Page 528 of Lodestar

Dead To Me: Sure is.

SHOCK WIN FOR THE NEW YORK SATURNS UNDER O’DONNELLY’S NEW MANAGEMENT

60

CONOR

“I’m so fucking mad.Because you want Declan to go legitimate, we have to sell our art!” Aela hissed as she prodded her fork in the air at me and then Aidan and then Finn.

Clearly, we three were the bad guys in this scenario.

The thought made me hide a smirk.

“Which art?” Savannah inquired, nosy as ever.

“My secret stash,” Declan said lazily as he stretched, reached out his arm, and hooked it over his bristling wife’s shoulder. “The stolen shit.”

Aidan groused, “You should have gotten rid of that sooner. The Saturns have just started winning since you transferred in that player from Berlin.”

“That wasn’t the point of this diatribe,” Aela muttered.

“Thought you’d want him to be legit,” Star stated. “For Shay’s sake.”

“I do. But I’m a hypocrite and I like having a Manet in my bedroom.”

“You have a Manet in your bedroom?” Inessa queried.

“How the hell did you get that, Dec?” Eoghan demanded after he spooned up some of Aoife’s cheese and broccoli soup.

“I have shady connections,” he admitted without an ounce of shame.

“You need to get rid of them,” Finn said.

“No, he doesn’t. Shady connections for us are law enforcement agencies! The more shady connections we have, the better.”

Dec tipped his glass at me. “Fair point, Con. Still, I’m with Aela that it sucks to have to get rid of our art.”

“Can’t you keep it? It’s not like people go into your bedroom. Unless you’re swingers.” Star’s brows lifted hopefully. “Are you? That’d make you more interesting for sure.”

Aela squinted at her. “Just as you were starting to get on my good side.”

Star just grinned before tucking into her meal.

“It’s hidden behind a safe,” Declan added. “We only open it up when we’re going to sleep in there.”

“That’s not weird,” I muttered.

“Weird but security conscious,” he argued.

“I say keep it,” Brennan mused. “We’re not going to get rid of our less-than-legal pasts overnight. Might as well enjoy them and cover them up?—”

“Secrets don’t die. They outlive us all,” was Star’s unusually serious tone. “If you keep that Manet now, Seamus will have to handle its disposal when you’re worm food. That’ll be much more awkward if he’s a politician.”

Brennan shot her a dour glance. “They’re not exactly in their dotage.”

“Neither was my mom and she died when I was a kid.”

I glowered at Brennan then mimicked Declan and curved my arm around Star to tug her into me.

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