Page 56 of Rise of the King (Checkmate 5)

“He was seeing a ghost.”

I chuckle. “Yup. I was a ghost, and I took pleasure in hurting him.” I meet Jay’s eyes. “How do those people sleep at night? How could he stand in that store day after day, allowing girls to be snatched, and he did nothing about it?”

“Those people…” Sighing, he walks forward until he crouches in front of my bed and takes my injured foot in his warm hands. “I don’t know, Soph. I don’t know how they sleep. Money is a powerful motivator, but still… I dunno.”

“Well…” I shrug. “Whatever. I haunted him, followed him, drove him crazy. I actually didn’t touch him, not a single hair on his head, but I haunted him. And when he ran out into the street to escape… I probably had time to warn him of the truck that was coming.”

Jay’s lips quirk up. It’s almost like my murderous ways impress him. “Savage. I don’t know if I’m scared or turned on right now. I think it’s a little bit of both.”

“You’re sick,” I laugh. “You should be freaking out. This isn’t a game, Jay. I’m as bad as them; I kill people, even if I never touch them. I forced him into that street, and I put you on that hilltop for the drop. I might not be the one who pulls the trigger, but I orchestrate it all.”

“They’re not innocents, babe. That’s why I pull the trigger. We’re not living a…” He considers his words. Frowns. Considers some more. “We’re not living a regular, suburban,mom and pop in the burbslife here, Soph. We don’t have the luxury of normalcy. But what we’re doing isn’t wrong either.”

“Well, technically, the law would disagree.”

“Yeah, but your sister was still hurt, and I was still killed. Kane is still a target. And those women were still in the valley. Sometimes the law can’t take care of the things we can. So we do it for them, and we rid the world of scum. I’m not sorry.”

Standing in front of me, he tugs his shirt off, then shucks his jeans down. It’s not a seduction, just the necessary actions before he tugs my blankets back and helps me in. “I’m sorry for scaring you when I snuck in and watched you dance.”

I lay my head on his chest and slide my finger over the scar on his stomach. “That was the first time I’ve danced in eight years,” I admit. “I just up and quit when Ellie was taken, then my new mission took over my world. Before I knew it, it had been a month of no dancing, then six months. I used to dance every single day, so hitting those monthly milestones were huge. A year passed, then two. My dancing career was over, but my mission to avenge Ellie was just beginning. Then… I dunno. You talked to me in the diner. You weren’t supposed to talk to me, Jay. You’re here for work, and you started talking to the pretty ballerina.”

Chuckling, he presses his lips to the top of my hair. “You have no clue how conflicted I felt. I figured Ace would kick my ass for going off script. More fool me, huh? You are Ace, and now I know why you took to calling me Jay so easily. It was so natural, Soph. Like you knew the real me.”

“I’ve been with you for two years. I knew the real you; I knew the Bishop brothers; I knew the cocaine-addicted you, then the healing you.”

“Sophia?”

“Mmm?”

“How do you make money?”

I snort. “I learned fast how to… Let’s say I play the stock market in my spare time.”

“Okay, you can say that. But what’s the truth?”

“Umm… I hack the accounts of people like Cole Fenney, Trenton Neal, Peter Aguilar, and the rest of those goonies, and I take whatever the hell I want. They don’t deserve their money, and they would be dying soon anyway. They had no use for it.”

“So fuckin’ savage.” He laughs and crushes me close to his side. “I’ve never been more attracted to you, Soph. My Tiny Dancer is a psycho, and she doesn’t cry when we she sees blood.”

“Shut up.”

“We’re gonna live a long, happy life together, babe. There’s no one else on this planet who could get on board with this crazy.”

“Shut up!” I try to turn away, only to come back with anoomphwhen he tugs me back again. “We’re not together, Jay. We’re just two people who are sexually attracted to each other. We have similar needs in bed, with the same libidos, and the same appetite outside of bed. It’s a relationship of convenience.”

“It’s a relationship that’ll go down in infamy. I’ve got you now, and I already asked you to marry me that one time.”

Instead of hitting him like I want to, I snuggle in and hide my laugh. “I’m not marrying you because of convenience. Or take-out. Or heat. You can go back to town and find your blonde for that.”

And that thought alone makes my chest ache.

Fuck him for making me want to keep him.

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