Page 63 of Brutal Collateral

“Give me a minute.” I turn to go into my kitchen where Bridget is putting away a new set of cookware that I apparently needed. “Hi. I know this is short notice. Can you cook something for about five people?”

More if Ava’s other brothers show up to see their damn sister.

“I can have a pot roast ready in an hour with mashed potatoes and string beans,” she says, smiling.

“Perfect.”

I turn my back on the one woman in this house who I don’t worry will take a meat cleaver to my head.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Ava

Griffin brings Aresand me to a sunroom overlooking a nice manicured yard with square stones inlaid to make the whole space look like a checkerboard. Three bricked walls make up the fence line between the neighbors on all sides. And Iimmediatelyconsider if I can scale those walls.

Then where will I go?

Griffin mentioned Brandon’s allies are out there, and his death needs to be announced. I doubt he’ll credit me for the kill to protect me. But Brandon is dead because of me and his allieswillwant me dead regardless.

Shit, it looks like I’m safe here for the foreseeable future.

“Do you want me to stay while you talk to your brother?” Griffin asks like he’s on my side.

Running a hand through my dull hair from a shower where I washed it with a bar of soap, I blink up at Griffin.

I just shake my head, but as he walks away, I squeak out, “Thank you, Griffin.”

He freezes and turns to me, but looks at Ares like this fractured submission is some kind of massive victory. “You’re very welcome, Ava.”

The plate-glass door to the sunroom clicks shut, and I face my brother. “Where were you?”

He cinches his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Why didherescue me and not you?” I don’t want to owe Griffin anything. “That’s a debt I have to pay because I have honor.”

“We didn’t know where you were. No one did.” He circles me. “The Quinlans arekeeninvestigators. Something we don’t have. And even they took months to find you.”

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