by Finn, Emilia
“Oh God,” Kane whines. “Can we not do this shit again? I’ll buy you both fancy shoes if you just shut up about the pay gap.”
I snatch a gummy worm from Jay’s stash and peg it at his brother’s head. “You want to buy us shoes if we shut up about sexism? You’re part of the problem, asshole.”
“Read the fucking email!”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
From: Colum Bishop
To: AcesAndEights
Subject: Listen here, young man
I have more than enough proof now to have you locked up and sent far, far away from civilization. You cannot blackmail a man of my power and expect to get away with it.
I will not send you a single cent. I do not believe you have credible data.
My people already know your whereabouts.
They’re coming.
Panicked, Jay jumps away from the table and races to the windows.
“Relax.” Reaching out, I snag his shirt and drag him back. “He has no clue where we are. He’s bluffing—and doing a shitty job of it.”
“If he were a woman, he’d be smarter,” Jess says with a teasing smile. “Women are always smarter about blackmail.”
“You don’t get to be that pretty and that smart at the same time,” Spence argues. “And you, you can dance…? No. It’s against the laws of physics.”
“Laws of physics.” Laughing, I pull up another email window and shake my head. I nod toward Jess. “She’s beautiful, and she’s a lawyer. Smart as fuck.” I point toward Laine. “Also beautiful. Also smart. She’s a school teacher and knows how to rebuild classic engines from the ground up.” Then I glance toward Andi. “I don’t know what she does for a living, but she has a pig, and she’s with the bionic man, so I’m gonna assume she’s an evil warlord with a cat at home and a maniacal laugh that creeps everyone out.”
“We actually do have a cat,” Riley says. “She’s kinda evil, too.”
“Exactly. Fuck you all for assuming Ace has to be a dude.” My computer signals movement and draws my attention.
Colum is moving. Slowly, fearfully, he pulls to the edge of the parking lot of the truck stop outside town and slows at the T intersection.
“Turn left, he’s running.” I zoom in and smile at the satellite imagery tech we have nowadays. “Turn right, he’s coming to get his boy.”
“I don’t know which one I want more,” Kane rumbles. “It’s so much more fun chasing down a motherfucker. It takes away the fun when they give up.”
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From: AcesAndEights
To: Colum Bishop
Cc: Kane Bishop
Subject: Making assumptions only serves to make you look like a fool
I see you moving.
You think I don’t have data on you? Then how do I know you’re driving a navy Chrysler with tinted windows? How do I know you’re freaking the fuck out right now?
You’re compromised, Lieutenant General. Also, you’re a shitty father.
Hitting send and sitting back, I watch my GPS screen and wait for his move.
His car idles at the intersection for a minute.
Two minutes.
Three.
Tension fills the kitchen as Colum panics and tries to figure out which way to turn. He’s screwed no matter which way he goes. If he comes here, he knows he won’t walk away alive. If he leaves, he knows I’ll drop the data and run.
He’s at my mercy, exactly where I intended to put him.
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From: AcesAndEights
To: Colum Bishop
Cc: Kane Bishop
Subject: Reconsidered?
I can have you sent somewhere safe. I’m asking ten million now, since you’ve wasted my time, but I’ll allow an extra sixty seconds to take care of the wire. That means you have forty-six minutes left until I pull the trigger.
I hit your men at the drop in March. Eleven hundred yards, not a single wasted round.
Make the right choice, and I’ll make it so the data shows those girls voluntarily climbing into your vans. I can delete the proof that the coke came up through you. Make the right choice, and you live to spend the remainder of your black money. But turn the wrong way, and I’m not the only trained marksmen looking for you.
Ten million, then you disappear. I can have a new identity created for you in under six minutes. Throw in a burger and an extra twenty, and I’ll make your new passport photo flattering. I know that double chin bothers you.
Where will you go, Bishop?
“You’re mean,” Spence laughs. “Don’t pick on the dude’s jowls.
