14. Libby
Libby
Busted
M y world has exploded. My past as I knew it has been erased, and this new reality has slammed into place where Gunner Bishop was never dead at all.
Now he’s here, and he owns the eyes that have haunted me for so long.
The eyes that I couldn’t let go of, the eyes that drew me in and ensnared my heart in spite of the cautions my brain was throwing down.
I wish we were home in bed, if only to have the luxury of silence, of comfort, and of the chance to talk through the way he’s completely fucked everything up.
Gunner Bishop ruined my life when he made promises to a little girl. And now Theo Griffin is here to continue that path of destruction.
I wanted that boy. I would still take that boy.
But this man who has kazillions in the bank, questionable morals, two decades of missing history, and zero respect for other people’s personal space or homes – add in that Bishop blood, and he’s a boiling pot of terrible choices at this point in my life.
He’s certain to be my undoing. Everything I’ve worked for, the distance I’ve created between my version of Tate, and my father’s version, the modest life I live, the respect I’ve earned in my work and personal relationships; it’ll all blow up when I bring Theo Griffin home and declare him mine.
And I will; he’s been mine since I was a child.
The people in my world will question how he came to be the business magnate he is, and when they question, my heart will break.
Their questions are as inevitable as death, but we’re not afforded the luxury of a minute to talk and prepare ourselves, because someone knocks at the door and sends me into a tailspin.
“Hey, Tate, you in there?”
My heart stops dead when Alex’s voice registers on the other side of the door.
“Oh God. Oh my God!” My voice is barely a whisper, but a screech too, and sends me scrambling off Gunner’s lap. Gunner. Theo. Bishop. Griffin. Whoever he wants to be known as, both are bad for me. But put them together, and it’s an explosion waiting to happen.
I jump to my feet and thank the universe for the music downstairs that hides the noise I make as I trip into my jeans and tug my shoes back on.
Theo watches me in silence for a moment, as though shocked I’d run just because someone knocked on the door.
I toss his shirt at his face and tug him to his feet. “Get dressed! Right now. No.” I push him toward the window instead. “Just get out.”
He stops and spins with a snarl. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
“Get out!” I hiss. “My boss cannot know about… anything!”
“I’m not Bishop.” He grabs my flailing hands and tugs me to a stop as X rattles the door handle. “I’m not Bishop. That’s why I have Griffin, that’s why I have this identity. It’s clean.”
“It is not!” I push him toward the window and yank it open. “Bishop blood fills your veins, and Griffin money is too damn much to be attached to my name.”
“What?” He swings back around and stops me. “What the hell are you talking about? Griffin is completely legitimate.”
“And I’m the daughter of a crooked cop, sleeping with a man whose last name is either that of a bad, bad man, or a man with lots and lots of cash. This looks bad no matter which way we slice it.”
“You can’t be serious right now.” Despite his arguments, his leg still swings out of the window when I push.
“I worked my fucking ass off to build Griffin Industries, and now you’re ashamed to be seen with me?
The Bishop thing, sure! Be afraid of that one.
But he’s dead. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. ”
“I’d rather the Bishop boy was still alive! His daddy would be a prick, but he’d still be here.”
I push him out onto the fire escape and ignore the wounded expression in his eyes as I shut the window. I snap the curtains closed and cast a glance around the room as Alex’s knocking becomes panicked.
“Shit. Okay. Ugh!” I push a hand through my hair, but ignore the mess when my palm passes over dried blood. I’m allowed to look like a mess. I was knocked the hell out tonight. I sprint across the office as the door literally rattles on its hinges, and swing it open before Alex can break it down.
“Shit!” My chief pulls himself up before accidentally bowling me over. Clutching me to his chest, he allows his eyes to roam over my face and slow on the spots I know firsthand hurt. “Jesus Christ, Libby. How many shots did that asshole take?”
He walks into the office, leading Oz and Drake, and behind them, Sophia and Jay loiter by the door. Soph pokes her head in and looks around, and when she doesn’t find Theo, she lifts a brow and bites her lips together.
She knows. She knows my secrets!
“Just one shot.” I pat Alex’s hand as it rests on my cheek and he takes stock of my injuries. “It was just a super shitty backhand that he didn’t mean to make. He had momentum on his side.” I meet Drake’s eyes for backup. He was there. He saw it happen.
But then Theo’s semen slides along my inside thigh, and I can’t maintain eye contact anymore.
That brings Drake’s brows up, because I’ve never broken eye contact with him before.
It’s all unraveling. One single time with Gunner, and all of my hard work is unraveling.
“Why were you locked away in here, Lib?” Holding my chin, Alex tilts my head from one side to the other. “I thought you passed out or some shit. You can’t do that if you have a concussion.”
I step back out of his reach and let his hand fall. “I wasn’t asleep, just resting for a moment. And I don’t think I have a concussion. Luc didn’t seem to be worried.”
Sophia knows differently, so her lips remain clamped between her teeth in a dangerous threat. It takes just one word, one syllable to blow my world open.
“You can come back to my place tonight,” X declares. “The baby is still up six hundred times a night, so when we get up to check on her, we can check in on you too.”
“Alex, no–”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“She can stay with us.” Soph walks into the office with a cute smile and waves Alex off.
She hooks her arm in mine and pulls me away.
“We already organized it. She graciously accepted our offer when Luc was in here fixing her split lip… which looks worse now than it did before,” she murmurs.
“We’re heading out now. Can she clock out, Chief? ”
“Yeah.” Alex turns and follows us with his eyes. “Luc said no hospital?”
I shake my head and stumble forward as Soph pulls me along. “No hospital. Luc said it’s fine and left me to rest for a minute.”
