Checkmate: Checkmate, #8

by Finn, Emilia

  “You’re not a brainless bimbo.” I study her dark eyes and let my nerves slide away when she grins. “You play the bimbo bit well. Why do you do that?”

  “Probably the same reason you thought touching me would get you the information you want. Why, Theo Griffin, did you come into Checkmate looking for information? You could have Googled us.”

  “This has to be more than business,” Kane inserts quietly. “We buy Griffin systems, yes, but we’re small-fry. We’re just one of a million accounts you have. I can’t figure out why the head of this international, multi-billion-dollar company has made a personal call to a ten-staff mini security company. And call me a cynic, but I feel like your answer is going to piss me off.”

  “Why does looking at you make my stomach tingle?” Soph asks. “I look at your face, and my heart gallops.”

  “Sophia!” Jay turns on her. “Are you fucking serious right now?”

  “I didn’t say I was gonna suck his dick, Jay. Jesus, calm your shit.”

  “You wanna admit in a business meeting that another man makes your heart do weird shit, and you expect me to be okay with that?”

  “Yes, because I’m not saying I’m gonna fuck him. I’m saying that he’s attractive, and that there’s something there that makes me–”

  “I think you’re hot as fuck, Officer Tate.” Jay turns to us with a scowl. “Your body is banging, your legs are sexy, your face isn’t normally as bad as it is today, and your hair is long enough to grab onto.” He turns to Sophia. “I’m not saying I’m gonna fuck her, just that she’s attractive and does things to my heart when I look at her.”

  “Good Lord,” Soph rolls her eyes. “Are you done, drama queen? You need to dial it back.”

  “Alright. Now we’ve established half of my team are attracted to you folks, how about we get back on track?” Kane takes a pen from the table and quietly spins it. “Why are you here?”

  “Colum Bishop.”

  Jay and Soph stop at my words. They stop bickering, stop slapping at each other’s hands, they stop breathing altogether and turn to face me.

  “Colum is dead.” Kane’s eyes flicker between me and Lib. “And I was unaware this particular cop had any interest in him. The chief is my point of contact, and as far as I was aware, he’s keeping the Colum shit on lock.”

  “Um…” Libby glances from one set of eyes to the next. Fear buzzes beneath her skin, and surprisingly, her hand slides from her lap to mine. “You must know my part in Colum’s world.” Her eyes continue to stray back to Sophia. “I didn’t change my name, and my father is still doing time. You would have run everything and everyone Colum knows, so you know there’s a connect.”

  “Yes.” Sophia watches us. “Yes, I know Raymond Tate was a soldier for Colum. I know you’re Raymond’s daughter. You should know I ran you to make sure you were clean. Alex wants to keep you on at the station, but how was I supposed to know you weren’t a next generation scumbag just like your daddy?”

  Those words hurt her. Every syllable Sophia spits out is like a bullet that slams into Libby’s chest.

  “And what did you find?” Libby asks quietly. “What were your conclusions?”

  “That you were a hard worker. That you live within your means. That you were almost the reason Kane’s final mission was killed, because you watch too close and nearly uncovered Kane’s cop contact.”

  “Who was Kane’s cop contact?” I look between Sophia and Libby. “You had a soldier after all?”

  “Cruz was his contact.” Libby squeezes my hand. “Dude outside with the cane? He’s recently retired. But there was a long time there where I felt like he was dirty. He set off my alarms, so I was keeping a close watch.”

  “He took a bullet for me,” Jess murmurs. “I had no clue he was Kane’s guy, but he stood in front of me and my sister when a man came to hurt us. He lost his leg, and it’s directly on the back of protecting me.”

  “He’s okay, Jess.” Sophia reaches into a bag she has hanging on the back of her chair and digs around. She’s like the pusher for the group, the mother hen, in a way. Because she tugs a small bag of gummy worms out and places them in Jay’s fidgeting hands. Then she takes a candy bar and slides it across the table until it stops in front of Jess. “Cruz is up and running again now. He has a badass bionic leg, and we’re designing him an even better one. Soon he’ll thank you, and we’ll all wish we could hide weapons inside our legs.”

