Page 94 of Rise of the King (Checkmate 5)

“And why are you involved at all?” he presses. “I see you; I see your body and the way your legs bow. You’re a dancer, and I don’t mean the kind who sits in men’s laps.”

Jay snorts and reminds me of that time I sat on Trenton Neal’s lap.

Kane’s eyes snap between us. He doesn’t get what’s funny, and he’s too proud to ask. “If you’re so smart, why’d you get involved at all?”

“I became involved more than eight years ago, years before you even considered undercover work.” Sitting back in my chair, I try to slow my racing heart. Act cool, be cool. “I’ve been involved since I was seventeen, when they took my little sister, abused her, raped her, hurt her, and murdered her.” I throw each word across the room with the express intention to hurt them. If I have to hurt, then so can they. If I make them hurt, then they might get invested and help. “She was fifteen years old; she was a dancer too, then they took her straight out from under my nose and dumped her a few weeks later like she was trash. I’m involved, and I won’t stop until I watch that man’s eyes close for the final time.”

“I get why she orders hits now,” Andi saysoh-so-easily. “I would have men killed for less. In fact, I’d have men killed just for assuming Ace has to be a dude.”

Eric tosses his pen and nails Andi on the side of the head, but he asks me, “Are you a Fed?”

“No.”

“Who do you answer to?”

“Nobody. I’m self-employed, self-funded, and self-sufficient. I answer to no one, and there is no voting committee with a say about how I work.”

“There’s a committee now,” Kane declares. “Everyone in this room is part of your committee, because I trust every one of them with my life. Except Andi.”

“Hey!”

“Not likely,” I snap. “I’m not looking for your guidance, Bishop. I’m not looking for anything. I didn’t even want to be here today.Jaywanted to see you. We saw your security glitch; Jay decided today was a good fucking day to blow his cover, and now here we are. I don’t need you; I don’t need your committee, and I can shut you down with a stroke of my fingers, so don’t get cocky on me. The second you think you can step on me, I make myself disappear. I could make Jay disappear, too.”

“Are you threatening my brother?” He shoots to his feet and slams a shiny nine-millimeter Glock to the table. “Choose your words carefully, Sophia Solomon, because they may be your last.”

“Stop.” Jay stands to cover me, while everyone else in the room leans back. The two Bishop men are the only men standing. Kane is protecting his brother, and Jay is protecting me. “She’s not threatening me, so chill. She kinda loves me.”

“She just threatened to take you out!”

“No, she threatened to delete my files and go into hiding.”

“That’s the same thing to me!” Kane roars. “That’s the same fucking thing. My baby brother will be dead again.”

“So don’t step on me.” Standing, I pull Jay back so I can see his angry brother. “I’m not a damsel, Kane. And I didn’t ask for your help. If you want to do thiswithus, then I’ll take your input and implement it in the most effective way. But you don’t take over. You don’t swing your cock around and think you get to supersede just because I’m a woman. If Ace were a man, you’d be asking what your mission is.”

“That’s not true!”

“It’s kinda true,” Spence says. “Five minutes ago, we said ‘Ace’ with a kind of reverence in our voices. Now Ace is a chick, and the tone changed.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Kane snaps. “You don’t know what’s in my mind.”

“I know what’s in your mind. I know you’ve spent more than half a year mourning your brother. I know you felt responsible for his death; you blamed yourself, and you died a little inside each day that passed and he didn’t come back. I know you’re scared right now because he’s back, but he’s a different man. He’s not your little brother anymore, but a man, and he doesn’t take orders from you anymore.”

“I never ordered him around!”

“I’m not saying you abused your power, but I’m saying he deferred to you. He asked you for direction. You guided him, and when he got lost, you blamed yourself. Now he’s found again, but he’s not asking you for directions.”

“Can you stop speaking about me like I’m not here?”

Kane and I turn to Jay as one. “No!”

“Oh boy,” Eric snickers. “I see what’s happened here.”

“You need to accept him as an equal,” I push on. “Then you need to accept me as an equal. I know that’s hard for a guy like you, but we arenotless than.” Taking out my phone, I slide my thumb across my screen twice. On the third swipe, the boardroom lights flicker off, and we descend into darkness. “I’m not stupid; I’m not inept, and I’m not going to take orders based on the fact you have a dick and I don’t. I can control this building, and you had no clue I was in. I can control the police station, and they still have no clue I’m in.”

“Alex is gonna be so pissed,” Jess whispers. “Like,rampage and kill us all with a flamethrowerpissed.”

“I control Spence’s security. I see your voluptuous receptionist eating fried chicken at her desk right now.” I flip the boardroom lights on again and stare directly into Kane’s eyes. “We are your equals. We are willing to workwithyou. But we will not be stepped on and brushed aside. If you don’t want this, then I walk, and you never see me again. But I’ll see you. I’ll save your fucking life when the contract is being carried out, and I’ll slit CAB’s throat before he pulls the trigger.”

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