CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Griffin
F or two more weeks , Ava leaves the house every day with her aunt to go shopping. Every night I check my credit card to see the insane charges she’s incurred.
She must be on a mission to make my bank decline her spree. So far, she’s bought a Porsche that she doesn’t drive because she doesn’t have a license, I think Bourne drove it to the garage. She had a fifty-thousand-dollar pair of diamond hoop earrings custom-made and her ears aren’t pierced.
I only didn’t approve a charge when I got an alarming call from a realtor who asked for my social security number to finance a forty-million-dollar beach house in the Hamptons. I wouldn’t mind a beach house, but I shut that one down. I worried she’d buy it to live separately from me.
Not. Happening.
She’s buying this stuff to annoy me. I won’t give her the satisfaction of proving how furious I am at the childish, attention-seeking behavior. I sleep next to her every night and she doesn’t say a fucking word to me about all these things she’s buying.
Suited up, I’m meeting with the Zervas brothers this morning as we go through the two locations we’ve narrowed down for the development project. We have to get a final report to the city and the UN liaison group who are analyzing the budget.
For this meeting, I agreed to meet on Zervas turf, a high-rise glass building on Wall Street. The receptionist has us on a list. Connor, Shane, and I, plus our guards, take a private elevator that goes right to that floor.
A woman greets us and offers us coffee, tea, or juice.
It’s ten a.m. so I ask for coffee.
Ava was asleep when I left the house early to work out in the private gym I started using. I got dressed there, too. The tracker I put in her purse shows she left the house an hour ago and went to a salon. I just hope she’s getting her nails done and isn’t trying to buy the place.
Her guard sent me updates that confirmed the same thing.
Shane and Atlas have been meeting regularly to go over what we’ll be submitting as the final proposal for this deal.
Connor and I, along with Trace and Rhys, plus a team of fighters, have been eliminating Brandon’s top allies at night.
One by one, they’re dragged to an abandoned tunnel Connor found and set up as our killing and torture chamber. He chains them up and beats them until they swear an oath to me. With only one exception, all have been broken to my will and accepted my reign. The one who didn’t was killed after finding out he had no family. That was why he probably held out. The others had wives who liked nice things and kids in private schools with everything to lose by holding on to their fealty to a dead man.
Connor reminds me I shouldn’t work the streets for much longer. I’m the new ruler of this clan. My place is on a throne, making contacts in the city where I can exercise my influence to make sure all the businesses we took over keep running without interruption.
Sitting on the sidelines wars with my pride and dominating nature. Ava’s remark that I’m never home at night stung, but I’m also wary of calling her bluff only to watch her come up with some other bullshit excuse why she won’t get rid of that fucking clown and sleep alone with me in my bed.
I tolerate it because we’re not married yet. I’m saving that argument and won’t relent. I’ll light that thing on fire if that’s what it will take.
My brothers and I get to the Zervas conference room, and I push all thoughts of my screwed-up home life aside to deal with this grueling meeting. Ares sits at the head of a long, polished conference table. I figured the three Zervas brothers would perch on one side with the three of us Quinlans on the other. No, Ares keeps trying to one-up me.
I take a seat at the opposite side of the table, my eyes right on him.
Shane sets up a monitor in the middle to begin going over the building options. The door opens up behind me, and I think it’s the assistant bringing in food. Ares gets to his feet so fast that my heart drops into my stomach.
I spin around, pissed that I had my back to the door. But my jaw hits the carpet.
“Ava?” I look her up and down in a white pantsuit with a gray trench on her shoulders, black stilettos, and...
“What the fuck did you do to your hair?” Ares barks.
I was too busy checking out her body, which has improved as far as her weight and skin tone. Her cheeks don’t look as hollow. She’s been eating well since moving in with me. She looks fucking gorgeous only...
She chopped off every bit of her hair. All that long ebony hair is gone.
“I cut it,” she says and saunters into the room.
I catch her guard taking his place with ours in the reception area.
To my surprise, she waltzes right up to me and kisses my cheek. Ares’ eyes narrow at how polite she’s being. I want to take her mouth, hard, lay a brutal kiss on her to fuck with them. Keep them guessing about what’s really happening in my bedroom every night.
Ava slips off her coat, and the assistant flies to her side. “Grapefruit juice if you have it.”
When the assistant makes a face, I snap my fingers. “Get it. Find it.”
