A movement from her left dragged her gaze away from the couple. Rory McCabe. He sank into the chair beside her. "Good afternoon, Jessica. You look a little tense."
She shrugged. "Not at all. Just checking in."
He waved a hand toward where Declan stood his head bent over the woman. "That's Penny."
Why did that name sound familiar? "Penny as in Declan's ex-fiancée Penny?"
He grinned. "Yes. From the look on your face, you were thinking about taking her out. But she's no threat."
Did those words have a double meaning? Why had Rory thrown her and Declan together again after all these years? Would he tell her if she asked?
"They look perfect together," she said just to find out what he thought about the other woman.
He snorted. "Yeah, they look like a couple of perfect corporate … robots."
She let out a small laugh, loud enough to be heard across the way, but Declan was obviously engrossed and his head didn't lift from where it was bent low over Penny the ex.
"He knows you're here," Rory said.
"How do you work that out?" He seemed oblivious to everyone but the woman in front of him.
"Because he's never been that attentive to Penny in his entire life."
She dragged her gaze away from Declan to study his father. In some ways, he was so like Declan; in others, he was completely different. Rory had deep lines of experience-and laughter-etched into his face. His dark eyes looked like they had seen the worst the world could throw at him. And they probably had. But she suspected the two men were more similar than appearances suggested. It was just their lives had led them in different directions. Suddenly she needed to understand just what had brought her and Declan together again after all these years. "What are you after?" she asked.
"After?" He sounded so innocent. Except Rory McCabe didn't have an innocent cell in his body.
"Come on, Rory, you can tell me," she coaxed. "Why did you employ me to protect Declan? You could have employed another company. We're good, but there are others just as good."
He pursed his lips and looked at Declan and Penny. He was leaning against the wall now, seemingly totally absorbed in his ex-fiancé. "Because I love my son." He turned back to her. "You might not believe it, but I did my best to split you up all those years ago because I thought it was the best thing for Declan."
She reached across and patted his arm. "Don't fret about it. I'd already come to the conclusion that we would have been hell together. It wouldn't have taken us long. You just sped things up."
"Maybe. Maybe not."
He was so damn cryptic. "You know I hate you." She glanced back at Declan. "Both of you."
He chuckled. "Yeah, I know. But let me tell you something about our family and maybe you'll hate Declan a little less. And understand him a little more."
Jess knew she should get up and tell Rory McCabe that she had no interest in understanding his son any more than she did now. But she didn't move.
Rory stretched his long legs out in front of him and settled in his chair. "My father came over from Ireland after the Second World War and literally carved himself a place in the East End of London. Gambling, prostitution, later on drugs-he didn't mind where the money came from. And he didn't care who he stepped on in the process."
"Sounds like a nice guy."
"Not even vaguely. He was killed in a revenge attack when I was twenty-one, and I took over the business."
"I bet that was hard."
"Yeah. It was also a whole lot of fun. I did what I wanted, when I wanted, and trampled over anyone who stood in my way."
"Nice."
"'Nice' it was not, but I was just a kid. A lot of people wanted to see me go down, so I had to toughen up fast."
"So what changed you?"
"First Logan came along. His mother and I didn't last, and she made it as hard as possible for me to see him."
"Declan said you got custody when Logan was ten."
He looked her over. "So you've talked about this stuff with Declan."
"Not really. Just in passing, when it touched on the job."
"Oh yes, the 'job.' Anyway, Logan was already a total tearaway even at ten, not much hope keeping him on the straight and narrow. By then I'd met and married Declan's mother. Christ she was"-he shook his head-"different. And I wanted her, but she'd only have me if I went straight."
"Aw, the love of a good woman."
He laughed, and this time, across the way, Declan lifted his head and gave the two of them a narrow-eyed stare. So Rory had been right-Declan was quite aware of her presence. Could he actually be trying to make her jealous?