10. Theo #3
“Sophia Solomon,” Jess waves from the new face to me. “This is Theo. So far, he’s been solicited by Dolly, learned of our incompetence while the idiots out back cry about how dumb they are, and hasn’t asked to touch my belly once.”
“Keeps looking at it though, doesn’t he?”
“Sophia Solomon?” My mind races past the hours and hours of data I’ve scanned the past week. Her name has popped far too often for her not to be important.
Dance studio. Millions in profits in just a year of teaching toddlers. Is she a threat to me? Physically, no. She looks the part of a ballet teacher; tiny, thin, waifish . But she’s not clean, no matter how cute she thinks she looks in tight jeans and glossy lips.
She walked through the back to get here. She’s banked money that doesn’t belong to her. That makes her one of them, and that makes her the enemy. It makes her someone I desperately want to speak to. I want to know her secrets. I want to know who she’s working for at a ground level.
“Can we help you?” Sophia gets a little less ‘Welcome,’ and a little more ‘Get to the fucking point’. “What do you need?”
“My name’s Theo Griffin.” I solidify my voice, and use the very opportunity that’s been handed to me. So much for staying under the radar . “I’m your security tech rep for today.”
Sophia’s brows shoot high as she takes another scan from my jeans to coat. “Theo Griffin?” Her eyes flicker to my shoes. Then to my hands. “ The Theo Griffin? The dude whose name is on all of our shipping boxes?”
I shrug, forcing an air of nonchalance, but failing when that deep voice echoes again from the back. “It’s stupid! I don’t want this system anymore. It’s faulty.”
“It’s not faulty,” I murmur. “It’s intuitive, and I guess maybe your staff are not.”
Jess’ eyes widen when she picks up the arrogance and dismissal in my voice.
“I’m visiting some of my higher-spend accounts…
ya know, a PR thing that my people said I should do.
” I let my eyes slide along Sophia’s body.
I push Libby out of my mind, welcome in my bitterness.
I feed on it, then I step forward and block out the pregnant chick so I can zero in on the dancer.
“I was thinking of getting a bite to eat tonight. You could join me, and we can discuss your security needs.” I lean against Dolly’s desk, present Jess with my back, and slide a finger over the ball of Sophia’s shoulder.
I want it to be Libby’s shoulder.
I want to leave this place and never come back.
“Dinner?” Sophia’s lips firm. She remains in place and allows my finger to move over her skin. “You’d like to get dinner to discuss our security systems?”
I reach into my pocket and pull out a business card.
“I’m to select a representative from each of my accounts.
We sit, talk.” I bite my lip and draw her eyes down to my mouth.
“Have a drink or two. It would be fun, it’s a business expense, you get a free evening…
with me. And I get to look into a beautiful pair of eyes while I talk shop. ”
“Uh… Soph?” Jess’ voice should have been warning enough. “Can we talk a sec?”
“I’d love to get dinner with you.” Soph’s smile is magnetic. She might not be my type, not in the way I consider short, stocky, policewomen my type. But she’s stunning all the same. “Tonight at seven?”
I grin. “Sure.”
“Sophia…”
“Club 188 does a good meal, they’re good people, good tables, good entertainment.”
Club 188 also used to belong to Frankston. This woman, this filth, disrespects me and has no clue. “I’ll get us a table,” I grit between my teeth. I let my most charming smile grow forced, fake, while the thud that my mom’s head made against Hayes’ desk plays in my brain on repeat. “Seven.”
“Sophia!” Jess’ snapped word barely registers past the gunshot in my mind. “We need to talk.”
“I don’t want to talk right now,” Soph chirps. “I’m doing business. Can you go out back and… I dunno. Get busy doing something else?”
“John!” Jess spins away from us as fast as her pregnant body allows. “John D Hamilton! You’re needed at the front desk immediately.”
“Wear something nice,” I continue when Soph’s eyes show absolutely no concern for Jess or her John D Hamilton.
I look around this tiny office; not tiny by usual standards, but tiny compared to mine.
“You never know, maybe you’d like a change of pace.
Something new to look at when you glance out the window. ”
“Yeah?” Sophia sidles closer and gives me the come-hither eyes I wish Libby would.
“This town is such a drag sometimes. Can’t buy much of anything around here, and if you want it to come with a label, you have to take your ass into the city or order online and have it delivered.
Even Griffin tech.” She drags her bottom lip between her teeth, and smiles when my eyes follow the movement.
