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That sounds almost as awful as picking out my wedding dress tomorrow.
“I can’t say I ever have,” I reply. “My mother wasn’t able to have a garden from what I remember because our yard was used for pursuits.”
“Tennis?”
“Shooting.”
Men.
Traitors.
Whoever my father believes deserved a bullet in the head.
Kohen’s expression drops a bit, but I’m not sorry I said it. I learned a lot from those fucked up sessions. Where to shoot a man to make him bleed out for a short amount of time or longer. Cillian would never allow me to hold a gun, but Papa did once.
“Your music will do Finn some good,” Kohen says then, picking up a lighter topic and bringing his brother back full circle into my reality. “He only enjoys listening to people scream and—” He immediately stops himself before his smile fades and he remembers who he must be speaking to because he clears his throat. “Screamer bands. He enjoys metal.”
Lies.
I mindlessly steal a glance at the biggest threat in the room. The one his brother is trying to paint like a normal, easy-going guy that has no violent tendencies about him. Finn perks a brow at me, bidding me to ask him something personal. Goosebumps immediately line my skin and I want to pry my head away but a little voice in my head demands that I listen to it.
Don’t back down, Haven. You’re going to be his wife. He hurts me; then he messes with the alliance.
Like Papa and Cillian will do anything.
“Do you have a favorite band?” I solicit, surprised that I’m even able to speak to him. Then I notice it’s the first time I’veeverspoken to him.
He averts his gaze, inhibiting that he’s disinterested in answering anything I have to ask, which irritates me.
“I’m sure there are plenty,” Kohen recites for him, and I realize he’s acting as the buffer in this conversation. That he was brought here so that I wouldn’t run back and possibly complain about how my fiancé has the personality of the bush currently sitting behind him.
“I’d love to know one,” I press, still pinning my not-curious-at-all gaze on Finn. He must feel it because he cranes his head back over to me and stares back without any reservation of it bothering him.
I wish I could do that as well.
“Finn is a little clammed up before he meets someone,” Kohen explains as if that’s going to make this better. “You both will have plenty of time to get to know each other.”
“The rest of our lives,” I say, and it’s like bile in my throat. And that’s without saying that he might take my life if I push him too hard. “But I’d love to know more about his likes so that I can…” I exhale slowly as if trying to look a bit flustered that Finn hasn’t said anything to me yet.
And maybe I should keep it that way.
If he doesn’t speak to me, that means we don’t need to be in the same room.
Ever.
“I’m sure our mother could fill you all in on that,” Kohen recites as if that’s going to get me to shut up.
Oh, but it does.
So I fill the conversation in with something that’ll pass the time before Papa comes back to pick me up.
“What about you, Mr. O’Clery?” I ask. “What is your role in the grand scheme of things.”
“You can call me Kohen,” he replies. “And I’m just here to do my father’s bidding and bug the shit out of my brothers.”
A small smile forms from that. “So, the youngest does have its perks.”
“Many. It holds less responsibility.”
