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CONOR

FIVE DAYS LATER

“Conor! Where the hell is Eoghan?”

I smiled at my sister-in-law. “He said he was going to be running late.”

Inessa scowled at me. “Why didn’t he tell me that?”

“Probably because he figured I’d let you know.”

“I know you’re not married yet, Conor, but you should know that communication is key, and using your brother as a messenger isn’t better than a cellphone.”

“Don’t be too hard on him, Inessa. He’s doing me a favor.”

That had curiosity filtering into her gaze. “He’s been better since Star started those poker games.”

“He has, hasn’t he?”

“Drinking less,” she confirmed. “Happier. Still has his days. I can’t walk into a park without him seeking out sniper’s nests, but generally, he’s more upbeat than before. This favor of yours…”

“Won’t hurt his progress.”

She hummed. “I’ll hold you to that.”

I grabbed her hand and raised it to my mouth so I could kiss her knuckles. “You look beautiful, by the way.”

“The real tragedy is that this dress is being wasted on my brother-in-law and not my husband,” she grumbled. “How long is this favor going to take— Wait. This is why he had Brennan pick me up, isn’t it? Dammit, he isn’t coming at all, is he?”

“Unlikely,” I admitted.

“What a jackass move. I swear, you O’Donnelly brothers think you can get away with murder because you’re all so damn pretty.”

My lips curved into a grin. “I’m not sure that’s why we get away with the stunts we pull.”

“Maybe not with the cops, but definitely with your wives.” She stacked her hands on her hips. "Brennan told Camille to tell you that he and Declan are dealing with some soccer person.”

“That’s the president of a very important soccer club, Inessa,” I chided.

“If you say so.” She sniffed dismissively. “I suppose we’re both messengers for our in-laws tonight.”

“You’re better at it than me though.” I winked at her. “Lisandra’s here, isn’t she? I seem to remember Star mentioning something about you enjoying dancing with her…”

A twinkle gleamed in her eye. “I see where you’re going. I think I will take this as an opportunity to dance and get drunk with Camille and Lisandra.

“The best part is Brennan will keep all the men two feet away and I don’t have to deal with his angry growls tonight, Camille can!” Before I could utter a word, she patted my cheek. “Best brother-in-law ever.”

As she waltzed off, I called out, “Save that for Brennan later.”

Without turning back, she waved a hand in the air, evidently on the hunt for Lisandra and Camille now that she had a game plan for the evening.

Though Eoghan was doing Star and me a favor, I smirked because Inessa deserved to let her hair down for a night and Eoghan was a jackass for leaving it to me to tell her he wasn’t going to make the gala.

With a glance around the massive event hall, I knew Star would be happy to hear that I agreed with most of her decorative choices. She’d ultimately won the ‘no ice sculpture’ argument as well as the other fight for more ‘environmentally friendly’ options.

Each of the tables had a pruned herb bush in the center, for example, which should have been both ridiculous and hilarious but was actually damn smart because the air was scented with their perfume and it added to the aura of the so-called ‘winter wonderland’ theme, especially as what appeared to be powdered sugar frosted the leaves.

Massive snowflakes hung overhead—no cheap tchotchke either. These gleamed with crystals that I knew a place called Swavski or something had donated to the cause.

And with the white dress code and the sparkle of the women’s gems, the place felt frosty. Ice sculptures or not.

Snagging a canapé that was shaped into a small mound and topped with goat’s cheese—white was an unfortunate theme with the food too—I accepted a glass of white wine as I cast a glance over the busy party and hunted down my woman.

I’d arrived late because Star had to show her face here while I had to work behind the scenes.

We’d spent the past week preparing to crash the Pauks’ servers and said crash was due to happen in less than twenty minutes, which meant engaging with Anton was imperative before he figured out what we’d done.

Which, essentially, was destroy the drone footage he had of Star, Dead To Me, Troy, and me in the Catskills with three missing VIPs.

The asswipe had collected evidence on us.

Yet another reason of, oh, around ten thousand, that he needed to be erased.

