Page 44

44

STAR

“I always wanted to come here.”

“London’s better than New York,” I told him, my gaze locked on the house in front of us and not on Conor who was being remarkably patient for someone bored shitless after sitting in the backseat of a car for the past three hours.

“That’s bullshit,” Cin grumbled. “New York is so much better.”

“It’s overpopulated,” I countered, turning over the cell phone she’d given me earlier.

Fucking Munoz—so typical that he’d be Sparrow scum.

“And London isn’t?”

My lips quirked. “Only in the summer when the tourists are around.”

“You got to know it well when you were here forming BDSec?” Conor inquired eagerly.

His eagerness was more about the fact I was actually talking than an interest in my answer, I thought.

Since my conversation with Ovianar and Minerva, I hadn’t exactly been in the mood to ‘chat.’

Dead To Me had made it easy on us by popping up outside the gates to the fortress at Uvala Lapad just in time to hitch a ride with us, so she’d been keeping him entertained.

Mostly with tales of her tormenting that self-righteous cunt of a cousin of hers when they were kids.

“I did. Grew to love the place. It’s not home, but it almost is.” Subconsciously, I still thought of it as a haven.

“What I don’t understand is how they managed to get you to do what they wanted,” Cin complained. “I can’t get you to sit still long enough to teach me how to do that thing?—”

Hissing under my breath to stop her from finishing that sentence, I glowered at her. “No talk of torture in front of them.” I prodded my finger at the guards up front.

“They’re on your side,” she grumbled, rolling her eyes.

“Torture?” Conor inquired.

“When she was deep in the CIA’s good books, they used to call her The Nutcracker. No one knows what she did to make them squeal, but she had a rep for getting the hardest nuts to crack. Hence the nickname.”

“I lost the ability.”

“BS.”

“Maybe I’m out of practice.” Though it had worked on Donavan Lancaster, the one-time moneyman of the New World Sparrows. “Used it a few times this year and it failed twice.”

Cin frowned. “Maybe your heart wasn’t in it?”

Actually, that made sense. I was a different woman from the one I’d been before. But the truth was, Lancaster had earned his punishment. I’d only tortured Jintao and the two princes because I wanted Kuznetsov’s name and location.

Jesus.

Had I grown a conscience?

Sickened by the prospect, I straightened in my seat. Thankfully, I didn’t have to worry about that for long because two women showed up in a Mini in front of the house we were staking out.

“For traitors, they have good taste in cars.”

I snorted at Conor. “Only you’d have a Mini when you’re a gazillionaire.”

“It’s compact and I can park it. What about that sounds like a dumb move in New York?”

“How often do you even drive it?”

“Every Sunday, thank you very much.”

“Are you two going to start making out after the bickering? I’d be down for watching that if we didn’t have other shit to do first.”

“Come on. Don’t slam your doors.”

That warning uttered, I headed out of the car then slipped across the street just as Minerva was following Ovianar down the short path to the villa that Minerva had inherited from her aunt as a child.

I’d known they’d come here. That they’d leave their place in Soho and head for Kensington because it wasn’t as built up and was more residential.

Staying in an apartment might have seemed more logical, but I knew that once they got inside the house, there was a slick alarm system that would have the cops and O’s employers outside within twenty minutes.

I knew because I’d fitted the fucking alarm.

In one seamless move, I seized Minerva from the back, slid my arm around her waist like I was hugging her, and dug the tip of a knife into her side.

“It’s been so long since we last got together, Minnie,” I clipped in her ear before she even had the chance to choke out a warning to Ovianar who was up ahead now, unlocking the front door for us.

Dead To Me drifted along the path as silently as I and made sure Ovianar couldn’t lock us out by grabbing her in a chokehold and dragging her deeper into the house.

As I guided Minerva inside, Conor made up the rear, and he closed the front door behind us.

