Page 21 of Iron Cross

“Fat chance.”

Chapter six

This is a Stupid Plan

Eoghan

“When people told me you had gone insane, I didn’t believe it.” Shiny sat in the armchair, having just heard my brilliant plan, and being the same unsupportive little shite she’d been since she’d returned to the life. “But now? I’m kinda seeing their point.”

She slapped the photos on my desk- the product of days of Dairo spying on Kira in her new home.

Again, I laughed at the works of fate. Me, Dairo and Shiny were back in my father’s office, together. We used to come in here as children, sitting on the sofas, reading with our feet up, beforemy father’s madness. Now, we three old companions were back, creating a war council.

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Dairo asked, smirking over to her. “It’s romantic!”

Married life had made Dairo a different man. It had changed Shiny too. They were happy, content. I could only hope that bringing back my bride would have the same effect on me, one day.

“It’s fucking insane,” Shiny said again, then looked at me, shaking her head. “It’s never going to work.”

“You’ll still do it,” I said, keeping a straight, stern face despite the way my stomach flipped with excitement. My sweet Kira would be with me soon.

She had the slightest twist in her lips, the barest hint of amusement, and I knew I had her. She might protest, but she’d go along with it.

Bunch of romantics, the lot of us!

I knew Shiny well. Better than anyone; and as much as she might have thrown the girl she was into the past, there was still a bit of her left in there. She’d dyed her blonde hair black but she was, in her bones, the same girl who had spirited a message to the Bratva for me, when she thought it was the right thing to do.

Why else would Shiny have tried to help my wife? And that’s what she thought she was doing when she helped her steal away. She thought she was helping. The way Aoibheann thought she was helping.

Because they believed me to be the same monster as my father.

That was why I could not find it in my soul to hate her. Someone was on Kira’s side, and that meant they were on mine. They just didn’t know it yet.

Always two steps ahead…

“I can’t believe I’m going to go with this,” she said with the slightest chuckle, her eyes bewildered as she criticized herself for her own folly.

“Aye, that’s a good lass,” I chuckled.

Morelli says that leadership isn’t just about being followed, but it is in making others follow of their own volition, not from coercion. Was I now a good leader? The jury was still out.

I picked up one photo - the one of Kira holding a painting, placing it on an easel for display. She had started to paint. My Muse was creating, and using her God-given talent. I smiled, recognizing the image she had recreated and made her own. It was an homage to a classical bit of art, but with the faces of the people in it changed.

“We should send him to the asylum,” Shiny said, looking at Dairo. “We need to get him into a nice padded room. Have the nice people with the van come over with the straight jacket, Dairo.”

She didn’t see what I saw. Shiny, for her acuity, could not know what it was between me and Kira. I saw it as clearly as the crisp, white orchid petals before me.

I tapped my finger on my Muse’s painting, my heart fluttering in delight. My faith was rewarded with every image Dairo brought back of her.

“You don’t have the power to commit me,” I said, feeling saner than I had been in a long time.

“Yeah, becausethatwas the point of my statement.” Shiny’s biting sarcasm and Dairo’s tacit support of her did nothing to dampen my mood.

As if the deities above were sending me a sign, I glanced out the window and saw the sweet flutter of slowly falling snow - thick and perfect. Soon, the once green land would be covered in snow.

“What if it doesn’t work?” Shiny was trying to be the practical one. I appreciated that because I was nothing if not wildly impractical when it came to my Kira, and I was downright feral when it came to protecting my son.

“Then I bring her back here by force,” I shrugged, because that was the only real option I had. “And I will try something else.”

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