“And a liar,” Jay adds. “Those were my eleven-hundred-yard shots. I want my praise, dammit.”
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From: Colum Bishop
To: AcesAndEights
Subject: re: Reconsidered?
How do you play into this?
Whose side are you on?
What did I ever do to you?
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From: AcesAndEights
To: Colum Bishop
Cc: Kane Bishop
Subject: It’s always about the money, Lieutenant General.
Annoying pricks like you is how I pay my rent. I don’t give a fuck about your happiness, nor do I give a fuck about Kane’s. I just need to buy more groceries, and this week, you’re the lucky recipient of my undivided attention.
But make no mistake, if you don’t pay, Kane will.
Either way, I get more caramel latte ice cream and hotdogs.
“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen my father fold so fast,” Jay murmurs. Standing behind me, he massages my tight shoulders and stares at my laptop screen. “You’re slamming him each time he speaks.”
“And she speaks of fucking dessert,” Eric laughs. “She’s threatening the dude and throwing in talk of ice cream.”
“Are you guys gonna be okay with him going to prison?” I meet Kane’s dark eyes across the room and study the rage that brews in them. “If he comes to me, he’s going to prison. I’m not going to slit his throat, no matter how tempting it is.”
“Are you okay with him going to prison?” Jay spins my chair and stares into my eyes. “What’s going on in your head?”
“I…” Drawing in a long breath, I let it out again and let my shoulders fold in. I’m disappointed, because I always imagined the man responsible for my sister’s pain would burn in hell. Prison seems so easy… But the fact he’s Jay’s dad changes things. Not because I think Jay would be sad, but because executing his own dad is next level trauma I’m not willing to push on him. “Ellie won’t come back, no matter what happens to him,” I admit. “We’ve found him; we’ve exposed him, and we’ll remove him from his position of power. That’s gotta be enough. Right?” My voice cracks as I stare into Jay’s eyes. “It’s enough, isn’t it? It has to be.”
“Why does it have to be?” he whispers. “Prison is low on the list of possible outcomes.”
“Because… killing someone in cold blood is entirely different than killing someone in self-defense. And when that someone is your own dad… No. I can’t.”
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From: Colum Bishop
To: AcesAndEights
Subject: re: re: Reconsidered?
How do I know this goes away if I pay?
“Got him!” Eric turns away from my laptop with a feral hiss and moves toward the hall. “Motherfucker. He’s willing to pay ten million bucks to have his kids buried and his enterprise selling little girls left alone.”
* * *
I make Colum Bishop wait. Three days from first contact, we make him wait in a shitty hotel not far from town while he bites his nails, bounces his knees, and his mental state suffers as he wonders whether we’ll hold up our side of the deal.
Whether Ace will hold up hi
s side of the deal.
He fucked with his boys when he was supposed to be a father, not a drill sergeant, so this is my small rebellion to make that a little better.
The ten million dollars arrived in the account I had set up for this within thirty minutes of my final email. Ten million, just like that. He sold children for that money, and now he’ll give it away like their lives truly didn’t matter.
I hate him so much that he makes my hands shake.
“Alright, girlie. You ready for this?” Eric stands at my back and straps an extra pistol into a specially designed holster that can be worn under a light coat and barely be seen. Barely. But a gun’s a gun, and it can’t be completely hidden on my body. “You know the drill?”
“Yeah, I got it. Drive out there. Pull Kane out of my trunk–”
“I especially love that part of the plan,” he snickers. “I’m so excited to shut the trunk in his stupid face.”
“Shut up, asshole!” Kane walks past with a hell of a lot more firepower than me and clips them into his holsters. “This is the plan. We’re sticking to the plan.”
“Pull him out,” I continue on a sigh. “Hand him over. But then you guys turn up, arrest the asswipe, send him to prison, and we all live happily ever after.”
“Basically,” Eric chuckles. “The chief has been briefed on everything, so he’s going to meet you out there. We’re keeping it all aboveboard. Admission of guilt, exchange of prisoner, arrest, everyone walks away with a clean conscience. Capiche?”
