered.
    “Miguel. I’m cashing in a favor.”
    “After five years?” his husky, voice questioned.
    “Were you hoping that I would forget?”
    “You Callahans can sure hold grudges. What do you need?”
    “It’s a skill. I need your boys for a raid.”
    “It sounds like you’re doing me another favor.” He coughed, proving that all those damn Cubans were finally killing his lungs.
    “When you and your boys arrest them, I want you to leave me half of the drugs and Slasher.”
    “Declan.”
    Speeding past the light, I drive further from the coast. “Miguel, how many times has our family helped you snatch the incoming coke from the Giovanni family? Or told you if the Valeros were rolling through?”
    “The Giovanni family hasn’t come through in four years. Good thing too, I heard Iron Hands has gotten even more merciless over the years. Right before they left Cancun, they gave us a parting present, four of our largest dealers’ heads on police cruisers, with ladrón carved into their heads.”
    Ladrón …thief. I wondered how much they must have stolen from Orlando Giovanni for him to go that far. Four years ago, they were dying off, begging to make peace with the Irish. Now