Page 14 of Iron Crown

She didn’t pull away from him, their casual affection speaking volumes about their intimacy. On their fingers were two simple gold bands. She was married!

“Did you see anything, Ajax?” Eoghan asked the man.

“No. No one came through the woods, and I checked with the men at the gate. They saw nothing unusual either.”

“Fuck,” Eoghan swore under his breath. “No closer to figuring this out.”

Our men entered the foyer from the bloodied hallway in pairs, carrying a black bag between them. Each sack bore the weight and outline of a human body. They were carrying out our dead. The Italians were given no such courtesy and flung to the back of the truck like the garbage they were.

“That’s your kitchen staff.” Shiny casually nodded her head to the corpses that were piled on the porch just beyond the double doors. “I’ll get with O’Malley so we can take care of their families. What do we do with the Italians?”

“Dump them on Durante’s driveway.” Eoghan’s hand tightened just a fraction before he took in a sharp breath, and slowly let it out.

He tugged me into him, his arm wrapped around my waist. His fingers pulled me in so tight, I winced.

“How the bloody hell did they get in?” Eoghan’s eyes followed the bags. “Who did we lose?”

Shiny pursed her lips, her eyes drifting to a figure sitting on a loveseat, a blanket around her shivering shoulders. Both Ajax and Shiny took in a deep breath, letting it out at the same time, the sigh heavy with implication.

I’d recognize the red-haired weeper anywhere…bitch.

I’d never forgive her for having hearts in her eyes formyhusband.

“That’s… what I was going to talk about,” Shiny said quietly, taking a step up the stairs, lowering her voice so only we could hear her. “They came through the kitchen. The other maids, and the cook, were killed, except…”

Shiny’s eyes darted to the sniveling wretch.

“Malinda.” I finished for her. “What’s her excuse for being alive?”

It better be a good one.

“She says she hid in the pantry, and they didn’t see her,” Shiny said it flatly, but even I could tell that she was less than convinced.

What did Shiny think of her? If I knew anything about these mafia families, it is that they held bloodlines sacred. She would have grown up with Malinda. They all would have. Like a cult.

“Do you believe her?” I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral, even though I was envisioning several ways to snap her skinny neck.

The last thing I wanted was to show my husband that I was jealous. Judging by the way Eoghan squeezed my hand, I wasn’t successful.

“How’d she get to work today?” Eoghan asked, ignoring the possessive anger boiling beneath my skin.

“She drives her van in,” Shiny explained, her eyes on me, obviously understanding what I was saying. There are supplies in the back, and they’re supposed to check every time, but I guess–”

“I know what happened,” Eoghan interrupted.

He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t explain. He simplylet go of my handand walked towards Malinda like… like he was going totalkto her. Tocomforther.

“Those men were sent to kill me and my son, weren’t they?” I snapped at Eoghan. “They wanted to go upstairs and shoot my son—”

“Ourson,” Eoghan corrected as he turned to me, his eyes fiery with agitation. “He isourboy. Yoursandmine, Love.”

Fucking semantics.

“They didn’t want to kill you.” Eoghan had stepped off the stairs and turned to look up at me. For once, I could look down on him while I spoke. “If they had wanted you dead, you would be. They wouldn’t have just held you at gunpoint. We’ve been here less than a day and…”

He turned back to me, one brow raised, his deep black eyes now amused. “What is it you want to say to me, Love? Say it outright.”

Heat flushed my cheeks. My body shivered with barely contained rage like the lid of a pot that was about to boil over. “I’m sayinghandle this.Quickly.”

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