Page 4 of Thorns of Deceit

“Oh, she’s definitely younger than baby sis,” Tyran chimed in. “Whoever hired her should be fired, because there’s no way that girl is even of age.”

“What?” Uncle screeched. “She’s not even twenty-one?”

“Don’t stress, Uncle Jack,” Kyran drawled. “Aiden’s going to marry her and it’ll all be over. You don’t have to testify against your husband. Look it up.”

I shook my head. “You two idiots want me in lockup? You just said she’s underage.”

“She’s not,” Tyran deadpanned. “At least not on paper. That will be your defense. Not our fault she falsified a legal document.”

I couldn’t believe we were even having this conversation. We didn’t even know if she was a real threat. There had to be another, more realistic option.

“Fuck,” I muttered, then turned toward Kyran. “You said the club was empty. Since you fucked up, you marry her.”

“Staff weren’t scheduled to arrive for another hour,” he bit out. “I’m too young to be tied down. You’re fucking thirty-one—high time to get hitched, if you ask me.”

“Nobody asked,” I pointed out. “And I am way too old for her. Youjustsaid she’s underage.”

“I don’t give a shit what happens to the girl,” Uncle roared. “Someone will marry her, or we kill her. Either way, fucking handle it.”

“Not to worry,” Tyran said calmly. “She’ll have a ring on her finger by tomorrow morning.”

Kyran coughed, spitting out my name, and I shot him a glare.

“I want an extensive background check and a decision on who’s to marry her by tomorrow morning. Or I expect a noticethat she’s been taken care of,” Uncle spat, then stormed off, muttering to himself about heart attacks.

The moment he disappeared from view, I got into my brothers’ faces.

“Of all the thoughtless, idiotic suggestions, you come up with this one?” I roared, tempted to smash their faces into the wall.

“Maybe she doesn’t know what she saw,” Kyran suggested, although judging by his expression, he didn’t believe his own words.

My gaze locked on the discarded heels.

“Oh, she knew,” I hissed.

“Come on, bro, you don’t have to marry her,” Tyran offered, doing his best to pacify me. “Just kill her.”

I was already walking, brushing past the heels she’d ditched.

“She’s probably scared shitless,” Kyran added, following me. “She won’t talk.”

“You sure about that?” I turned to face him with narrowed eyes. “You think she’s gonna wake up tomorrow and forget she saw us torturing a politician? One who’s likely going to be alerted as missing in the coming days?”

Kyran stayed quiet.

Tyran cracked his neck, then crossed his arms. “If she talks, we deal with it.”

But we all knew it’d be too late then. We had to move now.

“Get me her name and address,” I said in a calm voice, ignoring my brother’s suggestion. “I’ll call my contact and get everything I can on her. And you, Kyran, clean up this fucking mess. It’s the least you can do.”

“Come the fuck on,” Kyran hissed. “We have men for that. Plus, blood makes me?—”

I shot him a glare hoping it’d shut him up, but no such luck.

“—queasy.”

“You want me to bring her in?” Tyran asked.