Bishop's Pawn

by Suzanne Halliday

  A roar of activity outside let them know Sam was having a helluva’ time clearing the snow from the driveway. He was grateful for the short respite. Gave him time to get his thundering libido under control. Bringing his sexy little lover to a spellbinding climax with nothing more than his hand in her panties affected him in surprising ways. Controlling his passions was second nature, something he had a damn difficult time doing around her.

  Through the kitchen window he saw the truck and plow finally shut down in the parking spot Sam cleared. The passenger door flew open and a small boy scrambled over the woman seated there. He dropped onto the white covered ground and started running for the back door.

  His heart started to pound the closer the lad got. A black knit hat tucked into the neck of his winter coat covered his head leaving only a face peeking out. Right away he noted that the kid moved with the same exuberance he saw in Liam.

  And then his face came into focus. Holy fucking shit. Matthew Liam James was the spitting image of Kelly only with Liam’s coloring, which meant he basically looked like a junior doppelgänger of his older half-brother.

  He barely had his surprise back under wraps when the boy bounded up the back stairs hollering, “Kik! I’m home.”

  Kelly raced across the living room and dashed toward the mudroom with a broad smile on her face.

  “Mateo!” she crowed loudly as the back door banged shut. “Cómo estás?”

  “Muy bien,” a little voice answered.

  That sound? It was Roman’s jaw hitting the floor. She was teaching the boy languages. He also noticed that just like his sister, Matty had a flawless east coast accent.

  Nervousness and worry started bumping uglies inside him. Had he ever before cared what a kid thought of him? Probably not. But this? He was clever enough to realize that only his whole future hung on what happened next—when Kelly introduced them.

  He gulped like a cartoon character, quickly tucked in his shirt properly and smoothed his hair. Good god, he thought. You’d think I was meeting the Pope or something. The conversation coming from the mudroom kept him riveted.

  “’N Gigi said I could have two cookies because I drank all my milk, Kik!”

  “No boots in the house, young man.”

  Muffled sounds of a jacket being hung and boots taken off made their way into the house. When Kelly spoke again, Roman had to steel himself for what was about to happen.

  “Please god, don’t let me fuck this up.”

  “Sam let me steer,” Matty proudly announced as they started down the hallway. The second they came into the kitchen and the kid saw him, Roman blanched when Matty’s knee jerk reaction was to shield his sister with his little body.

  Kelly put her hand on the boy’s shoulder and squeezed. She met Roman’s eyes but he wasn’t able to read her expression.

  “It’s okay Matty. This is a friend of mine. He has a very cool name. Wanna hear it?”

  Roman stopped breathing. Matty’s fiercely protective gaze checked him out from head to toe. For a brief moment their eyes met. It was disconcerting to find Liam Junior staring at him.

  Finally, after an eternity of waiting, the boy nodded yes and looked up at his sister.

  Kelly’s gentle smile was filled with love for the boy. Roman wished she’d look at him the same way.

  “Get this,” she chuckled playfully. “He calls himself Roman Bishop! Awesome, huh?”

  Steely grey blue eyes narrowed and then widened as a small smile crept onto the boy’s face. Without the hat, Roman saw Matty’s hair was the same dirty blonde as Liam’s. In many ways the kid was a miniature version of his much older half-brother.

  “Roman,” she continued. His eyes swung to hers. “This handsome young man is Matthew James.”

  Uh, fuck. What was he supposed to do? The weirdest thought from out-of-the-blue hit him full on. What Would Major Marquez Do? Odd time to think about his good friend and former commanding officer, but that’s where his mind went. He supposed the reason was simple. Alex Marquez was, simply put, the best man he’d ever known besides his own parent and grandfathers. Surely his mentor would know exactly what this situation called for.

  Channeling the other man’s impeccable manners, he took a knee so he’d be on the boy’s level. Alex would call this a gesture of respect. Roman wanted the kid to know he understood Matty’s place in Kelly’s life. Holding his hand out for some tribal mano-e-mano, he smiled and gave the boy his due.

