Page 28 of Dirty Eoin

I’m sure our peers will be talking about the events of today for generations to come, so we’ve definitely made an impression and gone out with a bang.

Pun intended.

Aside from me, Paddy, and Sophia, the rest of the family is now wearing liquified brains down the back of their clothing as a result of The Exterminator dispatching what appears to have been a fellow sniper who was sitting directly behind them.

We know it was The Exterminator as we’ve already recovered one of the two engraved bullets fired.

The vigilante then totally saved the day by shooting down another bad guy who was perched in the rafters. That one fell and landed right in the middle of the congregation. It was like a scene from an action movie.

Only, this was no stunt. This was real life.

This is our life.

The second bullet? Eoin’s upstairs hunting it down before the pigs get here.

I’ve explained to him that even though The Exterminator had our backs today, he can’t be seen to be playing favorites. It won’t do the sniper any favors. It certainly won’t do us any either.

Thankfully, he saw sense and agreed.

No bullet equals no proof. The pigs might query their absence, but in the resultant chaos that ensued, anyone could have taken them. That’s our excuse and we’re sticking to it. They can’t argue with that. And they won’t if they know what’s good for them.

I’m sure a lot of people present would have been only too happy to take away a bullet engraved with an X as a memento from today’s aborted proceedings. It’s not quite the wedding favors the unhappy couple was looking to hand out, but still.

The newlyweds have left the building now that today has effectively been canceled. Sophia has insisted on traveling to Sicily for their honeymoon, so that’s where they’re now headed.

It’s my thinking their visit may be extended to incorporatethe foreseeable futurewith a certain female biker scheduled to return to Manhattan imminently. An individual the O’Connell family should be grateful was covertly with us here today.

Our Paddy shot me a look before he left. It was anI told you solook. He was adamant he could sense Jaine. I told him he was imagining things. That it was all wishful thinking on his part. That she was still doing her grieving in Rising.

But he was right.

It was similar to what we witnessed before at St. Peter’s. The connection between them so strong they can sense when the other’s near.

It made his day. Not that she had to bear witness to him taking the vows with Sophia. I’m pretty sure that’s the last thing Jaine would have wanted a front-row seat at. But it will have meant the world to him that after everything that’s happened, she still cared enough to come here today to save an O’Connell life.

Maybe even his own.

He’s resigned to his fate now having taken that precious purity of Sophia’s. Apparently, in the absence of having a Jaine Jones in his life, he gave in to the sweet siren song coming from the whiskey decanter, then gave in to Sophia’s juvenile advances.

Or so she says.

He can’t remember a thing, but the virginal blood on the sheets the next day was all the proof he needed.

I know he felt like he’d cheated on Jaine all over again. The same as he did when he was nineteen. And that the shitty karma he was being served a heaped plateful of was deserved for all the lies and deceit he subjected her to over and above his initial betrayal.

He’ll be eating it cold for the rest of his days now.

I turn my attention to my own wife, who’s currently splattered in brains. I can’t help but snicker at the grimace on her face as she looks down at the back of her pretty lemon frock.

She elbows me in the ribs for my efforts, and I grunt. She’ll pay for that later.

“Was it him, Dyl?”

I smirk. I know she’s referring to The Exterminator. “It was, Jessie.”

“So, Mr. X-marks-the-spot was here? In this actual building?”

“I reckon so.”

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