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I grunted and hit accept. “Hello?”
“Star,” he greeted. “You have news?”
My lips quirked because I knew what he was getting at. “You can’t expect to work with a spy and not have them evade your guards.”
He clucked his tongue. “I told them to let you go at the airport—”
“I just bet you did,” I scoffed. “Anyway, we’re not in prison, Grandfather. We’re free to do whatever we want, and right now, our goals align so you know anything that goes down is something that you’ll agree with.”
“Our goals might align, but I doubt our methods do.”
“Don’t act innocent when your people are the ones holding Reinier in a shipping container in the Catskills.” Never mind the fact he wanted Troy dead to avenge his son. “You can’t effect change without getting your hands dirty.”
“One day,” Kuznetsov murmured, his tone wistful, “I wonder if you’ll utter that word without contempt.”
My brow furrowed. “Which word?”
Conor snorted. “Grandfather.”
“Oh. I—” The words ‘wouldn’t count on it’ were on the tip of my tongue yet there was no denying he had been helpful in some things, and it wasn’t that I thought I’d ever use the label kindly, but rubbing salt into the wound was only my style when I was torturing someone.
Kuznetsov cleared his throat. “Never mind. Where are you?”
“I’m certain you have a trace on our SUV,” Conor drawled. “If you’re trying to have an open and honest relationship with Star, Anton, then try to be open and honest.”
Silence on his end.
On mine, my lips twitched at Conor’s retort.
Conor was a family man—it was in his bones. I knew he’d support my grandfather just because he wanted it to be beneficial for me.
Still, nothing in this life came for free, and I was definitely not free and most certainly not cheap.
“Very well.” Kuznetsov sighed. “Why are you in Stamford?”
“Because we had to collect someone.”
“Someone being…?”
My jaw worked as I rumbled, “Nothing is ever as facile as we believe it to be, Kuznetsov.”
“No, it isn’t. But I didn’t take you for a professor in philosophy, Star. You have found Aleks’ killer, I assume, and you know them?”
“I know that her hands were tied.”
Once again, silence sounded down the line, but this time, it was loaded.
“Jorgmundgander,” he drawled eventually.
“Yes.”
“And you know her?”
“She’s a massive pain in the ass, but I do know her, and she’s good people.”
“Jorgmundgander only recruited criminals.”
“Most people in the life are half-criminal. Depends on who you ask. You speak with the average citizen, me going around killing people shouldn’t be legal, yet here we are.”
