Page 23

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 the only person 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 him here when I’d taken myself away from him on purpose.

I was many things but not a hypocrite.

I was 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.

Conor gently pushed his bowl away, leaned his elbows on the table, and started playing with his hands as he reasoned, “It must be a massive task if your idea of remuneration is bringing down the Sparrows.”

Kuznetsov angled the glass at Conor. “The task is not gargantuan but it is specialized.”

“If you think only Conor and I can do it, that’s an understatement.”

“It requires more than just the two of you.”

I frowned. “You need a team of hackers?”

“You can use the Pauks for assistance?—”

“They work for you,” I clipped. “If you think I’d trust them?—”

“You can use BDSec if you prefer,” Kuznetsov slipped in quickly. “I don’t care so long as the job is done.”

As my brow furrowed, Conor rasped, “BDSec? Why would we work with them? We’re not affiliated?—”

“I was one of the founding members,” I admitted, cringing.

His nostrils flared. “You didn’t think to share that with me?”

“I’m not a member anymore,” I retorted. “I stepped back—” Before I could give Kuznetsov insight into why I’d done that, I broke off, muttering, “I’ll tell you later if you really want to know.”

“BDSec is one of Europe’s biggest hacktivist groups,” he snapped. “Of course, I want to know the backstory of how you came to be one of its founding members.”

“It was years ago!”

“Are you still friends with them?”

I glowered at Kuznetsov’s interruption. “Yes.”

“They would be amenable to helping you?”

Minerva and Ovianar would help if I went crawling on my knees to them.

I didn’t say that though. “If the justification and the payment are big enough.”

Slowly, he nodded. “Good.”

“What is the job?”

“It’s actually twofold.” Kuznetsov paused to take another sip of his drink.

From how heavy his eyelids were, I got the feeling he shouldn’t be mixing his pain meds with alcohol.

“Start at the beginning,” I prompted.

“I have another granddaughter. Her name is Lyra.”

“I have a sister?” I shrieked, jerking to my feet so quickly that my chair toppled back and onto the floor.

Conor immediately snatched at my fingers and held me in place. The feel of his hand around mine was surprisingly calming and, in this situation, I needed all the help I could get.

Behind me, he dragged my chair upright, then he ordered, “Sit down, Star. Let’s not make this situation even worse.”

My calm disintegrated into dust. “He’s saying I have a sister and I didn’t know about her?—”

“I did not say that, child,” Kuznetsov growled. “I said that I have a granddaughter. She is your cousin.”

This news was as bad as the time I’d been stabbed in the abdomen.

“My mother had siblings.”

What else had she kept from me?

“I had a son.” Kuznetsov stared into his glass as he swirled the red wine around the base. Soon, his head was moving with the motion. “His name was Aleks.”

“Was?” Conor asked quietly, his fingers still locked around mine.

Kuznetsov shot him a glance. “Yes, he’s dead.”

Out of nowhere, Conor straightened up so fast he nearly bounced on his seat. “It wasn’t?—”

The old man sniffed. “No. Your band of Irish hooligans didn’t kill him.”

“Oh. I just figured that might be why I was here.”

“Who did?” I slipped in.

Kuznetsov hitched a shoulder. “I have no idea.”

“I thought you were?—”

“All-seeing and all-knowing?” Kuznetsov snorted at Conor. “Black is one of our more zealous believers.”

“I’d never have guessed,” Conor mumbled.

Anger shot through my veins, as if they were filled with gas at the mention of her goddamn name.

Temperance fucking Black was next on my shit list.

She was going to regret sharing my secrets with this old bastard, and Dead To Me would too if she knew her cousin was involved with these secret society numbnuts.

“Where did he die?” Conor queried.

“The US.”

“I don’t understand how this, as sad as it is,” Conor said politely, “has anything to do with helping bring down the Sparrows.”

Kuznetsov focused on me, his blurry eyes seeming lucid as he rumbled, “I want you to find my granddaughter and bring her home to me, and I want you to find who killed my son and seek vengeance on his behalf.”

Conor sniffed. “I knew this Brotherhood was as corrupt as the Sparrows.”

Kuznetsov’s attention snapped away from me so he could glower at him. “We are not. As the Union, we are beyond reproach, but I’m an old man. I have lost all my family. God only knows how much time I have left, and if I can spend those years with children who are my blood, then I will.”

I frowned at him. “I don’t want to spend time with you.”

