Page 93 of Steel Rain

“I am not Keith. I am not my father.” There was a heaviness in his voice. Like he was choking back a sob. “I just want her safe. I just need her here, with me. I love her. Do you understand?”

“That means nothing. She’s free, and I would never steal freedom away from someone.”

His head shook, as if there was a demon possessing his fucking body. His fists clenched as the glass shattered in his hand.

“I swear to God, Shiny… tell me where she is, or I will make you tell me.”

“Sorry,” I felt my hackles rise as he looked at me with those insipid, black eyes. “But maybe you should have whipped it out of me when you had the chance.”

I was playing with fire again. But I couldn’t stop myself.

“Do not tempt me, Shiny,” he stopped in his movements, staring down at his glass. “There’s little that I wouldn’t do to find her. That’s even more true, now that I know the Italians want to get her. Do you understand what they’re threatening?”

“No worse than what she feared from you.”

“I never hurt her!” He bellowed. “I would never harm her!”

He threw his glass and it crashed against a wooden bookshelf, before falling to pieces on the ground.

“Would you let her go if she wanted to leave?” I slammed my fist on the table, coming to my feet. “Would you let her choose to leave?”

He stood silent, his teeth clenched.

“That’s what I thought, you fucking monster. You’re just like your father. You’d never let her go, and she’d be nothing but a prisoner here!”

“Believe me, Shiny, I never laid a hand on her that wasn’t consensual. Not once. Not ever. I wouldn’t …” He snorted. “I’m not Keith Bournes. Nor am I any other man you have known before.”

“You’re no Ajax LeBlanc.”

“True.” He almost laughed. “That man stinks of nobility, and I bet he pisses out virtue. It’s why I needed him in the ranks. There wasn’t enough of that goodness amongst us.”

He picked up another glass, and poured himself a third drink. I played with the lace veil on my shoulders, counting the pearls on the ends.

“This was your mother’s?” I asked.

“Yes, it was, you know that.”

“Why wasn’t your wife married in this veil? Why was it put away for me?”

“Because Kira and I weren’t married in a ceremony. We married in a rush.” He turned around, leaning back on the wet bar. “I didn’t care to do it proper. I just wanted her tied to me as fast as I could.” He looked at the veil and squinted a moment. “I also don’t think we found it until now … if I had known we had that, I would have given it to her. But, in a way, I think Mum would have wanted it on you.”

“Kira used to wear your mum’s ring, didn’t she?”

“Yes,” Eoghan took another drink, and I saw the glaze over his eyes as the alcohol took its effect. “The emeralds.”

He looked down at his own hand where a tungsten black band was on that precious finger.

“Missing, now. I assume she took it with her when she disappeared,” he said, on a sigh.

“If she gave you back the band, would you let her go?”

I was curious as to why he hadn’t allowed a divorce. Why hadn’t he just given up the search and declared her dead? Why was he still searching for the woman that didn’t want to be found? He didn’t know what I knew …

“No, not while she’s being hunted, and not until I see for myself that she’s safe.”

“But youwouldlet her go, if she didn’t want to stay.”

His jaw ticked, as he glared down at me. “That’s not your concern.”

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