Page 104 of Sacrifice the Knight (Checkmate 6)

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Eric

“Incoming.” Spence’s murmur comes from behind his hand of cards. He does nothing more but glance to his phone when the security system outside his building shows us we have someone on the property.

It’s no one he has to be afraid of.

But someone I’m kind of terrified of.

“Also, why aren’t we playing poker like real men?”

“Because I don’t know how to play poker,” Jess snaps from my left. “Anyone got a four?”

“Go fish.” My lips twitch at the fact we’re a group of hardened men; we’ve seen shit and done worse, but we’re softened like a big bag of cotton candy because the women don’t know how to play a real game of poker. So we play a children’s game instead to keep Jess busy and not focused on the fact she can’t see her feet.

The skinny girl is losing her ever-loving mind because she doesn’t fit into itty bitty jeans anymore. But instead of being annoyed by it, I find it cute. Jessie is having a thug’s babies, but I’ve obviously learned nothing from my mistakes over the years, because I’m following her everywhere she goes, granting her every wish, stopping barely short of rubbing her feet, and instead of doing my job – the job I’ve handed over to Sophia – I’m more focused on calling home and making sure everyone is okay.

“Hello?” Gravel crunches beneath a pair of shoes just outside the main door. “Yo, anybody here?”

“In here.” I toss a four at Jess and grin when she glowers. “I gotta work. Be good. Don’t shoot anybody.”

“I got it, Cap.” Kane sits back beside his girl and slides his fingertips along the back of her neck in slow patterns. He’s her man, and he’s got her under control, but I still consider her a little bit mine. My responsibility. My little sister of sorts. “You gotta take care of your own gangster.”

I scoff and toss the last of my cards onto the table. “Yeah. Yours is scarier.” I turn away when Kane’s eyes twinkle with fun. His other hand comes to her swollen belly while Jay sits to his right and watches them with that same awe in his eyes that he had the day Jess announced.

He’s psyched that there are babies on the way.

“Fuckwhit?”

“Yeah, I’m coming. Jesus, kid.” I meet him at the front door and buzz the locks open. Mac stands at the glass with his Space Jam cap pulled on backwards, hair in his tired eyes, but a quirky grin pulling up one side of his lips. “Hey.”

“Hey.” He walks past me with attitude and zero thanks for holding the door. His shoulder slams against mine, but the snicker on his breath says he’s in a good mood today. He could be coming here to whale on me. I guess it’s my lucky day. He stops at the doorway to the room I was just in and glances from face to face. Kane, Jess, Jay, Soph, Spence. And then my empty chair. “Bishops. Ladies.” He flashes a peace sign and walks away knowing he just disrespected Spencer on his own property.

“Motherfucker! Get back here and say my name.”

“I did.”

“I’m not a Bishop, you little prick.”

“Oh, I know.” He acts unafraid, but his steps speed up when Spence tosses his cards down and his chair scrapes back as he stands. Laughing, Mac leads the way to the far side of the building, to the storage room we’ve kept the little Smith & Wesson in since his first time here. There’s no way in hell I’m sending him home with a gun, but we keep this one here for him, separate, locked up, safe. He learned on his first day how to shoot, and by the second, he was grouping.

His mother will straight up murder me if she ever finds out about this, but I kinda figure she already wants to murder me for lying and breaking her heart, so what’s one more mark on my record?

Pissed and safe is better than dead, and there’s nothing anyone can say that’ll convince me otherwise.

We collect his gun and rounds, and I grab extras for myself. I toss cash into the drawer for Spence, then lock it all up again and lead Mac into the yard outside. “How’s your mom?”

“Twenty-seven seconds.”

I slow my steps and frown. “Huh?”

“It took you twenty-seven seconds to ask about her,” he laughs. “Yesterday, you lasted fifty-something seconds. I thought you’d be getting better at this, not worse.”

“Shut your mouth, wise ass.” I push him through a doorway until we’re back on gravel and face a massive yard – formerly a farm – stacked with all sorts of adult jungle gym shit. Hay bales, temporary walls, dummies that have their faces already blown off, and dead ends even I still get fucked over in.

“Explain to me again why you don’t just go to her? You still like her; she still pretends she doesn’t like you. It’s kinda perfect, right?”

“It’s none of your business.” I lay our things on a steel workbench that rests against the back of the building we were just in. “It’s grown up shit and none of your business. You need to focus on kid shit.”

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