I was hoping that once we were in the Pauks ’ database, we’d have more of a rundown of who was a Brother, but the timing was key.

Scanning the crowd, I eventually found Star hovering beside the table we’d been allotted, her gaze on her phone.

Heading over to her after I sank back the wine and left the glass on a server's tray, I slid an arm around her waist.

Beneath the silk, there was boning that was hell-sent to fuck with my head and my dick as it supported her tits while letting her natural curves shine through.

“Did I tell you how beautiful you look tonight?” I crooned.

“Twice. You can tell me a third time if you want though. I won’t complain.”

While I chuckled, I pressed a kiss to her temple. “You picked this dress to drive me insane, didn’t you?”

“I do most things with the aim of driving you insane, Conor. You need to accept this if we’re going to continue our relationship to its natural end.”

“What’s the natural end?”

“When we’re worm food.”

“That’s my kind of marriage,” I said approvingly.

“You can take the Catholic out of the boy but not the boy out of the Catholic.”

“That makes no grammatical sense.”

“I’m still right.”

I groused, “Actually, it has nothing to do with Catholicism. I just feel like arguing with you until I die. I’m weird like that.”

“Apparently.” She peeked at me over her shoulder. “At least someone appreciates this travesty of a dress.”

“Travesty?” I clutched at my heart. “Harsh, Star. Harsh. I’m taking it that Savannah picked it?”

She harrumphed. That was answer enough.

The halter neck exposed the length of her spine, and above her ass, there was a big bow that my hands longed to pull apart. Unfortunately for me, that wasn’t going to happen tonight.

I knew nothing about fashion design, but I had eyes and the cut of the silk made it so that it sat flush to her curves. It swooped around her feet, revealing shining silver peep toes. I shouldn’t find it endearing that her toenails were bare but I did.

Savannah could drag her into the dress, but never could Star be dragged to the salon though.

It was a travesty, however, that I couldn’t fuck her in it, but there were worse travesties in need of handling on our agenda.

“All set?” I asked her when her attention shifted to her phone.

She hummed. "Kat was just telling me that Shay is a great babysitter."

"So long as she's focused on his pretty face and not the thirty-strong security team the kids have on them..."

"Oh, she's completely unaware of the guards," she assured me. “Grail is waiting in the wings. She told me that he’s arrived but I haven’t seen him yet.” She leaned into me, her spine touching my chest, giving me her weight in more ways than one. Star didn’t lean on anyone. Just me . “I’m doing the right thing, aren’t I, Conor?”

“I think we can officially say that no geriatric is safe around you,” I said lightly, “but yes.”

“I didn’t kill Dagda,” she mumbled, and was that…? Yes, it was. A soft blush danced on the arcs of her cheeks. “And the majority of the old people in Manhattan are safe.”

“For the moment,” I teased, brushing another kiss to her temple.

“It always stuns me that you can joke about this stuff.”

“Prefer me to cry?”

“No. But, how come you don’t want Dagda to atone too?”

“Are you pouting?” I snorted at the mention of the fucker who was simultaneously the man who’d killed my father and Aidan’s new deputy in the ECD. “It’s not like he’s in Aruba, Star. He’s based in a country where it is always raining. A perpetual storm cloud over his head can be my retribution.”

“Some people enjoy the rain.”

“It isn’t a tropical island. It’s Ireland .”

“Blasphemy.”

My lips twitched. “I suppose. If you’re Irish. Which neither of us is.”

That stunned a chuckle out of her and had her pulling away from my hold. “Your da just turned in his grave.”

“That he did.” I settled my chin on her shoulder. “I miss Da but I know that he was sick, and he’d have been a terrible patient. I find comfort in that. Plus, Dagda is at our beck and call. It’s not a small thing to have a man of his skills on our payroll. It gives Eoghan some slack too.”

“Not tonight.”

“Nope. Not tonight.”

I pressed a hand to her belly and encouraged her to lean her weight on me once again. “I love you.”

She sighed. “I don’t deserve you.”

“At least you know that.”

Her snicker made me grin. “Charming.”

“I keep it real, Star. That’s my job in your life.”

“Oh, that’s your job.”

