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“Youweretrying to kill him,” I countered.
“I’ve stopped trying. I won’t kill you,” she shouted over her grandfather’s wails as he cupped his bleeding hand to his chest. “But you turned my mother, the only person who never betrayed me, into a liar. That required punishment.”
Kuznetsov spat something at her in that dialect I couldn’t understand again, but Star surprised me by retorting, “If you thought I wouldn’t try anything, you’re an idiot and that means you’re too much of a moron to be able to help me as you promised Conor.”
At her words, Kuznetsov sagged into his chair, and, out of nowhere, a medic rushed in, an old-fashioned doctor’s bag in her hand.
Used to chaos around the table, I carried on finishing my soup, watching as a couple men popped up from out of nowhere, bringing what appeared to be a type of mobile scanner of some variation.
Within a few moments, the healer was peering at Star with surprise then down at her boss. “She missed every joint, artery, and nerve.”
Star’s smirk was cocky enough that I rolled my eyes. “Only you,” I muttered under my breath.
Kuznetsov hissed at the doctor who, right at the dinner table, sewed him up, cleaned the wounds, then bandaged his hand. She dosed him with what I assumed were pain pills and antibiotics, then the medical team darted away as swiftly as they’d rushed in.
“Granddaughter, you are a fool,” Kuznetsov snarled. His anger fired him up but he remained slouched and slumped over in his chair.
“You can’t expect deadly weapons not to fulfill their purpose,” I defended, using his own words against him. “Star usually doesn’t say anything she doesn’t mean. She won’t attack you again.”
“You expect me to believe that? I brought you here to calm her down—”
“Hey,” I argued. “I’m many things but I’m not human Valium. Star is Star. You don’t like what she turned into, well, hell, I figure you could have helped out along the way instead of living in your own bat cave on the Adriatic.”
Kuznetsov spat in that dialect again, but Star hitched a shoulder. “He’s right.”
“I helped where I could,” he grated out.
“Sounds like you were really helping her when she sought emancipation from a father who was fully jacked up on heroin for days at a time and put her in unsafe situations,” I sniped.
Still cradling his now-bandaged hand, Kuznetsov growled something at the guard stationed behind Star and, a moment later, she was released from her cuffs.
She curled her fingers inward, stretching her wrists back and forth and rubbing the flesh where the restraints had been too tight and had bitten into her skin.
Annoyed at the sight, I grumbled, “Fine way to treat your granddaughter.”
Before he could answer, she reached up and rubbed the balls of her shoulders, rotating them carefully as she mocked, “I’m not a granddaughter to him. I’m a tool.”
“That’s not true,” was Kuznetsov’s retort.
“No?” Star cocked a brow at him. “I don’t doubt you will require payment for bringing down the Sparrows. No matter what bullshit you fed Conor.”
“Payment is a harsh word.”
She smirked. “You don’t deny it.”
“You don’t,” I pointed out with a scowl.
Kuznetsov’s jaw worked a moment before he hissed something at his men—I was definitely going to have to learn that dialect.
As I wondered how Star had picked it up and where it came from, I watched as his men drifted away from the edges of the room and disappeared through the doors I assumed led to the kitchen as that was the exit the servers had used earlier.
When we were alone, Lodestar pinned her grandfather with another look. “I don’t like being manipulated. You want something from me, you tell me. We can come to some arrangement.
“The moment Conor opened that damn door, I knew something had to be going on. At first, I thought he had to be a Brother, but then, Conor told me Temperance Black was a part of your little Illuminati crew and it hit me.
“Shewas the one who told you about Conor and me working together, and you reunited us not because he could talk me down from killing you—that was a bonus. You brought two of the most powerful hackers in the world together. That wasn’t out of the kindness of your black heart.
“So,” she drawled on. “Let’s cut to the chase. What is it you actually want from us?”