“You might like me if you were open to the idea.”

“I doubt it.”

Kuznetsov’s top lip curled into a snarl. “Then how about this? Your task is now threefold. You will avenge my son’s death, you will find my other granddaughter, and you will spend time with me before I die if you ever want the Sparrows to be taken down.”

“You could live until you’re a hundred,” I bitched.

“Then you’re about to be very well acquainted with Dubrovnik, aren’t you?” he sniped.

Conor cleared his throat. “Before you two trigger World War Four over empty soup bowls, I have to ask how you believe you can eradicate the Sparrows? I assume you wouldn’t offer your granddaughter hope without being able to follow through with it…”

“A good point,” Kuznetsov agreed. “Originally, the Sparrows used chat windows on online video games to communicate, but over the past year, we have uncovered another method they use—a private app that is available for sale on the biggest app markets.

“They shield their app behind a shadow operating system. We’ve been working on using this platform as a means of mass-identifying their numbers and targeting them that way.”

“As easy as that?”

“Trust me, child, it is not easy. I’ve had the Pauks working on this for eighteen months. It’s only recently we discovered how they communicate and that was through intense, shall we say, study .”

His admission had me pursing my lips. “How would you deal with the individuals identified as Sparrows?”

He shot a pointed look at Conor. “It would be an entirely different method to the one the O’Donnellys have cooked up.”

“What’s he talking about?” I demanded.

“Some, we’ve been killing,” he admitted unapologetically, running a hand through his hair. “Others are more complicated. We’re starting to plant law enforcement agents in the offices of known Sparrows and they’re taking them in that way.”

I twisted in my seat to better study him. “How do you decide who dies and who gets arrested?”

“Declan conferred with Rex on the matter.”

Rex—the Prez of the Satan’s Sinners’ MC.

But that didn’t make any sense.

Unless…

“If Hawk’s Old Lady,” I stated, not wanting to name Amara, “identified them, then they die?” At his nod, I mused, “A solid decision process.”

Thanks to an unusual condition, Amara had never forgotten a face she’d seen. As a Sparrow sex slave, that meant she recognized either victims or fuckers in need of having their dicks cut off and their throats slashed.

Kuznetsov released a sharp bark of laughter. “And this, granddaughter, is why I never recruited you into the Brotherhood. It would have made my life a hell of a lot easier, I assure you, if I’d been able to have you on my team from the beginning, but how could I when your morals are beyond dubious?”

“Product of my environment, old man.”

He narrowed his eyes at my disrespectful tone, but whatever he threw at me, I’d dish back.

I wasn’t scared of him.

“If you don’t intend on utilizing our methods, then how will you do this?” Conor persisted, ignoring the mutinous glares Kuznetsov and I shared.

“Interpol.”

“Interpol?”

“You’ve heard of them, I presume?” he bit off sarcastically.

“Why them?”

“I trust the leadership.”

“Meaning they’re Brothers,” I complained.

“Not all of them, and Sparrows have systematically been weeded from their ranks.”

My mouth tightened. “What would you do?”

“Develop a special task force to deal with the Sparrows themselves. Who knows which names will crop up during this investigation? It’s not something that can be swept under the carpet, nor is it possible to murder every individual who pledged themselves to their cause.” At my sniff, he argued, “There are millions of them around the globe, Star. Their deaths, whether you like it or not, will trigger questions. And this is not 1930s Russia!”

“He’s right,” Conor muttered.

Mouth tight, I nodded. “I know he is.” That didn’t mean I had to like it.

“The body may be frail but the mind is not weak,” Kuznetsov rumbled, sinking back the final dregs in his wine glass. “This plan has been underway for a long time. Ever since you became involved with them, to be precise.

“You can judge me as you want, granddaughter, but I pushed back retirement from my position to ensure that you see justice for what happened to you.”

Discomfort tunneled its way inside me. His words would mean something if I trusted him, but how could I?

He could tell me anything and make it fit a narrative that would get me on his side.

There was one undeniable truth that he couldn’t run away from—he hadn’t come to me. I’d had to find him. The concerned ‘grandfather’ role, until he put weight behind it, was just an act.

Thus, I dismissed him and his help. “I could handle this on my own.”

“No, you couldn’t. This is power beyond anything you’ve come across. We’re not just talking about some dirty cops in the NYPD. They’ve infiltrated the most powerful offices in the US. And that’s not accounting for the European and Asian bodies?—”

“If you’re so worried now , where were you when I was being passed around as a cum dump?”

