“Have you completely lost your mind?!”
Callie gives me a “you’re in for it now” look as I turn to see Dimitra at the doorway.
“Ya-ya—”
“Don’t you ‘Ya-ya’ me,” she snaps, marching across the living room to where I’ve been playing chess with my sister.
I flash a surprised look at my grandmother. She glares back.
“Well?”
“Ya-ya, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say because I’m not sure what we’re talking—”
“You do know I sit on the board of directors for the SoHo Planning and Development Association, don’t you?”
I do. Just as I know she sits on about a dozen other planning, zoning, city improvement, and charity boards. One, she enjoys it as an excuse to get out. Two, she genuinely is interested in helping to build a better New York, especially for immigrants. And not least three, her influence on these boards makes the Drakos family a lot of money.
“Yes, I’m sure you do.” She smiles grimly. “Well, did you know who else is on that same board of directors, with whom I was cultivating a very lucrative deal for Drakos-owned construction companies to handle the redevelopment of the Canal Street towers?”
“No, Ya-ya, I don’t. So why don’t you tell—”
“Councilman. Greg. Leery.”
The smile drops from my face. Dimitra glares at me even harder.
“Well?!”
I try to look innocent as I stand. “Well, what?”
“Don’t you dare give me the ‘who, me’ routine.”
“Who the heck is Greg Leery?” Callie mumbles behind me.
“Nobody.”
“A city official your dear brother put in the hospital!” Dimitra spits at the same time as me.
Callie makes a face. “You put a city councilman in the hospital?”
I roll my eyes. “I didn’t put him in the hospital. I broke his nose at best. But I damn well will put him in hospital, now that he’s decided to go mouthing off about it.”
“Oh, he’s there, all right,” Dimitra snaps. “Broken nose, crooked septum, and a half-ruptured sinus.”
I resist the urge to mention that at least the councilman who loves to take invasive pictures of passed-out girls still has his testicles attached to his body.
“And he didn’t mouth off at all. Literally. I went to see him when I heard he’d been in an accident, and the man just about had a heart attack when I walked in. He literally would not open his mouth to speak, no matter what I asked.”
I bite back a grim smile.
“I’m not stupid, Ares,” she mutters. “I can add one and one and get two. So, I ask again,” my grandmother says, fixing me with a beady stare. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
There’s a pause. “Nothing,” I finally growl. “I have nothing to say for myself, and that includes an apology. Sorry, not sorry.”
“Ares!” she groans. “You are the head of this family now! You can’t be seen walking into city officials’ offices and punching them in the face!”
“I’m not planning on making it a regular occurrence,” I snap back. “It was one-off personal business that had to do with Neve—”
“I don’t care if it had to do with me! Ares, you cannot be conducting yourself this way! You are the king now! And this family is descended from Spartans!”
I sigh. “Ya-ya—”
“Drakos is dragon, in case you’ve forgotten your native tongue.”
“I haven’t—”
“We are the House of the Dragon, Ares, and you can’t—”
Callie snickers behind me. I start to grin too, in spite of myself.
Dimitra glares at the both of us.
“Exactly what is so amusing, may I ask?”
Callie giggles. “Nothing, Ya-ya. It’s just there’s this TV show—”
“I don’t watch TV.”
“Which is fine, but when you say House of the Dragon, that’s what people are going to think—”
Dimitra silences her with a look before turning back to me.
“You are king, Ares. And now that you wear that crown, you need to rise above petty personal issues.”
My temper flares. My lips curl.
“Ya-ya—”
“Now, I’m sorry to hear about whatever squabble Neve has with that man. But he’s an important business associate—”
“And she is my WIFE!” I roar.
The room goes silent and still.
“She’s my wife,” I continue. “And crown or not, kingdom or not, I will always put her, her safety, and her well-being first. Always. And if you have a problem with that…” My lips thin. “Then too goddamn bad. Because I’m the head of this family, Ya-ya. Not you.”
You could have heard a pin drop. Dimitra holds my fierce gaze, glaring right back at me as the seconds tick by.
And then slowly, her lips curl into a grin.
Wait, what?
She beams, moving towards me and suddenly hugs me. Then she pulls back, reaches up, and pats my cheek.
“Good boy. I was wondering when you’d stop lying to yourself.”
She winks, turns, and heads for the door.
“Oh, but Ares?” She turns back, her brow furrowing. “You’ll want to settle things with Ezio Adamos sooner rather than later. He was supposed to sign contracts today with Councilman Leery for that multi-use development in the Seaport. He’s been banking fairly hard on that, I think.” She smiles. “Well, I’ll see you both at dinner.”
The door shuts behind her.
“Duuuude…”
I turn to see my sister grinning at me as she taps her temple.
“You just got Ya-ya-ed so fucking hard.”
I squeeze in a quick video call with Deimos before dinner. It’s getting late in London, but my brother’s always been a bit of a night owl.
