Page 571 of Lodestar

“And I should never have trusted you as far as I could throw you.” My problem here was that she was as indoctrinated as I was from breaking under force. Faced with that, I knew I had to lean on her passions, of which she had many. “I thought you were all about America. All about serving the Land of the Free.”

“Yeah, your self-righteous ass used to be the only decent thing about you. Now I’m learning that’s a lie too,” D grumbled. When Temper didn’t reply, D yanked on her hair. “Answer us.”

“I am not dirty. I serve the people. I act for the people. I protect the people,” she spat.

“You’re more deluded than I first thought,” Conor rumbled.

“Deluded? More like deranged. Anyway, cut the bullshit, Temper. What happened? How did you get involved in this mess?” D demanded.

“Mom got sick and Kuznetsov promised he’d help us. Plus, he told me I’d get a promotion.” Spite flashed over her expression. “At long fucking last.”

“D? Is that true about her mother?”

She rasped, “Shelly needed an organ transplant. A new liver.”

“Guess we know how she got one of those.” I blew out a breath as Conor and I shared a look. “Why did the Sparrows kill Belyaev and Kuznetsov?”

Temper’s smile was like the dawning sunlight in the morning. I didn’t know until now that that could be sickening.

Then D broke her nose and she stopped smiling—thank fuck.

“Don’t forget, Temper, I’m the only one who ever made you cry,” she gibed.

Temper drew away. “DeLaCroix wanted to hurt Kuznetsov.”

“Anton or Aleks?” I asked.

“Anton,” she rasped, shooting me a hate-filled glance. “The Brothers have always been more powerful. DeLaCroix got too big for his station.” Her laughter was faintly manic. “Look who showed him.”

“You slipped him the cyanide?”

“Ten points to you.” She whistled. “Been helping out with a little sniper problem we’ve been having too. Got so many running around, they’re becoming a hindrance.” Before I could wonder why she admitted to that, Temper cackled. “I’ve almost killed you twice, D. Family ties stopped me.”

“Youare the reason so many snipers have been killed over the last couple of years?” D shouted, kicking Temper in the gut until she was coughing blood. “I can promise you this. Family tieswon’tstop me.”

“You’re Anton’s pitbull, huh?” Conor rumbled softly. “Who he sends in to fix his problems?”

She bared her teeth—they were bloodstained, one had even worked loose, revealing a gap that made her whistle with each breath. “Sounds about right. Been serving him for a long time. He trusts me.” God, she soundedproudof being trusted by a fucking genocidal maniac. “I’m the reason he’s in charge of?—”

She stopped before she finished the sentence. But I figured I knew what she was going to say.

Since I’d waded into Anton’s life, he’d become the head of the Brotherhood without a council to keep him in check.

And, no matter what he was promising me with the Sparrows, that didn’t mean he couldn’t bring their trade under the Brotherhood’s umbrella.

Christ, maybe that had been the end goal all along?

“Oh, yeah, he trusts you so much that he sold you out to me. Told me you were the one who gave him bad intel on Belyaev’s death. Told me you were the one who said Belyaev died in a hotel room in Cincinnati and not in a road accident. Some trust he has in you,” I sneered, “when he sanctions your death.”

She coughed up some blood and let it spatter on the floor. “He’s wrong. H-He must have made a mistake. I never told him that.

“The Belyaevs and Kuznetsovs have been close friends for decades. Anton took Bogdan’s loss personally so he must have gotten things muddled. He’d lost his heir too. Made things worse. Yeah, that has to be it. That’s why he’s mistaken. I could clear it up if?—”

“Wasn’t my mom an heir?”

Her laughter was, in a word,manic. “You can fry me until I sizzle like bacon, Star, but that’s the one thing I’ll keep from you. I’ll never tell you what happened to her. It’s too damn satisfying knowing the truth will haunt you until the day you die.”

“Bitch,” Conor growled, kicking her in the gut and watching as she curled up in a ball on the floor to protect her torso.

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