"It was unorthodox but they never pretended to be freakin’ choir boys."
"Does Star know?"
"It’s why she ran away from home. Well, the first of many times." I stared at the video that was playing on an endless loop. "What was she doing to your computer?"
"Uploading a folder onto it."
"Malware?"
"No." He scraped a hand over his head. "The father of the Prez of the Satan’s Sinners’ MC... They were the brothers who we called in for clean-up duty at the compound after the Sparrows came for you—"
"Dude, I know who they are. I'm buds with Star, remember? She's been living with them for ages.Andshe and that Old Lady, Amara, are my sources for all the exposés!"
"Just checking that Aidan hasn't frazzled your synapses."
I sniffed. "Sexist, much? If anyone's synapses are on the fritz, it's his."
"Good to know. I'll check in with him."
"Please make sure I'm there when you have that conversation," I drawled.
Aidan would totally slap him across the head for that.
Well-deserved in my opinion.
"Anyway,Bear died last Christmas."
"I know. Star told me."
"He left behind a lot of information pertinent to the Sparrows’ case. She was giving me an info dump to end all info dumps. There are terabytes’ worth of data to process."
My throat closed as fear hit me. "She gave you all that?"
"She did."
We shared a look.
"I don’t think I was wrong about that last text chat being a kind of suicide note," I whispered.
His nod was sharp. "Wherever she is, whatever she’s doing, she thinks she’s going to die. The question is why the fuck didn’t she involve me? Why did she keep me out of the loop?"
"Honestly?"
"When have I ever come across as the type of guy who likes being lied to?" he growled, giving me another flash of that temper.
It made sense—he was an O’Donnelly. They all had a temper. But Conor was usually so fucking affable you forgot that he was bred from the same stock.
"Firstly, Star hasn’t trusted anyone in years. Secondly, she never expects people to fight her battles for her. That’s the God’s honest truth. Her war is not your war, and she’d never put you in a position where you had to choose sides."
Conor studied me for so goddamn long I wondered if I had dirt on my face.
"What you’re saying is," he said slowly, "that she’s doing something that is against the O’Donnellys?"
"I’m not saying that," I dismissed immediately, not wanting to put my sister from another mister in the line of O'Donnelly fire.
Although, itwouldmake sense.
Why else would she disconnect from him?