  “Alright, we’re gonna need to move this along,” Kane snaps. “What do you want, Griffin? We’ve established it’s not business. And we know you know about Colum. If you think you can come up in here and hurt my family because of Colum, you’ll be comforted to know that the chair you sit in is spring-loaded and set with explosives. If you stand, it’ll wipe you from existence. We will no longer be punished for the actions of a prick. Make no sudden movements, or prepare to be buried in pieces.”

  My heart stops for a single beat as I stare into his eyes. “You wouldn’t set an explosive this close to your pregnant girl. No way will you put her in danger.”

  “Try me.” He lifts a brow. “There’s this company dominating the military markets right now. Roar explosives are the best, and they’re accurate. Tate will probably go down with you.” He looks to her, “Sorry about that. But this is one of those things where if you lay with dogs, you’re gonna get fleas. You brought him in here, you brought him among my family, so if he dies, you’re probably gonna go too.”

  “Threatening a police officer,” Jess coughs. “I intend to marry you next week. Don’t fuck this up.”

  “She ain’t a police officer when she’s on my property. She’s a trespasser and associated with some motherfucker I don’t trust.”

  It really bothers me that, as he sits and speaks with such calmness in his voice, he looks just like the man I met two decades ago. Dark eyes, dark hair, formidable and unafraid.

  “They’re yet to state their business,” he continues. “I trust your chief, Tate. Barely, and only because he’s family to my girl. But I can’t say I know you beyond pleasantries. I don’t want to jump the gun, so get to the point, then we can move on and decide where we go next.”

  “Alright…” Lib pulls the unharmed side of her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment in contemplation. “I organized this meet for Theo, but he’s not feeling awfully verbose at the moment.”

  “Makes him a pussy,” Jay swipes. “Real men speak up. Real men take the lead. I swear, before yesterday I would have wet my pants if someone told me Theo Griffin was coming to town. But every time we’re in the same space, I like you less and less. First, you hit on my girl, and now you grow a vagina and make Tate speak for you.”

  “Because real men wet their pants from excitement?” I lift a brow in question. “Don’t mistake my silence for weakness. I speak when I want to speak, and not for the sake of hearing my own fucking voice. You think my silence is a fault, I think your big mouth will get you killed someday.”

  “I already died, motherfucker.” He stands and leans onto the table to close the space between us. Tugging his beanie away, he shows me a scar and what is certainly a hole in his skull. “I already walked through death. I had tea with the devil, then I ran through the flames and came back to fuck people up again. You wanna test me? Colum already tried. He tried to fuck us up, he tried to kill the only family I have. He was weak. He was old and arrogant. And I see arrogance in your eyes. I can survive a bullet through the brain; can you?”

  “Who did that?” My eyes narrow on the small divot in his forehead. It’s like I can literally see the hole in his skull, and though the skin has closed up, I can still see the hollow. The chink in his armor. “A bullet?”

  “I’m not in the habit of telling strangers my business. You called this meeting, so how about you give us information before you ask?”

  “Abel Hayes did it,” Jess blurts out.

  The guys snap their heads around and stare at her in accusation, but she only studies me with f
irmed lips.

  “Abel Hayes shot him. It passed through his skull, and–” She rolls her sleeve back to reveal a scar on her arm. “It passed through him and hit me. And Cruz? Kane’s cop, Libby’s former colleague? Hayes’ man got him too. Colum Bishop might be Kane’s father, he might even be my babies’ grandfather, but he’s not missed, and he’s not loved. We’re glad he’s dead, and if I could bring him back, I would, but only so I can let him die in a much more painful way. What he got was far too kind, and there’s nothing you can say that will change my mind.” She pauses, grabs Kane’s hand and brings it to her stomach. “If you’re here because you’re avenging his death, if you want to hurt us, if you try to hurt anyone I love, then you won’t make it out alive. If you’re here to punish us for something Colum did to you, then you need to sit down and get over it, because Colum was no friend of ours.”

  “Why does Sophia have Bishop money in her dance studio bank accounts?”

