Page 57 of Steel Rain

“Fine,” Keith said, with a smile as he put down his empty beer glass. “We are agreed.”

He took the white linen napkin from his lap, and slapped it down on the table.

He stood and nodded to Dairo. Then me. Then to Eoghan.

“If she has, somehow, been untrue to what was in our marriage contract, I’ll be free to punish her as I see fit.” Keith looked at me with a venom he had masked in the past.

So, he knew. He abso-fucking-lutely knew that Sinead was mine, and he was challenging for her within the strange and stifling rules of their society. I clenched my fists, knowing that there was no challenge I would ever back down from. Not when it came to her.

“I’ll be getting back to my men now. Thank you for the vittles. It’s been a pleasure.”

He stepped out of the room, leaving me and the Green cousins in a strange, heavy silence.

None of us moved. Not for minutes.

“Keith is an important part of our army,” Eoghan finally said, reaching to the middle of the table to the bottle of vermouth and refilling his glass.

“YourArmy,” I reminded him. “I’m just a trainer.”

Eoghan raised a brow, as if something in my words rang false.

“I need him, still,” Eoghan said to me, his black eyes blank. “And until I know what secrets Shiny is keeping, I will not go out on a limb for her. Not yet at least.”

“What’ll it take for you to stand up for her?” I leaned forward in my seat, looking at the mob boss in front of me. I could do this. I could negotiate for something. I have sat across from more dangerous foe, and struck a bargain when I was in the military. “What will it take to release her from this primitive littlepactthat you and Keith have?”

Eoghan leaned forward as well, mirroring my somberness.

Eoghan raised his chin, then his lip twisted up in one corner. “Offer me an incentive.”

“Whatkindof incentive?”

“Oh, Ajax, if you want to protect her that much, I’m sure you’ll think of something that I want.”

We stared at one another, neither of us wanting to blink. It was a bizarre stand-off.

“I handfasted Rose,” Dairo interrupted our little contest. “It’s why we’re allied and at peace with the bratva.”

He had a glass of whiskey in his hand, and was swirling it in a crystal tumbler. He tilted his head from one side to the other.

“And?” I prompted.

I had been at their wedding. I had watched Rose’s father almost start a shoot-out at the altar when Rose’s hand was sliced. Apparently, no one had warned her Russian father about the insane custom, and he was ready to shoot the groom.

“Marriage, I have found,” Alastair’s blue eyes were impassive as he kept looking at his drink, “is often a beautiful solution to a problem, don’t you think?”

Chapter 26

Sin

“Igotacallto guard the big house tonight,” O’Malley grumbled as he walked to my door. “Ugh, I hate CQ.”

“What do you guard on CQ?” I asked.

CQ was an Army term for Charge of Quarters, which was a fancy way of saying that you manned a desk, fielded phone calls and radio intercepts, and kept an eye out in central command and recorded everything that happened.

“We have a full armory in the mansion, near Mr. Green’s office.” O’Malley was in full kit, body armor and all. He had magazines tucked into the pockets of a plate carrier. He wore the black uniform, complete with shiny black boots. He was a perfect soldier, for a secret criminal Army. “So, you’re gonna be on your own for breakfast. Sorry, oppo.”

“I think I’ll manage,” I said with a small smile. “I’ll miss your sunshiny morning personality though.”

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