“Got it.” Turning when Eric taps my shoulder, I come face to face with Jay and smile. “You doing okay? Your burrito staying put?”
“Yeah, stomach of steel, baby. You know that. Now let’s get this show on the road.”
A thirty-minute drive, an earpiece nestled in my ear and Jay’s soothing murmurs of comfort, one prisoner in the backseat – he refused the trunk – and one plan to confront the man responsible for hurting my sister.
Eight years have been building up to today. Eight long years, minimal sleep, too much food, and a hell of a lot of anxiety, all because a man wants power the way others just want happiness.
“You okay up there, Sugar Plum?”
Slowing on the highway and turning onto dirt, I make my way toward the drop point and nod. “Yeah, all good here. Love you.”
His breathy smile crackles in my ear. “Love you too, beautiful. You’re looking good. I have eyes on CAB. I have eyes on you. You’re three miles out.”
“Weapons?”
“Loads of ‘em,” he rumbles. “This won’t go smoothly unless you convince him it has to. You’ve got backups; you’ve got fail-safes; you know the drill.”
“I know the drill.”
“I wish you’d let me be with you, Sophia. I want to stand beside you when this goes down.”
“But you’re dead.” I peek in the rearview mirror when Kane growls behind me. He has an earpiece, too, and we’re all wired into the same frequency. “You can’t come out. You know the drill.”
“Mmm. One mile out, Sophia. Stay sharp. I’ve got eyes over the whole valley, and I can’t see anyone else out here. I expect him to have a sharpshooter, so the fact he doesn’t is concerning.”
“You hot up there in that ghillie?” Kane rumbles. “It’s hot as Hades out today.”
“Yeah, but there’s a small breeze,” Jay replies. “I got him in my scope; can’t I just make the shot and put him down?”
“No.” Signaling, despite the fact no one is around to see me do it, I turn left and let our SUV crawl forward. The closer I get to that man, the slower I move. He makes me sick. “Taking him out is murder. Let’s send him away and let the big guys show him what it feels like to be fucked against your will.”
“Sophia…”
“I got it, Jay. Relax.”
“He sees you, Soph.” Jay’s tone changes. In my mind, I imagine him lying on his stomach in a suit of dark greens and browns. His face will be mostly covered, his eyes shielded by glasses, and his finger resting beside the trigger. He’ll have factored in that gentle breeze, which is why he mentioned it, and he’ll have his scope pointed directly at his own father’s forehead. “Everyone, check in.”
“Scope one, checking in,” Spence’s voice rumbles in my ear.
Then Eric’s, “Scope two, checking in.”
“We’re here,” Alex Turner – the chief of police – rumbles. “Oz and I are twenty-seconds out. Keep this clean, guys. I’m not above arresting you if you fuck this up.”
“Car three, checking in,” Riley adds. “We’re all over this valley, and he has no fucking clue.”
“Alright.” With shaking hands and a rolling belly, I come around the final bend and swallow when I catch sight of the man who looks disturbingly similar to the man I’m in love with. To the man in my backseat, whom I’ve come to respect.
It’s been three days since the brothers reunited, and barely a moment has passed that they weren’t together. They need time to reconnect, to make sure the other is safe. So Jess and I have been shuffled to the side to eat ice cream while the guys sit together and reminisce about fishing trips from hell and a beach vacation Jay is pissed he missed out on.
Kane’s mind has been spinning when Jay tells him of all the times he’s been watching: the trash cans, the car rebuild, the road trip, and everything between. Then they discussed the firebombed apartment building, the fact I sort of danced for a club full of men, and Kane’s disbelief that Jay didn’t take them all out.
“Focus, Sophia. Don’t fuck this up.”
“Yeah.” Signaling again, I pull to the left and hear Kane’s audible swallow. “You ready, Bishop?”
“Yeah.” Two brothers, two voices.