“You said you’d leave us alone,” Minerva spat, her anger clear, but she knew not to mess with me. She stayed rigid in my arms but didn’t try to escape my hold.

“By meddling with my fucking life, you literally pulled me back inside!”

Ovianar, struggling against D’s strength, dropped to her knees as D knocked her out.

Minerva released a cry at the sight, but Conor shuffled ahead and, calm as you like, asked, “Where are we doing this?”

It was easy to forget sometimes that he was a son of the Five Points.

I was better acquainted with his nerdy side than the O’Donnelly in his genes.

“Kitchen. It’s down the back. The garden is enclosed so no one will see and the place is soundproofed so no one will hear them scream.”

Minerva released a terrified sob at that.

Jabbing her in the side, I muttered, “It doesn’t have to come to that. You know I’ll fuck off again if you give me the answers I need.”

“You’re such a cunt, Lodestar. I wish we’d never met?—”

“You and me both, bitch. But you fucked with me first. I’d have stayed away but you had to have the final word, didn’t you? That’s always been your goddamn problem.” I shoved her down the hallway toward the kitchen when I saw that D, Conor, and Ovianar were no longer sharing the space with us.

Seeing they were zip-tying her to a chair, I waited for D to snag a knife from the counter and press it to Ovianar’s throat in a silent warning.

“You’re going to sit down,” I told Minerva, “without any fuss. If you try to fuck with me, D will slice her throat.”

Minerva tensed at that but gave me a nod of assent. Conor grabbed her and zip-tied her to the seat too.

Within five minutes, both of them were under control and that settled me like little else could.

I will not bend.

I will not break.

Nostrils flaring, I spat, “Which of you were a part of Operation: Jorgmundgander?”

Minerva clenched her eyes closed. “Ovianar.”

“What happened?”

She peered at the knife D was still holding to the other woman’s throat then rasped, “We hacked into the Saudi embassy. Thought we got in clean, but we didn’t. I was pregnant.” She tipped up her chin. “Ovianar took the blame and dealt with the punishment.”

“You have a kid?” I queried, surprised.

“Yeah. You fucking touch him, I’ll kill you!” she spat.

I didn’t bother being hurt. She knew what I was capable of. It was why she was speaking so freely without me having to force things and get nasty.

“I have no intention of hurting your family if you give me the answers I want.”

Her anxiety didn’t lessen. “Leave him alone.”

I heard the plea. It made something ping in my chest.

“Lodestar doesn’t hurt kids for fun.” Conor’s defense of me, so immediate, hit me on the raw. I shot him a glance, not sure if I was grateful or not.

“It doesn’t have to be for fun. She’s relentless,” Minerva hissed.

“Ovianar was drafted into Jorgmundgander?”

“She’s still in it. They just let her out of jail early for good behavior.” She swallowed. “What do you want to know?”

“I told you on the phone. I have a foster daughter and somehow, you made that happen. I want to know how.”

Minerva whispered, “I’m in the dark about most of the details. Some of this happened while she was away from me?—”

I jumped in with: “You were running BDSec alone during that time?”

Her nod was shaky but guilt filtered into her expression. “I needed the cash.”

I experienced a ‘eureka’ moment. “So, that’s why you started being the go-to service for hitmen?”

BDSec had been formed in the aftermath of my ‘ex-husband’ Hans’ death. We’d started the hacktivist group with the intention of using it to bring down the people who’d hurt me but, as with anything, intentions changed. Morphed .

The US had the Ledger—Hunter Lachlan ran that. But before he came along, Europe had BDSec’s Rolodex of hitmen and they acted as escrow for the client, only paying the hired gun once proof of death of the intended target had been submitted.

“I had no choice. We were on our asses. Without Ovianar…” She bit her lip. “I broke down. It was hard for a long time and we almost lost everything, but then, when I visited her in prison, she suggested we start the service and that’s when things got better.”