  Sophia’s brows shoot high enough that she almost loses them in her hair. “Come again?”

  My blood surges hot at her shock. The truth is coming. It’s all coming. “I have my own way to find out information. I’ve studied you all, and when I happened across money that I know damn well doesn’t belong to a dance school for toddlers, I was forced to look deeper. It’s not just a lot of money, Sophia. I can trace it straight back to accounts that once belonged to Colum. So explain to me how you came to accept money from the man you claim to despise.”

  “You ran me?” She slowly lowers the lid on her laptop and leans forward. “You were in my data?”

  “Yes. I was in all of your data. I didn’t ask you out yesterday because you’re pretty. I asked because your name popped up in my searches way too many fucking times.”

  “I mean, that’s better than hitting on her because she’s sexy.” Jay’s brows furrow. “I guess.”

  “He thought you were nothing more than the brainless bimbo of this family, and the Bishops were hiding their money in your accounts.”

  I turn to Libby with a snarl. “Are you done? Anything you else wanna share with them?”

  “Someone’s gotta share something!” She thrusts a hand in their direction. “Just tell them already. This doesn’t have to be as scary as it is. Instead of brains, you’re all using testosterone, and, surprise surprise, the women are the only people here actually speaking.” She looks to Jay. “You’re a pussy too. You call him on his silence, but you’re not saying shit. You’re just making threats. And you.” She looks to Kane. “You give Jess the grumpy eyes because she speaks, but your hands shake, your eyes can’t move away from Gu–” She scrunches her face with exasperation. “Gah! Theo. You can’t stop looking at him. Why not?”

  He says nothing, which enrages Libby more.

  “Because you’re scared! You’re all scared, and when a guy gets scared, he hides behind a bad attitude. Just speak already.”

  “Why were you in my data?”

  “Why are you in possession of Colum’s money?” I counter. Sophia isn’t stupid at all. She might be the smartest of them all. “There is no way you can explain that and remain innocent.”

  “Well…” She hesitates and glances to Libby. “Cop or friend? Off the record?”

  Libby’s eyes cloud as she meets Sophia’s gaze. She’s a cop, and to be a clean cop, she needs to take admissions of guilt straight back to work. She needs to follow the law to the letter, and not be the cop that will brush things under the rug.

  She craves distance from her father’s reputation, but she’s already broken laws, and continues to do so the longer she sits in this boardroom. She’s an accessory to crimes simply by hearing the things that are being said and not reporting them.

  Her eyes come to mine. She’s weak, struggling, and scared of undoing all of the hard work she’s put in over the years. There’s a massive part of me tempted to let her off the hook. I could stand and walk away. I could forget the anger I feel toward Colum Bishop and all of his sons. I could go back to the world I created, and simply pretend these people don’t exist. They won’t come looking for me, and if I stay away, we never have to cross paths again.

  But as I sit merely six feet from men that look painfully similar to the man that raped and murdered my mother, I can’t. I’m choosing me over her, and for that, I’m a fucking asshole.

  “Libby.” I grab her hand and draw her eyes around. “You need to leave. Walk out of this room and remain the person you worked hard to become.”

  Her eyes sparkle with tears she refuses to let fall. “I’m already involved. I already know enough that my conscience doesn’t matter anymore.”

  “Of course it matters. You don’t know anything that you have to report yet.”

  “I know heaps!” she snaps. “I know that you came here planning to implicate and kill Bishops.”

  Kane scoots his chair back so fast that the metal feet screech against the floor. From sitting with empty hands, to standing with a nine-millimeter Glock pointing at my face, he manages to move everyone back to be shielded behind himself, then his eyes burn.

  Not at me. But at Libby.

  “Get up and leave. Both of you.”

  “No, we’re not leaving.” Libby snatches her hands from mine. “We are not leaving. Not now that we’ve come this far.”

  “You said you were here to talk. You said that you weren’t bringing trouble to my family.”

  “We’re not! We’re talking, aren’t we?”