He flinched, his muscles locking up.

Good .

The truth fucking hurt.

When it didn’t look like he was going to reply, Conor frowned at him. “If this Brotherhood of yours is so all-fired powerful, and if you’ve existed for so damn long, then why did you let them come to be in the first place?”

“The Union protects, but we do not intercede unless necessary. My predecessors were staunch believers in that ideology.

“The Old World Sparrows came to exist because they were Brothers who were annoyed at our isolationist ideals. They believed we didn’t involve ourselves enough with active government so they created a body of power where they could fulfill their own goals.

“As with everything, it usually starts from a good place and quickly spirals out of control. This is why we stay back and monitor the global stage. Involving oneself too much can lead to corruption and manipulation of the society we strive to protect.

“It was only after the Sparrows came to be that we began to evolve our own methods. We pushed Brothers into office and we passed laws to protect a nation’s core values to stop them?—”

“Why didn’t you keep gangs from forming? Why does the mafia even exist?” I butted in. “How is crime still a thing?—”

He interrupted me right back, “Because we police laws, not people.”

“That’s bullshit,” I scoffed. “You’ve been doing a shitty job in the US recently then, haven’t you? Not so observant lately.”

Kuznetsov scowled at me, but Conor mused, “That makes sense.”

I gaped at him. “It does not .”

“It does. People die. Laws don’t.” He folded his arms across his chest. “Star’s correct, though. Those addendums to the Clean Water Act that just got passed were riddled with loopholes. Never mind all the other bullshit laws that get through every fucking day.”

“Loopholes that only exist because of dirty money flowing into political parties that is used to elect corrupt officials,” I grumbled, interrupting him.

Kuznetsov shrugged. “Would that act have even been voted in if it weren’t for our support?”

“Of course, it would—who’d be against clean water?”

Conor stilled. “He has a point, Star.”

I scowled at him. “Dammit, you’re supposed to be on my side, not his.”

“I am on your side. Why would I be here otherwise?”

“Does it look like I don’t have a mouth?”

He studied my lips, long enough for it to get awkward. “I know you do. I also know that you’re not afraid to use it.”

“Then keep your nose out,” I griped.

“I’m just saying… I can see where he’s coming from.”

I huffed. “We’ll discuss this later.”

“Yes, dear ,” he mocked, which had me scowling harder at him than ever and pinching his thigh.

Into our staring match, Kuznetsov tiredly rumbled, “Do we have a deal?”

Gracing him with my attention, I noticed he appeared as exhausted as he sounded. Blood loss probably hadn’t helped.

“You want revenge for your son. Did you seek revenge for my mother?”

Kuznetsov paled even further. “I will not speak of her more than is necessary.”

Huh.

That was interesting.

“How did she betray you?” When his lips pursed into a mutinous line, I knew I wouldn’t get an answer. “Why did she give birth to me? Why did she marry Gerry Sullivan? What about any of that role was important to the United Brotherhood?”

Kuznetsov turned his face away.

“She traveled all over the world, Star. Didn’t you tell me once that noxxious played at the weddings of foreign royal families?”

My gaze was measured as I studied my grandfather. “Is Conor right?”

“As I said, I will not speak of her.”

“Seems like I’m not the only one she betrayed.” His good hand clenched into a fist, his tension evident. Knowing that I’d have to hunt down my answers the hard way, as fucking usual, I changed the subject. “What do you constitute as eradication?”

His relief was palpable as he asked, “Percentage-wise, you mean?” At my nod, he mused, “Seventy-five percent under arrest. Sixty percent incarceration rate.”

That was both higher than I expected and lower than I’d like. “If you want me on board then I want help with a side project too.”

“What kind of side project?”

My throat felt thick as I rasped, “I want to make sure everyone they hurt gets back home.”

His already tired eyes seemed to droop at my admission. “Not all of them will be able to return home, child. They don’t exactly register the deaths of their victims.”

I bobbed my head. “I know, but I have to try.”

He sighed. “The Union will help.”

I let my left hand drift over my plate. He eyed it warily, his other hand moving to his chest in case I went for another piece of cutlery, but I just let it hover there, waiting for him to shake it.

Only then, as his papery skin slid against mine, did I state, “Then, we have ourselves a deal.”