Page 22 of Steel Rain

I wasn’t sure if myoppoeven noticed the sudden stillness and tension in the air. If he did, he didn’t let it show. He smiled at me, encouragingly, as we marched up the aisle, shoulder-to-shoulder to the line of food served buffet style on the other end.

And just as he had said, there was steak and lobster inheapsjust out in the open, silver tongs inviting me to take more than my fair share. I salivated at the sight of it.

"It looks good, right?" Kieran said, smiling at me.

"I'm surprised they feed us so well," I admitted.

Eoghan didn't seem like the generous type. His father was always stingy and terse. I assumed that the son would be the same, since they had such similar penchants for cruelty.

"Mr. Green eats with us some of the time," chuckled Kieran. "I'm guessing that's why the vittles are so good."

"Heeatswith you?" I was shocked.

The Eoghan Green I had grown up with would rather be caught dead than eat bad food, keep poor company, or look at ugly paintings.

"Yeah, why?" Kieran asked, curious.

"I'm just surprised." Old man Green would never have come out of his high tower. He would never have stopped tormenting his second wife long enough to eat with his soldiers.

But then again, young Eoghan Green no longer had a wife to torture and torment thanks to me.

Maybe he had more time, as a bachelor, between torturing small animals, and causing misery to his enemies.

"Eoghan Green's not a bad guy," Kieran said, heaping three steaks onto his plate. He was eating like he was about to experience a growth spurt. "And since they brought in Ajax LeBlanc, things have really gotten better."

"Oh?" I asked, taking a modest, single steak with one lobster tail, and grabbed a dark red apple.

I watched with strange fascination as Kieran slathered his chunks of meat in A1 sauce, a drop falling onto his finger. He sucked it from his thumb the way he would suck the blood from a paper cut.

We found ourselves an unoccupied table and sat down.

"Oh yeah, we were waiting for him to come out of a coma for a long time." Kieran speared into his steak, stuffed it in his mouth and spoke between chews. "When we started training, he was still hobbling around, you know?"

"A coma?" I almost shrieked. "What happened?"

"He got shot." He didn't even stop eating when he answered, devouring his food like a starving dog.

"Shot?" When had LeBlanc gotten shot? Why? How? He didn't look like he was injured.

"He was training some chick fighter in the underground circuit, and she pissed off the Russian bratva." Watching him talk and chew was disgusting, but I couldn't look away, and I couldn't stop prying for more details.

"How did that lead to a coma?"

"They wanted her to like ... throw the fight or something? Rig the bets? Well, she didn't, so the bratva tried to attack her, and they went after him too." He started in on his second steak. I tentatively started eating, though Kieran was starting to put me off my appetite. "He got in the way and tried to fight them off."

He finally came up for air. Jesus, it was like he was a cow with two stomachs.

"I was there, you know?" He said with a small grin, happy to be entertaining me with information. "I helped get him out of there. Bullet went right through his stomach. I thought he was dead for most of the ride in the SUV from New York City all the way here."

"Why didn't you get him to the hospital?" I was a little appalled. Why wouldn't they race him to the nearest ER? The four or five hour ride from the city to here could have been fatal.

"Are you two done gossiping?" A familiar voice sent goosebumps down my spine. I straightened, suddenly feeling a shift in the air as I heard the squeak of a chair move.

LeBlanc took a seat at the far end of the table, his own plate full of meat. His cold expression chilled me as he chewed slowly and deliberately, with his mouth closed, unlike myoppo.

"Hey coach," Kieran said, not bothered in the least by his presence, and still chewing with a gusto that made my stomach turn. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you eat in here before! What brought you down?”

Kieran looked excited, like this was a great event.

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