“I was talking to Kane.” I check my face in the mirror and concentrate on stilling my shaking hands. “We’re going out there together. And we’re both gonna face our demons. Everyone’s gotta keep a lid on this shit. Be cool.”
“We’re cool,” Spence rumbles. “We’re always cool. Move your pretty ass. My shooting finger is starting to tingle.”
“No shooting!” Alex snaps. “You will be arrested if you take that man out.”
“Who invited the po-po anyway?”
“Jess did,” Kane answers. “She thinks we can do this without hurting our souls or some shit.”
“Women,” Eric scoffs. “Always trying to be romantic and shit.”
Pushing the car door open, I ignore Colum Bishop’s gasp when he realizes a woman has arrived. Moving to the back door, I open it up and help Kane slide out. His hands are bound behind his back to give Colum a sense of safety, but it will take two seconds and a single tug to free his hands and remove the gun from the back of his jeans…
We didn’t alert the police to Kane’s gun.
“I’ve got you, Soph.” Kane’s gentle voice is barely inches from my ear as he climbs out of the car. Unfolding his body and standing tall, he turns to his father and meets an identical pair of eyes. “Don’t do anything dumb,” he murmurs. “Don’t freak out or spook him. If you can be cool, I’ll take care of you.”
“I’m always cool,” I parrot Spence. “I captured the elusive Kane Bishop, didn’t I?” I don’t bother keeping my voice down as I shut the door and nudge my prisoner forward.
Colum pushes away from his Chrysler with a deeply etched scowl and hands that rub together in anticipation. Not a single person in this valley is fooled into thinking Colum won’t take both of us out today.
His eyes flicker from me to his son. Back and forth. Back and forth. “Where’s Ace?”
“I’m Ace.”
“But you’re a woman.”
Eric chuckles in my ear.
“Does my vagina stop the receptors in my brain from receiving information? God gave us vaginas, but skimped on the brains? Do you hire females, Bishop? Do you pay them seventeen percent less than their male counterparts?”
“Focus, Sophia!”
“Let her go,” Spence chuckles. “The sexism
speech might’ve been the scariest thing I ever heard. Let the man fear for his life.”
“Silence,” Jay snaps. “Everyone shut up.”
“I’m Ace,” I repeat. “You’re Colum Anthony Bishop, known by your stooges only by your rank or initials. Your sons are Jay and Kane Bishop. You had one executed, and would like to take the second one out.”
Kane grunts when I shove him forward an extra step. “He’s big, but he’s dumb as a bag of horse shit. I can see why you’d want to take them out and try again.”
“Mm.” Colum watches his son with a wary eye. “The data?”
For show, I produce a USB thumb drive and toss it across the ten feet that separate us. “Everything’s on there. Do what you want with it.”
“How do I know you haven’t made copies? How do I know this will go away after today?”
“The Senator also has secrets, right?” I wait for Colum’s brow to lift. “Cocaine, women, rape… the tendency to fuck farmyard animals. He paid three months ago, and his data has remained confidential. Well… except for right now that I told you. But you and he are in cahoots, no? So it’s not a big deal that I mention it.”
“It’s all gone after today?”
“I swear on my sister’s grave, it’s all done after today.”
“Your sister?” His eyes widen as he brings his shiny black pistol up. He can read the room as clearly as I can as it all locks into place for him. “Is she part of this?”
“She shouldn’t have been. She was fifteen years old when she wanted a tub of ice cream. Your men took her from a convenience store and ended her life.” I lift my hands to let him think he has this under control. “You killed her, and you ended the path my life was on. You started a chain reaction that ends with you, me, and the man I love in the basin of a valley in the middle of a hot summer day.”
“The man you love?” His eyes shoot from me to Kane. “You and him?”
“No.” Jay’s deep voice draws Colum around at a fast spin. Standing on the other side of the dark Chrysler in his ghillie but with his face fully visible, Jay rests his rifle on the roof of the car and grins. “Her and me. Hi, Lieutenant General.”