“If I were you,” D drawled. “I’d remember what you do for a living and what puts food on your table and dresses your kid when you’re judging Lodestar for her actions. You’re not exactly as pure as the driven snow.”

Minerva’s mouth tightened but she bowed her head to evade eye contact with us.

I cleared my throat at D’s defense of me. I was more used to her having my back than I was with Conor because he’d never been in a position where it had been necessary before.

As I studied the pair of them in silence, a whisper of a new truth settled deep inside me.

I wasn’t alone anymore.

“Your foster daughter, is she in danger?”

Minerva’s question had me blinking in surprise. “What? Why would you ask that?”

She swallowed. “That’s why Ovianar put her in your line of sights.”

My hands balled into fists. “So you admit she set me up?”

“I admit it but not for the reasons you think. There was no malice in it. Ovianar…”

“Less than five minutes ago, you were scared that she was going to kill your son or use him for leverage, but Ovianar was fine with sending some unknown kid to her for protection?” Conor queried, his tone perplexed.

“She has more faith in her than I do,” was Minerva’s bitter response. “Plus, desperate times call for desperate measures.”

“Explain,” I bit off.

“I told you there’s only so much she told me. What I do know is that she put the girl with you for her own protection. Someone was hunting her in the foster care system. I don’t know who or why, just that O was worried.”

Dead To Me cracked her knuckles before informing me, “She’s already started stirring. It won’t be long before she’s awake.”

Nodding, I folded my arms across my chest as I leaned against the kitchen wall. “Then we wait.”

“Please don’t kill us,” Minerva pleaded.

“I want answers. Give them to me and we’ll consider this settled.”

Minerva tensed when Ovianar groaned, and a couple moments later, when her eyes fluttered open, Minerva whispered, “Just explain why you did what you did. They won’t hurt B. I told her about Jorgmundgander.”

Ovianar’s head rocked back, then she froze when she saw D looming over her. I figured that woke her up better than ice water to the face because she started struggling until D dug the knife deeper into her throat. Deep enough to cut.

“Stop it!” Minerva snarled. “This isn’t necessary. Give her what she wants. We have a family. You swore you’d protect us!”

The words appeared to penetrate Ovianar’s thick skull because she stilled then, nostrils flaring, growled, “Ask your questions then get the fuck away from us.”

“How?”

It was a simple question that, I knew, led to an impossible array of answers.

Ovianar swallowed. “You heard of a guy called Dagda?”

Conor stilled.

Dead To Me cast me a look.

I just drawled, “Ex-British serviceman? One of the best snipers in the world?”

“Yeah. That’s him. Eamonn’s his name. He’s good people. They used to team us up a lot. We worked well together.” She tipped her chin away from the knife. “Is this really necessary?”

Once I jerked my chin at D, she backed off.

“There was this meeting in Ohio,” she continued without pause. “It was a gathering of six or so Sparrows. Six of their top brass had gathered at this hotel in Cincinnati. Two teams were sent to deal with them.”

“They all died?”

“No. Two of them did. The other four…” Her mouth tightened. “I later learned it was a power grab.”

“What happened?”

“Each team got a target and a time limit. We already knew something was different because we only had a handler and not an active operative on our team.”

“What’s the difference?”

“When we had a handler who dealt with us remotely, we knew it was a dirty job. If there was fallout, it’d be on us, not on them.” Her throat worked. “We didn’t know the targets would be traveling with their families. Not until it was too late.”

“Were the families also targets?”

“They were,” she whispered. “They wanted us to kill kids. Dagda wouldn’t do it. We were in agreement. We’d handle our target then figure something out?—”

“Wait. You said kids ,” Conor muttered.

She nodded. “Our target had two with him. The other team’s target had just the one—a daughter.”

My throat closed.

“Why did they travel with families?”

Ovianar cast a look at Conor. “A trust exercise otherwise nobody would have shown up. They brought their families along because?—”

“No one thought they’d kill their wives and children,” D intoned grimly.

