Page 269 of Lodestar

We didn’t just bridge a connection with one another, wetiedourselves together.

“How difficult will it be to unravel the snakes?”

“You can leave it with me,” he said grimly. “What of Lyra? Did meeting with the operative in Stamford shed any light on her location?”

There were many things I could have said, many lies I could have told him, but instead of BS, I muttered, “I’ve met her.”

“She lives?” he rasped, his voice loaded with a hope that was borderline painful to hear.

“She’s very small, very scared, and very shy.”

“Where is she?”

“She lives with the Jorgmundgander operative who treats her as if Lyra is her own flesh and blood.”

Kuznetsov demanded, “She is loved?”

I thought about how Troy was acidic and brisk, introverted, and a social misfit. Then, I pictured how Lyra clung to her as if they were symbiotes.

The desperate bond that flared to life between them once they knew they were no longer in any danger from the Sparrows was tangible.

Never mind the fact that my old soldier buddy had a safe room for her daughter, period…

Their love was real and raw and beautiful to behold.

It was, therefore, easy to speak the truth. “Very much so.”

“To separate them, Anton,” Conor rumbled, “would be to traumatize Lyra again.”

He didn’t answer that. “She is safe?”

“We’re working on that. If I hand you a location, can you send in a clean-up crew?”

“I can if you tell me the whole story.”

Though I grimaced, it was a small price to pay as he was being very accommodating in other matters.

Ones that were Eoghan, Troy, and Lyra-shaped.

“I will see that the bodies are cleared away,” he confirmed ten minutes later once he knew the full story. “But, child, youwillkeep me in the loop, do you understand? No more running away as if you were an angst-ridden teen.

“I am not your enemy.”

He did, I had to admit, keep on proving that.

“No,” I agreed slowly, “you aren’t.”

Kuznetsov released a heavy sigh. “I’m glad you accept this. Now, what’s your next plan?”

“To kill David Foundry and Garry Smythe,” I confessed without compunction.

Just when I thought he’d argue, instead, he stated, “You might not have known Aleks, Star, but he was your uncle. He was your blood. And more than that, he was a good man. He put himself and his family on the line to uncover your whereabouts and he paid for that with his life.

“Make them hurt for what they did to him, for what they have done to Lyra, and I will consider the first part of our deal to be satisfied.”

With that, he cut the call.

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