Page 114 of Brutal Collateral

“Wait, if my brothers being here is a surprise, who were you going to play?” Ava asks.

“We just come out here to kick the ball around, stay loose, tackle each other.” Connor grunts. “Now I guess we have to actually play and try to score goals.”

“I’ll play goalie.” She slips out from under my arm. “Good luck. They’re ruthless.”

Seeing this is real, Atlas talks some woman who’s gawking at him from a blanket doing yoga into being their goalie.

For the next ninety minutes, I’ve worked more muscles than I have in ten years. These fucking Greeks make it a brutal game. It’s miraculously tied six-six. Ava is shite at the goal, but it’s a hard net to cover. God bless her, though, she dived for the ball like a champ, caught a few, but mostly missed. The woman covering the other goal did about the same.

The ball rarely got down to either goal, though. All we do is kick the ball away from each other and volley it back and forth. I only had the ball long enough to pass it to Connor or Shane and drive it down the field a few times. But we kept Ares and his brothers in check.

Then out of nowhere, Shane gets it and twists to outsmart Ambrose. I stare in amazement as he makes a run for the Zervas net. Connor and I take off, signaling we’re open to pass because that big, mean, motherfucker Ares is on his tail, trying to mow him down.

Ares gets his foot just at the right spot between Shane’s feet and my brother goes down. Hard. When he lifts his head, his nose is bleeding. Fury in his eyes, he lunges for Ares.

Fuck.

I bolt that way and get between them.

To my surprise, Ava is there, too, holding her brother back. But when he shrugs away, she follows Shane off the field. We’re all wiped out and sweating. The next group who reserved the field is warmed up. Altas saunters over to the woman he abducted to play and leans on the post talking to her like he’s not some crime boss.

God, I remember those days. Just talking to a lass, wanting in her pants, and nothing more. Our lives are forever changed thanks to my appetite to head my own syndicate after years of working for one.

As soon as I found out I had to marry Ava Zervas to stop the war, my walls went up. Under no circumstance would I allow myself to like her. To fuck her. To give her anything a husband gives a wife besides money.

Boy, I’m 0 for fucking 3.

Right now, I want more of what we did this morning. I bet she does, too. Looking for her, I only find my sweatshirt strewn on a bench.

I immediately think she grabbed her guard and went home alone. The same way she came here, acting like I don’t mean anything to her. But she’s with Shane. Tending to his nosebleed. He’s sitting on a bench and she’s...wedged between his legs, her tits against his chest, holding a napkin against his face.

Anger pushes me forward, but by the time I get there, Ava’s moved.

“Is it broken, doc?” I ask with clenched teeth.

Shane holds the napkin and lowers his head. “No.”

“Then why were you on top of him?” I bark at Ava.

“I was helping him.” She looks around. “You also didn’t bring a first aid kit.”

“We’re not ten,” I snap. “No snacks. No bandages. I’ve left here with a gash on my leg that didn’t close for five days. I toughed it out.”

She shrugs. “Suit yourself. I’m going home.”

I cackle low and controlled. “You’re coming home with me.”

“Yeah, that’s what I meant.”

“I meantin the carwith me.” I grip her arm.

“Griff,” Shane says with tension in his voice. “It was nothing.”

And I fucking know that. My brothers would never betray me. This little siren is trying to get under my skin, so it will be easier to let her go.

But it’s not fucking working, and I know just the way to prove it to her.

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