Page 118 of Rise of the King (Checkmate 5)

“Focus, Sophia!”

“Let her go,” Spence chuckles. “The sexism speech might’ve been the scariest thing I ever heard. Let the man fear for his life.”

“Silence,” Jay snaps. “Everyone shut up.”

“I’m Ace,” I repeat. “You’re Colum Anthony Bishop, known by your stooges only by your rank or initials. Your sons are Jay and Kane Bishop. You had one executed, and would like to take the second one out.”

Kane grunts when I shove him forward an extra step. “He’s big, but he’s dumb as a bag of horse shit. I can see why you’d want to take them out and try again.”

“Mm.” Colum watches his son with a wary eye. “The data?”

For show, I produce a USB thumb drive and toss it across the ten feet that separate us. “Everything’s on there. Do what you want with it.”

“How do I know you haven’t made copies? How do I know this will go away after today?”

“The Senator also has secrets, right?” I wait for Colum’s brow to lift. “Cocaine, women, rape… the tendency to fuck farmyard animals. He paid three months ago, and his data has remained confidential. Well… except for right now that I told you. But you and he are in cahoots, no? So it’s not a big deal that I mention it.”

“It’s all gone after today?”

“I swear on my sister’s grave, it’s all done after today.”

“Your sister?” His eyes widen as he brings his shiny black pistol up. He can read the room as clearly as I can as it all locks into place for him. “Is she part of this?”

“She shouldn’t have been. She was fifteen years old when she wanted a tub of ice cream. Your men took her from a convenience store and ended her life.” I lift my hands to let him think he has this under control. “You killed her, and you ended the path my life was on. You started a chain reaction that ends with you, me, and the man I love in the basin of a valley in the middle of a hot summer day.”

“The man you love?” His eyes shoot from me to Kane. “You and him?”

“No.” Jay’s deep voice draws Colum around at a fast spin. Standing on the other side of the dark Chrysler in his ghillie but with his face fully visible, Jay rests his rifle on the roof of the car and grins. “Her and me. Hi, Lieutenant General.”

“Jay?”

“Bishops are like cockroaches. You can have us shot in the fuckin’ head, but we jump back up and keep moving.”

Just on time, Alex and Oz’s police cruisers light up the air with their sirens. Dirt clouds above their cars, and rocks spit out as they speed down the single mile they were parked away.

“I don’t…” Colum spins and squeaks when he finds Kane barely three feet away with un-bound hands and a Glock pointing at his face. “No! This isn’t what was–”

“We never liked you, but we respected your position of power,” Kane rumbles. “Only a truly committed patriot could work his way so high and keep that position for so long. So we understood that where you lacked as a father, you made up as a leader. You created soldiers out of us, and though you did it harshly, you still gave us the skills we enjoy today.”

“But then word hits that you buy and sell girls,” Jay seethes. He doesn’t turn when police cruisers skid to a stop and the cops jump out in full tactical gear and their guns drawn. “Word starts spreading that the girl who would have been my sister-in-law was murdered before she was old enough to kiss boys.” Bringing his rifle up and positioning the scope in front of his eye, Jay grins and sends his father into a spiral. “Any last words?”

“Drop your gun, Colum Bishop.” Alex Turner moves forward at a sprint and places himself between Jay and Colum. “Drop the gun and lift your hands.”

“No.” Colum spins to Kane, to Alex, then to me. “No! This wasn’t part of the deal!”

“Prison ain’t so bad.” Memories of Ellie flash through my mind: her dancing, her leap, her infectious laugh, and the way she’d throw her head back and create a double chin when she wanted to be silly. She had plans to become a famous dancer, but not more famous than me, because just like Jay will happily spend his life being Kane’s second, Ellie had that same hero worship for me.

Summers at the beach and her floating hair pass over my mind, and that summer when she was fourteen and she finally started showing interest in boys. She was always so smart and sensible, so nobody gave herthe talkor told her to be careful. Her summer fling was a sweet boy who held her hand and showed her what her future could be.

“We had a deal!” Colum screeches when Alex tries to come closer. He swings his gun around in warning and thrusts the USB forward. “We had a deal!”

“And my sister had a scholarship. Sometimes deals just don’t pan out.”

A feral rage overtakes Colum and sends him forward on a roar. Gun poised and his finger moving toward the trigger, I close my eyes and wait for the blow, because I always knew this was coming.

Before I met Jay, Ihopedthis would be the outcome.

One shot, then two.

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