Bishop's Endgame

by Katie Reus

  He looked at his watch, and after a minute and a half he opened the door to find her wearing pajamas covered in little hearts, sitting on the end of the bed, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

  Shit. If she really was innocent, he was going to feel like the biggest douche in the world. Worse than. Part of him wanted to apologize, to tell her that if she ended up not being tied to her monster of a stepfather, that he truly was sorry for what he’d done. But if she was guilty, he didn’t want to show any weakness. And he’d learned the hard way that when monsters sensed weakness, they’d twist the knife until you were dead.

  No, she needed to think he was ruthless enough to do anything.

  “I’m going to secure one of your hands to the headboard.”

  Stark terror flared in her eyes and he looked away, unable to meet her gaze.

  “I’m not going to hurt you. I just need sleep and I’m not going to risk you sneaking out or knocking me out.”

  “What about your partner?” Her voice vibrated with fear.

  He looked at her again and cleared his throat.

  Understanding dawned in her gaze. “You lied? It’s just you?”

  He lifted a shoulder.

  She gritted her teeth, glaring at him as he snapped a new flex tie to the headboard, then snapped one around her wrist, connecting them.

  Next he cuffed them together as he stretched out on the opposite side of the bed.

  She stared at him for a long moment then rolled onto her side, giving him her back. It pulled his arm into an uncomfortable position, but he figured he probably deserved it at this point.

  He was a light sleeper but he hadn’t wanted to take the chance that she would escape the headboard while he was out. And if they were cuffed together, there was no way that was happening.

  “You’re an asshole,” she muttered as she tried to get comfortable.

  “I’ve been called worse.”

  “Oh, I have no doubt about that,” she snapped. “So did you find those pictures? Did you see that I’m telling the truth?”

  He stared up at the ceiling, his arm stretched out at an uncomfortable angle. “I saw the pictures.”

  “Well?”

  “Well nothing.”

  She let out a growl of frustration and flopped onto her back so that their arms lay between them. “Those aren’t my accounts no matter what you say.”

  “Well if they’re not your accounts, then someone went to a lot of trouble to make it look like they are. Why do you think that is?” He’d used an old contact to help him get those records but now… He knew he was going to have to reach out to someone he genuinely liked, someone with ties to his “real life,” someone he didn’t want to involve in this shit. But he had no choice. Months had passed and he wasn’t making as much progress as he should be.

  Out of the corner of his eye he saw Arianna frown, then bite her bottom lip as she digested his statement. Then she sniffed haughtily. “I’m not believing anything you say, Mr. Kidnapper.” She turned away from him again and to his surprise she fell into a light sleep barely fifteen minutes later.

  Maybe it wasn’t surprising though. She’d been through a shock tonight with being kidnapped and her adrenaline would be crashing hard. Shit, he hadn’t even fed her, he realized. Though to be fair, he hadn’t eaten either.

  Recently food hadn’t been important. Staying alive and trying to find the truth were paramount. He’d thought he would find it tonight with her, that he’d be that much closer to bringing Vitaly to him.

  Now he found himself questioning his decision to take her. Maybe kidnapping Arianna Stavish hadn’t been the smartest decision after all.

  Chapter 4

  “Hey…Kidnapper!” Arianna’s annoyed voice carried through from the next room.

  Ellis pushed his laptop to the side and stood, heading to the bedroom immediately to find her twisting against the sheets, kicking at them in frustration as she yanked on the one wrist still flex-cuffed to the headboard.

  “I’ve got to…use the facilities,” she growled at him. This morning there was no fear in her eyes, just a whole lot of annoyance.

  He shut down his guilt at seeing her like this and quickly released her wrists. Then he grabbed her bag from the floor as she stood. “Take a shower too if you want.” There was nowhere for her to go in there.

  She snatched the bag out of his hand and hurried into the bathroom, slamming it with wall-shaking force. Oh yeah, she’d moved into pure anger territory and he didn’t blame her. The fear would be back once she’d woken up a little more, but for now she was pissed. He preferred anger to the fear.