“Uh huh. It’s why you want me to stick around until we’re worm food.”

She clicked her fingers. “You caught me?—”

“Star! Conor!”

Anton’s voice acted like a bath in liquid nitrogen as it came from about forty feet across the room. The tension infected her limbs until she was frozen solid. At least, it felt that way. From the outside looking in, she didn’t react.

At all.

Then—

“Oh, God,” she choked out.

“What is it?”

“That…” Her spine straightened. “When I first saw the picture of him that Bear had put in his motel room for me to find, I thought I recognized him.”

“What?” I muttered, whispering the words in her ear. “You recognized Anton? From where?”

“I didn’t know. And when I saw him at his place in Moscow, he didn’t register so I reckoned I was mistaken.” She swallowed. “But I saw him. At a party I attended with Hans.”

I stiffened. “Are you shitting me?”

“I’m not. I wish I were.” She gulped. “He was wearing that same red velvet smoking jacket. Fuck, he’s?—”

“Anton,” I greeted as he neared, knowing I had to give her time to compose herself. “How are you? How is everything?”

Anton, unaware that Star’s silence was loaded, discussed how his stay in New York had passed and what he’d done during the days he’d whiled away with Lyra. “I just wish,” he finished, “that I’d been able to spend some time with you, Star. I’d like to meet Kat before I have to leave.”

“It’s been…” She swallowed. “ …busy . You know, what with the gala... Thank you for your donation.”

With every word she uttered, I felt her mask solidify until her speech had returned to its regular cadence and her expression was relaxed.

The only person who’d be able to tell a difference was me because she was like a block of ice in my arms.

To compound matters, Anton leaned into her and pressed a kiss to her cheek. Thankfully, her mask was so in place that she didn’t even flinch.

Her innate strength would never fail to astonish me.

“Of course,” Anton drawled. “It’s a worthy cause.”

My hand tightened on her hip.

Worthy cause, my ass.

“I see you fought and won to keep from having ice sculptures at the gala,” Anton quipped, his tone amused.

“Do you know the carbon footprint of those things?” She tutted. “I don’t know what Rachel was thinking.”

“I’m assuming the foliage was your idea?” he queried, peering at a massive bush of basil that had been pruned into the shape of a spade—the card variety, not the garden implement—and which had the same frosting as the other bushes.

“It was. It ties in with the food. I thought it was clever.”

Anton hummed. “You’ll never be a party planner, dear, but that’s not what you are, is it? Your talents lie elsewhere.”

Star’s smile was lazy and disconcertingly authentic. “I don’t know. I might consider a career change.”

“Please, don’t,” I joked around a fake laugh. “You’ve been a stressy pain in the ass in the run-up to this party.”

Anton chuckled. “Your mother was just the same. Hated dressing the part.”

At this, Star’s mask showed the first signs of crumbling.

I could literally feel her longing for more information about her mother. Knew that she wanted it desperately.

Scraps…

That was all she had left of the woman who’d brought her into this world.

Because of this man.

The one who could dole them out and who was the reason for them.

“She did?” Star questioned, her tone shaky.

Anton’s smile seemed sincere, but hell, he’d fooled me since the start. I wasn’t about to trust my judgment. “She loathed parties. Preferred guarding the events rather than attending. Aleks was far more sociable. He was the one who smoothed the path for me, while Galena protected it.”

Star swallowed. “I wish I’d gotten the chance to know her better. The real her.”

“I doubt she played a role with you, child,” Anton demurred.

“She was the life and soul of every party we ever attended as a family,” Star admitted, tone raw.

I beckoned over a server and reached for a champagne glass. Passing it to her, I watched as she took a deep swig then snagged one for myself. Anton did the same, slowly sipping his as he mused, “People change, Star.”

“Not that much,” she snapped before sucking in a deep breath. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it does. I wish you’d had more time with her too,” Anton countered, taking a long sip of his champagne. His nose wrinkled when he reached the base. “You should have told me the vintages you’d be serving would be swill, Star. I’d have donated better wines to the event.”

She hitched a shoulder. “It’s organic.”

