The next morning was a rush. Estelle decided to head to Canada to stay with her mother until things cooled down. She tried getting Star to go with her, but Star wouldn’t budge. A part of me wished she had accepted Estelle’s offer. At least then, I could maneuver without worrying about her safety.

While Molly drove Estelle to the airport, I hunkered down with Swede and Kujo, while Six kept getting Star to throw his ball across the room. When he became tired, he dropped the ball, hopped up onto the chair and cuddled into Star’s body.

“So, I think I have this book figured out,” Swede was saying. The excitement in his voice hadn’t escaped me. “See these right here?” He pointed to where he’d scanned pages from the book. “They’re jobs. And over here, are dollar amounts.”

“How much Brian’s getting paid to do the job?”

Swede nodded. “Basically, Osman Heller. Nova Shoo. $50,000 means, some jerk-off name Heller is paying this chump fifty grand to kill Star.”

“That’s all my life is worth?” Star muttered.

“I supposed not. It’s just his share,” Kujo said. “According to my sources, there’s a bounty on your head. It’s three point five million. Brian works with a group of low-lives who split any bounty they collect.”

Star sighed and lounged back further in the chair. “I just wanted to do good. I never thought people would actually want me dead.”

“No offence, Star,” Swede said. “But if you blew my life up I’d want you dead too.”

“Thanks for that,” she said dryly.

I cleared my throat and shifted in my seat. “Okay, the burning question. Who put the bounty out?”

“Heller,” Kujo replied.

“Then he’s the one we want to go after.” I pointed to the name on the screen. “If we can get him, he can’t pay his bounty, the deal is off.”

“Then again, he might have a back-up plan.” Kujo rationalized. “If anything happens to him, the deal is still on type deal. These assholes always, always have a way around things.”

“Okay then—I guess we do this the hard way.” Reaper’s voice rumbled.

“What does that mean?” Star asked from where she was cuddling Six.

Swede stopped typing to look over to her. “Do you really wanna know?”

Star seemed contemplative for a moment but instead of replying, she kissed Six’s head.

“You’re spoiling him,” Kuo pouts. “I don’t get that much loving.”

Star crinkled her nose then stuck her tongue out at Kujo before kissing Six again. “Tell me what the plan is.”

“The plan…” I made my way into the kitchen and yanked open the fridge. “We find Heller and squeeze him.”

“Hard.” Swede added.

“What I don’t get.” Star set Six onto the seat and climbed off. The dog yawned and rested his head on his front legs. “I don’t know who this Osman is. I don’t remember going after anyone named Osman.”

“He’s probably not someone you’ve brought down.” Kujo explained. “It’s probably a friend or a loved one of someone you’ve exposed.”

“We don’t have time to go through all these names one by one,” Swede said. “So, we have to go back to the source.”

“Brian?” Star asked.

“Bingo.” I said. “We’re going to have to make him take us to his boss.”

“Great.” Star rolled her eyes. “Take me to your leader. That’ll work.”

“We may not have to do all that.” Swede was once more working on his computer. “All we have to do—”

He stopped speaking and we all watched silently. It seemed there was an unwritten rule—when Swede was on some sort of a roll, we should all just sit back and wait. Most often than not, Swede comes up with something quite brilliant.

“—follow the mon-neh.” Swede muttered. “Ha! Okay, so I had to do a little more digging because the trail of money went through four different countries before leading back here. But, it trails back to an LLP that hasn’t been used since it was created a year ago. It has an address on it so this might be the breakthrough we need.”

I smiled. “You’re a genius.”

Swede beamed then laughed out loud when Star kissed his head. “Aww shucks,” he said. “You’re only saying that ‘cause it’s true!”

I smirked. “The plan, Kujo, I need you to stay here with Star. Swede, you and I should check this address out.”

“I’m not staying behind,” Star complained.

“Star, I wasn’t asking. I don’t know what we’re walking into and if something happens I’m going to need the extra gun.”