  “You came to ‘implicate and kill Bishops’.” His voice is mocking. “You said it your damn self. So which is it, Tate? Is history repeating itself? Is a Bishop gonna have a problem with another Tate? Because I will take you the fuck out.”

  “No!” She pushes my hand off and begins to stand, only to drop down again when Kane shakes his head.

  “Don’t stand, officer. I already told you about the spring-loaded explosives. I will not risk my family. You’ve admitted to wanting to hurt me or mine, that means this meeting has ended, and quite possibly, so have your lives.”

  “Just stop!” she snaps. “Jesus Christ. We’re speaking. No one has touched a single weapon except you.” She turns to Sophia. “Off the record. I’m not reporting any of this, because once it’s all out in the open, I suspect you’ll find you’re all friends.”

  Every man in the room scoffs, so she amends her statement.

  “Or at least not enemies. Jesus. Stop being so fucking trigger-happy. Speak, Sophia. Get this shit out before someone dies.”

  Sophia’s eyes come to me. Dark, sparkling, and dangerous. “You wanna know why I have Colum’s money? You can’t figure out how I can have it, but still be a good person?”

  Right. I say nothing out loud.

  “I need to know where you’re coming from first,” she hedges. “Why are you here? Who are you fighting for? Who are you fighting against? I can’t tell which angle you’re looking to attack us from.”

  “It shouldn’t matter where I’m coming from. Give me your answer, and maybe then I’ll give you mine.”

  “I steal it.”

  She opens her laptop – a Griffin laptop – and works for a moment. It’s almost as though she’s ended the conversation, as though that’s all the information she’s willing to share, but then with a final tap, tap, tap, she turns the laptop to show me bank statements.

  “You see the money, right?”

  “Why are you telling him this, Soph?” Jay moves in closer to whisper. “Why are you showing him our business?”

  “Because I don’t think he’s our enemy. Tate says we’re all gonna be pals soon. I’ve shown you, I’ve shown Kane. I trust every man and woman that spends time in Checkmate, so I’m willing to offer this olive branch.” Her eyes come to me. “You see the accounts the money came from? You see the accounts it sits in now?”

  I nod. “The Ellie Solomon Dance Academy. You’ve funneled money out of a murderer’s bank account, and now you let it sit in a dance school?”

  “Murderer.�
�� Her eyes darken as she looks to Jay. “He calls him a murderer.” Her gaze finally comes back to me. “Who did he hurt, Theo? Who did Colum murder? Because I’m saying if that’s your beef, we aren’t your enemy.”

  “I’d like to believe you, but then I find accounts fat with money that might be dirty.”

  “Oh, it’s dirty,” she scoffs. “I never said it wasn’t. That money is the proceeds of horrible things done to good people. It’s the very epitome of blood money. On top of that, it’s stolen. It’s extra dirty. But I didn’t accept it from him as some kind of payment. I slid my ass into his accounts when he wasn’t watching, then I stole it.”

  “Well, there was that ten million you blackmailed him.”

  “Oh, yeah.” She pats Jay’s arm. “Okay, most of it is stolen, but ten mil was paid to me in exchange for his son’s life.”

  My heart slams around and winds me. “Huh?”

  “He was under the assumption Jay was deceased.” She reaches out and slides a thumb over his forehead. “Jay was shot on Colum’s orders, and after a… well, we’ll say sleight of hands, he was removed from the world for a short while to let Colum think he’d been successful. That left Kane. I reached out to Colum at one point and said I had possession of what he wanted. I offered to sell him, Colum paid ten million dollars, and the day I handed Kane over was the day that cop you trust so much ended his life.”

  My eyes shoot to Libby in surprise.

  “No,” Soph murmurs. “Not that cop. The other one. The chief. He didn’t have to end Colum’s life. He could have sent him away, but I guess his finger slipped. Colum was dead, I had ten million dollars, plus another thirty or so that was so well hidden, the IRS had no clue it existed. Now it sits in a dance academy filed under donations.”

  “He tried to have his sons killed?” I look into Kane’s eyes. Then Jay’s. I study the scar on Jay’s forehead and allow my brain to click into a new gear. “He had one executed, and put a contract on the other?”