  He hadn’t been able to sleep long next to her, but he’d grabbed a few hours of rest at least, and for the last three hours he’d been digging even deeper into her background. As much as he could with his limited resources. But he was now fairly sure his former CI had lied to him. Which was what he got for trusting someone with a lengthy criminal background. And he had no way to go after the guy for his lies either. He couldn’t go to his former boss—the traitor.

  Ellis was also pretty sure that someone had directed the CI to lie, though he wasn’t sure why. Because the information he had on the bank accounts was real. But the deeper he looked, something about the way the accounts had been set up—and when—was all off. So it seemed clear that someone had wanted him to go after Arianna. But why? To throw him off the right trail, maybe?

  Unfortunately there was only so much he could do on his own. He’d always relied on a team and tech-savvy analysts to do all the digging while he’d done what he was good at. Undercover work with assholes.

  At the sound of the shower starting, he sat on the edge of the bed because he was pretty sure Arianna was going to try to run again. He’d be surprised if she didn’t try.

  He looked at his watch and started timing her. Sixty seconds passed before the door creaked open.

  Arianna peeked out, her expression tight. When she saw him sitting on the bed, she let out a growl of frustration then slammed the door again. This time he heard the rustle of the shower curtain and knew she was actually getting inside.

  As he sat there, one of his burner phones buzzed in his pocket. He recognized the number and answered immediately. “Yeah?”

  “Is this who I think it is?” a familiar female voice tentatively asked.

  He allowed himself a small sigh of relief. He’d left a vague message, hoping she understood the code. “Yes.”

  “What took you so long to reach out to me?” Lizzy Caldwell shouted at him.

  He winced slightly. He’d known Lizzy—hacker extraordinaire—for ages, and though they’d taken different career paths, they ran in a lot of the same circles. And she was also friends with his brother-in-law and brother. “I didn’t want to get you in trouble for having contact with me. Even you can’t talk your way out of working with a wanted felon. It’s called accessory after the fact. And there are some really dangerous people involved in this mess.”

  She snorted as if he was completely stupid. “That’s bullshit.”

  “Maybe so, but I wasn’t going to put a friend in danger. Your husband would have killed me himself if I’d done that.”

  She sniffed slightly. “Fine. I’ll just kick your ass later—and you’re not wrong about Porter. Anyway, I got your cryptic message. What’s going on?”

  He certainly wasn’t going to tell her that he’d kidnapped someone, so he cleared his throat. “I need you to dig deep on a woman named Arianna Stavish. Her stepfather is Vitaly Rodin.” She’d never taken the guy’s name, something Ellis found interesting.

  “I know his name, not hers,” she murmured and he could hear the soft sound of fingers moving over a keyboard in the background.

  “Look, what I’m asking you to dig into is dangerous. You need to be aware of that. I didn’t kill Carter—”

  “No kidding. Of course I know that! I can’t believe you even felt the need to defend yourself.”

  He couldn’t tell her ho
w good it felt to have someone who wasn’t family actually believe him, to not have to try to convince her that he wasn’t a murdering traitor. Because the truth was, he had reached out to a few former contacts and they’d all told him to lose their number. “Look…Vitaly killed Carter. I saw him do it.”

  Lizzy swore softly.

  He bit back the grief that still welled up inside him whenever he said Carter’s name or thought about him. Considering he’d had a lot of time to himself the last few months, that had been often. “I’ve been working blind, basically, trying to dig for information on my own. But it’s difficult to do that when I’m trying to stay alive and on the run.” And while he was good with computers, he wasn’t a hacker like Lizzy. He’d emailed himself that video of Vitaly killing Carter, but Kyle Bird had gotten to his account first and erased everything. If Ellis ever got his hands on his former boss, he didn’t know that he’d be able to control his rage. “I don’t even know if my former team knows about my relationship with you, but in case—”

  “They do. They questioned me months ago,” she said. “Hey, I actually helped your brother-in-law and sister out with something not too long ago. And your brother, but that was for something different. Freaking Bishops are racking up the favors lately,” she murmured, her voice teasing.

