Page 38 of Iron Crown

“I told you, she reminded me of Shiny Flanagan.” Eoghan was defensive, and I couldn't blame him. Jericho had two tones—a loving one for his family, and the condescending one he had for everyone else.

“Why else?”

Eoghan looked at him, giving him back every bit of scorn that was lobbed his way.

“Because children have no business being used as pawns.”

“Za Zdrovye!” Jericho said, bringing his drink to his lips, and sucking it back.

Eoghan did the same, and so did Yuliya. I refrained, because my liver just wasn’t made for it.

“I swear to God, Picasso, if you do not drink, I will…” Jericho shook a fist at me, the sparkle in his eyes telling me he was joking.

“Fine!” I said, reaching out for my glass and drinking it. My head was swimming.

Eoghan, of course, did not think Jericho’s joke was funny.

“You don’t command my wife,” Eoghan said, but it was half-hearted with weariness. “If I could have stopped my father, and your father, and Eugenio Durante, I would have. I would have freed us all from their yoke.”

Yuliya gestured to Eoghan as if she were Vanna White presenting a vowel, looking at her brother with an expression that was a silent “I told you so.”

Jericho groaned again, then filled all the cups around the table one more time. He was going to get shit faced, wasn’t he?

“I run a counter-RICO agency,” Jericho said, and my heart stopped. “When my sister was in my arms, alive and breathing, after I was certain that I had nothing but a corpse to collect,myself and two other spies started Paradigm.”

He started pouring drinks again. Another shot. The man was an alcoholic.

“We are one of the largest organizations, working alongside, but not under, most federal agencies. My life is dedicated to the elimination of people like our father and our half-brother.” He tilted his glass to his sister. “Like your father.” He tilted his glass to Eoghan. “Like Eugenio Durante.”

He downed his drink, as did his sister and Blink.

Eoghan lifted his head, looked at Jericho like he was insane, then shrugged. “That sounds grand.”

Then he drank his. I sipped at mine, before putting it down.

Yuliya snorted a barely restrained laugh, and she came to her feet, grabbing the Finlandia vodka and charging everyone’s glass again.

The entire table looked at Eoghan in disbelief.

When a moment of silence dragged on long enough, Eoghan looked up, seeing every eye on him. “What?”

“Just…‘that sounds grand?’” Jericho said, mocking his accent.

Eoghan shrugged.

“Will you help me destroy the Durantes so that our children, and grandchildren, are spared from having to choose between helping a girl or execution by their father? Will you make it so that I can keep guns out of their hands? So I can keep them in the school yard, and not in the back of armored SUVs, dashing from one shoot-out to another? Will working with you extend theirchildhood, so they do not have to draw blood at the tender age of twelve?”

Eoghan looked forward at the table again, twisting the shot glass in front of him. I had never seen him fidget this much before.

“Cillian is two years old now, but in the blink of an eye, he will be old enough for Uni.” He ruffled Cillian’s hair and our son pushed it away, agitated that he was being distracted from building his wall of blueberries. “If you were the FBI agent building the case to put me behind bars, I would not care. Not if my child can be spared from our family curse. I’ll spend my life in prison if it gives Cillian a real chance at something better than what I could have dreamed.”

I tugged at Eoghan’s hand, making him look at me. When his black eyes finally met mine, I mouthed the words “I adore you!”

My heart was screaming the words out, but he could not hear me. He was too deep into his own head. Couldn't he see that these people were inviting him into their club?

He was one of the good guys all along.

“I love you, Eoghan,” I blurted out, as a tear streamed down my cheek.

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