Page 16 of Iron Crown

She had let her colleagues die. Did she feel any guilt about that? Probably not.

I wouldn’t trust that venomous creature any further than I could throw her…. Off a bridge. Into freezing water. Filled with sharks. But the fear in her eyes was real. I wasn’t sure if that was because of the memory of the carnage, or something else.

“I know. I need you to tell me what you saw, and who those men were. Can you do that?” Eoghan’s voice was so tender, I wanted to throttle him.

“There were six of them. They wore masks. I don’t know. I was hiding. I couldn’t see anything!”

“Do you know why they came?” Eoghan asked, his thumb doing lazy, soothing circles on her knee.

“No!” she wailed, and it was the first time I felt that grating agitation from watching someone overacting—she was overdoing her lines. “I know nothing!”

Oh yeah, she knew something.

“Are you sure, Malinda? If you know something, you have to tell me. You don’t want me to find out any other—”

“There’s nothing to find out! I don’t know anything!”

“Are you sure?” He was too patient with her.

Far more patient than he’d ever been with me: not when he pushed me into marriage, dangling an insane pre-nup in front of my face, and not when he inserted himself into the life I’d created as Anna.

Malinda’s voice hitched, as she shook her head. “I’m sure.”

“You’resure?” he asked again.

Shiny chuckled, as she nudged me with her shoulder. “It’s about to get ugly.”

“What?” I said quietly, looking at Shiny, but she was watching Eoghan and Malinda.

Shiny and Ajax looked highly entertained, like they were watching a particularly juicy drama.

“He’s about to sweep in for the kill,” Ajax joked as if he were commentating on an MMA fight.

“He just asked her three times… and she lied to him three times. You know what he and Dairo say.” Shiny paused for effect, before affecting a fake, male Irish accent, “They take it as an insult.”

Oh…

“You’re sure that you didn’t smuggle the men in your van, because you know the guards wouldn’t check you?” Eoghan said, his eyes showing no emotion. “Especially when you run late on purpose.”

Malinda’s sniffling suddenly stopped, but then resumed. She was so busy trying to make the tears flow that she missed the subtle darkening of Eoghan’s eyes. She didn’t see the line that crept between his brow, or the way the energy shifted around him.

“No! They always check everything. I-I–” she stuttered.

Eoghan’s smile didn’t reach his eyes when he said, “Did you run late today, and that’s why they let you in without looking in the back of your mum’s van?”

Her silence made my heart skitter. Even though there was commotion all around, my ears blocked everything out.

Eoghan reached out his hand, tucking a strand of her fiery red hair behind her ear.

“Were you late again today, Malinda? Did you turn on the water works, and have them wave you through?”

Eoghantsked. It was a reprimanding, but almost soothing as well.

“You poor soul. You could have harmed my family. You know what they say about laying hands on a Green.”

“I’d never let anyone harm you!” Malinda said loudly, her hands coming out to rest on his chest as she bent forward, as if she wanted to kiss him. “I’d never let them–”

“Letthem?” Eoghan interrupted her. “You had influence on them, then?”

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