“Just getting a good look around and telling Eli what a pretty cage he’s created for us.” She pats my chest, her nails digging in through my shirt.
“Monroe, you’re going to give Broderick a stroke, and it hasn’t even been twenty-four hours.”
“One can only hope,” Monroe murmurs.
“I heard that.” The woman grabs Monroe’s hand, heedless of the danger she’s in by keeping the Amazon heir so close, and tugs her away from me. “Come on. It’s my job to keep you out of trouble.”
Monroe gives me a long look over her shoulder, a clear promise that our conversation isn’t over, and smiles wide. “Baby, why stay out of trouble when it’s so fun to get into trouble?” She leans against the other woman. “I have a few ideas if you’re game.”
The woman is still stammering when they round the corner and disappear down the hall. I stare after them for a long moment. There is a possibility that Monroe is serious about allying together against the Paines, but I can’t risk it. Not until I have no other options. The Amazons and Mystics and I might not have been in an all-out war leading into this, but that doesn’t mean there’s trust between the factions. Monroe might decide to take out two birds with one stone—me and the Paine brothers. If anyone can do it, she and her family can. And there are three of them under this roof.
I shudder. Better to get moving before someone else comes along.
The thought barely crosses my mind when a man stalks into view. He doesn’t look much like Abel, aside from the similar body type of a brawler, but I instantly recognize Cohen, the third oldest brother. Their mother named them alphabetically, which amused plenty of people as she kept popping out children, but there’s nothing amusing about the barely restrained violence on Cohen’s face as he catches sight of me and picks up his pace. “You.”
I don’t take a step back, but it’s a near thing. “Cohen.” He’s a few inches shorter than me, but he’s wider through the shoulders and chest. He catches me around the throat, and I do nothing to stop it. I let him bear me back to the wall and pin me there. I merely raise my brows. “Your brother’s put in a lot of work for you to kill me now.”
“Don’t tempt me.” His voice is low and as gravelly as if he’s been gargling rocks. “You deserve worse than death for what you did.”
“What my father did,” I gently correct.
His eyes are amber, and the color should make them warm, but they’re as icy as Abel’s turn every time he looks at me. “You don’t get to pull that card, Eli. You were twenty-eight. Hardly a babe in arms.” His fingers tighten around my throat ever so slightly.
“Not a babe in arms,” I repeat. I force myself to smile as if none of this matters. “Unlike your little Bride. How old is Winry? Twenty-three? She was barely fifteen when your father was killed. Hardly a responsible party.”
“She’s an Amazon.” Just like that, he drops his hand. “She’ll pay the price, just like you will.” He grabs my upper arm and yanks me away from the wall. “I don’t know where my brother is, but you don’t have free rein to wander the halls as you like. Get the fuck back to your room.”
Frustration sinks its teeth into me, but if I dig in my heels now, it will raise all sorts of alarms. Not to mention that Cohen is just looking for an excuse to beat the shit out of me. Of all the Paine brothers, he’s the most dangerous one. Abel might be the leader, but Cohen was always the knife in the dark. Their enemies never saw him coming. After eight years away from Sabine Valley, anything can be true now, but I doubt that’s changed. I can’t take him in a one-on-one fight. And even if I could, it serves no purpose now.
I smile, fighting down a wince when the expression pulls at my cut lip. “Sure.”
He marches me down the hall. As we pass Harlow’s room, another loud moan emerges. Cohen glances at the door, his expression inscrutable. I half expect him to rub my nose in the fact that Abel is fucking Harlow the same way Monroe did, but he stays silent until I motion that we’ve reached our destination. Only then does he release my arm.
Cohen gives me a long look. “If I had my way, Abel would have cut you down and put your head on a spike in the middle of that goddamn amphitheater.”
Once upon a time, I considered this man a brother just like I considered the rest of the Paine boys brothers. Cohen and I were never close, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’ve known him his entire life. None of that matters. It wasn’t enough to alter my father’s plans, and it’s not enough to change what I have to do now. “That’s why Abel’s the one in charge.” That’s also why he’s dangerous in a way completely different than Cohen. “You’re just a dog on a leash.”