to go down the stairs to Leah. And ignore the morons he was related to.
“I didn’t go to your father to threaten or blackmail him. I wanted him to get his head out of his ass. He’s treating you like shit, and it hurts you, and I wanted him to stop.” He started in the middle because that was the point he most wanted her to get. “Once I found that document and recognized it from my file, the pieces came together. All his hate and the obsession directed at us, the anger with you for not solving the problem. It was his problem. His guilt. He dumped it on you and it pissed me off.”
“But this is your chance.”
Not really the answer Declan expected to his big speech. She’d lost him with a few simple words. “For what?”
“Revenge.”
There. Her father’s reason for existence and the one lesson he made sure she learned as a child. Declan used to dread she’d compare him to his father. Now Declan worried if the real threat to their relationship was having her compare him to hers.
“Do you honestly think I care about that?” he asked.
She stepped closer. He stood on the bottom step, and she hovered right below him. “You should. He’s made your life impossible. Lined people up who had grievances with your dad and convinced them to pile the hate on you.”
“We’ve dealt with worse.” Declan heard his brothers grunt in agreement to that one.
As if she thought she needed to explain to all of them, she shifted to the side and scanned the entire porch. “Dad was in on Charlie’s Sweetwater con and refuses to take any responsibility.”
“They know. I filled them in.” Declan stepped in front of her again, forcing her to focus only on him. “But none of that makes Charlie less guilty. Hurting you or ruining your dad now doesn’t solve anything.”
“Listen to the man, Leah,” Callen called out.
“I thought for sure you, most of all, would want to use this information against the Barons.” She shot Callen a shaky smile. “Unleash the vengeance.”
He came to the edge of the porch and rested his palms on the bannister. “No.”
“Why?”
“When you’ve lived your entire life seeing what revenge does to people, you lose your appetite for it.”
Beck nodded. “None of us intend to say anything about your dad. That’s between the two of you and, honestly, I hope you can figure it out.”
Declan appreciated the backup. Most of all, he loved that his brothers truly meant what they said. They had every reason to exact revenge. With their father, they should have been the types to jump on this sort of thing. But they were better men than Charlie even pretended to be in his best con.
“How? Everything I’ve believed is messed up and sideways.”
The yearning in her voice drove right to Declan’s heart. “We can help you with that.” That much he knew. After all, he’d lived with it his entire life.
She jerked as if someone whispered something to her. She lifted her arm and took out a large manila envelope she had tucked there. Declan expected her to hand whatever it was over to him. Instead, she walked past him and handed the envelope up to Callen.
“Kristin Accord’s name sounded familiar. She stopped me at the diner and asked me to help her meet with you, but I said no.” Leah turned to Declan. “That’s all that was.”
He didn’t need more explanation than that. For some reason, her assurance was enough. “I believe you.”
“It took me until this morning to remember where I’d seen her name.” Leah nodded at the file in Callen’s hands. “It’s in there. It’s about you. Only you, and it’s not easy to read.”
Ever the lawyer, Beck was the first to jump in. “What is it?”
“Callen gets to decide if he wants to open it. Think long and hard about it. I think you’ve all had enough or now and, really, in all the ways that count the information doesn’t matter.”
He let it fall from his fingers and dump on the porch. “I agree. Whatever it is can wait, possibly forever. I’m tired of looking at documents right now.”
“You all deserve better.” Leah’s voice cut off and her eyes got all shiny. “I . . . I have to go.”
No big exit this time. She scurried to her car, fumbling in her purse. Twice she dropped her keys and once kicked them down the driveway.
Callen sighed. “Go after her or I will