“I don’t care what her reasons might have been. It’s done.”
I stare at my brother and wonder where the guy who used to wear the same old t-shirts and ripped up jeans for days on end, the one who always had a warm smile and a joke on the tip of his tongue, went off to.
Oh, that’s right.
He’s dead.
Died a painful death when my father handed him the keys to the kingdom five years ago.
Now all that is left is this cold, calculating, heartless corpse that parades in a fucking suit he wouldn’t have been caught dead in a decade ago.
No.
The brother I looked up to all my life started to fade away the day my other brother decided to take his own life.
“I always admired you for being fair, Tiernan. The way you lead the men and demand their loyalty is admirable. But I never knew you could be this fucking cruel.” I get up from my seat and start walking out the door, fucking done with this meeting.
“Be at The Avalon tomorrow at noon. I’ll tell Rosa this starts tomorrow,” my brother orders, using his business-as-usual tone with me.
“Fuck you, Tiernan. I hope one day she will forgive you because I never will.”
I storm out of the boardroom and head towards the elevators, Colin right at my heel, just as he always is. When the doors close, I face my taciturn cousin and shove him right in his chest.
“Thanks for the support in there, dipshit. This is wrong, and you know it. You could have at least backed me up in there.”
“The Boss had his mind made up long before we entered the room.”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Can you quit being a robot for one goddamn second and think about the repercussions of this shit?” I yell in his face. “She’s a scared girl. She doesn’t have anyone here to hold her hand. And now my brother wants to send her off to be fed to the lions.”
“We’re not animals,” he counters.
“You sure?! Then what do you call fucking the same woman while her husband watches? Pretty fucking savage to me.”
“We’ve shared women before.”
“Whores! We’ve shared easy pussy before, not a woman like Rosa.”
Jesus. The world is utterly fucked if I’m the voice of reason.
When did life get so fucked-up?
Oh, I know.
When fucking made men decided the only way they would ever put their guns down would be if they offered up their daughters as sacrifices instead.
Fuck.
“We can’t do this,” I mumble in defeat.
“We can, and we will. It was an order.”
“Fuck my brother’s orders.”
Colin growls.
“And stop with that shit, too. Stop growling at everything I say.”
“When you stop being an ass, I will.”
“Funny, motherfucker.”
This time I’m the one who growls.
Great.
I’m losing my damn mind.
I run my fingers through my hair again just as the elevator doors ding open. I should step out and go about my day, trying to forget what tomorrow is going to bring me. But I don’t move an inch. And neither does Colin.
“Tell me why you’re onboard with this hare-brained scheme?”
“I’ve upset them.”
“Who?”
He scowls at me.
“Okay, how then?” I fling my arms into the air, realizing he means Tiernan and Rosa.
“Rosa is upset with me for stealing that wretched painting I gave your Da. And the boss… well because I gave him an ultimatum the other day.”
“What kind of ultimatum?” I ask, honestly interested in his response since Colin has never once defied Tiernan in anything.
“She was lonely. Sad back at the hotel,” he mumbles, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.
“And?”
“And I told him to take her home. And if he didn’t… then I would.”
“No shit,” I blurt out, impressed.
“Shit,” he mumbles in frustration. “Now he thinks my loyalty has been compromised. I can’t have that.”
“Hasn’t it?” I wiggle my brows at him.
“No,” he deadpans, stepping out of the elevator. “And I’ll prove it by doing what he’s asked of us. And so will you.”
“Right. Because that’s exactly how someone sane would show their loyalty. Fuck his wife while he watches you do it.” I scoff, trailing behind him and kicking the air at my feet.
Colin hurries his steps and only slows down when we pass through the main entrance’s doors to our building.