Page 5 of Iron Cross

He flinched, recoiling more from my voice than the gun.

One did not have to shout to frighten a person. That was for lesser men like Durante.

I was the monster of the underground. The king of hell itself. They would cower before me.

“I don’t know anything else,” he wept.

I fired into his head, his skull cracking like an egg, the crimson blood mingling with his comrades on the deck.

Dairo stood over my shoulder, his arms crossed as he watched the procession before him. He was almost bored of this littlecharade. He even looked at his watch, his eyes cold, as he tapped his foot.

I, on the other hand, was fascinated by the act. The bullet entered the skull causing a small hole, but exploded through the back of the head in a blossoming mess of brain, blood, bone, and hair. The exit wound was always the real damage as the bullet cracked through bone. His blood splattered beautifully on the metal deck, a work of crimson on gray.

Then, the next. On and on, until every hand on deck was killed.

I cleared my weapon, switched it to safe, then holstered it at my hip.

“Burn it all down?” Dairo asked, amused as always.

“Send it to the bottom of the ocean.”

“I swear, we’re going to end up with cocaine-addicted fish one day,” he said, flippantly. “We’re an environmental menace.”

They had no news of Kira, which meant they were no closer to finding her than I was. That, at least, was good. She was still safe.

I could still find her, and protect her.

“Cousin,” Dairo said, grabbing my bicep. “It’s been three years. How do you know she’s even alive?”

This was a question he would ask me over and over again. A question I had no answer for other than I knew, in my heart, that she was out there, breathing. My soul was still full. If my Muse did not walk this earth, then my heart would no longer beat.

But I had great news now.

“Because Shiny says she’s seen her,” I said. Sure, she had said she hadn’t seen Kira for a year, but that was two years more recently than I had. “Fate wouldn’t bring Shiny back if I was not meant to find Kira.”

“Youbrought Shiny back, not fate.” Dairo shook his head. “Your magical thinking will be the death of you, I swear.”

“Ah, you think that, don’t you?” My skeptical English cousin had lost his roots, and no longer believed in fates. But he was wrong. “Fate gave me a gift when she placed Shiny in front of us. It was not dumb luck that made Kieran O’Malley rescue Ajax LeBlanc.”

I had made vows that were blessed by every power imaginable. The witch, Aoibheann, had even said so.

Though I had no news of Kira, God, or gods, or fates were on my side. Whatever mystic power there was in the world was leading me to my beloved in small but significant ways. When I was losing hope, and wondered if I had to force myself to move on, I went to an Underground fight, and who did I spy in the ring? None other than the treasonous Shiny Flanagan, the woman who had been last seen with my sweet Kira.

I was going to torture the answers from her when Morelli tapped my forehead with his professorial glare, and told me to be patient. To bring her into the fold, to win her alliance. Only then would she give me answers, and like he was the Oracle of Delphi, all he said came to pass. I whipped my own back raw to prove to Shiny that I would do anything for my bride. I even swore to let her go.

Morelli was right.

Patience and truth won. Because Shiny told me that I had a son.

“Eoghan.” Dairo stepped into my space, bringing his voice low so that the men around us - our men, and the Italian dead - could not hear. “This is the largest cargo we have taken. We sink it, and surely Durante will declare a real war.”

“We are already at war.” I smirked with sadistic glee.

“A cold war, yes,” Dairo hissed, giving me a warning reprimand, but knowing it would fall on deaf ears. “But this will turn it into a real one.”

“A cold warisa real war, cousin.” I clasped his bicep with my other hand, and the two of us stood toe to toe, arms interlocked like brothers. “Prosperity only comes with real peace, and peace only comes when one side has won. You know your history as well as I do.”

“Eoghan… we are not nations fighting for territory. This is the bloody mafia.”

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