Page 85 of Rise of the King (Checkmate 5)

“No it’s not,” he squeaks. “Oh my shit, it’s not gray, Soph. You’re wrong. You’re finally wrong about something!”

“I’m done.” Turning, I continue walking forward, only to swing around again when he snags my arm. “Soph, what color is grass?”

“Oh, Jesus. You’re so stupid. Shut up.”

“Answer the question.”

“It’s green. Everybody knows grass is green.”

“What color is the sky?”

“Right now?” I shoot my eyes skyward. “It’s blue. It’s kinda a standard answer to a standard question. I can see colors, Jay. I just see themdifferentlythan you.”

“You said ‘Jay’! Oh shit.” He grabs me and drags me toward the wall of the parking garage. He was playing, laughing, and cupping my boob, but then it’s gone when a man dashes across the street we just crossed and pulls a small handgun from the harness on his hip.

Silent as a panther, the jokester is gone, and in his place is the deadly assassin I’ve known for more than two years as Jay drags me around the corner of the building and presses me against the wall.

“Shh.” He presses a finger to his lips and stares into my eyes. “Don’t move.” He turns to dash away, only to come to a screeching halt when I refuse to release the loop of his jeans. “Sophia!” My name comes out on a barely-there hiss, but his intent remains. “You’re not coming with me.”

“And you’re not going alone. We’re a team. We don’t split up anymore.”

“I can’t take you in there, Soph!”

“And I can’t stand here and watch you run toward that gun. So we’re all in, or we’re all out.”

“Kane’s in there, woman!”

“So we’re all in.”

A car pulls into the parking spaces outside the garage, then a trim woman with shoulder-length black hair and a ghostly white face tosses a satchel over her shoulder and slams her car door. Peeking around to the entrance of the garage, I look back to the woman, then the entrance.

“That dude is in there.”

“And she’s going straight in,” Jay grinds out. “Fuck. What do we do? Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Lemme think.”

“Hold on.” I yank my phone out and open it to security footage of the very building we lean against. I scan each small square in search of our main players, but my screen is small, and my heart is racing. “There.” I tap the screen and enlarge the picture as Kane and his men catch sight of the woman in their garage security feed.

They were alerted by something – by the man in the mask – but now they see the woman I know to be Andi Conner, girlfriend to former policeman Riley Cruz. “They’re coming this way,” I whisper to Jay. “Jesus, they’re all coming this way.”

“They’re walking into an ambush,” Jay hisses. “I gotta stop them.”

“No, hold on. She’s already in there, and they’re about three, two, one…”

An internal door slams open, the door that leads into the secure offices, and five large men crowd the doorway while Andi stops in the center of the twelve-car garage. Despite the fact we’ve watched Kane through our front window for months, Jay still gasps when his brother steps up to the door with the same face Jay now wears.

We’ve seen playful and free Kane.

But now we see the killer, the protector, outshone only by Andi’s man as he steps forward.

“Um…” Unaware that another man has entered the garage just before her, I watch my screen as Andi steps back in defense of the group. “I went home because I forgot my stretch bands.” Jay and I lean close to my phone and hear the way Andi’s voice shakes. “Someone was in our house, Riley. It’s completely trashed.”

Jay’s eyes meet mine for a beat.Someone was in Kane’s home, too. I can tell that’s what Jay is thinking because it’s also what I’m thinking.

Scowling, Riley turns back to Kane. “Yours wasn’t trashed. Spence’s wasn’t trashed.” He turns back to Andi when her bag starts screeching.

It takes me only a moment to realize that she has a pet tucked away in that satchel, then another to catch sight of the man in the ski mask ducking from a dark corner of the garage and heading straight for Andi while the men at the door are distracted with each other.

“Go.” I shove Jay’s shoulder. “Go now. Fast.”

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