She seemed angry but didn’t argue further. After we got ready, I wanted to kiss her, to hold her against me before leaving. I didn’t expect to die or anything quite so morbid. But I needed the extra boost. Star seemed angry and she stormed from the room when I turned to her. Agitated, I led Swede out the door and hopped into the truck.

We made our way, in silence, to the address Swede had found. After parking in a place I believed wouldn’t seem suspicious, we hiked back through a wooded area and hunched down to watch the ranch. It was large, sprawling and reeked of money—maybe not all legal. It seemed to be two floors along with a bungalow guesthouse to the north of it. Horses grazed behind it, a few chickens ran about the yard and the grass at the front was greener than it had a right to be.

“You know,” Swede said. “If I die in this, I’m haunting your ass.”

I blinked and turned to look at him. He gave me a one shoulder shrug.

“No one’s going to die.” I muttered. “You’re just being dramatic.”

“Maybe.” Swede turned his attention back to the target’s place. “But you won’t be saying that when ghost me is knocking over your coffee first thing in the morning.”

“Ghost or no ghost, wasting my coffee would earn you an ass kicking.”

Swede smiled. “You see that?”

I turned to the ranch, allowing my eyes to follow his motion. There, in the corner, was a camera. I scanned the building as far as I could make out, and there was more than one. No one is that careful anywhere. If we were going to take Heller, we’re going to have to do it when he wasn’t home—or at least inside. If the outside was so heavily guarded, inside would be no joke.

“Well, shit.”

Swede sighed. “We’re going to have to lure him out and you’re not going to like the idea.”

“Let’s hear it.” We shifted positions to get another look at the place, being careful to remain hidden by the trees.

“Use Star as bait.”

“You’re right. I don’t like the idea.”

The conversation ended then but I could I knew Swede wasn’t giving up on the idea. We hung around Heller’s place, getting as close as we could without being seen on the cameras. As far as we could figure, there were cameras and two armed guards. I supposed with the cameras, he didn’t need more than manpower.

Eventually, Swede and I made our way back to the truck.

“Sooner or later.” Swede held onto my arm to stop me. “You’re going to admit to yourself that at this point, Star means more to you than just a job.”

I said nothing. I shrugged from his grasp and climbed into the truck. We drove away from the ranch in silence. Using Star as bait was a bad idea. Usually, I would entertain the plan but with Star—how could I? This woman had seeped under my skin in the short time I’d known her and I just couldn’t get over that. Any number of things could go wrong.

“I didn’t expect this, you know?” I said. “But she’s unlike any woman I’ve ever met. How can I let her go?”

“No one in is asking you to. You’re the one making this more complicated than it needs to be. We’re asking you to trust us. Is that really so hard?”

“You don’t understand…”

“Reaper, I get those guys stabbed you in the back.” Swede’s voice was soft. “You’ve known this group for your entire career. Do you really think so little of us? Do you really think we’d ever leave you behind?”

I gritted my teeth, checked the mirrors and switched lanes to get around a slow moving tractor. “Don’t take it personal…”

“Damn right, I’m taking it personal.” Swede rubbed his throat before leaning in to level steely eyes on me. “Reaper, when we say Brotherhood the name wasn’t chosen lightly. Brotherhood is precisely what we mean. It’s not when shit hits the fan we`ll leave you behind Protectors. Our lives are so intricately woven together and whether we want to admit it or not—whether you want to admit it or not—this is a family, man. The women in our lives understands—they’ve rallied around us and they get we will always be there for each other. The world sucks enough.”

I sighed.

“Nova, is a good friend of mine,” Swede said. “There has never been a time when I’ve called her she hasn’t been there for me. I’m not about to let some dickhead hurt her—are you?”

“No.”

“Then trust us that we’ll protect her. She wants her life back, Reaper. You have the power to give that to her.”

I sighed.

“You have the power to give a lot of things to her.” Swede muttered.

“Ah! You were doing so good!” I couldn’t hide a chuckle.

Swede laughed then winked at me. “Relax a little, Grim. We’ve never let you down before and we’re not about to start now.”

“Got it.”

“Good.” Swede nodded. “Glad we had this talk.”

I grunted.