"Fuck off, Conor," Eoghan growled, pretty much confirming his brother’s gossiping with that one curse. "Or I’ll take that goddamn cat of yours and shove it up your ass."
"So aggressive." Conor smirked at me, his grin unholy in the blue light, and I grinned back, appreciating that we had a kind of rapport.
"What’s going on?" Star complained. "I can’t see anything, remember?"
"Stop whining," I retorted, then I cleared my throat. "Dead To Me’s just arrived, duh. The guys are trying to deal with the ego-slam that two girls saved their butts."
"Well, I figured that out already. Surprised you don’t have a lady boner."
"Maybe I do, maybe I don’t," I said with a sniff, but I totally did.
Dead To Me was reported to have over eighty kills to her name, and each one had been foreshadowed by her victims receiving a gift with balloons attached to it. The theatrics were astonishing, the gall? Admirable. Well, if you were a weirdo like me.
"Dead To Me," Star called out. "Did you get them all?"
"Yeah."
"You sure?"
"Sure."
Woman of few words apparently... damn, there went my exclusive scoop.
"Our guards are approaching," Conor warned.
"How did you even know to send someone to help us out?" Eoghan demanded, his gun back in his arms, the butt nuzzling his shoulder.
"I’m helping patch up Conor’s system. Happened to see one of the security feeds he’s got running about twenty miles away. As luck would have it, Dead To Me was in the vicinity."
"Star?" I grumbled. "Don’t bullshit. We’ve known each other way too long for you to even think of pulling the wool over my eyes. What’s really going on?"
She huffed. "Nothing! It was like M*A*S*H or something. Military truck loaded down with fucking mouthbreathers, hustling down a goddamn residential road? It stuck out like a sore thumb."
"What’s a mouthbreather?" I asked.
"Nasty way of saying someone’s a grunt," Dead To Me intoned as she stepped over to the window where Brennan was standing.
"And grunt’s a nice way of saying soldier?" I asked wryly.
Conor snorted. "Nice and the army don’t go hand in hand."
"True fuckin’ dat," Eoghan rumbled.
"You planted Dead To Me here for me, didn’t you, Star?" I prodded nervously, Eoghan’s severe tone shaking me where nothing else had so far.
I didn’t even know why, but that, as well as the fact soldiers had been sent after me...
I already knew the Sparrows meant business, but sending the Army after me? Holy hell.
"Well, I wasn’t going to get caught out twice. Fool me once, shame on me," she said, her words waning, before she barked, "Conor? You seeing what I’m seeing?"
"Yeah. The guards are checking out the gates and the soldiers."
"I have a visual," Eoghan confirmed.
"Is that a bad thing?" I whispered, asking no one in particular.
Conor said, "They went straight to the scene of action, not to the house. If they were coming to the house, it’s more indicative that we’re not their targets. I.e. they’re not working for the Sparrows, but for us."