Page 14 of Steel Rain

“She’s now with the state,Mr.Green.” Her lip tilted up in a cruel, sardonic smile. “I suppose the Green motto that we ‘take care of our own’ doesn’t quite extend to women, does it?”

The statement was laced with acid.

Eoghan scowled. It was the thing that preoccupied his mind. Why had his woman, his wife, disappeared, fearing for her safety? How had Aoibheann, his stepmother, helped when she was afraid too? What outside forces had intervened and whisked his wife, Kira, away from him?

“Why is she in foster care? Your aunt has an empty house and …”

“Because no one wanted to take her in. They might attract the wrath of the unhinged head of the Irish Mob.” Her accusation hanging in the air between them. I could smell its foul odor along with the sweat, powder and mildew of the room around us. “We are disgraced in your eyes, aren’t we,Mr.Green?”

That was pretty fucking brave. I had never seen anyone talk to Eoghan like that.

Eoghan was still. I could practically feel his mind turning with this information. It was like the sound of a printer whirring as it came up with a full picture.

“And you’re back to get her out of foster care?” Eoghan finally asked. As if that point wasn’t obvious. He was saying it as if it was finally clicking for him.

Sin Flanagan gave a slight nod. Barely a bow. Her eyes never left Eoghan for a second.Christ, most of the Irish were afraid to look him in the eye, but here she was … both Snow White and the Huntsman.

“You didn’t think to ask me for help?” he asked.

“You killed my father,” she scoffed. “You weren’t exactly high on my list.”

Eoghan let out a snort through his nose, but his lip turned up. He nodded. Then looked over at me.

“Do you think she’s a good fighter, LeBlanc?” he asked, as he pursed his lips to the side.

I nodded, without a word.

“Do you think she’d make a good soldier?” Eoghan arched a brow, tilting his head. “In yourmilitaryexperience, of course.”

I nodded again. What the hell was he getting at?

“Well then,” Eoghan said, stepping away from her and walking toward me. “MissFlanagan,” he said the title with so much heaviness that I wasn’t sure what the emphasis was for. Was it to emphasize that she was single? That she was engaged? Or that she was a woman? I wasn’t fucking sure. “Since LeBlanc here thinks you’re worthy, I have a proposal for you.”

He turned around and they squared up like they were about to take pictures after a weigh-in, their chins jutting upward as they made intense, angry eye contact. They both adjusted their weight from foot to foot, their fists clenched.

“Come back to Green Fields–”

“Over my dead body.” Her interruption made me scoff, but I managed to tamp that back.

“–And I’ll make sure your sister gets back to you.”

That made her pause. She looked at Eoghan like he was a snake, which was probably just good instinct. Her lack of trust was really just common sense at this point.

“How?” her voice pitched low as she considered his offer.

“I have vast resources,Shiny Flanagan.” There were a lot of things about Sin “The She-Wolf” Flanagan but being “shiny” didn’t exactly come to mind. “And I can get her back to you, if you prove to me that you’re worth the trouble.”

She stared at him, still standing at the position of attention. Her lips were in a slight snarl and her eyes blinked with contempt. Whatever she was truly thinking was held back. She didn’t let it pass her lips.

She wasn’t a woman of outbursts or big displays of emotion. She was quiet, like the eye of a storm in the midst of chaos. As determined as her fighting style. And something about that made me hard. It tugged at a visceral part of me that made me want to break that cool exterior to find the heat that existed underneath.

“Or are you more of a yank than an Irish woman, now?” Eoghan gestured towards me. There was something purposeful about that movement. Was he trying to show a contrast between the two of us? Where his blood ran green, mine bled blue and gold like the emblem of my beloved SEALS. Was that his point?

People like Eoghan tended to work in symbols. They spoke in metaphors and idioms. And holy fuck, was that annoying.

But she was picking up what he was putting down. She gave a brief nod, and I could practically feel Eoghan’s excitement at the prospect.

“But!” she interjected, “I get my sister back in my care by the end of the week.”

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