“It isn’t. Yet.” She slipped that final word in like a knife through my lung.
My jaw clenched before I released it to bite off, “You betrayed her.”
“I did not,” Temper hissed, ducking back when the flight attendant came around with a glass of champagne for both of us, a hot towel, and some nuts. Only when we’d been served and were alone again did Temper lean over the aisle to rasp, “I have never betrayed Star.”
“You are now, aren’t you? Something’s clearly going on with her. She hasn’t spoken to her foster daughter in weeks and that would only happen if shephysicallycouldn’t because Star wouldn’t let Katina down like that.
“For whatever reason, she’s incapacitated, and you’re in cahoots with the goddamn people who are holding her.”
Temper eyed me over the glass of bubbly. “This is a far deeper game than you know.”
“Doesn’t take a fucking genius to figure that one out.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Is she safe?”
“Of course. We’re not Sparrows.”
“You’re a secret society that functions outside the bounds of the law.”
“Weprotectthe law.”
I hooted. “I’m sure Director Reinier agrees.”
Temper squinted at me. “Are you trying to tell me that you feel sorry for him? After what he put Star through? After how he betrayed her? How he betrayed our country? He should have been taken out sooner. I’m lucky that I got to be the one to bring him down.”
My brow puckered.
Lucky?
That right there told me a whole helluva lot about Temperance fucking Black and her goddamn Brotherhood.
Needing the fizz to overtake her poison, I sank back the champagne and let it hit my bloodstream. Then, I turned away to look out of the window again.
Finn said the United Brotherhood had been white hats back when they’d approached him, but he was dead-on when he said he didn’t know if they were now.
I didn’t live in a black-and-white world. I lived very squarely in the gray, and somehow, Temperance Black was the worstgrayI’d ever come across in my almost four decades on this godforsaken planet.
Taking out the trash, human or otherwise, was one thing; feelingluckyto get that chore was just plain weird.
“Just make sure he stays alive for Star,” I warned, hands on the armrests, digging my fingers into the soft leather.
Around me, the plane readied itself for takeoff. The champagne glass was retrieved by a flight attendant and a bottle of water was put in its place. The doors were closed, and, for whatever reason, Temper left me alone as I kept my attention averted from her.
Only then did I reply to Dead To Me:
Me: If Goldstein contacts you, just do what you have to do.
Dead To Me: He’s a stickler but I don’t want to kill him.
Me: That’s on you. I don’t think he’d turn you in. Just be careful. It’s more than likely that you’ll never meet.
Dead To Me: Got it.
That didn’t allay my tension any, but at least that bastard McClure would be dead.
Though I should have conferred with Aidan, there was no way in fuck I could let that poor woman exist in the basement of some senator’s house, just waiting for the ax to fall. Which was exactly what’d happen if McClure thought his dirty little secret was about to see the light of day.
The woman would die to cover his sins up and…
Fuck.