Page 566 of Lodestar

D chuckled. “True. Okay, then it’s showtime!”

I grabbed her arm. “You sure you’re going to be okay with…”

“Torturing her?” She smirked at me, but I knew her well enough to read her expression, to see the hurt and the betrayal buried beneath. “She called Creed. Chad told me. Said I was okay with her reaching out.”

Knowing her ‘unusual’ feelings for both men, I mused, “Never did like her. That was before I learned she was a traitor.”

“Me neither.” Her smile was weak. “So, this’ll be fun.”

As Conor dumped Temper on the floor of the helicopter, we followed him and climbed aboard.

Five minutes later, we were in the air, and after a quick gas stop at a private airfield, and ninety minutes solid of flying, we were in the Catskills.

My mood didn’t improve any, but listening to Conor and D chat over the radio had a way of putting me in a less horrified mindset.

Part of me was processing having a genocidal warmonger as a blood relative, Kat too; the other part of me had accepted a long time ago that I was a monster in sheep’s clothing, but I’d found someone in my family tree who made me look like a fucking saint.

Silver lining?

It was either that or put a bullet in my head, and I’d already promised Conor that I wouldn’t leave him.

As I landed the helicopter in the clearing, it was obvious to see that the Brotherhood hadn’t been by recently.

D peered at the pits we’d dug for Foundry and Smythe who were no longer ‘there,’ but a few bones remained in residence. “I guess we can confirm that Kuznetsov doesn’t suspect anything or this place would be crawling with Feds who’d pin the crimes on us.”

“He wants me as his heir,” I rasped.

D chuckled. “You don’t have it in you to be Dr. Evil.”

“Thanks. I think.”

“It’s a compliment.”

Annoyed, I retorted, “You were angry with me for letting myself be conned by him earlier.”

She sniffed. “I just realized that he offered you everything you could possibly want. As much as we like to think that we’re not, we’re only human.

“If someone offered me my heart’s desire, how could I say no? Especially when the stakes were so high.”

My throat felt thick as I croaked out, “Thank you, D. I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”

She punched me in the bicep. “Don’t get sappy. No apology necessary. Walked into a hail of bullets for you before, Star, andhaven’t brought it up that you got your ass imprisoned by a geriatric megalomaniac, either. By comparison, this is nothing.”

I’d done the same for her and would do worse still to protect her—that was how deep our friendship ran.

It must have been exhaustion from the day’s events that made me want to laughandcry at her words.

“You know,” she mused, toeing her boot over the remnants of the two Sparrows. “I don’t want to be alive when it happens, but I think this is a good way to go out.”

“Being kibble for wild animals?” Conor sputtered.

“Yeah. Seems natural.”

Grateful for the less sentimental direction in our conversation, I hid a snort at Conor’s horrified look. “Less talking, more action.”

As I watched him set up the piece of tech that killed any and all incoming and outgoing signals into the area, D queried, “Why are we even here?”

“Seems a shame not to grace Temper with the same fate as she gifted Reinier,” I said simply.

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