Still, I figured I should probably apologize for that.
When Aidan wasn’t strung out on opiates, of course.
I eyed him once more, measured his exhaustion, and shook my head at the sight of him. “You figure out how she contacted my mistress?” I queried, glancing around the yard and making sure everything was copacetic.
I actually preferred this garden to the old house. It was smaller, but Ma had taken control of it. The herb garden took up eighty percent of it, with the pool and its terrace taking up the rest. Even now, as we sat here, we were amid plants I recognized as lavender and basil.
The walls were high, the perimeter solid because I’d helped plan the security for this place, and there wasn’t a tall building in sight, meaning Da could swing his dick anywhere he wanted, and no one would have a target on it.
As Inessa would phrase it, it was a ‘pretty prison,’ but my folks seemed to like it.
Conor sighed. “That was easy. Especially for someone like Lodestar.” He sounded like he was trying to be patient, which meant none of us were really listening to him—that was true.
Stuffed full of roast beef and gravy, I wasn’t even sure why we were talking work. Except for the fact shit was serious right now, and this was a safe place. It got swept every day for bugs, and this place made the Pentagon look low on security.
“She did it?”
“Yeah. Hacked her phone.”
“Just neutralize the threat,” Brennan suggested with a waft of his bottle.
“She’s not that easy to get to.” His brow puckered, and he began to rip at the sticker on his dewy beer bottle. “She’s good. Damn good. But as far as I can tell, she’s just making mischief.”
“Why would she do that?”
Conor snorted at Brennan’s question. “Why wouldn’t she? Hackers and hacker collectives pull all kinds of stunts. It’s their idea of fun.”
“They need to get laid,” was my elder brother’s retort.
My lips twitched. “They sound like they need to learn how to bone if that’s their idea of a good time.”
“When did you lose your virginity?” Declan joked, nudging Conor in the side.
He flipped Dec the bird, and growled, “This isn’t about me.”
“Probably still a virgin,” Brennan muttered, making us all snicker.
Conor glowered at him. “Whatever—as far as I can tell, and there’s no way of knowing unless I force her out into the open, she’s no threat.”
“She has footage of us,” I pointed out. “Footage that isn’t going to go down well in the wrong hands.”
“I checked the cameras. You only see tops of heads and hands. You forget, I was the one who figured out the security system on those elevators. I did it for a reason. Unless you point blank look upright into the camera, you can’t see faces, and as far as I’m aware, you don’t walk around with your head tipped back all the way.”
“Smart ass,” Brennan grumbled.
“I’mthe smart ass?” Conor snapped. “Fuck the lot of you.”
Aidan grabbed Conor’s elbow when he made to stand. “Stop being so prickly.”
Conor huffed but took a seat again. His ass jolted the benches around the table, and Aidan flinched, making me question how he could still be so sensitive to pain all these years later.
Was there something wrong with him that required more surgery?
Should he still be experiencing this kind of agony?
“I think you should force her out into the open.”
Brennan shook his head at Declan’s statement. “I think you should find out what she’s doing.”