“No honor among thieves,” was all Ovianar said. “But some of the six were faces we see on the news. Politicians. I guess they figured they were safe because you know what the US is like. You can barely be a politician without a spouse at your side. Kids just pretty up the family image.”

“Go on,” I demanded. “What happened?”

“There were complications from the start. There were definite trust issues, especially with our target. He traveled in a separate car from his children so that made it easier for us.

“Dagda shot the father but he clipped the driver. They crashed into the car in front. When the secondary car took off, we knew we had to follow because if it got back to our director that we’d let the kids live, they’d add an extra year to our sentences as punishment and send someone out to kill them anyway.

“I was tracking the cars so Dagda managed to follow them, but the driver was good at his job. They almost got away but there was a head-on collision. The driver and one of the kids were killed. The girl, well, Dagda took her in. We had barely any time to deal with her but we knew we had to do something.

“After you took off, we didn’t stop investigating the Sparrows. We’d managed to uncover some of their transactions before I got arrested. Not much, but…” She shot me a wary look. “There was a shipping manifesto. I didn’t have time to think. I just acted. I doctored the manifesto, put the kid’s mother on there, and set it on sale on Silk Road.”

“I asked Thyme to pass you the link,” Minerva admitted.

My brow puckered as the memory lifted. Conor had asked me how I’d found the manifesto among thousands of other listings and I genuinely hadn’t been able to remember how. “I’m surprised she was willing to help.”

“She did it for me,” Minerva intoned darkly.

“Thyme as in the hacker who shut down the power grid at Svalbard?”

I nodded at Conor’s question. “That’s her. She’s whacko. She thinks there’s a portal to another planet there.”

“Never meet your heroes,” he muttered under his breath.

“Dagda didn’t have much time but he took the girl to a church and offered the priest a donation to take her in and drop her off with social services a few days later.

“For something that we cooked up under pressure, it still stuns the shit out of me that it worked. Especially because I kept my eye on her and I knew they were hunting her in the foster care system. I’d have left her there if I thought it’d keep her anonymous, but they were sniffing around?—”

“How do you know?”

“I put checks on her file in social services. The girl’s records were accessed by too many people, some high-ranking officials at that. It was odd. Dagda and I agreed that we needed to put her somewhere safe.

“That was when you came to mind. I knew you’d protect her, knew you’d love her like she needed to be loved and would help her get over what had happened to her. I’m guessing you have, otherwise you wouldn’t be here now. Is she in danger?”

My mouth tightened as I folded my arms across my chest. Ignoring her question, I stated, “She wasn’t in the car alone.”

“I know you’re fostering her. I recognized your alias?—”

“I’m asking the goddamn questions,” I snarled.

Ovianar bowed her head. “Her cousin was with her. He was with Bogdan because the kid was his ‘heir.’ Never seen Dagda so cut up in my life when he found the dead boy. He’s like a robot when he’s on the job. After he’d settled the kid at the church, he came back to our motel room and he cried.”

Reaching up to rub my temples, I muttered, “She’s never mentioned any of this.”

“Retrograde amnesia?” D queried.

“Maybe. She was fucked up when I got her. The trauma… it would explain a lot.”

My poor little girl.

Misery twisted inside me, making me wish she were close by so I could give her a hug. So I could try to make this better. But, for all my concern, Kat was fine now. The nightmares still happened from time to time but there hadn’t been a bed-wetting incident in years.

That didn’t mean it wasn’t a ticking time bomb.

“No one came for her when she was in my care.”

Ovianar shrugged. “I buried her file once I knew you had her.”

That made sense. Once I knew I wanted to keep her, when she’d stopped being ‘my foster daughter’ and had become simply mine , I’d done the same.

It’d probably explain why, whenever I’d peeked into the system in Ohio, the ID I’d burned on Kat’s behalf hadn’t been on the state’s most wanted list.

