Page 50

50

CONOR

Finn clapped me on the back when I walked into his man cave and dragged me into a hug. “I didn’t know how much I’d miss you until you left. You’re the only one with any sense, I swear to fuck.”

Brennan punched me in the arm. “What’s going on?”

Grumbling, I rubbed my bicep. “That’s your idea of a greeting?”

“You’re pulling moves without discussing them first with the family.”

With an eye roll, I retorted, “What am I supposed to do? Drop everything and teleconference with you before we make important decisions?”

“You should consult us. Aidan said you want to alter our plans. That’s something we should be discussing together.”

“Brennan, calm down,” Finn clipped. “Since when does Conor do anything that doesn’t take the family’s best interests into consideration?”

My older brother didn’t appear to have an answer for that, but that just made his scowl darken. “We’re in this together. If we start pulling apart, then everything will go to hell.”

“You’re just pouting because I got to leave the country and you didn’t. Trust me, Bren, I haven’t been on a fucking vacation.”

“What has Sullivan gotten you involved in?” Aidan queried, his tone quiet as he stared at his whiskey glass.

“ Sullivan, ” I mocked, “is going to be your sister-in-law?—”

“You asked her to marry you?” Finn inquired.

“You barely know her,” Brennan ground out.

“Fuck off, Brennan. It’s been two goddamn years! Like you knew Camille when you married her. So sit the fuck down.”

“I didn’t have a choice. She forced my hand?—”

“And is the best thing that’s ever happened to you,” Eoghan inserted, his tone low. Measured.

I shot him a grateful look, but the shadows under his eyes stole most of my attention. I hated how he suffered. God, I wished I could provide him with relief from the mess the Forces had made of his brain.

“I’m not saying she isn’t,” Brennan spat. “I’m just saying, Conor, if you need help, we’re here.”

I didn’t like how he consistently thought badly of Star but his words resonated—Brennan was our fixer. He wanted to fix this situation if I was in danger, yet there was nothing to fix.

Even though our situation was unusual and we were deep into a mission to bring down the Sparrows, all was right with my goddamn world now that Star and I were together. Nothing else mattered.

My temper dispersed some. “Brennan, how deep is the family’s dependence on my skills?”

“Nose deep.”

His admission further quenched my temper. “So, why do you think my judgment is compromised in relation to her?”

He ducked his head. “We’re supposed to look after you.”

“Says who? Da? Da didn’t look after me,” I retorted. “So you don’t need to worry about that, and Star’s who I want to be with. She isn’t dragging me into dick. In fact, the opposite just happened. She cut ties so I didn’t have to be involved, and that messed with my head more than anything.

“She’s been through a lot, Brennan, and for the first time, she knows she’s not on her own. That I’m with her. That I’ll help. I won’t let you make her question that, not when it’s taken me so fucking long to ram that lesson home.

“If you have a problem with her, then I’m getting out of here. No disrespecting her, understood?”

“I wouldn’t have disrespected her.”

“Bullshit,” I sniped. “You seem to think she’s a problem of mine that needs fixing. The only thing that needs fixing is her ass on a seat next to me for the next forty years.”

Finn chuckled. “You got it all wrong, Conor. You don’t want her on a chair next to you; that’s what your lap is for.”

My lips quirked up in a grin when I thought about our time on the jet and how I’d teased her about being better equipped for her comfort than a La-Z-Boy. “I wouldn’t be against that.”

“What’s the plan, Kid?” Declan asked, speaking up for the first time.

A knock sounded behind me. “Perfect timing,” I said happily, dragging open the door and automatically sliding my fingers between hers, then tugging her into the room.

Both of us were dressed down in comparison to the others, more relaxed and less formal. Star didn’t appear to care though. I figured that had everything to do with her past. She knew that you didn’t have to wear Prada to own a room. It only took presence, and she had that in spades.

At the center of my brothers’ attention, she ignored them to peer around the den, stating, “The first time I knocked heads with the Five Points, I never imagined I’d step inside one of the O’Donnelly boys’ man caves years down the road.” She arched a brow. “I’m Star Sullivan.”

“He’s Aidan,” I said, pointing to him. “That dick is Brennan, you know Eoghan already, and he’s Declan. The one grinning like he’s crazy is Finn.”

Her gaze darted over each of them even though I knew she could put faces to names without any help from me.

