Page 323 of Lodestar

Cin had doneplenty of weird shit in her life, plenty of gross shit too, so I felt comfortable leaving her in the clearing as she lived out of a tent to make sure that no one approached the men while they were in their ‘appetizer’ phase.

I had to figure that having their faces gnawed off would induce exsanguination, but I hoped it didn’t. I hoped they suffered for days. I hoped that it lingered and that they had to endure an abbreviated but still living hell before they were delivered to the real deal.

Maybe someday, we’d be neighbors down below and we’d have to enjoy Conor-inspired spiky-butt stuff from Satan himself, but that wasn’t my today or my tomorrow—unlike them.

“You were put through the wringer, weren’t you?”

I blinked at Troy’s remark, thoughts of what had just happened stalling at her question. “You think I started all of this for shits and giggles?” My gaze turned distant as I watched Conor fulfill the plebeian task of loading our SUV with gas.

How did the man make that hot?

“Never know with you, Star, never know why you do the things that you do.”

“Like you can judge,” I retorted, preferring to watch Conor’s butt than deal with this conversation.

“Not judging. Just… I’d probably have been nicer to you when you showed up at my house if I didn’t think you were staging some kind of intervention.”

I had to laugh. “You need more than an intervention, Troy.”

“Don’t we fucking all,” she grumbled.

“I don’t show up to interventions with SMGs either.”

She rubbed tiredly at her eyes. “You think he was lying about your mom?”

“Of course he was. Saw her body. They can make deep fakes now, but not back then.”

“Deep fake corpses… a new low.”

“In a century that challenges new lows,” I concurred.

“Still. Has to hurt.”

“You grow a heart while you were raising my cousin, Troy?”

“Apparently. Thereareways to tamper with bodies,” she said hesitantly.

“I was always a maudlin kid. When she died, Dad didn’t want me to see her. He tried to keep me away from the funeral home?—”

“But your stubborn ass didn’t listen.”

I shook my head. “Of course not. Savannah…” I paused. “You don’t know her. But she’s the daughter of?—”

“Star, I’m pretty sure you think that I live under a rock, but I don’t. I know who your folks are, and I knownoxxious.Ergo Savannah Daniels is on my radar.

"Plus, I was impressed by that TVGM shitshow she orchestrated. The second I saw her deal with that asswipe on breakfast TV, I figured that she grew up with you.”

God, I hated how open my past was.

Fucking fame.

Still, I had to smirk.

Some days, I wasn’t sure if Savannah had rubbed off on me or if it was the opposite.

“Guessing you know Camden then,” I mocked.

“Lyra’s a big fan.”

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