  “I’m pleased to meet you, Matthew James. May I call you Matty?”

  The ball is in your court, kid. He waited, his hand hanging in mid-air. Finally, after a long, tense silence, he slotted his tiny hand into Roman’s bigger one and confidently declared, “I’m the man of the house.”

  At that moment a bunch of things happened. Roman watched as Kelly’s mouth gaped open and she stared at the boy as if she’d never seen him before. Simultaneously, an older woman appeared in their midst. She too had the same dumbfounded, mouth open expression Kelly had.

  The woman spoke quietly to Kelly. “He’s talking, Kiki.”

  Kelly whispered, “I know.”

  Matty, on the other hand, ignored them both and kept focused on Roman.

  “Are you here to take our land?”

  Jesus Christ! What? He looked at Kelly for help.

  She was already on it. “No, Matty. Oh my god. Honey, no. He’s not after the house. I told you. Roman is my friend.”

  Roman got comfortable on his knees and tried to hide his confusion over the ladies’ reaction and wrap his mind around the cross examination card this really young kid was hell bent on playing.

  “Are you from the big city?”

  This was one of those times when the observation skills he relied on as an interrogator came in super handy. Assured by his sister that Roman wasn’t a threat, his segue question revealed a lot.

  Once again, he saw glimpses of Liam’s quirky curiosity in the boy’s manner. If the kid was interested in life beyond a patch of woods, maybe he could use that as an advantage because he was beginning to suspect Kelly was going to dig in her heels and refuse the life waiting for her.

  “Why, yes I am, Matthew.” He hadn’t been given permission to call him by his nickname so he didn’t. “I’m from the best city. New York. Ever heard of it?”

  “Maybe.”

  Roman silently applauded the kid’s chutzpah. Good for him. Not being a pushover was a worthy trait.

  “Are there dinosaurs in New York?”

  Kelly let out a small groan. The old lady chuckled. Roman remembered the dinosaur books and toys in the living and smiled. He had him.

  “Indeed there are.” Matty gasped, and his eyes lit up, going from cloudy and gray to brilliant blue. “At a wonderful place called the American Museum of Natural History. Have you ever been to a museum?”

  No prevarication this time, just a long, grumpy, “Nooo.”

  Above Matty’s head, Kelly sighed and rolled her eyes. The other woman reached out, patted her shoulder and smirked.

  “Well, maybe Kelly will take you someday.”

  Matty stared at him so hard Roman was sure the kid could read his thoughts and probably, without much effort, see into his very soul. He was going to need to stay on his toes around this one.

  Roman felt the seismic shift that made Kelly waver where she stood when Matty left his protective blocking position and took two steps toward him. He cocked his head to the left to regard the captivating little man in front of him as Matty tilted his head in the opposite direction. The synchronous movements moved him in an unfamiliar way.

  In a kid whisper that was profoundly louder than was necessary, Matty informed him, “I call her Kiki. Kik for short. Know why?”

  Roman shook his head. “Nope. Tell me.”

  “Cuz she’s short,” the kid whooped with enthusiastic glee. Looking back at his sister for agreement he said, “Right, Kik?”

  “Matthew James,” Kelly sniffed. “Not nice.”

  The older
woman laughed along with Matty and came toward him with her hand out, “I’m Ginny in case you haven’t put that together yet.”

  He gave her a polite nod, stood up and shook her hand. When they were eyeball to eyeball she subjected him to an impressive ocular pat down. Her eyes narrowed and she turned sharply to Kelly. “Kik, take Matty and go help Sam clear snow off Bandit. There’s something I want to discuss with Mr. Bishop.”

  “Uh…” That was all Kelly squeaked out before being summarily dismissed.

  “Go on now. Do as you’re told.” Ginny gestured for them to clear out.

  He was quite astonished when the woman who pushed back against every fucking word he uttered meekly acceded to the woman’s demand. She reacted the way he used to when his grandmother would use that certain tone. The one that suggested all manner of punishment for refusing.

