I called bullshit on that, but who was I to complain? Pathetic nickname or not, it gave me a rep that was very lucrative.
Da had probably funded half the plane’s price tag with the commission fee he made by connecting me with clients.
Conor’s dark hair rustled against his shoulders as he pushed his head back into the cushion when we hit some turbulence—the fucker hated flying. The caramel leather augmented how pale he was, and I had to snort.
“Are you being punished? Is that why you’re here and not Aidan?”
He grunted.
And I laughed.
Again.
I guessed it fit. Aidan had hesitated yesterday on our call when I told him I’d see him today. Figured this would be why.
“For the code situation?” I asked.
“What do you think?”
Da didn’t often punish Conor. If he did, it was by cutting his bonuses. Conor liked money, loved spending it, and had a thing about hoarding it. Hitting him in the wallet was a surefire way to get him to behave.
Deciding not to be a prick, I muttered, “Da’s out of order.”
Conor pulled a face. “I fucked up. Twice now, someone has gained access to one of our homes.”
“Coding isn’t something that stays still,” I reasoned. “I mean, it takes constant monitoring, and you can’t do it all.”
“No, I can’t, but I let us down, so I get it. I’m just lucky you didn’t get hurt.” Conor’s mouth twisted. “That prospect is worse than Da making me fly or him cutting my wage for a while. I can deal with all that—going to your funeral isn’t something I can handle.”
I wanted to joke, but where this was concerned, we didn’t.
We were Irish. Used to emotions.
So I just said, “It didn’t happen.”
“And it won’t.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I had firewalls up so high that not even the Russians should have been able to get into it.”
“Teenagers can break into the NSA database, Conor—it happens. Da’s too old school to realize that.”
“Doesn’t matter. Not where our safety is concerned.” He frowned down at the table. “It’s making me wonder if I’m good enough.”
Because Conor was all about tech, I scoffed at that. “What about all the times you keep us safe,deartháir? Does this take away from that?”
“Yeah, it does. You could have been killed. For whatever reason, they, whoever the fuck they are, wanted to mess with your bride’s head. As it stands, well, that didn’t happen, but it could have messed with things.”
I thought about that for a second, then thought about how right that was. “Conor, do you think it’s a woman behind this?”
“A woman? What makes you say that?”
“I mean, it doesn’t help us narrow things down really, but let’s face it, another woman would think to hurt Inessa like that. A man wouldn’t. A man, in our world, knows that Inessa wouldn’t be hurt. She’s been raised in the life. She knows the score.
“A woman outside of the life wouldn’t know that.” Then I told him what Leticia had said. “She’d brought make up and shit with her, cleanser. Like she was there for a stay or something. It was in my bathroom.”
His eyes flared wide. “Fuck.”
“Yeah. Fuck.” He knew how particular I was.
If I told him Inessa was sleeping with me and sharing my bathroom, he’d probably shit a brick.