Page 73 of Steel Rain

“What the fuck?” I said on a breath, staring in disbelief at the man who now had the greatest bargaining chip of all. “Sibby is the only innocent person in this whole fucking bullshit world of your making! Let her go you dirty son of a bitch!”

I almost reached out to claw him, except for Ajax’s hand landing on my shoulder, and pushing me into my seat. I looked at him like he was Brutus, but he shook his head. And like a good fighter, I listened to my coach. What choice did I have?

Chapter 34

Ajax

Whatinthefuckwas he doing? I could feel my woman’s heart rate skyrocket at the mention of her sister. I didn’t need to feel her pulse to know it. It was in the air around her. In the slight tension at her jaw, her hands, and even the way she was perfectly still.

Sometimes, utter stillness is the most exhausting thing a person can do.

Her distrust of Eoghan was palpable in the air, and she was ready to strike him with the steak knife on her place set.

“Why don’t you open your plate, Ajax,” Eoghan said, unperturbed by the imminent threat at his right elbow from my woman ready to strike.

With a steady hand, I grabbed the handle of the silver dome and pulled it off, and set it to the side.

It wasn’t a meat pie. No, what he had given me was a set of steel gray brass knuckles.

“So, you don’t hurt your pretty little knuckles this time.” Eoghan sipped on his vermouth, as his menacing, devil eyes turned to Keith.

My heart beat in my ears, as the tension in the room was as thick as CS gas, a cyanocarbon mist that was set off in military training gas chambers when teaching about protective gear. It burned like pepper spray, except it could get much, much worse. It tickled my nose, and made the hair on my body stand on end, ready to detect any changes in the world around us. Any slight sense of threat.

I didn’t remove my hand from Sin’s shoulder. I was ready to pull her behind me in a moment, in case Eoghan’s intentions became murky. Though, the brass knuckles made me suspect he was friend, not foe.

“Does she know what you did for her?” Eoghan tilted his head, tilting his glass to Sin. “Does she know you killed two men with your bare hands?”

The corner of his mouth tilted up, highlighting that one tilted canine tooth that gave him the look of a fucking vampire, in his grand room with his ornate crystals. A vampire or a devil. I wasn’t sure.

Sin’s eyes turned to me, those gray eyes flashing with concern and fear. “What’s he talking about, Ajax?”

I cupped her cheek in my hand, then traced my thumb against her swollen lower lip. But I gave her no answer. It wasn’t the time, and God knows, I wasn’t going to show weakness around these people. But they needed to know where my mind was. And it was with her.

“Nothing, Snow White,” I whispered. “I told you they would pay.”

And there was only one more person left on my shit list. But I suspected that Eoghan was going to be an ally, and not an adversary in this.

“Well, isn’t this cute,” Keith leaned forward in his seat, his eyes were menacing and cold, pointing right at her. “I knew you were a whore ten years ago, and it looks like you’re spreading your legs for the next guy, right, shiny little princess? Looking for a big, tough guy to fuck for protection?”

He cackled, and we all froze. Eoghan and Dairo were still as the trees on a windless autumn day, waiting for the leaves to settle on the cold ground. But my woman wasn’t. She trembled. Her fingers tapped on the table, and she swallowed, her throat bobbing with the effort. Her nostrils flared, pulling in more oxygen as she prepared for the onslaught.

“Does he know that I taught you everything, you frigid bitch?”

It was over in a flash. The brass knuckles were on my fist, I was on the other side of the table connecting to his face over and over and over again. One strike, and bone cracked. Another, and the skin pulled back on his cheek, revealing muscle and blood. More, and his face flew to the side, then a strike to his temple, and clear fluid came out of his ears. Brain matter.

“Do you know that you’ve fucked with her for the last time?” I growled.

Another strike, and he screamed. A hit to the body, to the sternum, to the clavicle. I broke him, bit by bit. His feeble hands tried to block, but I broke that forearm with one hard elbow strike, and he screamed, falling to the ground. He tried to crawl away, his arm up, his feet scraping along the ground.

“Eoghan! What are you doing?” Keith said, looking to his Irish brethren for help that I knew wouldn’t come.

“Dairo, would you like to open up Keith’s tray, and see what he’s eating for dinner?” Eoghan said.

Dairo leaned over to Keith’s place setting and pulled off the silver covering. Two bloodied and battered cell phones lay on his plate.

“What the hell are those?” Keith asked, his eyes wide with fear.

“O’Rourke and Grimes had some interesting contacts in their phones,” Eoghan said, continuing to sip his vermouth. “Know anything about that?”

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