  Yeah he’d heard about that. His sister Evie and Lizzy had never actually met, as far as he knew, because they were different ages and Evie had split town as soon as she’d gotten recruited by the CIA. But Evie’s husband knew Lizzy. “I need you to look into some other things related to the daughter. I found some bank accounts, including a big one in the Cayman Islands in her name. Millions of dollars’ worth. I’m ninety-nine percent certain the accounts are real. I need to know if she’s dirty, because until this morning I thought she was, but now…I’m questioning myself. And I don’t know how to say this, but there are some dirty people in the DEA.” He gave her Bird’s name, the name of the CI who’d given up information on Arianna, and other pertinent info because Lizzy needed to know what she was working with. He didn’t work for the DEA anymore and was wanted for murder so screw it. He was spilling secrets.

  She snorted softly. “I don’t know your former boss, but I’m not surprised by the revelation. Working for the DEA is too damn dangerous.”

  Yeah, he hated to admit it was true, but they’d had to get rid of a few bad apples in the last couple years—and that wasn’t out of the norm. Of all the agencies, the DEA had the highest level of turnover and people who turned traitor. Not like he had stats or anything, but it made sense, considering the type of work they did. It was difficult to stay in the job long term because it was easy to lose focus on what they were trying to do. Especially for some people who were surrounded by criminals with ridiculous amounts of wealth and seemingly never got burned for it. It made it easier for certain agents to start thinking they should get a cut too. Ellis had grown up with wealth, so turning traitor for money had never occurred to him.

  “Is there anyone you trust there?”

  “Yeah…two people.” He knew there were more trustworthy people in the administration but only two he’d stick his neck out for, and who he was certain would do the same for him. “But I’m not reaching out to them.” He’d had to cut ties completely, had to make it easier on his friends because if they got targeted by the higher-ups due to their relationship with him, he’d never forgive himself. As far as he knew, both of them still had their jobs, but he knew they would’ve been questioned thoroughly after he got burned. And he knew they’d been watched heavily at least for the first month he was on the run.

  “Names.”

  Sighing, he said, “Laura Leonard and Neil Vale. But leave them alone.”

  “I’m not contacting them. Just trying to get a picture of who you trust and who you don’t. It might come in handy later if we need them.”

  Yeah, he understood that. “When you look into the woman, you’ve got to be careful because I don’t know who else might be keeping tabs on her. No one can know of your interest in Arianna.”

  “This isn’t my first rodeo, Ellis. Now how are you? Do you need anything? Money, a place to stay? I won’t ask you where you are, but…let me help you if you need it.”

  He smiled at her concern, glad he hadn’t been wrong about contacting her. Not that he’d thought he would be. He just hated bringing Lizzy into this. She was a mom now and he hadn’t been joking about her husband. Porter would put a bullet in him if he thought Ellis had put her in danger. “You could probably find me if you tried.” Because she was that good.

  “I did try early on, but you were moving around too much. Since it was clear you didn’t want to be found, I let it alone.”

  He sighed as he heard the water shut off and then the rustling of the shower curtain. “I’m close enough,” he said quietly. “And I need this information whenever you get it. You’ve got that email address.” When he’d contacted her earlier, he’d included a throwaway email address for her to send him any intel.

  “Okay. Please stay safe.”

  “I will.” After they disconnected, he took out the battery and broke the phone in half just as the bathroom door opened up.

  Little waves of steam billowed out as Arianna stepped out of the bathroom wearing jeans and a red and white sweater with little dancing reindeer all over it. Jesus, she looked so young and innocent and that sinking feeling from last night was getting worse and worse. She looked everything like he thought an elementary school teacher should be, not a mastermind criminal who had millions of dollars offshore and was helping her stepfather flood the streets with poison.

