Page 29 of Brutal Collateral

I also haven’t bought a razor in years. I’m two hair sprouts away from a unibrow.

I want my husband to hate me and not touch me. It will take everything I have not to kill him. I’m stopping a war on the outside, but under my mystery husband’s roof, there will be a cold war.

“No, Aunt Lena, I need a few more minutes.” I feel bad for sluggishly getting ready for tonight.

“My father arranged my marriage, you know.” She comes up behind me and removes the necklace I put on, replacing it with a bigger one. She speaks with the same British accent as my father and my brothers. But she sounds much more regal.

“Why didn’t you and Uncle Filipe have more children after the twins?”

“Because he made it clear he preferred his whores.” She leans in. “Until...”

I turn around. “Until?”

“He got older and his penis stopped working.”

I snort. “And?”

She shrugs. “We became friends without that tension between us.”

I sigh, thinking of all the years I have ahead of me. What if this husband they find for me is the same as Uncle Filipe?

I’m not sure I want kids. And if my husband doesn’t want to fuck me, I’ll be set.

Unibrow, don’t fail me now.

***

FEELING LIKE A PRIZEDcow, I walk into the grand ballroom of the Winthrop Hotel for the Irish council meeting holding Ares’ arm, my head held high. We are guests of Troi Keller, and I’m merely an ornament as allied families put forth names of men to succeed Troi based on their business connections.

We’re surrounded by Greek guards, who don’t go by names. They are each tagged with one of the seven deadly sins.

Once we pass the doors into the ballroom, my brothers’ guards remove the guns from their jackets and hold them against their chests in a show of force.

Troi spots us. Towing an oxygen tank and surrounded by his guards, he ambles toward us using a cane.

“All these savage brats who want to slit your throat and you’re staring them all down, Zervas,” Keller says with a scraggly voice. “Impressive.”

“I don’t think blood will go very well with this wallpaper,” Ares mocks with constrained politeness. “I present my sister, Ava.”

“Hello, future queen,” Troi addresses me as a foregone conclusion, and it makes me sick.

“Thank you for this invitation while you listen to claims on your throne,” Ares says when I keep my mouth shut. “I reserve the right to renegotiate our truce if I find the man put forward is not a suitable man for my sister.”

I inwardly gasp. Ares said no such thing to me.

Troi squints red, watery eyes at my brother. “Mr. Zervas, I still have breath in these weak lungs and I am widowed. I can take your sister to wife myself, have my guards hold her down while I fuck her until shemakesme a new heir.”

“And how is your colon cancer treatment working?” Ares says without missing a beat or getting offended on my behalf. “I hear it makes a man impotent.”

Oh... That’s why.

“Fuck you,” Troi curses and stalks off.

I pull my brother aside. “Will you seriously not give me up?”

Ares stares at me like he’s not sure he can trust me.

“There’s more to this than just peace,” he says and sits me down at our table.

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