  When the room emptied, Roman’s confidence evaporated under the woman’s wilting glare. Some badass I am, he thought.

  Ginny stalked him into an actual corner and boxed him in. He’d survived blistering attacks and stealthy ambushes but surviving her onslaught was another thing altogether. Jesus, this lady was good.

  “Mr. Bishop,” she began in a voice reminiscent of his seventh grade math teacher. The one with the stick up her butt who made his twelve-year-old life bloody hell. “I know we have things to talk about. Important things, but I’m a little distracted at the moment.”

  She made a bunch of body gestures and hand moves suggesting she was a befuddled old lady. Yeah, right.

  While he was distracted by her performance she was loading a mega-ton explosive device into her verbal arsenal. When she aimed and fired, he suffered a direct hit.

  “I’m sorry, but I have to ask. Are you okay?”

  Man, there was so much in that snarkily asked question that he didn’t know where to start. He knew she was centering him in her viewfinder and threw up his hands in defeat. She read the bring-it-on body language and let him have it.

  “I have a first-aid kit in the car,” she silkily challenged. “I think those scratches on your neck could use some attention. Meet up with a wild animal?”

  Boom! Just like that she had his balls firmly in hand. He tried to stare her down but gave in astonishingly fast. With a grumpy frown he thought the government would be better off recruiting baby booming grannies with attitude to get information rather than training a bunch of dudes because, seriously.

  Blurting out the first stupid thing that came to his mind he went with, “Ran into some thorns out in the woods.”

  The arched brow, crossed arms and unforgiving smirk were like an ice water bath.

  “Hunting snipe, were you?”

  Roman mentally thanked his lucky stars. He knew this obscure reference. His cousin went to college in Philadelphia and one of the fraternity initiations included a fool’s errand hunt for the imaginary animal. She was taunting him. He liked her a shit ton more for being such a hard ass. Kelly and Matty were damn lucky to have her as a guardian angel.

  With a slight to-the-victor-go-the-spoils head nod, he met her expression and offered a weak smile that he hoped to god she understood.

  “Uh, no to the snipe hunting. Out of season and it’s not a moonless sky,” he chortled. “More like being blinded by a shooting star and tumbling head first into who the hell knows what.”

  That was the best he could do. It was up to her whether she believed him.

  He felt the protective shield surrounding his young lover. Fascinating.

  With an edge of caution that captured his attention, she dropped an unprompted nugget of information.

  “Matty doesn’t talk to strangers. Ever. Only to me and Sam.”

  That explained Ginny and Kelly’s reaction when the boy talked to him.

  “He’s very protective of her, isn’t he?”

  She nodded solemnly and he felt the pressure release. No longer seeing him as a threat, she motioned him to the kitchen table and sat down.

  Instead of joining her he cleared the table of their abandoned meal. “Sorry. I should have finished what I started,” he explained.

  “You made breakfast?” she asked on a chuckle ringing with delight. He didn’t have to say anything. The question was rhetorical.

  Following what he’d seen Kelly do, he carefully put the food scraps in a small covered pail, rinsed the dishes for later washing, and gathered the trash into a sorting bin against the wall. Ginny watched him the whole time.

  Once he sat down she wasted no time. “What do you know?”

  “Well, I know a lot less than I thought. Beyond the barest of basics, we read this whole situation with a magnifying glass that missed a lot.”

  She guffawed and slapped her hand on the table. Her amused cackle was infectious, and he smiled even though he didn’t know why.

  “Is that what you do for a living? Answer questions with a whole lotta nothing wrapped up in some pretty words? I like you Roman Bishop.”

  Seriously, he wasn’t even joking. She made him want to spill his guts about anything she wanted to know. Next time he talked to any of his government or military buddies he was definitely gonna bring up using a bunch of tough old broads for information gathering. But over a bottle of Johnnie Walker, because they would think him daft otherwise.

  “I can see this information exchange is a one-way street until you’re sure I’m not a threat.”

  Without missing a beat she nailed him with a pointed look and pithily replied, “It’s not necessarily you I’m worried about, although those claw marks suggest something that is more than a little concerning.”

