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CONOR

The journey down to the Keys required a second pit stop for gas. That was when Star asked Savannah where Dagger’s estate was so she could land the helicopter there.

Which, of course, was when we had our confirmation that the Daniels’ neighbors were, in fact, Sparrows because that was the address Reinier had smeared onto the wall before his death.

During the flight, and wired, I got to work.

Firstly, I sent the worm Star had gifted me crawling through several top-secret databases, wanting to make sure that the case files on Smythe, Reinier, and Foundry were all slowly edging out of detectives’ interests.

They were.

Secondly, I reasoned that if Anton wanted to frame us with their murders, he would have used his Pauks to store the intel, so I hacked into one of their known online playgrounds and set some Trojan horses as traps so that one of the team would let me in. Hopefully before doomsday.

Finally, I crashed into Reinier’s security system before we even crossed into his estate, and we ‘borrowed’ one of the Daniels’ SUVs to tear down a hole in a border fence.

When we made it over to the main house, it was dark and the lights weren’t on—nobody was home.

The building was surrounded by a pool which was still well-maintained as was the rest of the property.

“We need to lie low with the flashlights,” I told her. “The gated community has security patrols.”

Though she nodded her understanding, she was quiet as she picked the locks on the back door.

Hell, she’d been quiet ever since takeoff in the Catskills.

Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she liked Anton.

It wasn’t as if I could blame her— I’d come to like him too.

It was weird to think that a tyrant could be pleasant.

Having lived with one for so long, it was dichotomous to what I knew of them, but Anton was clearly a better actor than Da.

As we moved throughout the massive edifice, quietly scanning each room for signs of an office, she eventually said, “Do you know what hurts the most?”

She’d been silent for so long that her words startled me.

“It all hurts, Star,” I tried to reassure her. “You were starting to trust him.”

“Maybe I was to a certain extent. I wouldn’t have introduced him to Lyra if I didn’t think he was on our side, but when you’re undercover in the CIA, you pick up different levels of trust. He breached a few of those levels, sure, but I was always wary.”

“Sure you were,” I scoffed.

“No, I mean it,” she stated, not even a hint to her tone that she was being argumentative. “There’s a reason he hasn’t met Kat yet. So much didn’t add up but this does.” She sucked in a breath. “What hurts the most is that I’ll probably never find out what happened to my mom. Why did she have to die? Why didn’t he save her?”

“Why didn’t he save Aleks too?” I tacked on gently.

“Heirs usually matter,” she muttered, bewilderment coating the words. “I don’t understand his logic.”

“We don’t have to. We just need to take him down.”

I wanted to comfort her, but I knew in this there was no comfort to be found. The only thing that would make any of this better for her were answers. That was always her cure-all.

We were birds of a feather in that.

“What do you think we’ll find here?”

“Bear’s packet of information revealed enough to confirm that Temper needs to die, the Brothers are engaged in everything he said they were, and that I was right to kill Princes Edward and Ludwig and Ke Jintao.

“But I’m hoping that, here, we’ll find the means of bringing down the Brotherhood. Reinier said he had billions of dollars’ worth of blackmail material on clients, friends, and politicians.

"Everyone he came into contact with.

"It’s not enough just to eradicate the world of the remaining Kuznetsov. We need to tear down his empire too.” As the heavy nature of her words tumbled around us, she released a sad sigh then tucked her hand in my own. “Thank you, Conor.”

“What for?”

“This. Being here. I don’t have to be alone again.”

I squeezed her fingers. “You think I don’t feel the same way?”

“We’re birds of a feather, aren’t we?” she whispered, unknowingly mirroring my thoughts.

Tugging her closer, I rested my chin on the crown of her head for a couple of seconds. “We are.”

Ten minutes later, we found Reinier’s office.

That was when she got a text message.

Cin: The bitch died earlier than planned.

Star: You wanted to draw it out?

Cin: Wanted to keep at her with the questions. No success. I think she had a heart attack.

Star: Likely. Eagle Eyes used sodium thiopental on her.

Cin: That explains it. Shit.

Star: Did she answer any of your questions?

Cin: Said that she’d prefer to die than serve under you.

Star: She knew Anton wanted me for his heir?

Cin: Apparently. I got angry when she started talking about how she was the one who told Reinier you were suspicious of her. Thought you were going to rat her out as the double agent.

Star: I wasn’t. I didn’t even know she was in the same area as me.

Star: That means the working ties between the Sparrows and Brothers are closer than we imagined.

Cin: I’m so fucking sorry, Star.

Star: Not your fault.

Cin: I lost my shit when she started talking about how she was glad you had to suffer. Fuck, she kept her eye on you, Star. She told me about Hans.

Cin: I don’t even have the words to talk about this.

Star: We DON’T need to talk about it. He’s dead. I killed him. That’s all you need to know.

Star: Was anything said about my mom?

Cin: No. But you knew she wouldn’t say dick. The cunt.

Star: Fuck.

Cin: Sorry, Star. I really goddamn tried.

Star: Thanks, Cin. I know you did. I’ll pick you up on the way back.

Cin: Nah, I feel like a hike.

Star: You sure?

Cin: Yup. Gotta clear my head so I can figure out what to tell my folks about their favorite niece’s disappearance. She wasn’t lying about them preferring her over me.

Star: :/ Good luck.

Cin: I’ll need it.

“If he was bringing the Sparrows under the Brotherhood umbrella, unifying it like it was before the Sparrows branched out,” I mused, “then how did he think he’d get you to go ahead with it? As his heir, I mean.”

Tiredly, she sighed. “I have no idea and I’m not sure I want to know.” She rubbed her temple. “But unification sounds like something an egomaniac would strive for, don’t you think?”

I hummed, but a half-hour later, I was struggling to break into Reinier’s safe, and my mind was elsewhere.

When I finally cracked the code, Star sucked in a sharp breath that was loaded with dread as she dragged the door open.

Not even we could have expected to uncover what we did though.

A jail cell wasn’t good enough for the likes of Kuznetsov.

Some men needed to burn. Luckily for the world, we weren’t afraid to light the match on his funeral pyre.