“Okay, well…” Alex seems lost as I’m pulled away. “Rest up, okay? Scared the shit out of me when Drake called it in.”
“I’m okay, X. Takes more than a drunk asshole to put me on my ass.”
“I’m not okay,” he murmurs. “You were off shift, I pulled you in. I should have brought you in to babysit Doyle while I came here. Now you have a black eye and a massive bruise on your face.”
“I’m okay, X. Everything is gonna be fine.”
“You’re off tomorrow, okay?”
“What?” I stop on a dime and pull Sophia to a screeching halt. “Why? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You got knocked the fuck out while on shift! What do you mean why ? Take tomorrow and rest. Actually, no.” He waves me away. “It’s the weekend; you’re off tomorrow and Sunday. Report on Monday, but if you’re still messed up, I might push through more leave for you.”
“I don’t need special treatment, X. I’m a squad member just like everyone else.”
“Right, and that time Oz knocked himself out when he forgot to duck to climb into the cruiser?”
I burst out in the kind of crazy laughter that proves my head isn’t as right as it normally is. “He’s so dumb sometimes.”
Alex’s lips twitch. “Exactly. He took the next day off and needed to be babied by his wife because he had a headache. This isn’t special treatment, Lib, this is me taking care of my squad. Go home and eat your cookies. You earned the right to sleep in.”
“Okay.” I let Sophia lead me into the hall and away from the office I had sex in. Oh my God! I had sex with Gunner-friggin-Bishop in that room. “I need to use the bathroom.” I swing away from Soph and push into the ladies’ room to my right.
The door swings closed as I rush to the toilets and heave, but nothing comes up.
I want to spew. I want to purge my body of the worry, the grief, the anxiety that Gunner Bishop creates in my soul, but I can’t even have that.
My body refuses to bring anything up, so instead I dry heave and send a splitting ache tearing through my head to pulse at the temples.
“Elizabeth Tate.” Soph closes the bathroom door and flips the locks as tears stream over my face. “You need to talk to me, girlfriend.”
“I don’t know anything.”
“I didn’t even ask yet.” She’s still in that mini skirt and high heels that make her tower over me. “Who is Theo Griffin to you?”
“He’s nobody. I met him a week ago.”
“Why was he in that office when we closed the door, why did the door remain closed for half an hour, and when it was opened again, he was gone?” She pulls me to my feet when my wish to spew refuses to come true.
We’re not eye-to-eye. We’re not even close.
“Talk to me, Tate. Because that dude came into the office today, and he was trying to play me.”
“I don’t know.” Tears flow over my cheeks.
I can’t say. I can’t tell her what he hasn’t already told her. Even if technically, he would be her brother-in-law if she and Jay ever marry.
Oh God. Kane and Jay don’t know they have a brother . “I don’t know his business. But I know I saw him on a date with you tonight.”
She scoffs. “Yeah, and when you walked in, I was dead to him. I saw him run to you like his ass was on fire. I saw him catch you. I saw him carry you. I saw you snuggle into his damn lap like you might drown if he let go. We gave you guys privacy, and now he’s missing, and I’ve been saddled with the tab for dinner.
Something smells like fish, Libby. Something is up with that man, and you know more than you’re letting on. ”
“I can’t…” I turn to the sinks and splash water over the uninjured side of my face. “I don’t know his business.”
“Why do his records only go back eleven years?” She stares into the mirror and meets my eyes with a glare. “Why does he simply not exist before the age of twenty-one?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why is he the owner of a massive tech giant, but his education records simply don’t exist?”
I hide my face and splash more water. “I don’t know.”
“Why did he escape onto the fire exit just because Alex was at the door?”
“I don’t know.”
Sophia grabs my arm and spins me so fast that my brain rattles inside my skull. I might’ve told Alex there’s no concussion, but it was a lie. It was a bald-faced lie.
“You have to know something , Tate. You’re a good fucking cop, one of the best in this town, but you don’t know the dude whose arms you were snuggled in an hour ago? I call bullshit.”
“I don’t know! I don’t know who he is, but you seem to forget your place. I’m an officer of the law, and you’re starting to get on my nerves. Back up, ballerina, and quit while you’re on this side of a jail cell.”
Her eyes glitter with something dangerous. I don’t really know this woman. I’ve met her, she seems cool, but we’re hardly friends.
She leans in now, and glares. “Why, when I look at him, do I feel things in here?” She grabs my hand and presses it to her chest. “Why do I feel something in my gut when he stares into my eyes? When his hand slides over my skin, when he thinks he’s seducing me, but we both know it’s a farce?
Why, Libby? Why do I feel these things?”
“Probably the same reason I do! I don’t know him, okay? But he makes my stomach do weird things too. He makes my heart beat faster. But it’s as explainable as your stomach.”
“You lie.” Her dark eyes follow mine each time I try to look away. “Who is he, Officer Tate? Who is that man, and don’t tell me his name is Theo Griffin.”
“Theo Griffin is what his license says.”
“I know that. You think I don’t know everything he has on record?”
I shrug and try to turn away, but she grabs me and spins me back one last time. “Does he know about your addiction, Elizabeth? Does he know your weakness?”
I recoil with a hiss and lift a balled fist. “You’re a fucking asshole, Sophia. You have no business looking my shit up.”
“I need to know who’s around me. I’m sorry you have a secret that hurts you, but my family comes before yours.
Jay’s safety comes before Theo’s. So tell me what you know, and I’ll forget what I know.
Jess is just days away from having her babies; if you allow my family to be in danger, then you’ll be my first sacrifice.
Zero hesitation, zero remorse. I’ve lost one sister already, I won’t lose another. ”