Page 408 of Lodestar

Ouch. The guilt trip was real.

Grimacing, I muttered, “I should have stopped by and attended a council meeting. It’s been busy since I got back.”

“Understandable,” Sin reasoned. “There’s such a thing as a cellphone though? You know, they’re this nifty invention that means you can talk across long distances.”

My nose crinkled. “You think you’re funny.”

“I am funny. You’re the one who has to eat humble pie.”

I huffed. “My grandfather created this Interpol department that’s geared in its entirety to decimating the Sparrows. Conor and I figured out how the Sparrows communicate with one another, and from there, we’ve found evidence that annihilates key people from not just the New World Sparrows, but the European and Asian operations too, while also letting us infest the network so we can identify who’s who. This is going global. They’re all going down.”

“Knew they were making so many arrests because of you,” Nyx crowed, for the first time sounding anything but pissed off.

“Conor and me.” I shoved my hands in my pockets. “He’s a good man.”

Nyx scoffed, “He’s a mobster.”

“You’re a biker. In the hierarchy of the criminal underworld, I think he outranks you.”

“No one outranks me apart from Rex,” he rumbled.

I sniffed. “You never thanked me for that pedophile I sent you.”

“I didn’t deal with him. Priest did.”

“He’s dead?”

Link cleared his throat. “It went wrong before it went right. He’s dead now though.”

My mind whirred with the possibilities. “He fucked up? Lost his mettle?”

Sin pulled a face. “Neither. If he lost anything, it was his sanity for a while.”

“You’re saying he channeled Giulia, then?” I drawled.

Nyx chuckled. “Yeah. My little terrorist.” Then, his chuckle faded. “I might be out of the ‘hunting’ game because of Samael, but I swear to fuck, if that prick hurts you, I’ll boil his blood, do you hear me?”

Quin muttered to me, “The big brother act gets fucking old fast, doesn’t it?”

I stopped gaping at Nyx to cut his younger brother a look.

Is that what this was?

Studying the men who had most of Jersey under their control, who were all, to a one, studying me with no small amount of disgruntlement, I had to accept that they were mad at me.

For leaving.

Without a word.

For leavingthem.

Without a word.

“I…”

“I think she’s speechless,” Cruz rumbled, but his stormy gaze pinned me in place. “If anyone understands, it’s me. Sometimes, your family chooses you before you can choose it.”

Nyx sniped, “Just don’t fucking leave without telling us. You got me? Katina heading off to Manhattan to bring in a goddamn hacker is bad for our rep.”

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