Page 40 of Brutal Knight

Clearly, Edward didn’t learn the same lesson.

“This was never meant to be a dishonor,” Lachlan replies calmly. “In fact, it was done in hopes of making something good of this…tragedy.”

The pause makes me think he’s talking about Willow and not Dmitri.

“It doesn’t matter. She is mine, and she will not marry an O’Reilly. No. She has a place with me.”

“Surely you—”

“I will have her marry my second in command,” Edward interrupts.

My hands clench at my sides.So that’s his game.

Marrying Willow to his second means that the second—and by extension, Edward—will have control of the Raven Syndicate. Edward will be the head of not one, but two organizations in two states. His reach will span a good part of the country.

I suddenly don’t wonder how this man could have sold Willow off to Dmitri. He seems remarkably like Dmitri, with his hunger for power and blindness to reality.

If Edward decided to hold these two powerful organizations, there’s no doubt he’d fall. Maybe it wouldn’t be soon, but it would come nonetheless. He seems too impulsive, too uncaring of consequences. One of these days, something will bite him in the ass.

It’ll hurt Willow when it does, and I can’t have that. Not after all the time I took to help her, to keep her safe.

“No,” Aiden says. It’s quiet, firm. “That’s not happening.”

I wonder if he’s thinking about Rose when he says it. I know what it was like for him, when Rose was almost lost to Dmitri. Maybe he’s thinking about what it would be like for Willow to be sold a second time to a man probably just like Dmitri.

None of us want that.

Edward’s face reddens. For a moment, I think he’s about to yell—but then he smirks, his lips twisting into a cruel curve. I know he thinks he has the upper hand in some way. He thinks he has a way to keep what he wants and occupy us with something else.

“The Ravens could be your allies,” Edward says, a sly gleam entering his eyes. “If you give her up, I’ll make sure the Raven Syndicate becomes a powerful ally to you.”

I can’t believe he’s trying to go this route.

It doesn’t matter if he claims he’ll do it. He’s just like Dmitri, I know it. He’ll pretend maybe, or he’ll do it for a little while, but he won’t keep his word. It’s not worth shit.

Even on the off chance that Edward really does keep his word about the Ravens, it won’t make a difference. Willow will still be sold off, bound to some faceless man who probably won’t treat her any differently that Dmitri did.

And then what was it all for? Why get her clean?

Why give her hope just to take it away?

I’m not about to give in after everything I did, all I gave up to make this happen. I’ve been ready to sign away my future to a wife who won’t love me, all for my family and the power of the Raven Syndicate. Now Edward wants to show up and sweep it out from under me.

No fucking way.

“Instead of enemies, you’ll have a strong organization on your side,” Edward says.

Lachlan is quiet. I can see him weighing the options, trying to find some way to avoid pitting us in a war against Edward Channing and his organization.

Normally, I would defer to Lachlan, not just because he’s the oldest, but because he’s the one who’s taken on the role of leader since our father died.

But this time, I don’t wait for him to speak first. I don’t follow his lead. I take the lead myself, opening my mouth before I even truly think about what I’m doing.

“No,” I say firmly. “I came here to marry Willow, and by God, I’m going to do that.”

CHAPTER15

Willow

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