He’s also the most effective second-in-command I could have asked for, despite being the third-youngest brother after Hades and Kratos. But Hades is, well, Hades. And Kratos has no interest or patience for leadership. Deimos was born with a gift for maintaining order.
Though, truth be told, I’m guessing at least half of the reason things are going so swimmingly back on the other side of the pond is because my brother has a way of scaring the absolute shit out of people.
It’s been suggested that he maybe lives a bit too much up to his namesake of the god of dread and terror. I’d be inclined to agree.
After the call, I head out to the gardens, where Dimitra’s decided we’re eating alfresco tonight. Neve, her sister, her uncle, Castle, Owen Foley, and few others from our side are there already. This joint family dinner is something Dimitra has decided is going to be a regular Sunday thing as a means of bringing everyone together. My eyes scan the small crowd. My pulse thuds quicker, and there’s no hiding the grin on my face as I eagerly look for Neve.
“I’ve fucking tried with you!”
I frown, turning sharply when I hear Ezio’s voice on the other side of one of the hedges.
“But this!? This is too far!”
“You need to lower your voice when you speak to me, Mr. Adamos.”
I grin at the authoritative note in my wife’s voice.
“Oh, do I, now?!” Ezio fires back.
“You do,” Neve says. “In fact, it might be best if you just kept your mouth shut entirely.”
I grin even more widely.
Ezio laughs coldly. “I find that amusing, coming from you.”
“Really? Why’s that?”
“Because from what I understand, the only reason your husband went full caveman on Leery is because you couldn’t seem to keep your mouth shut for the councilman five years ago. Him or his friend.”
My face twists into a mask of rage as I storm around the hedge.
“Mr. Adamos—”
Ezio doesn’t see me coming as he spits at Neve’s feet.
“No. I’ll speak to you like the cunt you are—”
Ezio screams as I grab him by the ankles, lift him up over the edge of the building, and let him fucking dangle there, upside-down, forty stories above Central Park South.
“Give me one fucking reason,” I snarl. “ONE fucking reason not to let go!”
“Ares!” Ezio shrieks, his eyes wide as he stares up at me in sheer terror. “Please! Please! Have mercy! Think of our history!”
I can smell the alcohol on him from here. But I don’t care if he’s drunk. I don’t give a shit if he’s still grieving and angry about his son.
I very much give a shit about the way he’s just spoken to Neve.
“Ares!!” he wails. “Please!!”
“Ares!” Kratos is shaking me, trying to drag my arms back, to pull Ezio back over the edge. But for all his strength, I’m immovable as a cliff as I glare death at the man whose life is literally in my hands.
“Ares!” Kratos roars at me. “Think this fucking through! It’s rush-hour traffic down there! You gonna drop him in front of three thousand witnesses?!”
Please. With the fury roaring inside of me right now, I’ll do it in front of a million witnesses.
“Ares.”
Through the red miasma swirling in my vision, I blink back to reality and turn at the soft sound of her voice. My eyes clear as they lock with Neve’s.
“Don’t do this,” she says gently, laying a hand on my clenched arm. “Not for me. Please.”
The murderous red mist clears. I blink, and then turn to glare at Ezio. Snarling, I yank him back up and shove him onto the ground at my feet. He sobs, obviously as drunk as he is relieved to be given a second lease on life.
“Thank you!” He weeps, clutching my leg. “Thank you, Ares—”
“Go. You’re done.”
He blinks up at me.
“From this moment on, until further notice, which I can promise you is not ever coming, the Adamos family is hereby banned and barred from all Drakos business.”
Whatever color is left in Ezio’s face drains completely.
Yeah, drunk as he may be, he understands the gravity of what I’ve just said. I’m not sentencing him to death, though I should. And I’m not declaring war on the Adamos family. But excommunication is not something anyone in our world handles lightly. From now on, the Adamos family is effectively a vassal state. They’ll pay their dues to the Drakos family, but they won’t be involved in any decision-making, councils, or any of that.
It’s basically the lowest rung on the ladder before your allegiance gets severed and your families become enemies.
Get fucked and die, Ezio.
He doesn’t even fight it. Half because he’s probably still shitting his pants from being dangled over the street. And half because he understands, even scared, drunk, and emotionally wrecked, how very fine the thread is that he’s hanging by right now.
“If you ever speak to my wife like that again, there isn’t a power on earth or in heaven that’ll stop me from making sure you kiss that sidewalk next time. Do I make myself abundantly clear?”
Ezio breaks down completely, sobbing and babbling as he nods and apologizes over and over. I turn to Kratos.
“Get this shit-stain the fuck out of here.”
He nods as he grabs the groveling, sniveling man up and hauls him off.
“Oh, and Kratos?”
He glances at me. I turn to level my eyes with Neve’s.
Her face is flushed. Her eyes are wild and fierce. And fire from the gods themselves crackles between us.
“Please tell Ya-ya that unfortunately, we won’t be able to stay for dinner tonight.”
