Page 41 of Brutal Knight

All the white noise in my head dies suddenly, leaving nothing but perfect silence in the wake of Connor’s words.

I came here to marry Willow, and by God, I’m going to do that.

There’s no way.

I can’t believe it. There is no way Connor just did that. There’s no way he just refused my father outright, turned down an alliance without batting an eye. There’s no damn way he just spoke for his entire family and ended the possibility of a truce before it could even be considered.

Why did he do that?

And why is he always surprising me? I can’t ever guess his motivations, what he’s thinking. There has never been a way for me to figure out what Connor is about to do.

The uncertainty isn’t the same as it was with Dmitri, either. It’s not a terrified silence, bated breath before figuring out whether I’d be hit or pushed. This is different. My uncertainty with Connor isn’t colored by fear.

He doesn’t behave the way Dmitri did, protecting his wants or his petty feuds above everything else. He didn’t refuse the offered alliance just because he’s angry at my father for interrupting the wedding.

No. This stems from something else. Something I can’t believe.

Because there’s no way he actually did it just for me.

My father’s face reddens. There’s stark fury in his eyes when he looks at Connor. “Your ignorance is going to cost you. And keeping me from what’s mine is going to seal your fate. I offered peace. Now, you get the bullet.”

“That’s unnecessary,” Lachlan says, his voice a low growl.

Aiden’s gaze is dark as he smoothly steps up beside his brothers. “And I wouldn’t make those kinds of threats in a place like this.”

With the O’Reilly family stepping up, my father seems to recognize the reality of the situation. He brought a small entourage with him, but he’s surrounded by six men of one family, six men willing to kill to save one another.

This could end badly if violence erupts.

I know my father won’t do anything now. He’s too much of a coward to risk his own life. But I also know he won’t let this slight go. Not if he has to crawl out of his grave to finish the fight.

“What you have done today will never be forgotten,” my father says, his voice a low hiss. “And I will have my revenge.”

The blood in my veins turns to ice. It crawls through me, every part of my body it touches frozen stiff. I feel like I can’t move.

I know how heartless my father can be. How cruel.

He won’t stop. He’ll never stop until he gets the O’Reilly family on their knees. He’ll hunt them every day of his life until he finds something to make them pay for the dishonor and disrespect he suffered. He won’t care who or what he destroys along the way.

There is only one thing he wants now, and he’ll stop at nothing to get it.

My father turns to me, and the ice in my veins freezes me solid. My blood is cold and my body still, locked in place as the man I’ve feared most in my life faces me.

I feel like a child again, helpless and unable to fight as the man I called father looms over me.

“And you,” he says, moving to step closer. “You.”

I don’t know what he’s going to say. My heart is already in my throat, fear already digging its claws into me.

But my father doesn’t have a chance to get in my face. He only takes one step before Connor stops him, one hand held up but not quite touching him.

He should know better than to get between my father and what he wants. I want to tell Connor, want to explain to him that protecting me isn’t worth it. My father will have what he wants. He always does. Trying to stop him is just delaying the inevitable. I’m already dead. They just don’t know it yet.

Connor’s voice is gruff when he speaks, barely restrained anger resting just below the surface.

“Unless you have another deal to propose, sir, I suggest you get the fuck out. Because the deal you’ve offered is not one that we will be taking.”

Connor’s hand is still in the air between them, fingers loose as if he wouldn’t have to fight to hold my father away from me.

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