“Why are you a dick, Brennan?” she inquired, tone amused.

He folded his arms across his chest. “Because I don’t trust you.”

“Clearly smart but not wise.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means you don’t need to trust me to be wary of me. Whatever you’ve done, Brennan O’Donnelly, it’s child’s play to me.” She bared her teeth and then bit them noisily, snorting when Brennan glowered at her.

“Mad bitch,” he rasped.

Seeing that I was on the brink of decking Brennan, Aidan surged to his feet, asking, “Would you like a whiskey?”

“Please.” Gently squeezing my hand, she released my fingers and strolled over to him. Leaning against Finn’s desk, her tone cordial, she imparted, “Conor once told me you’re a whiskey connoisseur.”

“I’m more of a collector than an expert.” He poured her a finger from the bottle he brought along with him every week. Finn was getting quite the whiskey collection of his own from the remnants of our Saturday night discussions. “Tell me what you think of this one.”

It was only then I noticed he’d turned the bottle around so the label wasn’t visible.

“What makes you think I’d know the difference between a good whiskey and a bad one?”

“I think you’ll have made it your business to know how to speak with each of us.”

Annoyance on her behalf filtered through me—were they trying to think the worst of her?—but she didn’t deny it, just accepted the glass, swirled it around the tumbler, then inhaled deeply.

“Notes of burnt heather, cedar…” She closed her eyes. “Chocolate and oak. Vintage oak at that.” She lifted the glass to the light and stared at the undertones. “Bronze. Unusual. Old .”

He took a sip. “Very old.”

“Expensive.” Not a question.

“Incredibly so. Rare too.”

“You bring that around for dinner with the fam?”

Aidan just smiled. “Who else would I share the bounty of wealth with if not my brothers?”

“You’re a kinder sibling than Camden was. He’d sooner put expired creamer in Savannah’s coffee than bring her something like this…” Her brow furrowed as she took a deeper sniff of the liquor. “Glenfiddich?”

He raised a brow. “You know your whiskies.”

She took another inhalation. “It was the molasses top note. I didn’t smell it at first.”

“How old is it, would you say?”

“Is this an episode of the Antiques Roadshow: Whiskey Edition ? Because I didn’t sign up for this,” Eoghan muttered with a yawn.

Star, her gaze still locked on Aidan’s, ignored the interruption to answer, “Got to be at least seventy years old.”

“More like nearly ninety.” He twisted the bottle to show her then let her take it to study the label. “Only fifty remaining.”

She whistled under her breath and then returned it to him. “You might as well drink it. My mouth still tastes of Jolly Rancher.”

His nose crinkled. “What?”

“Star likes candy,” I offered.

Aidan shrugged but accepted the glass and poured the rest of hers into his. “If it weren’t seventy grand a bottle, I’d throw it out.”

“Nice to know you can think prudently,” she mocked.

His lips twitched. “Go on then. Tell us.”

“What? Our intentions?”

“No. What you know about us?”

“Aidan,” I argued. “This isn’t a job interview.”

“Yes, it is,” he retorted, dismissing me entirely. “She’s yours. You don’t think we’re going to make sure she’s the right one for you?”

“Like you asked for permission with Savannah,” I snarled. “Like any of your brides got this goddamn treatment?—”

Star angled her head as she studied him. “Is this about making Conor feel like a child or out of a desire to protect him?”

“Conor isn’t a child. Conor hasn’t been a child since he was molested by that fucking priest. Finn and I stopped being kids that day too. This isn’t about making him look like he can’t make his own decisions. It’s about us protecting him. About us doing what we’ve always done—watched his back and taken care of his demons.”

“I don’t need you to,” I snapped.

Aidan’s gaze was cool as it landed on mine. “I will never know what you went through at that bastard’s hands. I will never know how it affected you because you won’t share it with us. But you will never know what it meant for Finn and me to find you in that position. For us to see him do that to you. For us to witness it firsthand.

“We’ve been protecting you ever since. Who do you think told Da to fine you instead of beat you whenever you fucked up?” He pointed at Finn. “That was Finn’s idea. Who do you think encouraged Da to let you move into your own apartment? Me, via Ma. Because he’d have kept you at home for the rest of your fucking life, Conor.

