Page 12 of Steel Rain

“I think I’ll stay,” he said, looking over my shoulder at Eoghan Green.

“You should go, Harrison,” Eoghan said, parroting my words with condescension.

I slowly turned around. There was a huge chance that he would kill me. I didn’t know what he knew. How much he knew. And I also had no idea how vengeful he’d be if he ever figured out my secrets.

“This is Irish business,boyo,” Eoghan said with a slight smirk.

“I’m part Irish,” Harrison said, totally missing the point. “On my mother’s side.”

Eoghan gave him a sarcastic little smirk. Behind his left shoulder was Ajax LeBlanc. Of course, he’d be in his corner. Never trust anyone you’ve never bled with. I shouldn’t have trusted the coach.

“You might be Irish on your mum’s side, twice removed, lad,” Eoghan’s voice was full of snobbery, “But this,” he indicated the space between him and me, “is clan business.”

His black eyes turned to me. Those empty fucking pits were darker than the deepest level of hell. I had known him since I was a child, and he was a dick back then too. He was always cruel, and dark. The perfect dictator.

“Keith Bournes is somewhere around these parts.” Eoghan smirked, looking around as if the aforementioned Keith was hiding under a bench or something.

That fucking name. Keith. It made my hands ball into fists, and I was ready to murder someone. The man who stole my childhood, my family, my hair … if I ever saw him again, I wasn’t sure what I’d do. Iwantedto slowly torture him to death. To peel his skin, bit by bit, with sandpaper, until he was left raw, exposed, and broken. The way he had left me.

Then maybe I’d be satisfied.

Maybe.

“I’m sure you’re eager to see your fiancé again,” Eoghan said, his lips tilting up like a fucking sadist.

How much did he know? What had Keith told him? I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that heknewhe was hitting a tender spot, and he was poking the bruise on purpose.

“Fiancé?” I heard Harrison ask behind me.

“You should go,” I repeated, turning my head, but not looking at my friend.

I wanted him to stay. I wanted someone to be in my corner. But at the same time, I didn’t know what Eoghan would do if he got caught in the middle of this. Harrison didn’t deserve to get hurt because of my blood ties.

We are all sinners and devils. Every single one of us, except for Harrison. He was good, and pure. The Sir Galahad among us heathens. And he was worth defending.

Harrison. My sister Siobhan. Kira. Aoibheann. The list of good people was short. It was a testament to how crappy the world truly was. And it wasn’t lost on me that only one man made my list. That was because most men were complete and total scum.

“I’ll stick around, Flanagan,” Harrison stubbornly said beside me, “you and I aren’t square.”

He meant that our debts weren’t paid, changing his tune from earlier.

That stupid scar on my side was something he considered a personal affront to himself. He thought he owed me his life. He didn’t. It was pure accident that my misfortune was to his gain. We were deployed and it was combat. He needed to let it fucking go.

“You want to be square?” I finally turned to him, my body tense, ready to grab him by that dusty blonde hair and toss him on his ass out of the room. “Get the fuck out.”

He looked at me, offended. He searched my face for something. He bared his teeth in a snarl, ready to challenge me. But that good ol’ boy personality kicked in right on time.

Instead of sticking to his ways, he stepped toward me, bringing his lips to my ear. “If you’re not out in ten, I’m storming back in here. Got it?”

He walked past Eoghan, his shoulder bumping the mafia boss, as he walked without a single backward glance, out the swinging door.

Guile had no fucking idea that he had just taken his life into his own hands. Shoulder checking Eoghan -fucking-Green?

Thank God Eoghan looked more amused than anything.

“Now, now,” he said with a laugh. “What will Keith say about the little lover boy there?”

“I was hoping Keith was dead.”

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