Page 81 of Steel Rain

She knew it because I had told her.

I had spoken to Aoibheann a few times after she left the Greens. She had found my contact information when her relations came and took her away from this mad house. Likewise, it washerwho had told me my sister was in foster care.

The secret rang in my mind. It was so loud, I was afraid that he could hear it.

Though, he didn’t need to.

Eoghan wasn’t an idiot. In fact, that was why he and Dairo had been such good friends of mine when we were young … they were both smart boys who grew up into smart men. He knew that his wife escaped because of me, and denying it would only delay the inevitable.

“I’ve given you the revenge you needed.” His menacing eyes seemed to go black, his iris indistinguishable from his enormous pupils. “Now help me find my wife.”

“Was this a quid pro quo?” I almost laughed.

I took a drink of the whiskey in my hand, taking the whole thing in one gulp.

“No.” I shook my head. “I will never force a woman who escaped this life to come back. Never.”

His eyes darken even more. Darker than black. They’re an abyss.

The boy I knew was buried somewhere beside his mother. Now, all I saw was the monster. The beast that Kira needed to escape from. The beast that haunted Aoibheann. The beast his father became when his beating heart stopped, as he put Isla out of her sad misery.

“Do you really think I brought you here because I needed another soldier?” He took a step towards me, and I stood my fucking ground. I will not back down. His blood might run Green, but mine ran black as ice. “Or that I wouldn’t give you Sibby anyway, dear little sister?” Another step.

I wanted to falter back as his shadow loomed over me, dark and dangerous.

But I would not retreat.

No retreat. No surrender!

I had come too far, and gone through too much. I had a patch work of scars, and each one a medal earned for valor. I would not quake for a fucking criminal.

“You’re here because you know where Kira is, and I will do anything to get her back.” He stopped, his face inches from mine.

He breathed, his chest heaving. It took a while for me to realize that mine was too. And we stood, toe to toe, breathing in and out. In and out until our very pulse was synchronized like the bullshit siblings that we were. Not siblings of blood, but hated siblings of this cold, and disgusting, brutal and cruel world.

I took in one deep breath before I said a quiet and simple, “No.”

He shook with rage, seeming to grow ten feet tall.

“You try my patience!” He yelled so loudly that his breath displaced the hair around my face. “Tell me where she is, or I swear to God …”

“You’ll what?” I stood up to him, toe to toe, almost chest to chest. “You’ll kill me? Execute me like my father? Discard me, like my sister?”

I punched him in the chest, pushing him away from me. He stepped back, his teeth bared like a wild beast.

“Greens take care of their own, right? Unless they’re women!” I felt the bubbling laughter before I let it out of my mouth. It sounded villainous and maniacal even to my own ears. “Or girls, right? We don’t take care of them.”

“That’s not true.” His voice was quiet, his eyes narrowing just a tick.

“Then why was my sister in foster care?”

“An oversight that is being corrected.”

“Sure, if I play along, right?” I laughed in his face. “Oh, sweet Eoghan. My old friend. Always a puppet master, pulling everyone’s strings. So virtuous, as long as you’re getting something out of it.”

His snarl was cruel, but his words were measured.

“I know I have not been fair to you, or Aoibheann.” His fist came out, and he released a single finger to wag in front of my nose. “I will make amends for it all, but onlyafterI have my wife back.”

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