Page 130 of Pawn's in the Bishop's Game (Checkmate 1)

“You think you hurt me?” I turn to him when I know I have my voice under control. When my face shows passivity, rather than murder. “You think these hurt me, but they don’t. She’s a warm pussy. She’s pretty, but I ain’t marrying her. You went to the wrong man and you showed your hand too soon. I’m just the side piece. You should’ve gotten pictures of me and her, and shownhim. You could’ve hurthim.”

“I don’t know about that, Bishop. I think I broke away some of your armor. I’ve been in this business longer than you. I know what we need to do to be unreachable. But I found your weakness.”

“You found nothing.”

“Then why do your hands shake? Why does your heart race?”

“Because you annoy the fuck outta me.”

“And the girl?”

“Is none of my business.”Lies! All lies.“And she’s sure as shit none of yours.”

His laughter echoes in the deserted parking space. Reaching into his breast pocket, he pulls out one final image. “I knew you’d say that. So I made sure to introduce myself to your girl. Turns out, the guy,herguy, doesn’t care so much for exclusivity. It took a thousand bucks and a handshake, and I had my cock inside her, too.”

I flip the image and come face-to-face with Jess bent over a table, and Flynn – this asshole right beside me – fucking her from behind.

I know that room.

I know that table.

And the date stamp says yesterday afternoon. A couple hours before I picked her up from work to head back over to the range.

She said she was at work.

I wasatthe club.

And so was she.

Just like the billion times I preached it this week, muscle memory brings my hand up. The heavy Glock in my grasp is just an extension of my arm, and the pulse of my finger on the trigger goes unfelt until Flynn’s brain splatters on the picnic table and gray matter splashes onto the dusty concrete below us.

He didn’t see it coming.

His eyes remain open, but he’ll never touch what’s mine again.

“That’s for Jess.”

“Hand’s up!” Alex Turner and his deputies geared up in full tactical uniform sprint from every dark corner that surrounds the table I sit on. “Put your hands up, Bishop!” Alex points his weapon at my head as surely as I pointed mine at Flynn’s. “I said put your hands up!”

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