Page 78 of Sacrifice the Knight (Checkmate 6)

“I can’t stop working this case because it’s not the dream you were hoping for, babe. You’re being unreasonable! We shouldn’t even be talking right now. It puts us all at risk.”

“I want to speak to my husband!”I know the very cadence of Gemma’s shout. It’s the sound she makes right when she’s trying to fight off angry tears. It’s as clear in this recording as it was when I spoke to her forty-eight hours ago. It’s as if she were in this room right now.“We miss you, babe. It’s really lonely when you’re gone.”

“I know, Gem. But if they find out about these calls, I’m in a lot of trouble.”

Derrick slams the TV remote down so hard, every single one of his soldiers, including Kane and me, jump. “Why does your wife call you Eric?” He stands and points an older model gun. A collector’s item. “Why do you speak of working undercover?”

“Derrick, it’s not what–”

He shoots off a round that blows through the meaty part of my shoulder and embeds in the wall behind us. Fire races through my arm, and the pain that scores through my body brings bile up my throat. “You’re a fuckin’ cop in my club, and you know what happens to rats.”

“Derrick, no, it’s not–”

Kane’s hold on me doesn’t waver, though I’m certain he’s supporting my weight, rather than holding me hostage, as Derrick lifts his remote again and switches out the channel. A blue screen turns into a picture of my home, and then video of Gemma’s tear-streaked face beaten and bruised. Her eyes swollen shut, her nose busted and bent, and her hair torn in chunks so I see parts of her pale scalp. “No!” I try to rush forward, pulling Kane with me, only to stop again when five guns press to my skull.

“Watch it,” Derrick snarls. “Watch what happens to snitches.”

“No.” The pain in my arm is forgotten in the face of my new tragedy. The time stamp on the corner of the screen reads 7:59 a.m. Yesterday. Approximately twelve hours after the recorded phone conversation.

Vomit burns my throat; my heart rips my chest apart, and I suspect the only reason I remain standing is because of Kane’s hold. He’s doing his job, remaining in character, staying alive, and proving why he can be promoted over me.

He’s impenetrable.

He can’t be broken.

“Cry for him, bitch.”The cameraman shows us every inch of my living room, the cute couch covers Gem made to keep the fabric beneath clean from our boisterous child. The prints on the walls, canvases of the three of us together last spring when we vacationed on the coast.“Say his name, and let him know why you’re hurting.”

“Eric…”Her voice is hoarse, and my brain tells me over and over in a cruel shout it’s because she’s been screaming.“Help us, Eric. Please help us.”

I fight Kane’s hold. I shoulder the guns from my head and try to rush forward. But Derrick is fearless; he smiles with such arrogance, I’m not sure I could ever feel hate for anyone as much as I hate him. “This is in the past, DeWhit.” My name on his tongue makes me cold all over.“It’s already happened, so now you get to be the third person on this planet who sees this footage.”

“The third?”

Please don’t let Kane have seen it and not told me. Please not Kane. Please not Kane. Please not Kane.

“I sent Aren to your home. He filmed and was the first to see it. He brought it to me last night, and I gotta say, I whacked off while I watched Gemma beg.”

“You motherfucker!” I try to break free, but Kane’s hold is iron. He’s either sealing my death by keeping me still, or saving my life by providing the illusion of safety for Derrick. “You don’t mess with a guy’s family!” My voice tears as I scream. “There are rules. You leave families alone!”

“Yes,” he drawls easily. “There are rules. Like how you don’t try to infiltrate my club and hurt my family. This club is my family.” He raises his arms to show his power and all he controls. “This is my family!”

Blood runs from my arm, down my bicep and drips off my elbow. It moves faster than my body can tolerate and already makes me woozy, but I remain standing, and when Derrick turns back to the television, my eyes stop on my beautiful wife when the barrel of a gun presses against her forehead and she begs for her life.

“Mommy!”

“No!” I slump against Kane’s chest and breathe through my closed throat. “Please, not Callie.”

“Mommy!”She skids down in camera range and hugs Gem around her neck. Identical faces smoosh together, so my baby inadvertently places herself in harm’s way.“’S’okay, Mommy.”Callie stares right into the camera as though she’s willing to walk toward death.“S’okay, don’t be scared, Mommy.”

Bang! Bang!

* * *

I shootup in bed and gasp for breath through my swollen throat. Katrina’s room is still somewhat dark, though I see the sunlight peeking from behind the curtains. My chest rapidly lifts and falls; my hands shake; my shoulder aches from a wound long ago healed, and my brain throbs, pained as though a migraine is setting in.

I turn to my right and find Katrina’s bare back, the sheets covering her ass and nothing else while she sleeps, then I look down my body and find I’m bare-ass naked in a woman’s bed.

Not my bed, and not the bed I shared with my wife.

---