  His only thought was, damn, she’d have a fucking heart attack if she knew what went on five minutes before she walked in the door.

  “Okay.” He put his hands on top of the table palms up. “This is everything.” He cleared his throat and gave her as much as he knew.

  “You know who I am and you know who I work for, but what you don’t know is that when all is said and done, Liam Ashforth is my friend and a good, decent man. Please believe me, Ginny. I didn’t come down here to start shit.”

  “So how did you come to be looking for Kelly in the first place?”

  “Honestly? It happened by accident. I was poking around. That poking led me to a lawyer with um, compromising issues he was eager to keep quiet. Hung Adam Ward out to dry in a heartbeat.”

  “That’s his name, then? Adam Ward?”

  He nodded gravely and continued. “Did you know that Liam made destroying the man his life’s work?”

  Ginny sighed heavily. “What I know is Deb’s story, only without names. The only reason I know about Liam is because she told me after the boy was born. It was like she knew one day Kelly would need to hear an explanation and by giving Matty the middle name of Liam, all would be made clear. He didn’t know,” she added. “About the boy. Deb wasn’t a twenty-something piece of ass anymore. He made her beg before each rendezvous. It was sickening. She was in her forties, and he had long ago lost interest.”

  What a piece of work Deb James must have been.

  “I knew you’d come one day. Maybe not you precisely but Liam. Once Deb told me about his mother and how the man she was so hopelessly in love with had used and abandoned someone else from their secretarial pool, I knew it was only a matter of time.”

  “If you know about Liam’s mother I’ll spare the details except to say she’s gone. Died many years ago. Her death triggered Liam’s drive to make the man who hurt her pay. And he did. Big time. Took everything, and when the man was at his lowest, only then did he reveal that the bastard son he’d denied had been systematically and doggedly picking apart his business interests and destroying them one by one.”

  “Whoa. For real?”

  “Yeah,” he confirmed with a curt nod. “He basically left him with enough to force the man’s total humiliation by reducing him to a standard of living that makes this a palace. And then he went for broke and let the guy’s wife know what he’d been up to. They
divorced. She took whatever was left and…mission accomplished.”

  “Son of a bitch. I’m glad he rubbed his nose in it.”

  “Me too,” Roman agreed. “The compromised lawyer agreed as well. When he let slip that Liam wasn’t the only one, and that there appeared to be another, shit got real. One of my contacts is a guy who I swear to god finds Waldo every time. I asked him to investigate and see what shook loose.”

  “Are there any others?”

  He knew what she was referring to. “Not as far as we know, but we didn’t have a clue about Matty. Liam still doesn’t know.”

  They both drifted away, lost in thought for a few moments. It was a lot to take on no matter which side of the story you came from.

  “So,” he continued. “We were looking for Grace Jenkins.”

  Ginny’s eyebrow shot up again.

  “Kept hitting a wall and found nothing but zero. My buddy was able to connect the dots through Deb’s convoluted family history. That’s how we found Kelly Anne James tucked away in the woods of Oklahoma. With nothing but a name and the land records as a guide, here I am.”

  “I’m curious,” she murmured. “What did you and Liam hope to achieve?”

  “At the time there wasn’t a game plan beyond finding her and figuring out what she knew about her parentage. I won’t bullshit you Ginny. Liam is a powerful man. He had to know if this supposed half-sister was real and if she was, for lack of a better way of putting it, on Adam Ward’s payroll.”

  “I wouldn’t say that to Kelly,” she informed him with a terse snap.

  “Agreed. But you have to admit it was a fair question.”

  “My god,” she muttered darkly. “That horrible man hurt so many people.”

  “There’s more.”

  “I’m not going to like this, am I?” she asked.

  “Probably not.” After a short pause he shrugged. “Ward? He’s counting his last breaths. We don’t know what if anything will happen when he dies, but Liam wants her protected against any potential from-the-grave fuckery. And now that I’m here and have met the boy, I have to agree. Both of them need a shield. A protector.”