Page 160 of Brutal Collateral

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

Griffin

Ireach my townhousefueled with anger. Ava can beat to death all the domestic abusers she wants. She can knife anyone coming to kill her, and I’ll fuck her covered in their blood. It gets me off. Deep down we’re forged from the same fire.

But bringing up Rand Miller andnottelling me she tried to kill him then letting me be ambushed and looking like a fool has me livid. I only pray she has an excuse. I’m fucking crazy about her, and I want to believe her. I’ll believe almost anything.

“Ava?” I roar, climbing the stairs to the main level from the ground-floor foyer.

Bridget steps into my path from the kitchen. “Mr. Quinlan, Mrs. Quinlan left for the children’s charity event an hour ago. She was waiting for you.”

Charity event.

Another thing we have in common, hating those fucking things. Yet she went ahead when I would have expected to see her upstairs lounging on our bed in sweats, thankful I was late and hoping we could blow it off together to just fuck all night.

We can’t get enough of each other.

“Mr. Zervas picked her up when you didn’t show,” Bridget adds. “The...mean one.”

Ares...

“That fucking explains why she left without me,” I mutter and eye the woman standing there. “Sorry. Did Bourne go with her?”

“Yes, of course, sir.”

That guy will sink to the bottom of the ocean for her if I ask him considering what happened last week. Dead guards have families who turn into enemies. I let the whole letting-my-wife-duck-into-an-alley thing go.

After a quick shower, I find my tux all wrapped in plastic. Someone had it dry-cleaned from the last event. Something tells me in my gut, it was Ava and not Bridget.

I dress in the tux, all the unnecessary layers and accessories, and hate my life even more when I get back outside and feel the brutal August heat. I’ll be drenched in sweat soon.

Gus drives me to the event, and I chat with Shane via group text with a heads-up about the lovely conversation that he missed.

His one response floors me:

Shane: I wish she did kill him.

Shane has his share of blood on his hands, but with his technical skills sharpening in recent years, he’s a better cyber asset. Something in that message tells me he’s aching for some action.

“We’re here, boss,” Gus says, and I put my phone away.

“Thanks, stay close.” I get out of the car with Zeke and Ace behind me.

At events like this, rich and famous people arrive with protection. I’m not just rich, I’m dangerous. With dangerous enemies.

After bypassing a red carpet, I stomp through the lobby to get inside the ballroom, but I see Bourne coming at me with a look of terror. Only, studying him closer, I see in his eyes just how fucking enraged I must look.

“Boss, Ava is with Mr. Zervas,” he explains quickly, following me to the ballroom’s double doors. “He told me to post in the lobby.”

“It’s fine, Bourne.” I take a breath and pat him on the shoulder. “Table number?”

“1, sir.”

Fucking figures. I’ll have an audience watching me when I drag Ava away from the table to answer my questions and face her betrayal by not telling me what she did to Miller. Not warning me.

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