“We all know what Da was. A bully. A psycho. But with you, he was different. You were his wunderkind. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t have treated you like the rest of us. If anything, I think it meant he was harder on you in some?—”

Star pressed a hand to Aidan’s shoulder. “I have no desire to hurt him.”

“You already have. You left him,” Finn said flatly.

“You think you’re the only one who wants to protect him?” Star argued.

“Jesus Christ,” I spat, drawing their attention my way. “What the fuck about me made you think I need protection? Me, more than any of the rest of us? Because I’m a nerd? What is it that makes you think I can’t handle my-goddamn-self?

“Okay, I can’t kill someone from a thousand yards away and I have no desire to beat someone to death with my fists or string them up until they’re swinging in the breeze, but it doesn’t make me weak that I don’t choose to do those things.

“I don’t need you to grill my woman to ascertain whether ‘she’s right for me.’ I’m the one who makes that decision, and I made it—years ago. The first moment I recognized her skills, her intelligence, and learned what her purpose was, she had me hooked.

“This has nothing to do with any of you. Nothing . Sure, we watch each other’s backs because that’s what we do. We always have and we always will. I appreciate that we’ll always be that way, but I also have the fucking sense to recognize we alone know who’s right for us and Star is that for me.”

I knew they were surprised by my outburst, but Star broke the silence by saying, “I did do my homework on them, Conor. I don’t feel grilled. Just…” Her smile was for me alone, but it had me frowning. “…respected.”

“What?”

She shrugged at my splutter. “It’s nice to walk into a room and for people to understand you’re a loose cannon.”

“That’s nice ?”

Eoghan raised his tumbler to her. “I know where she’s coming from.”

“That’s because you look like you play golf for a living, Eoghan,” Declan drawled.

“Impostor syndrome,” Finn teased.

“Being underestimated is overrated,” was all he said, sinking a sip of his whiskey back and sighing as it hit his bloodstream.

“Go on then. Tell us what you think you know about us,” Brennan prompted.

“You collect rare coins. Not just rare, in fact. So unique that most of your collection consists of coins that are either one of a kind or have circulations of ten or under.” To Declan, she said, “There was a rumor that you were involved with the Isabella Stewart Gardner heist.”

He chuckled. “I wasn’t involved with the heist. I was too young for it. Just enjoyed the spoils, but that’s interesting you know that. Who did you get to? One of my dealers?”

“I pick up information like the garbage men collect trash.

“I know the CO Eoghan shot before he left the army will never walk again thanks to a particularly well-placed bullet in his lower spine. I also know that wasn’t why he was dishonorably discharged, and I know that Finn’s father-in-law is the President of the United States.” Hellfire lit up her eyes. “But as I told Conor earlier, I’m keeping him?—”

“And I’m keeping her,” I inserted with a grumble.

“—so you’re under no threat from me.”

Finn scratched his jaw but the look he shot me was accusing. “How did you know about Alan Davidson?”

“As I said, I have my methods. I already knew that first time I tangled with your family.” She peered at me. “I have no idea why Conor feels the way he does for me. I don’t understand it, but I’m not going to argue about it. Even without Conor stating facts, I knew that you wouldn’t have given your other sisters-in-law the third degree, but I accept that I’m different.”

“You’re not,” I argued.

“I am. I come with baggage, Conor,” she reasoned quietly. “And that’s fine. I respect them for loving you and for wanting the best for you. That’s what you deserve.”

As my brothers watched her watch me, it was Aidan who broke into the conversation with a soft, “Conor indicated there is a new plan underway to resolve this situation with the Sparrows.”

Acceptance —she shouldn’t have had to earn it, but she’d received it nonetheless. That he invited her to join the conversation and didn’t request for her to leave the man cave made that clear.

Fuming on her behalf, we continued staring at each other, the links between us strengthening and deepening as we stood in this safe space where lives were threatened and the promise of death were machinations in a wider game that no one knew they were playing.

I was a powerful man.

Surrounded by powerful men.

And yet, in this place, Star held her own.

Shoulders back, spine straight, no fear in her gaze, expression calm.

This, did she but know it, was a culmination of years of work on her part.

In this very house, we were affecting change.

We would change the world.

She was a part of the future now.

Not just entangled with the past, trying to free herself from the bonds that had caged her, but breathing life into a world riddled with poison.

We were the Irish Mob, but together, we’d be so much more.

The United States of America had no idea what was going to hit it.