Page 18 of Steel Rain

“When you’veearnedour trust.”

“We said one week.”

“Shiny, you are making demands when you have no leverage,” he stepped toward me, his lips in a cruel smile. “Be smart, little sister, before you get yourself in too deep.”

The trees were so thick, I could barely see a few feet into the woods. Vines hung down from every branch, spreading like wiry fingers, ready to grab the living in its vicious grip.

If Eoghan decided to turn around and stick a dagger in my throat, no one would hear me scream, and he could dump me behind a bush. The animals would probably be shitting me out before anyone had a chance to notice.

When I thought he was about to do just that, we stepped into a clearing. It was definitely man-made. The lines were too clean, the circle too perfect. There were ancient trees that provided canopy cover over head, no doubt to obscure the presence of buildings against any drones.

Having a private army within the United States wasn’t strictly legal, and I wasn’t sure how Eoghan pulled it off. Though, obviously, a certain level of secrecy and plausible deniability was involved.

The clearing was littered with white buildings. Most of them were long, barracks-like. Almost like rows of cheap motels. There were garages with cars, and a covered parking lot, pock marked with the same high trees. There must have been hundreds of people moving about between buildings in the same head-to-toe black clothes with a single four leaf clover emblazoned over the breast.

“You’ll find your uniforms in your room,” Eoghan said, as he led me into one of the long buildings. And as I suspected, it did look exactly like cheap barracks on the inside. “Latrines will be a problem, as you’re the only woman here. But I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

“What?” I halted at the beginning of the hallway, staring down the long row of doors. “You’re kidding.”

“I don’t ‘kid’, Shiny,” Eoghan said, looking back at me as his one brow rose to his hairline. “You should know that.”

Why would I? I hadn’t been here in two years. And that was only for my mother’s funeral … and to save a woman from the same fate I had suffered. I had come because I knew that no one would stop me. I knew that there was a fucked up sense of honor that would let me walk the halls.

A small part of me hoped that I could spirit my sister away, but she wouldn’t even look at me, much less talk to me. But I got to help someone. So it wasn’t a wasted trip.

“Dining Facility is in the red barn,” he pointed toward the entrance door, to a building I couldn’t see outside. “Follow the path behind it, and it will take you to the warehouse that is the gym. Go to the combatives room at 8AM sharp. Meals are at six, noon, and six again. It’s open for one hour. If you miss it, you can come to the big house’s kitchen, but otherwise, expect to starve.”

He pounded his angry fist on a door, the sound of it echoing in the hollow hallway.

“This is yours, as you can see.” His long finger pointed to the name painted on it. It was just the word FLANAGAN in bold, sans serif stencil. “Have yourself a good night.”

I looked up and down the hallway, scanning the names. I didn’t see a sign with the name BOURNES, so that was a mercy. He didn’t live in this hall.

Eoghan walked away, back to the entrance.

“And oh, Shiny,” he called over his shoulder. I fucking hated that nickname. When I joined the Army, I thought I’d never hear it again. But here I was, back where all the bullshit started. Back to being Shiny Flanagan. “Welcome home.”

Chapter 10

Ajax

Ajax

Icouldn’tgetherout of my head. Paper white skin and black hair. And that scent? Like the smell of a forest stream during a midnight rain. Wild, clear, and cold.

She was so off-limits that I needed to purge her from my mind. She was now a student. She’d be one of my trainees. It was clear that there was a power imbalance that put a brick wall between the two of us. I wasn’t that guy. I wasn’t a man who took advantage of others. That was a level of scumbaggery that I would never touch.

But thinking about her was more pleasant than thinking about my current situation. Trapped on a compound, at the mercy of a mad man.

“I just showed Shiny up to her room,” Eoghan said pulling out his chair at the head of his big dining table, then unfolding a white linen napkin with a snap.

Eoghan’s dining room was grand, with a high ceiling and golden chandelier. Two walls were made of glass, looking out into the rose garden with its white granite bird baths and fountains. Beyond that was the woods where he hid his army from view. Like a maniacal Robin Hood, with his band of Irish merry men hiding in the forest, away from the prying eyes of the government.

“Shiny?” I asked, wondering about the nickname.

“Because she was so pale, and she always wore shiny dresses,” Dairo said, his low voice almost catching me by surprise. “She was big into sparkles and glitter and the like.”

I looked across the way towards Dairo. His blond, amiable features as he swished a glass of whiskey in his hand could have been plucked out of an advertisement.

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