Though I should thank her for that, I wasn’t about to.

Conor, keeping things on track, asked, “What about the other team and their target?” He moved closer to me though, not stopping until only inches separated us.

When his pinkie brushed up against mine, I swallowed.

The need to be held by him was intense, but I fought it. I had to keep my shit together. We were drowning in filthy fucking lies and conspiracies. I needed the truth or I felt like I was going to choke on it all.

“Was the second target a guy called Kuznetsov?” D asked.

“How did you know that?” Ovianar demanded, twisting around to glower at her.

“Lucky guess,” D mocked, but we shared a knowing glance.

Kat wasn’t my blood.

I guessed I’d known that already but maybe a smidgen of wishful thinking had made me hope she was.

“What happened with the kid?”

“There was a pile-up. The kid—she was only a toddler—wandered into traffic. The team seemed to think she got hit.”

“Do you think she was?”

Ovianar hitched a shoulder. “No. I think they said that to give her a fighting chance.”

“We need to find that girl,” I rasped.

“Why?”

“Because my foster daughter isn’t the only one who needed to be kept safe.” Kuznetsov didn’t mean her any harm, but if the bastards behind that mission ever found out my cousin and Katina were alive, they were screwed. “But you and Dagda,” I almost choked on the name, “were kind and put her in the path of someone who’d care for her. The other team didn’t.”

“I don’t know anything?—”

“Did they get you to wipe the accidents away?”

She pursed her lips. “Yes.”

“So you know plenty. We need a date, time, and locations.”

“This was years ago, Lodestar!”

“I’m sure you’ll figure out a way to remember what we need to know.”

Ovianar huffed. “I need to access my computer.”

“Any funny business and you won’t be seeing your son again,” D warned.

Minerva stiffened. “Ovianar would never risk our son.”

“Glad to hear it,” was all D said.

“Conor, cut the zip-ties on her wrists first then tie them again in front of her.”

He nodded at my order and accepted the knife I handed him without question. Ordinarily, I’d have done it myself, but getting close to her would be asking for trouble.

As he slashed through the nylon, Ovianar didn’t give him any crap like she might have done with me, just let him bind her again. Then, he released her feet.

“I’ll stay with Minerva in case you change your mind and stop being cooperative,” D threatened.

Ovianar’s mouth tightened but she nodded her understanding.

Conor returned the knife to me, and my eyes caught and held Ovianar’s as I pledged, “I have no desire to hurt you.”

“But you will,” she said bitterly.

“Yeah. I will. If I have to.”

She staggered through the door and I followed her into what had once been our HQ. There were a couple of laptops in here and two desktops. She headed for her rig and kickstarted it.

“It needs to sync up,” she muttered.

“Fine.”

I stared around the office, unsurprised to see it hadn’t changed that much. Minerva’s aunt had been a hedonist shipped from the sixties and they hadn’t been that interested in interior design back in the day. The same ‘groovy’ wallpaper decorated the walls, big swirling loops that made me think of an acid trip I’d experienced one time with Savannah and her brother, Camden.

“You really want to help the girl?”

Jarred from my exploration, I nodded and did the unthinkable—I told the truth. “I’m related to her.”

“What?!” Ovianar blurted out. “How?”

“Her father was my uncle.”

“Her father was a Sparrow,” was her bitter retort.

I rubbed my nape. “That’s the part I don’t understand.”

“What’s to understand? He was scum.”

Tired, I leaned against the wall. I didn’t think she’d pull any unsuspecting moves, mostly because she was still aghast at my revelation.

“How did you find out that it was a power grab?”

“We were told six teams were being shipped out. One team per target. But later on, those same names and faces were alive and well and on TV again.”

“You remember them?”

“Of course.”

“Write them down.”

She cut me a look, but whatever she found during her exploration of my features had her nodding. “You’re working to tear them down still, aren’t you?”

“After what they put me through, bet your ass I am.”