Ava and I make eye contact, and I try to fight the lust storming through my body. Fuck no, I don’t want a princess getting her nails done, which hers are nubs. Unless she gets fake claws to tear up my back.
My brothers and I look at her brothers to see what they’ll do since she’s not my wife yet.
Ares rubs his knuckles and says, “Ava, darling. This is a meeting and—”
“A family meeting, I see.” She waves her hand at all of us. “Right? We’re a family now. Last I checked, I’m part of this family.”
I hadn’t considered that she’d want a role in the management of my house or this project. Fuck, I find that hot.
Shane leans in to me. “Do you have an issue if she stays?”
“No,” I whisper. Especially if it bugs Ares.
“It’s a business meeting,” Ares counters bitterly.
Bingo...
I hide my smile behind folded hands, watching him trying to push her out.
“And why am I excluded? Is it my tits?” She pushes them together. “I got rid of my hair, I can cut them off next.”
That puts me on my feet. “Enough. She stays. Let’s get on with it. Shane, go.”
Not needing any coaxing, Shane stands up and uses a remote to put blueprints up on the large screen. “We’ve narrowed it down to two building options. We can buy this block of land and build new, state-of-the-art, everything to our specs. Or buy this historical building that’s been in foreclosure for the last five years. It sits within the UN’s specs for distance from the existing site.”
“Cost difference?” I ask.
Atlas answers, “After building new, permits and everything, versus buying this building, which is pricey because of its location, it’s a wash.”
“Time to occupy?” Ares asks.
“Same,” Shane answers.
“Any issues renovating a historic building?” Ambrose asks.
“There’s a waiver for renovations,” his brother Atlas answers.
“Money and time aside,” I continue. “If buying the land means we can build directly to the specs, how hard will it be to retrofit the existing building? The UN is moving because there’s so much asbestos, they’re terrified to take down walls to install fiber optics for the new security infrastructure they need.”
“The existing building was gutted ten years ago and the asbestos was removed to OSHA standards,” Shane answers. “That’s why it’s in foreclosure. They spent a fortune, and the existing tenants couldn’t pay the raised rents.”
Ares signals Atlas, who whispers in his ear. Ambrose sits there, looking stiff and bored.
A moment later, Ares says, “We are in favor of the existing building. We value history.”
I tighten my fist. Shane and I spoke about our preference earlier, which was the new build. Glancing around, I see a problem. No one here is above the other. It has to be a majority vote.
It’s three Quinlans against three Zervas.
Perfume drifts into my lungs, and I mentally correct myself. Zervas has four. Ava is still one of them.
Shite.
Sitting back and folding my arms, I say, “We’re in favor of the new building.”
“All three of you?” Ares looks at each of us.
The room grows quiet as Shane sits down. “We didn’t anticipate a tie vote. How do we break—”
“Hold up.” Ava raises her hand. “I didn’t vote.”
My heartrate spikes. “Now hang on.”
A dark rumble of sinister laughter breaks from Ares’ chest. “Please, Ava darling, vote.”
Smiling, she stands up and walks to Atlas then sits next to him. They whisper as he shows her his reports on the existing building. Then she gets up and rounds the table. Passing me, she swipes a finger across my back that no one is supposed to see.
It wakes up my senses, her touching me.
Shane greets her with his flirty smile. A flame of jealousy burns in my chest the way she touches his arm and smiles at him.
What the fuck?
And why is he indulging her? It better be to win her vote.
How the fuck did I get here?
Ava goes to the monitor Shane used where he shows her something in the blueprints we got from the architect for the new build. I study her fingers to see what she’s focusing on. But Shane flips between different floors.
She then crooks a finger to Altas, who grunts and stands up. With a smooth gait, he struts to the monitor. After Ava shows him what she apparently asked Shane about, Atlas’ jaw drops.
I cut my gaze to Ares, who looks ready to explode. His fingers press the satiny wood surface of the conference table to stand and he shows us that Greek temper, but Atlas faces his brother.
“I change my vote,” he says. “The new build is a better option.”
Ambrose immediately darts over there and a few seconds later, he’s in agreement.
Ava prances back to the table, all smiles, and after downing an entire glass of juice, she says with pouty lips, “To stay neutral, I abstain.”
Her eyes are right on me, those words slam into me. Abstain. The plan I had to abstain and keep my dick dry has gone down in flames.