Alessa:It’s not far from our house to Manhattan. I know that’s where the Five Points live. You won’t mind if I visit often, will you?
Lodestar:Of course not! Are you sure you don’t mind me moving her there?
Alessa:If I’ve learned anything from this stay, Star, it’s that YOU are her mom. She needs you.
Lodestar:I need her too.
Maverick:Conor will look after her, won’t he?
Lodestar:I guess there wasn’t much time for conversation when you were punching his lights out.
Maverick:I stand by that decision.
Alessa:I don’t!
Lodestar:Anyway, guys, I gtg. I need to catch some Zs before I fall down. Just wanted to get the arrangements put in place.
Maverick:Keep us in the loop.
Lodestar:I will.
Alessa:She never needed you to be her cousin, Star. She just needs you to be her mom.
Lodestar:That’s all I’ve ever wanted to be.
Maverick:Stay safe, Star.
Alessa:Yes, take care of yourself.
Lodestar:I will. Stay vigilant. I don’t know what the hell’s going to happen. I just know that the cages I told you I was rattling, Mav, are wide open now.
Maverick:Understood.
47
STAR
GOD ONLY KNOWS - BEACH BOYS
I hadto hand it to Kuznetsov—he was accommodating.
So long as we kept the guards with us, he gave us free rein to use his jet wherever and however we wanted, which could only be considered an advantage.
It also meant that Dead To Me was in the cockpit talking to—i.e. flirting with—the two pilots, whereas I was sitting in the back with Conor, who was working on his computer, while I made arrangements for after we landed in the States.
Well, in between watching him do his thing, that is.
Maybe I noticed because I was more relaxed now that we had a lead, but his hair had flopped onto his forehead, and he kept shoving it back with a glower. That glower did things to me that made me doubly glad we were flying private and not on a commercial airline.
“I can feel you watching me.”
With a smile, I mused, “You’re so pretty that I have to watch you.”
He snorted. “Do you have any dollar bills? I can cock my hip out and you can stick them under my belt.”
“Looking is free,” I argued, chuckling when he peered at me over his screen then closed it and started studying me with as much dedication as I’d been studying him.
The impasse made me laugh even harder.