Page 44 of Iron Crown

The restaurant was full of our men and hers. There were other guests there too, but our men, and hers, watched us with incredible interest. I narrowed my focus to just her—blocking out the audience who did not matter for these negotiations.

“Cosima,” I greeted with a slight nod, refusing to react to her bait.

She just let out a small huff of a laugh before her cold eyes assessed me in cruel judgment.

“What happened, Kira? Couldn't find a better meal ticket than this bastard?” She shook her head with scorn. “Have you taken her back to become the true cuckold I knew you to be, Green?”

Christ, this was more venom than I’d ever had spat at me.

“Watch yourself, Durante.” Eoghan’s jaw ticked with his agitation. “You can come after me, but my wife is off limits.” Then his eyes narrowed. “So is my child.”

He laid his hand on top of mine, giving me a comforting squeeze, which I returned.

“Are they?” Cosima tsked, letting out a laugh that sounded like crystal chimes, but had the edges of barbed wire. “Malinda gave me a completely different impression.”

She laughed like the evil queen in a fairytale.

“My mistake.” She filled her hand dismissively.

Her viciousness felt like a slap to the face, but I kept myself perfectly still, taking my cues from Eoghan.

“We were friends, once,” I said quietly, hoping that I could reach out to her somehow. “I really liked you.”

If she had any recollection of our former friendship, it had been twisted into something foul in my absence.

“You were nothing but thehelp,” Cosima said coolly, picking up a wine glass by the stem and taking a sip. “How quaint that you thought that wasfriendship.”

Then she looked at Eoghan. Her smile was so plastic and cruel that I ached for the person she had once been.

“I’m not one tofuckthe servants.”

Her words were calculated to hurt. So, she knew Eoghan had slept with Malinda… or that she had been in love with Eoghan. That would have hurt me once. It may have even sent me into a jealous rage, but not anymore.

Not while I sat beside my husband, my hand on his thigh. He placed his elbow on the table, leaning forward, his fist clenched as he said in a calm and measured tone, “I’m warning you,Cosima, one more jab at my wife and this meeting is likely to get quite bloody.”

Cosima’s smile melted away, and she leaned forward, mirroring Eoghan’s gesture.

“I do not fear you, Irish.” Her voice was cold, and I definitely believed her. She was too bitter and angry to know fear. “Do your worst.”

Even her makeup had changed. She had once favored pink, but now she colored her face burgundy and dark. She used to wear pink and pastel colors, but today, she was wearing black.

Time had blighted out any softness from her.

“Iknowthat we were friends,” I said, feeling sad that she had changed so cruelly. “I remember.”

“You remember wrong.”

I did not. I had to stand firmly within the truth. That way, her words could not touch me.

“Enough of this sentimental nonsense.” Cosima waved her elegant hand dismissively at me, as if Iwere a waiter asking her if the meal was okay. “What do you want, Irish?”

Eoghan’s eyes narrowed, his jaw ticked. He was barely holding it together.

“For you to stop attacking my family,” Eoghan said, plainly, “and to come to peace before it’s too late.”

Her laugh was villainous, loud, and everyone in the restaurant turned their heads.

“I’ve already shown you that I can get you where you live,” she said, her voice so menacing it made my skin crawl. “What could you possibly have to offer me, Green?”

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