Page 437 of Lodestar

“Sometimes. How about never.” She snorted. “Maybe with Brennan. The jackass.”

“Why do I think you like him the most?”

A smile danced on her lips. “I like awkward things.”

“Brennan is definitely awkward,” I retorted, folding my arms across my chest. “Since when am I?”

“Since always.” The smile was out in full force. “I bet you were born breech.”

“Nah, that was Brennan.” I winked at her. “I just took forty hours to come out.”

“Your ma told you?”

“Many times when she was wailing about how I hacked into our school computers to change our report cards so we wouldn’t get shit from her.”

“Not your da?”

“Da didn’t give a fuck about education until he realized that I had unusual smarts.” Her eyes gleamed at my use of the word ‘unusual.’ Proof I was awkward. Damn, I’d walked myself into that one. “He put us in the best schools because that was what was expected of a man in his position. Plus, the law wouldn’t have liked his kids not being educated.”

“Finn’s smart too.”

“He is. Da didn’t realize it until later. Hired tutors for his final years before graduation and after.” I folded my arms against my chest. “What are you going to do about Kat and her aunt?”

“What do you want me to do? Get her to come over for a pool party?”

“No. But you can’t keep this from her. You need to take her to a shrink like you said you were going to. I know you tried tohandle this on your own, but I don’t think you can if her father was hurting her and she remembers that.”

“I’ve been researching therapists too,” she sniped. “You think I’d just google ‘kid shrink?’”

I hit send on an email I’d been waiting to share with her. “Best child psychiatrists in the tristate area just dropped in your inbox.”

She stared down at the list and scowled. “Why ask if you’d already made a list? And why make a list? You knew I was on it.”

“You’re not the only control freak in the house. You think I was going to let Kat near anyone unless they’d been thoroughly vetted by both of us? This way, you can screen the list too and pick the best of the best.”

Her brows lifted. “Vetted how?”

“FBI. Cross-referenced with the NSA’s database.”

“Ihadstarted looking, Conor. I don’t want you to think I hadn’t.”

“I never thought that. But I know you’re wary and that always slows things down.”

She didn’t deny being wary. “The NSA… You asked your handler? Or did you snoop?”

“I asked Riggs."

"Thought you didn't trust her anymore after Nimue."

I sniffed. "I don’t, but you said it yourself. She was doing her job.

"Anyway, I asked her because I liked traveling outside of the continental US and didn’t want to piss her off.”

“Thought Anton had dealt with that for you?”

“He has. But if I piss her off then she’ll find a way to rescind my passport and travel permission.”

“If I hadn’t already sucked you off this morning, I’d do it now.”

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