Page 29 of Filthy Hot (Five Points' Mob Collection 5)

"I called someone..." I winced. "A hacker friend. She helped me."

"The hacker wasLodestar, right?"

"I can’t tell you that. I don’t want you to retaliate against her. She saved my ass. I promise you, I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t need to be here. I’d never have called her and asked her to do what she did if I wasn’t desperate."

Conor tensed. Nothing about the man was mild, meek. If anything, he wore his strength in the lean ropes of muscles that twined about his limbs, but at that moment, with how his shoulders bunched up, he appeared even bigger than before.

His mouth tightened. "Okay, let's cut the BS. We both know you’re friends with Star." When I just gulped, he soothed, "We're allies."

Surprised, my lips parted which appeared to be all the answer he needed. Dammit to hell.

Your first attempt at subterfuge against the Irish Mob and you fuck up, Savannah. Way to go. Not.

Still, allies?

God, that verbiage alone told me they were friends.

Hadn’t I recently informed Star that she was the only person I knew who had nemeses?

Looked like she had allies too.Go figure.

"We used to be as close as sisters," I answered. My smile was sad. "Until things changed and she went away."

Conor tipped his head to the side. "She was the one who helped you break in, right?"

"She did." In less than ninety seconds. It was kind of worrying that she’d been able to break through something I’d assumed would be tighter than Fort Knox with that much ease.

I'd also been surprised at her lack of gloating.

Star was a gloater. She liked to win.

If anything, when the code to the security door had flashed green as it opened, she'd muttered, "Sorry, aCooooig."

"Wait, are you aCooooig?"

Conor grunted. "I am."

"She beat your security again, Conor," one of the men, Eoghan, mocked.

"She said it was hard, if that’s any consolation," I said with a politely apologetic smile, pinning it in place as I lied to him to spare him from the ribbing of his brothers. I had siblings too. They were fucking brutal when they wanted to be.

The guys snickered, well, all except for two of them—the eldest of the bunch.

At one point or another, I knew I’d run across them at galas, had seen them with their wives, even if we hadn’t been formally introduced, but having them all together in a circle around me? Intimidating.

"Enough," Aidan rumbled, casting glares his brothers’ way.

"How does she keep doing that?" Conor groused.

"I’m not sure," I replied meekly, all while I was wondering when the last time was that Star had hacked into a Five Points' building.

It wasn't a lie, though. I truly didn't know. I had long since stopped asking Star how she could do the things that she did. I knew my godfather, her dad, had started to wash his hands of her, but his death had stopped that in its tracks.

Part of me wondered if Star was aware of how close she'd come to being cut off from her dad, but I knew she wouldn't have changed her behavior anyway. Why would she? She was always so certain that she was right.

Until recently, I'd been the same too.

No wonder we'd gotten along so well as kids.

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