“Not a single store in town carries your products for the end consumer to buy.”
I lift a brow and let my cover slip. That information genuinely surprises me.
I make a mental note to talk to Annaliese about that as soon as I get back to my room.
We need more reps. More towns. “Sounds like our dinner would be mutually beneficial. I could talk to you about how Griffin can help Checkmate. And you can tell me of the… holes that need to be filled.” Her eyes widen.
Her lips drop into an O. “In the market, of course.”
“Of course,” she purrs.
“What the fuck is going on in here?” That deep voice that shouted of faulty tech now grabs my shoulder and tears me around so my back is to Sophia.
Glittery black eyes. Strong, square jaw.
He looks like Colum, but in the flesh, he looks a hell of a lot like me, too.
“State your business, motherfucker. Then say goodbye to your momma, because I’m about to bury your body in the desert.”
Kane – a little broader, a lot meaner – steps up beside his brother with folded arms and an angrily ticking jaw. He says nothing. He does nothing. He simply stares until my gut nearly drops out of my asshole.
There will be no pissing contests here today, no shouting among men in hopes to win a petty argument. There’s just death; one man will win, and one man will lose.
Unfortunately for them, Jay mentioned my mom, and I’m willing to die for my cause.
My hand shakes, not from fear, but from the flood of adrenaline that pings through my body.
Rage chases it, burning up the energy and leaving behind lava.
Bubbling, angry, boiling hot. “Theo Griffin,” I grit between my teeth.
Neither men take my hand, and when more step up behind the duo, I understand I will not pull a weapon and survive this place today. “Griffin, of Griffin Industries.”
Jay’s jaw ticks as he snatches Sophia’s hand and tears her around his body with a hard yank.
“Had you not been touching my fucking girl, I might be fangirling for you right now. I love your tech, I love your brain, but then you had to go and put your hands on something that belongs to me. Now you risk your life and every fucking limb you possess.”
“Jay,” Sophia growls. “Women are not possessions. I do not belong to anyone.”
My brain files away the fact that Sophia has been claimed by the youngest Bishop, but that she doesn’t tolerate the idea well. I didn’t know I was hitting on his girl, but I’m not sorry for it.
“You need to zip it, Soph.” Jay’s eyes meet mine. His gaze drops to my jaw, to my eyes, down to my jaw again, then back up to my eyes. “State your business, or get the fuck out.”
“Or how about we skip right to the end, and you get the fuck out,” Kane finally breaks his silence. “Whatever you’re selling, we don’t want it.”
“Your company is reliant on Griffin tech,” I answer in a bored tone. “Without Griffin, Checkmate suffers. I’m here as representative for the technology you purchase, so you’re going to want to cool the fuck down.”
Kane takes another step forward and effectively shields his brother from my sight.
He’s my height, a little broader than me.
Possibly, unbelievably, he might almost be angrier than me.
“I will burn my place down with you and your tech inside, motherfucker. Business is just business to me, and if I lose this place, I’ll build another someplace else.
That’s where you can’t relate; if you’re Griffin, you sure as hell ain’t gonna risk what you’ve built.
So now you need to explain to me why you had your hands on her mere seconds after meeting her. ”
“Business.” My word is barely a hum, because he deserves nothing more. “A man is allowed to look, and I assure you, she wasn’t asking me to back up.”
“He was discussing the new prototype,” Sophia pushes around the guys and places herself between me and Kane. “He’d like to discuss it over dinner, and I’m thinking it might be a good idea. Business is business, after all.”
“Absolutely not.” Kane’s gaze sears straight over the top of her head and into my eyes. “You can ask me to dinner, pretty boy. Your offer still open when we switch whose eyes you get to stare into over candlelight?”
Ignoring him, I look back to Sophia, to the woman I know is my enemy, but that doesn’t mean I would pass up an opportunity to talk to her in private. They protect her, which means she’s a liability. It means she’s a weak link that I could work.
I meet her eyes and sign my own death warrant. “Dinner, drinks, and a job.”
Her brows pop high.
“Whatever you make here, I’ll double it. And I’ll get you out of this podunk town and put you up at Griffin Plaza.”
“The plaza?” Her eyes widen. “For real?”
“Forty-three floors in the plaza alone; forty-first is my office. Forty-third is my penthouse apartment.” I pause and let the pressure build. “Forty-second is sandwiched between, and I’d be willing to open it up to new tenants, especially if they’re beautiful like you.”