  He stood as she took another step into the room. “Are you hungry?”

  She wrapped her arms around herself and nodded.

  “Come on, then.” He would feed her and give her all the information he had, and hope that when he next contacted Lizzy she would have more information for him. He couldn’t let Arianna go until he knew for sure she wasn’t involved in any of this.

  “You’re not wearing a mask,” she murmured as they headed for the stairs, her voice tight. Edgy.

  “I’m not planning on killing you, if that’s what you’re worried about.” She was silent in front of him, not responding one way or the other. Which…was fair. “I took off my mask because I wanted to create some sort of trust between us,” Ellis said as they entered the kitchen.

  She turned to look at him with an are you kidding me expression.

  He didn’t blame her. He’d destroyed any option of trust between them. Hell, he’d set it on fire, then salted the earth. Still, he was going to have to try to gain her trust a little at this point if she was truly innocent. “My name is Ellis Bishop. You probably saw me on the news months ago.” And a few times since then, though the media’s interest in his story had waned. They had much bigger things to deal with right now.

  Frowning, she sat at the center island as he passed her a banana. He really didn’t have much here but he would give her access to everything he did. “Bishop…” She peeled the banana then her gaze flew to his. “Oh my God, I didn’t recognize you because of your beard. I know of your mom and sister-in-law,” she rasped out. “You’re that agent who murdered…” She trailed off, the last few words a whisper as she set down the banana, staring at him in horror.

  “Eat. It’s been a long time since you had any food in your system. And I didn’t kill anyone. I’m being set up.”

  Frowning, she picked up the banana and started eating.

  “I’ve got coffee or water,” he said. Then he snorted. “Or beer.” A six-pack he hadn’t touched since he’d bought it weeks ago from a gas station with no security cameras.

  Her eyes flared with anger then but she quickly masked it and he wasn’t sure what he’d said.

  “Water is fine.” Her words were tight.

  He grabbed her a bottle from the fridge and slid it across the countertop. “I’ve got more fruit and oatmeal. Or Pop-Tarts?”

  “Oatmeal is fine
.”

  “For the record, because I didn’t know you knew my family, no one is aware that I kidnapped you.”

  “Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

  “No, I just didn’t want you to think my family…”

  “Is as horrible as you?” she asked pointedly, taking the final bite of her banana, polishing it off neatly.

  “More or less.” When he heard a soft ding on his other burner phone indicating he had an email message, he checked it as he put the oatmeal in the microwave. He still kept an eye on Arianna out of the corner of his eye, and as he read over the details his gut tightened even more. He looked over the PDF documents, quickly scanning them, but Lizzy’s message was the most important.

  Looks like the daughter is clean. Accounts in her name were set up by someone else. It’s a very tidy job, however. Professional. Someone wants to set her up for something. Maybe not now, but eventually. Looks as if they’re laying groundwork. And I had to dig for this information. Government or a real pro did this. She might be in trouble. Gonna keep digging. Also, your former CI is dead. Killed in a drive-by.

  Frowning, he tucked his cell phone into his back pocket and looked across the countertop at Arianna with new eyes. He felt like the shittiest person in the world. He’d kidnapped an innocent woman from her home last night. Maybe he did deserve to go to jail after all. Once he cleared his name from killing Carter, he would come clean about kidnapping Arianna. “When you’re done eating, I want to show you something.”

  She simply watched him instead of responding so he pulled the oatmeal out of the microwave.

  “Are you going to eat?” she asked as he set the bowl in front of her.

  He leaned against the countertop and shook his head. But he could tell he was unnerving her—no surprise, since he’d kidnapped her—so he started making coffee even though he didn’t want any more. As soon as he started moving around, she dug into her food. “Are you sure you don’t want more?”

  “I’m kind of afraid I might throw it up if I think too long on…where I am.”