10. Theo #4
“Motherfucker!” Jay lunges so fast that his fist snaps my head around before I can lift my hands.
I slam into the receptionist’s desk, catching myself, but remain on my feet while the rest of the room erupts and holds Jay back.
“I’ll kill you, Griffin! I’ll take you out and bury you in a shallow grave. ”
“Dude!” A tall fucker, the tallest in the room, pins Jay to the wall six feet away and holds him down despite his animalistic roar or the strength with which he tries to escape. “If he’s Griffin, he has more money than God. Our lawyers and his aren’t compatible.”
“I don’t give a fuck about lawyers! His lawyers have no case if they have no body.”
“Dude!”
“You don’t hit on someone else’s girl!” Jay roars. “You don’t try to break up a family! I don’t give a fuck how much money you have; money cannot buy the things I have.”
“Stop.” Soph rushes toward him, slipping between Jay and his captor, and presses her body against his.
Thigh to thigh, chest to chest. Her hands come to his face and try to calm the bull.
“You need to stop. He’s being a dick, maybe he thinks I’ll respond to the D rather than an above-the-table business proposition.
But he does wanna talk business, and I wanna listen.
” When Jay thrashes and almost pulls free, Sophia says a word that makes everyone in the room freeze.
“Jericho. Hey.” She grabs his jaw in a rough hand and waits for his eyes. “Jericho. You need to calm yourself.”
He’s like a wild animal. His eyes swing from me to her almost like he’s high and can’t focus. “Sugar Plum?”
“You need to relax. You can’t kill a man because he’s arrogant and likes my legs.”
“Yes,” he murmurs. “I actually can. I can kill a man for any fucking reason that I want.” His eyes swing up and stop on mine.
“You stay away from my family. Take your tech, take your lawyers, take your money and arrogant ass and get out of my town. Checkmate is cutting ties with Griffin technology – effective immediately.”
A man I recognize from the hours I’ve spent studying the Bishops steps forward and offers a hand. Eric DeWhit is a former agent, just like Kane and Jay. Maybe he’s the third in Colum’s trifecta. Colum lost me, but he gained another.
“We don’t want your business.” He leans forward and grabs my hand in a tight grasp. “Walk away and don’t come back. Griffin is no longer our preferred supplier, which means you have no business here. Move off of our property and don’t return.”
“I want a meet.”
“And instead, you’ll end up eating through a straw for the rest of your life if you don’t walk away. We do not fuck with families, and you just tried to take his queen. Move along.”
Jay slams his tall friend back with a rough shove and pushes through the hall into the back room.
Something crashes against the concrete floor.
Something else crashes. Then with a grunt, he comes back to us with a large tool case type box and tosses a thirty-thousand-dollar prototype at my feet.
Bits of plastic and metal snap from the case and rain all over the floor.
Sharp corners nick my legs, but Jay remains strong, grabs his Sophia, and pulls her under his arm.
“We don’t fuck with families. An hour ago, I’d have squealed like a girl if I knew you were coming here.
I’ve got a hard on for brains and ingenuity.
You ask anyone around here, and they’ll tell you I was a fan.
But then you try to take the only person I live for.
Now you walk away having gained an enemy, and it’s never a smart move to anger a Bishop.
” He waves to the door. “Leave. Don’t come back. ”
I’m not entirely sure what I expected to gain by coming here today, except, perhaps, to prove that my identity remains hidden.
I’ve put a smear on Griffin today, but they have no clue I’m a Bishop too.
They say family is sacred, but they have no idea that biologically, we are one.
The brotherhood they share, the kind I’ve never known, as Kane once again steps in front of his brother, spikes my anger.
Fuck .
I leave my system on the floor and walk out the way I came. Through the doors, along a footpath, over the sidewalk, and then I tear my door open and slide into my car.
Slamming the door again, I smash my hand down over the steering wheel until something deep in the steering column cracks.
My mom’s head slamming against Colum’s desk plays in my mind.
Over and over and over again. Run ! She was being hurt, she was being raped by those mongrels’ father.
The last thing she ever knew was pain, then darkness as her brain spilled out onto the desk, and her son was sent running for his life.
I was willing to stay away, to stay in my building seven hours away, but then I had to find money that doesn’t belong to them. I had to meet them, and within seconds, they had to throw my mom in my face.
Why did we have to go to the club that day ? I slam my hand on the steering wheel again. Why did it have to go down that way ? “Fuck!”
“Griffin!” Sophia runs around the side of the building as though she came from the garage out back. Frowning, I watch her sprint and cast glances back to the front doors as though afraid those inside might run out and grab her.
She jogs to my side of the car and waits as I wind my window down.
“Dinner at seven.” She tosses a business card through the window so it lands on my lap.
“I wanna hear what you have to say. No man controls me, and I know you’re smart.
This is a small-ass town, and sometimes the lack of anything except cousins fucking cousins bores me. ”
She’s their weak link. This is exactly why they were keeping her under wraps. Sophia Solomon, the leggy dancer, will be the Bishops’ downfall.
“188?”
She nods and turns away with a grin. “Seven o’clock. I’ll dress up.”
I watch her walk away and reenter the building via the way she came. I wait a moment, as an odd sense of responsibility washes over me.
If she’s caught talking to me, will they hurt her?
Will they blow up?
More importantly, why the fuck do I care?
She’s a dancer whose ballet studio is the laundry for dirty money.
After meeting her and the Bishops, a part of me wonders if they use her as a front.
Legitimate dance school and a pretty airhead, send their money through her, bring it out the other side shiny and clean, and should they ever be caught, Sophia Solomon is the only name attached to that business; she’s the only person who will go down.
Maybe she’s not his queen at all, but his fucking goat.
And now I care.
Shaking my head, I switch the ignition on and pull out of the parking space. Passing Checkmate’s front doors, I catch sight of Kane Bishop standing behind them with his arms folded and his eyes trained on the side of my face.
I don’t look. I give no indication that I see him. I move along, just as ordered, and at six thirty that evening, I dress in my business best and secure the cufflinks on my shirt.
Libby is off-shift, she’s at home, tucked away safe for the evening, and I’m going to dinner with the wrong woman.
It feels wrong to take advantage of Sophia in a similar way that the Bishops are taking advantage.
Maybe it’s the blood that runs through our veins, or maybe she’s just the handiest chink in everyone’s armor.
Whatever it is, I’m going to exploit it.
I’m sorry, Sophia Solomon, but your piece needs to be removed from the chessboard that rules our lives.