I carried most of her things, only letting her drag the cabin bag she’d used to store her IT equipment. Conor broke the security seal on the maintenance elevator so I didn’t have to walk up the stairs to the helipad, which I was fucking grateful for after kneeing the bed the way I had, and we were spat out into what could be considered a mud room that had a locked door.
Conor was standing there, his gaze on us both as he held out a phone for Savannah.
She frowned at it. "Who is it?"
"Star." He waggled the phone. "Take it. It’s yours. I cleaned it up so that no one can hack it. There’s a secure messaging app on there, and I imported your contacts—"
"How the fuck did you do that?" she growled, her hands snapping to her hips as she stared down my brother.
I snorted. "Stick around. He’s capable of worse."
And he was, but Kid definitely wasn’t on his A-game.
It had been building for a while. I couldn’t blame him.
He was the keeper of our secrets, our first defense against attack, and the one we most relied on to protect the Firm.
There were only so many plates a person could keep spinning before they started to fall. Conor, right now, was definitely standing amid some ceramic shrapnel. I knew how that felt, and wished there was something I could do, but the family as a whole was facing this tsunami.
The difference was, Conor and I were doing it alone. Eoghan had Inessa, Declan had Aela, Finn had Aoife, and Brennan had Camille now.
I cast a look at Savannah.
Could I have her?
She’d implied I could, but last night was just a taste of what this world was like. An amuse bouche before the appetizer. I wasn’t sure, as street smart as she thought she was, she could ever be prepared for the entree.
Unapologetic to the last, Conor grinned at her. "Just consider it a convenience. At least you won’t have to transfer all your data over onto the new device. I did all the hard work for you."
"Exactly what you’d get at an Apple store," I mocked, gently squeezing her shoulder. "Genius Lab 2.0. This is better, Savannah. Only fuck knows what’s on your old phone."
She huffed. "No way they’d be able to hack it."
Conor’s brow puckered. "I thought you were smart."
"Kid!" I barked, the warning clear.
He shrugged. "What? It’s true! Everything can be hacked. Fuck,everything. Whether it’s physically bypassed or code manipulation. Pacemakers, TVs, baby cams. It’s all a playground for hackers." He rolled his eyes. "You think someone couldn’t get into your phone? How trusting are you?"
Because his disapproval sounded genuine, I wasn’t surprised when Savannah blushed, but he’d embarrassed her enough into snatching the phone and grimly muttering, "Thank you."
"You’re welcome," Conor replied as she stalked off down the hall.
Seeing she was heading for the room I’d tucked her in last night, I accepted that she needed space.
Unfortunately for her, she wasn’t about to get much of that.
"You could have done that nicer, Kid," I grumbled.
He scoffed. "I cloned her phone last night. She’s got more shit on it than a fucking terrorist being hunted by the FBI. They were tracing her calls too. If she discussed anything sensitive, scheduled anything with Star on her old one, then you need to tell her to change her plans because they’ll know about it, and will likely be there to gain access to her."
I thought about the meeting tonight with Jen, but merely queried, "Couldn’t you have started with that?"
Conor grinned. "If she’s going to be hanging around, I figure she needed to get used to the way we work."
"The wayyouwork," I corrected dryly.
"Same difference."