“If you need help, Minerva and I are on board.”

“Doubt Minerva would agree.”

“Maybe not, but the shit we’ve uncovered about the Sparrows is enough to make Satan puke. They deserve to be ripped to shreds.”

It was my turn to study her. “Any intel you can pass my way, I’d appreciate.”

“You’re close?”

I’d always been a lone wolf, so it was hard being a part of a pack. Harder back then, when I’d first met these two women who’d become integral to my life, to accept that I needed help. I didn’t know if it was Cin who’d shown me the way or Conor, but I couldn’t deny I was different than the person Minerva and Ovianar had known.

This was, I gleaned, the chance to extend the hand of friendship.

A mutual enemy often united people…

“Finding my cousin is a part of a bigger deal I’m involved in.”

“What kind of deal?”

I needed to fudge the truth here. “My grandfather on my mother’s side is high up in Interpol. He says that if I find my uncle’s murderer and my cousin, then he’ll set up a division that will work solely on investigating and imprisoning Sparrows.”

“Instead of just dealing with everything on a case-by-case basis?”

“Yes. An entire department dedicated to nothing else but these pieces of shit.”

She bit her lip. “I’m assuming your grandfather doesn’t know that his son was a Sparrow?”

“I think that’s a smart assumption.”

“You never mentioned a grandfather in the police force…”

“I only met him this week.”

Her eyes flared in surprise. “Oh.”

“Yeah. It’s been intense.”

“I-I really didn’t mean any harm, Star. With the girl. I-I knew you struggled after you had that miscarriage, and while you’re not a natural mother, not like Minerva?—”

“I’m a natural killer,” I said flatly. “Who better to keep someone safe?”

“Exactly,” she whispered.

Not bothering to be offended, I nodded my understanding as she awkwardly reached out and picked up a pen and paper. She scrawled names down on the sheet, then she started to delve into her files. More information was jotted down and I watched her hit hibernate as she clambered to her feet again, the note in her hand.

“This is literally all I know about that day.” Her fingers tightened around the piece of paper. “I understand that you want answers and that you’ll go to any length to get them, but I know nothing else. I’m not hiding anything.

“I have a son now, Star, and you’ve got a daughter—I hope you realize I wouldn’t put him in jeopardy over this.”

I snagged the note from her grasp, shoved it in my pocket, and ignored her entreaty. “How did you get DeLaCroix’s login information over to me?” At her frown, I growled, “The same account sold me an email and password combination, O. Don’t pretend you don’t fucking remember.”

“I slept since then, Lodestar!” she shrieked, panic filtering into her voice. “Give me a second to remember.” Her lashes fluttered as her mind raced, then after a good thirty seconds, she released a heavy breath. “I remember. The email and password combo. I didn’t know it was… Wait, DeLaCroix? That Sparrow who was the chief justice of your SCOTUS?”

“Yes, him. We used the combo to log into an app the NWS use to communicate with one another.”

“Jesus.” Her eyes lit up. “I had no fucking idea it was his.”

“You don’t expect me to believe that, do you? After what you’ve admitted to orchestrating?”

“No, seriously. I knew it was something Sparrow-related. But hell, it could have been to access their account with a grocery store for all I knew. I was just padding out the account so you weren’t suspicious.”

“Where did you get the details from?”

“It was on our mark’s person. Dagda said he had a bunch of notes on the other leaders.”

“Did you put them up for sale too?”

“I did. I sold the docket too. Got a pretty penny for that intel.”

“You know who bought them?”

She shrugged. “Never bothered to look. Why, is it important?”

“I hate loose ends.” I grumbled under my breath, “Hold out your hands.”

Licking her lips, she complied. I notched my knife between her wrists then sliced through the nylon to liberate her.

“I don’t think we can ever be friends,” Ovianar muttered.

“I’ll settle for allies.”

Her expression resolute, she nodded. “Allies.”