Page 7 of Vengeful King

“It would be a good advancement,” Aiden muses, cautious. “A good connection for the family.”

He’s being political. Connor isn’t when he asks, “Who? Who was she offered to?”

“Me.”

The word leaves my mouth easily. Curiously, I don’t feel anything. It’s just a fact. It was me they offered her to, and I know the pickings were slim. For a prominent family, it had to be me. They wouldn’t propose Finn, the youngest. I’d have to barter to get them to change their minds.

But I’m not going to.

“We could use the connection,” Connor finally admits. “But is it worth it? They’re not in the Assembly. They don’t really know how it works.”

“They don’t need to,” Finn argues. “You tell them to keep their heads down and follow directions, and they’ll be fine.”

“Assuming they don’t get in over their heads. You know people get hungry when they get a taste of it.”

“Maybe,” I say, “But we’d know. And I doubt they’d risk it. Not if we…properly brief them.”

I keep my mind analytical. I don’t allow emotion in. This is business, strictly black and white. Risk and gain. I don’t know this woman and I don’t love her, but none of that matters. That’s not the point.

Part of me wonders. Aiden and Connor both ended up loving the women they married for business. Things weren’t easy for them, either. There was history, addiction, betrayal. But somehow, through it all, real feelings developed. Maybe the same thing will happen to me.

I’m not banking on it though. I know better than to hope for it or assume it will. Aiden and Connor falling for their wives was different. I’m not the same as them.

I have a responsibility. I have a duty to do what’s best for my brothers.

It’s what my father always told me. He knew I’d have to take the work up, even if he couldn’t predict his untimely death. He wanted me to be ready. He tried hard to teach me what to do.

And maybe it worked. Maybe it workedtoowell. I’m here now, ready to write away the rest of my life. I know my mother wouldn’t want me to, but it’s not her voice I need to follow right now. Not when it’s business.

My mother would have wanted me to marry for love. She would have told me,follow your heart and it will solve itself.But that’s not true. Not in business.

I don’t have the luxury of figuring things out the way Connor and Aiden did. I can’t help save a woman or rekindle an old flame. I have to be perfect, and the woman I marry needs to bring something to the family. Something important.

That’s what this will do.

We talk about it more, but I know where this is going. And after all the words and suggestions, there’s only one conclusion I can come to.

“That’s it then,” I say. “We’ll move forward with the negotiations.”

I didn’t expect anything different.

My brothers leave one by one, still chatting, still in good spirits. It’s quiet when they leave, and I pour myself a drink, the sound of the liquid splashing into the glass echoing in the kitchen.

I’ve been trying to guide the family since our father died, and that means allowing no emotions in. Doing things for the good of the family, regardless of what I want.

I think about my parents. They were so in love. I don’t know what my father would say about my decision; I never got the chance to know what he’d think of things like this. Like love and marriage.

All I want right now is to speak to him, just one last time.

CHAPTER3

Katrina

After about two hours of listening to the tap above my sink dripping, I get up for the tenth time to try to make it stop. There’s a pile of gathered napkins from takeout places on the counter; I snatch a few up and stuff them around the opening of the faucet. It doesn’t really help; they soak through almost immediately.

This isn’t the only thing broken in my apartment. It’s a shitty place, really, with leaky faucets and creaky boards everywhere. Then there’s the noise outside. Cars racing by at two in the morning, people yelling.

It’s just another hell I have to keep coming back to.

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