Page 392 of Lodestar

"Aidan, you get on his side, and he can lay the path for Shay.”

“Does Shay know what we’re doing for him?” Eoghan demanded. “You were joking earlier, but he could knock up a girl and ruin everything we’re working toward. Is he on board? Shouldn’t we talk to him before we go further down this path?

“The soccer route is smart. Match-fixing and gambling—they’re all great revenue streams. But getting involved with the Union is heavy shit. We don’t want to owe them dick if we’re going to fall through?—”

“He’s right. We’ll come early on Saturday, Finn. We’ll talk to him before we eat,” Aidan instructed.

“That’ll work wonders for our digestion,” Declan muttered. “I’m not even sure if I want this for him. It’s a lot of pressure.”

“It’s what he wanted.”

“When I was his age, I wanted to be a fucking artist,” Declan sniped at Aidan. “We change our minds more than we change our underpants as teenagers.”

“Shay’s less like you and more like me,” I remarked. “I knew what I wanted when I was thirteen and I went for it.”

“What did you want?” Brennan asked.

“I wanted to know everything.”

Aidan frowned. “You mean that literally, don’t you?”

I hitched a shoulder. “I don’t like closed doors." People whispered behind them. "I wanted to open as many as I could and I have. To this day, I work on the same tasks. Nothing’s changed. I don’t think it will with Shay, either. Politics is as much of a vocation as being a doctor is.”

“Less of a God complex with a politician than a doctor though,” Aidan drawled.

Finn grunted. “True that.”

“We’ll talk with Shay on Saturday, Conor, and once we learn if he’s ready for what we’ve got planned, then I’ll talk to Kuznetsov.”

“He’s in the city until next week,” I confirmed. “Star’s with him now.”

“Is that why she isn’t here?” Finn queried.

My lips twitched. “Probably.”

“She shouldn’t be here anyway,” Brennan grouched.

“Star’s not like the other women,” Finn remarked. “Her insight would?—”

“Come at too high a price,” Brennan snapped. “We can’t trust her yet.”

I slapped my hand against the table. “Yes, we fucking can. What’s she got to do to prove herself to you, Brennan?”

“She’s not an O’Donnelly.”

“That’s all it takes? A wedding ring?”

“It’d help if the Feds wanted her to testify against you,” he retorted.

My brow furrowed. “This is about her ratting us out?”

“Conor undoubtedly has as much shit on her as she has on him, Brennan,” was Eoghan’s lazy retort. There was definitely whiskey in his coffee mug because his words were starting to slur. “If she betrays him, I figure he can take care of himself.”

“She wouldn’t betray me. We’re in this for the long haul.” I stabbed a finger in the air at him. “I get that you’re mourning and that you’re so emotionally repressed because Da was a shit father that you can’t cope with your grief, but don’t take any of this out on Star.

“You want Cammie. I want Star. You married Cammie. I put a ring on Star’s finger andwewill decide when we’re ready to marry. It’ll have nothing to do with pressure from the Feds and most certainly not from you! Understood?”

“Understood, but I don’t want her at these meetings. Whether you like it or not, my concerns are valid.”

---