Conor:Yup. Anyway, she was out of it on pain meds. I doubt she even remembered talking to me.
Me:You framed him for the murder, right? Or was he really guilty?
Conor:Framed him. Da had a bag of bones just lying around... Seemed dumb not to make use of them.
Me:You’ve always been annoying, haven’t you?
Conor:It’s a talent.
It sure as fuck was.
Still, at least justice of a sort had been granted, and it was Conor’s doing, not another rat in our midst.
When I made it home, I was surprised to find Savannah walking the length of the living room.
Her hair was wild, she had chocolate spread stains on her cheek, and she was wearing one of my T-shirts which looked better on her than it did on me.
Like a madwoman, she was pacing back and forth, and the cat was following her. It’d have been funny if her appearance didn’t have me concerned. Then, she spun on her heel and proved she'd known I was watching her by declaring, "This is the answer."
Tiredly, I dragged off my jacket and let loose a yawn as I tumbled onto the sofa. The sudden movement had the cat racing off, hopefully to its bed and not to be sick on the bathroom rug like this morning.
Staring up at her, I asked, "What's the answer, babe? In fact, what’s the question?"
She moved over to me, straddling my lap with an ease of someone who was very accustomed to getting in my space, and shoved some papers at me.
"The answers are here."
"Dyslexic, remember?"
"You don't need to read them," she said with a sniff. "I'm just saying, 'Ta-dah.'"
My lips quirked despite myself. "Ta-dah?"
She grinned. "Yeah. Or ‘abracadabra,’ if you prefer."
Snorting, I reached out and cupped her side with one hand. She squirmed against me as I traced one of her burns with the other, monitoring how much longer the healing process would take.
"How much champagne did you have today?"
"An adequate amount."
I laughed. "You're such a pain in my ass, do you know that?" I was pretty fucking certain that she and Conor had been heaven-sent to keep me on the straight and narrow.
Well, as straight and narrow as it got for a leader of the Irish Mob.
"Better the ass than the heart," she said piously. "Anyway, stop distracting me. Star sent me a bunch of information on how Sparrows are inducted."
"I remember. So?"
"So?!" Savvie shrieked. "So?! She gave us the key to their door. You plant someone in there, several someones, and you use them to dismantle it from the inside out.
"We've only met Sparrows who were bribed into being a part of their organization. Five Pointers who were faced with a choice to obey or go to jail for a crime they didn't commit.
"We've put away men and women who were Sparrows because their crimes caught up with them.
"But we've never been there from the ground up."
I blinked at her. "You're right."