Page 12 of Brutal Collateral

“Good morning and HappyNew Year,” Ares Zervas greets us in a deep British accent. “Sorry for the sudden intrusion. You are men of a certain ilk like me and understand some meetings can’t be scheduled weeks in advance.”

I lower the gun aimed at Kai’s head and say, “Mr. Zervas, my mother is upstairs. There’s a code of honor amongour ilkthat if you plan to slaughter an entire family—”

“Mr. Quinlan, come now.” His eyes focus on the gun I slip back into my waistband. “If my family wanted you dead, you’d be dead, and never see us coming.”

My throat goes tight, chills running down my spine, wondering if that is some backhanded threat. I need to beef up security around here.

“Mr. Zervas, please have a seat.” I show the man respect, because any head of a crime family, who hasn’t murdered us yet, deserves it.

That absurdly expensive-looking suit is a reason to give me pause to talk down to him.

“Call me Ares.” His grin widens as he takes the seat next to Kai Powers, who’s finally stopped sweating.

“Why so informal?” Connor asks.

“Because we’re going to be family,” Ares answers.

In the time it takes to shake off the shock of that comment, Kai pulls out several sets of stapled papers from the overstuffed briefcase and hands them out.

After flipping over the stiff cover, I see the first page contains a family tree.

The name at the top tightens my throat:

Troi Keller

The Irish Mob Don of Lower Manhattan leads a clan of vicious savages. Even Kieran O’Rourke, the Irish king of Astoria, stays clear of them.

The Kellers are also bitter enemies of...the Greeks.

Their war started after Alexander Zervas killed his father. Lucien Zervas had drained the family of its finances and honor. After his death, his sons, the Zervas brothers, slowly rose to power. And set their focus on destroying the Irish with petty territorial feuds, typical when two crime syndicates operate in the same vicinity. But minor hostilities rarely deescalate. I’d heard rumors that recentlysomethingstarted an all-out war between the two families.

“We have nothing to do with Keller,” I blurt anxiously. “We are sworn loyalists to the O’Rourkes here in Astoria.”

“I am well aware of that.” Ares sounds miffed at the ignorant implication. “I’ve had the pleasure of meeting your King O’Rourke.”

“Why is Devlin Keller’s name crossed out?” Ewan asks about Troi’s son.

“He’s dead,” Shane answers before Ares. Since being handed this family tree, he’s been on his laptop staying one step ahead of us.

“Who killed Devlin?” I ask as it becomes clear what escalated that war.

“Three months ago, my older brother Alexander killed Devlin. Car bomb,” Ares says casually. “In Alexander’s defense, Devlin wasn’t supposed to be in the car. Regardless, Devlin’s enforcer ambushed my brother a week later in a fierce gun battle he did not win.”

Three months.He lost his brother three months ago. He’s remarkably calm and controlled. We lost our sister Norah years ago and we’re still not over it. Especially Ewan.

“Since that bloodbath, neither side has laid down their arms,” Ares continues. “After dark, the streets have become a war zone. I, as the new head of my family, and Troi, in the tradition of making peace between warring families, came up with a way for us to align and stop the bloodshed.”

“And what was that?” I ask, a shudder snaking down my spine.

“Troi proposed a marriage between the man he’ll name as his new heir and my sister Ava. When she was eighteen our father tried to sell her to pay a debt, but Alexander hid her from all of us. After Alexander died, I found out where she was and brought her home.” Ares keeps his face even. “Ihonor my word. She will not disappear again.”

“Troi has no living brothers,” Kai further explains. “His wife, who also had no brothers, passed away a few years back.”

“Again, what does this have to do with us?” I ask, not voicing my objection to the barbaric and dated practice of forcing enemies to marry.

“Oh no,” Shane mutters darkly. He stands and rips through bookshelves filled with our family records. The same ones we rifled through three years ago to find a Quinlan female to marry Kieran O’Rourke.

Our half-brother Rian had an adult daughter, but Ewan married her instead, even though she’s technically our niece through adoption. Yeah, we’re not altar boys. But that one takes the cake as far as depravation when it comes to our family.

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