Page 180 of Vicious Hearts

He rolls his eyes.

“Neve here yet?”

He nods. “Yeah, downstairs with Callie and Eilish.”

My niece is another person I haven’t gotten enough time with over the past two weeks, what with the chaos of dealing with the aftershocks of Gail, taking care of Una, and with makingdamn surethere’s no more “Apostles” lurking out there. It doesn’t look like there are.

“She still mad at me?”

“For fuckingstabbing me?” he mutters before shaking his head and looking away. “No, actually. Not in the slightest.”

I chuckle as he sighs heavily.

“Because she’s as fucking nuts as you are.”

I arch a brow. Ares rolls his eyes again.

“Well, nuts-ish. Notyourlevel of nuts.”

“You hope. Kildare madness manifests later in life.”

Ares shoots me another cold look. I grin.

“That’s a joke, by the way.”

“Not fuckingfunny, by the way.” He shakes his head. “I’m really not sure I was fully briefed on the perils of marrying into your family.”

“Yeah, probably not. Except you’re stuck now. You ever leave her, and I’ll skin you alive.”

We both grin. We also both know I’m not at all joking.

Good thing wealsoboth know Ares wouldn’t ever leave Neve’s side.

He frowns as I bring up a hand, taking a slow pull from the little device in my hand and exhaling whitish smoke.

“You fuckingvapingnow?”

I shoot him a dark look. “Easy. I’m trying to quit the real cigarettes, and apparently this helps.”

Ares’s brows arch. “Youare quitting smoking?”

“Apparently it’s bad for your life expectancy.”

“Just hearing that now, huh?”

I grin.

“Or is it that you’ve got something now you’d like to extend your life expectancy for? Someone, maybe?”

“That master criminal mind of yours doesn’t miss a thing, does it, God of War?”

Ares chuckles and flips me off. Then he hobbles over and claps a hand on my shoulder. “I’m happy for you, you know. I hope you know you deserve this. Una and you both do. Congratulations, Cillian.”

I dip my chin. “Thank you.”

“And, the second wedding is because…?”

“Because the first felt a little forced and stiff.”

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