Page 97 of Filthy Lies

“No?” Star cocked a brow at him. “I don’t doubt you will require payment for bringing down the Sparrows. No matter what bullshit you fed Conor.”

“Payment is a harsh word.”

She smirked. “You don’t deny it.”

“You don’t,” I pointed out with a scowl.

Kuznetsov’s jaw worked a moment before he hissed something at his men—I was definitely going to have to learn that dialect.

As I wondered how Star had picked it up and where it came from, I watched as his men drifted away from the edges of the room and disappeared through the doors I assumed led to the kitchen as that was the exit the servers had used earlier.

When we were alone, Lodestar pinned her grandfather with another look. “I don’t like being manipulated. You want something from me, you tell me. We can come to some arrangement.

“The moment Conor opened that damn door, I knew something had to be going on. At first, I thought he had to be a Brother, but then, Conor told me Temperance Black was a part of your little Illuminati crew and it hit me.

“Shewas the one who told you about Conor and me working together, and you reunited us not because he could talk me down from killing you—that was a bonus. You brought two of the most powerful hackers in the world together. That wasn’t out of the kindness of your black heart.

“So,” she drawled on. “Let’s cut to the chase. What is it you actually want from us?”

Kuznetsov reached for his wine glass with his good hand. Eyes locked on his granddaughter as much as hers was on him, he took an unhurried sip.

As if they were playing an invisible game of chess, he eventually said, “It was unexpected, you teaming up with Conor O’Donnelly.”

“An advantage?”

He nodded. “How could it not be? The great aCooooig and Lodestar, working as a unit, making history together...” His smile was too cheerful for the conversation we were having. “You’ve made a lot of friends along the way, haven’t you, child?”

“Some are better than others.” She stunned me by gently pressing the backs of her fingers to my knee under the table. “If you know who has earned that label from me, you’ll also know the lengths I’ll go to to protect them. So, tread carefully, old man. I’m not afraid to bite.”

23

STAR

“What I offer,child, is everything you’ve been working toward since you escaped your prison.”

I studied him, reading between his lines in an attempt to come up with the raw bones of a deal that’d make him my version of a fairy godmother.

But Conor wasn’t naive and, like he’d said, he was one of the few, if not theonlyperson who could keep up with me. That meant Kuznetsov had used his feelings for me to manipulate him and that Kuznetsov would do that, would use feelings that too few people had felt for me in this godforsaken life I’d been leading, annoyed the everliving shit out of me.

“If something sounds as if it’s too good to be true,” I countered in response, “then it usually is.”

Kuznetsov grimaced as he tucked his hand closer to his chest in a subconscious act. “So distrusting.”

“I wonder why,” I mocked, not an ounce of guilt plaguing me for stabbing him in the hand.

I didn’t give a shit if he was ninety or nine. Conor was right—you fucked with my people, you fucked with me.

And, already, he’d fucked with Conor.

He’d brought himherewhen I’d taken myself away from him on purpose.

I was many things but not a hypocrite.

Iwas fucking with my people, so I needed to be punished.

Maybe Conor and I were more alike than I realized.

He called it atonement. I called it retribution.

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