Warily eyeing the flute, Anton snorted. “Of course it is. Everything is organic or vegetarian nowadays. No wonder nothing tastes as it once did.” He released a soft chuckle. “Since Chernobyl, all wine has radioactive matter in it, did you know that? They say it doesn’t affect the taste, but I say they don’t have a wine cellar that isn’t tainted.”

I lived like Bruce Wayne without the Batman sideline so I wasn’t exactly ‘in touch,’ but Jesus wept, in that one statement alone, he proved he was so out of touch he might as well have lived in the Antarctic.

“Tell me about her?” Star rasped, entirely uninterested in his snobbish tastes in wine and more focused on her mother.

“Now?”

“Yes. It’s not as if this event is more entertaining than anything you could have to say.” She peered at me. “It’s okay if you want to mingle.”

Tenderly, I chucked her under the chin while my fingers on her hips squeezed her there. Twice. “I think I can cope with not having to talk to people I’m not interested in. Anyway, I’d like to learn more about your mother too.”

Anton shrugged. “For all that Galena loathed parties, she was a social creature. Plenty of friends as she was growing up.”

“Are they still alive?”

He frowned. “I assume so. If they haven’t perished from illness. There’s a room in the house in Uvala Lapad that contains all Galena’s personal effects.”

She jerked like she’d been hit with a bullet. “Why didn’t you show me?”

“Our last interaction there involved you stabbing me in the hand with a dinner fork, Star. I wasn’t entirely sure if you’d maintain our bargain or not.

"That room is a private sanctuary of mine. Aleks’ too. I wasn’t going to share it with someone who could have betrayed me.”

“I can understand that.” She pursed her lips. “What’s in the room?”

“Mostly her childhood things. Before she left for the US and to…”

“Con my father into falling in love with her?”

Anton reached for a handkerchief in his pocket and began dabbing his top lip. “Yes, I suppose. Your candidness will never cease surprising me, child.

"Regardless, she moved the furnishings of her apartment into one of my properties. Since her death, I brought her things with me to whichever home became my main address.”

“Aleks’ too?”

“Yes. Unofficial shrines, I suppose. It’s the Orthodox Russian in me. Even if I haven’t practiced for many years.” He tilted his head to the side. “Is it hot in here?”

“No. I told them specifically to maintain a seventy-two-degree temperature.”

“Why?” I asked. “Or is this because of Kat’s global warming presentation too?”

“Global warming presentation?” Anton choked out a laugh. “Is this why you disagreed with the ice sculptures?”

“There is no planet B,” Star said simply. “I’d like her not to have to live under a dome or to have to relocate to a colony on Mars.”

Anton patted his forehead. “You know I agree with you, but at least she’ll have the funds with which to make such costly endeavors. She’s still Belyaev’s heir. I’m sure that as much as the man favored male children, he’d have left her well cared for.”

“I never thought of that. She costs me a fortune in broken laptops. She needs to start paying her way.”

“I know you’re intent on bankrupting yourself with funding the foundation but I think we can afford more computers,” I teased.

“Not with the bill for that private school we just got,” she mocked.

Anton’s chuckle was weak as he slurred, “I’m certain it’s—” The sibilant hiss was extended until he stuttered, “—h-hot in here.”

“Honestly, it isn’t. I’m actually cold,” I answered.

“Don’t be a wimp. Anton’s probably hot because he’s Russian. They have baths in ice water lakes.”

“They also drink a lot of vodka before, during, and after said soak,” I argued. “Isn’t that right, Anton?”

But Anton wasn’t listening.

He staggered back, his hip bumping into the table beside him.

“Anton?” Star cried, leaping forward to grab his arms and prop him up. “Are you okay?”

“Call—” He sucked in a sharp breath but his head rolled on his neck before he could finish the sentence.

There were a few shrieks from the women around us who witnessed Anton’s collapse, but with my aid, Star propped him upright, and once I’d looped his arm around my shoulder and she’d huddled into his waist, together, we retreated from the event hall.

Along the way, I saw Aidan watching us.

He tipped his glass at me.