Page 74 of Steel Rain

He slowly turned his head to a frightened Keith. I swear, I could see the cogs in his head slowly start to move, and piece together how truly fucked he was. How his treachery had been uncovered.

“The funny thing about treason is that it hinges on discretion,” Eoghan said, “and trust.” He leaned back in his seat, and that vampiric smile practically glowed in the moonlight that washed in from the windows. “You have to believe I trust you, and your friends have to be discrete enough to not give you away.”

Eoghan leaned forward, grabbed the bottle of vermouth, and refilled his glass. But he didn’t drink from his glass. Instead, he drank straight from the bottle before he came to his feet, the bottle dangling from his fingers.

“When you have neither discretion nor trust, then …” Eoghan loomed over him as well, his Oxfords lightly toeing against Keith’s ribs. “It seems that Shiny here has thrown you off your game.”

Keith looked over at the woman who was still sitting in her seat, her face impassive.

“What do you think we should do with him, Shiny?” Eoghan asked without looking away from the victim at his feet. “Should I let Ajax have his way? Should I string him up? What do you think is a good punishment for this man?”

She didn’t answer. Instead, she picked up her fork, and with slow, deliberate movements, she pierced into the pot pie in front of her and brought a bit of the crust on the fork to her lips.

But even in her silence, she was damning him.

She took a second bite. Eoghan threw his head back and laughed. Dairo chuckled.

I stood, waiting like an executioner, waiting for her word or gesture that would let me separate this man’s head from his spine.

Keith looked at all the hostile faces that looked down at him, feeling fear for what might be the first time in his life. True, unfiltered fear. And his face flashed through all the stages of grief at once. Denial, anger, depression, despair, then finally … acceptance. Seeing his death before him, he decided to inflict what damage he could with his last, filthy breath.

“You’ve gone soft, Eoghan,” he said his eyes becoming menacing. “The Italians will run right over you, and destroy everything you built.”

“The Italians, huh?” Eoghan said, taking a casual pull from the large bottle.

“Aye, the Italians,” Keith said, spitting blood to the floor. “Eugenio Durante will fucking end you, now that you’ve all gone soft for your little women.”

I wondered if this incel fuck ever realized that his hatred of women, and chest-pounding machismo didn’t actually make him masculine. Instead, it just made him insecure, and weak. The very definition of fragility.

He looked at me, swaying as he tried to stand.

“He’s going after your woman,” Keith smiled, his teeth outlined with the bloody red stains. “He’s going to find her. He’ll do to her what Anton Vasiliev did to your pathetic mother …”

Eoghan punched him in the face, and Keith collapsed, his nose now a new source of intense bleeding.

The moment when a man snaps, and realizes that there’s no way out for him, they move towards pure chaos.

Keith’s laughter was both a surrender, and the last gasp of fight before he was forever extinguished.

“You don’t even know where your wife is!” He cackled like it was the funniest thing in the world.

Chapter 35

Sin

Eoghanhadnoideawhere his wife was. Neither did the Italians. That was a relief. She was still safe. Her secrets were still safe. I hadn’t cursed her. I hadn’t left her defenseless when I got her out of here …

I had committed treason before I took the blood oath.

Treason required discretion and trust. I was trusted. But how long could I be discreet while living in these walls? How long before I had to tell him my part in her disappearance?

I took another bite of the pie. And it tasted like Isla Green’s cooking. Down to the slightly over salted meat. It tasted like my childhood.

Would Isla like what we were doing now? Would she approve of how her precious babies had grown up? How sadistic her son was? And did her mothering make me beholden to be loyal to her offspring? I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know who I owed and who I didn’t.

Debts are such a transient and perpetual thing in this world.

“Shiny,” Eoghan said with a hand outstretched to me. “While I find your nonchalance menacing, and oddly fun, this theatre happens to beforyou.”

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