by Finn, Emilia
“Dammit,” Dolly’s quietly grieving voice comes from behind me. I turn to find our crazy receptionist watching the happy couple with a mixture of sadness and motherly tenderness shining in her eyes. “He was supposed to love me, Cap. Kane was supposed to choose me for his forever girl. Not the bimbo.”
Laughing, I bring her under my arm and pull her in until her face smooshes against my chest. “I understand this is a hard time for you, Dolly, but you need to let him go. Jess is the nicest bimbo I ever met, and I feel like maybe she’s sticking, so…”
“He was my sugar.” She wraps her arms around my hips and snuggles in for a hug, because though I know she’s playing, I also know there’s a part of her heart that may genuinely love Kane Bishop. “He was supposed to be mine, Cap. I called dibs way back on the first day we met.”
“That may be so,” I chuckle, “but Jess shot at him first. She locked him down from the very first time he saw her pretty eyes and fancy shoes. It sucks, hon, but she had first dibs. Come now.” I turn us back toward reception, past the ice cream statue, and don’t stop until we’re behind her V-shaped desk. “It’s time for you to let him go. He was never yours.”
“What about Jay?” she asks with a secretive grin. “Can I have him?”
“No!” Sophia snaps. “Jay’s mine, so keep your filthy mitts off, or I’ll take you out.”
“Ah, no,” I hedge. “I don’t think he’s available.” I pluck a long-stemmed flower from the vase on the edge of her desk and present it with a charming smile. “You need to move on from the Bishop brothers. They’re off the market, and their women will kill them before they let them go.”
“It ain’t fair, Cap.”
“I know.”
“And I know their daddy was a vile sonofabitch, but he was kinda hot too, no?”
“You wanted Colum, too?” I laugh. “Dolly!”
“Well, no, ‘cause he’s dead and everything now anyway. But there’s something in those Bishop genes that makes Dolly’s blood sizzle.”
“Maybe Jess will have a boy,” I play along. “Maybe twenty years from now, you can rub yourself on little Kane’s leg?”
“Maybe.” Quietly, she turns away from me with a pout. “Maybe you’re right. Twenty years ain’t so bad, right?”
“Right.” I pat her shoulder and back away. “You have first dibs on baby Kane, okay? Everybody heard it.”
“Okay.”
“You gonna be alright out here?”
“Yeah. I’m gonna go home and get changed, okay?” She takes her purse from the desk drawer and turns back to her computer. “Dolly’s in mourning, so I need to change my outfit.”
“Whatever you need to do, sweetheart. Whatever makes your heart ache a little less.” Phones ring as she packs her purse, but no one gives a shit. Emails pop on the computer screen, but they go unchecked. Dolly’s long fingernails incessantly tap as she leans over her computer and sets up an out-of-office auto-reply. Then with a dramatic sniffle, she lifts her head high and walks away. “I’m gonna go shopping for a bit. I wanna buy some cute outfits for the Bishop baby.”
“Okay.”
“Probably gonna go to the salon, too.”
“Okay.”
“Tell the boss I’m using the company credit card.”
Chuckling, I watch her walk through the front door and away, then I turn back to the still wild chatter going on just twenty feet from where I stand. Laine, Jess’ twin sister, bustles around in search of snacks and water. Ang is back, but he doesn’t get so close. Kane sits on a chair in the middle of the room with Jess pulled into his lap. Soph has walked away and eats with her feet up at a desk. But Jay, technically our newest and youngest recruit, sits with his elbows on his knees, his chin in his hands, and his eyes trained on the couple in the middle. He watches them in silence, in awe, as they whisper between themselves, and everyone else is a storm moving around them.
I always considered Jay a kind of child. He’s a trained assassin, a ruthless hunter and killer when he needs to be. He can break into just about anywhere, hotwire just about anything, and seduce just about anyone. But deep inside, he’s a curious boy, and now he watches his big brother with a kind of hero worship.
“You’re gonna be an uncle.” I drop down in the chair beside him and wait for his eyes. “Kinda wild, right?”
Giving a slow nod, he goes back to watching his brother stroke Jess’ stomach. An hour ago, I would have sworn it was as flat as always, but now that I know, I can’t not see the slightest curve. It could be my mind playing tricks and showing me what I want to see, or it could truly be Kane’s four-month-old fetus barging its way in on our world.
“Another Bishop is coming,” Jay murmurs. “That’s probably a really scary idea.”
I chuckle. I haven’t met a Bishop yet who isn’t dangerous.
“He’s half-Kane, so he’s gonna be a prick,” Jay continues. “But he’s half-blond, so he’ll be psycho, too. I get you guys think this is exciting, but that baby’s genes aren’t being watered down by her. They’re being punched up to defcon levels. We’re all gonna die.”
Laughing, I clap the back of his head and pull him in for a fast side hug. “It’s exciting. You’re gonna be an uncle. Kane’s gonna be a dad. He’ll either mellow out, or turn full Spence over this.”
“I think it’s gonna be a little of both,” he ponders. “I think becoming a daddy will slow him down. Like, instead of going to the shooting range on a Saturday, he might hang out at home and play blocks. But then if anybody looks at that kid the wrong way, he’s gonna go to war, and we’ll all be standing right beside him.” He blows out a long breath. “She’s baking a time bomb right now, Cap. And it’s kinda scary, right?”
“I mean…it doesn’t have to be scary.” Glancing down, I study the guns strapped to this guy’s thighs and chuckle. He’s scared, but he’s already been through the fire. “A cute baby isn’t something to be afraid of. Your family is growing. This is a good thing.”
“You’re gonna be an uncle, too.” Turning his head only, he flashes a grin. “Bet Kane’s gonna let his brute tear Uncle Eric’s place up. You ready for it?”
“It’ll be fine. I’m happy for him.” I watch the couple whisper and smile. We’re supposed to be working, but this place hasn’t had any kind of routine since the day it was created. We do whatever the hell we want to do, we pull in the cases, solve them, collect our cash, and keep on doing whatever we’re doing. “I think it’s exciting. Jess is a sweetheart, so I think this is awesome. He deserves happiness.”
“Do you ever…” Hesitating, Jay nervously reseats the beanie on his head and kind of avoids my eyes. “It’s scary loving someone, ya know? When we’re alone, we’re unbreakable, but when we find someone we love, we become weak.”
“Uh-huh. I know that better than anyone.”
“Right. But the women we chose, they’re warriors, so they don’t really slow us down. We worry for them, but we don’t have to worry, ya know? Because they’re pretty capable. We teach them, so they’re capable.”
“Right.”
“A baby can’t be taught, Cap.” He runs a frustrated hand over his jaw. “A baby makes us weak, and I just don’t know how to be a Bishop at the same time I have a weakness. I just got Kane back, and now he’s gonna be distracted, and well, what if… I’m just…” I feel for the guy who knows what he wants to ask, but isn’t sure how to ask it. “How did you deal with it after… How did you come back from that?”
“Well…” I blow out a breath to buy myself time. “I just did what I had to do. I worked; I kept my head down, and I didn’t talk about it.”
“You think that’s healthy?”
I snort. “Not even a little bit. But the past is the past, ya know? I can’t change it, and it’s part of my history now, so when someone tells my story someday, I mean, it has to be in there. So I guess the answer is, I don’t get a choice but to deal. The Earth still orbits the sun; the stars still come out at night; time continues moving
forward; babies are born; cases are solved, and our brothers fall in love and create babies. Whether I stop or not, the rest of the world won’t.”
“I don’t know if I could ever be that strong,” he whispers. “If Soph ever left me…”
“She’s capable, Bish. She’s badass. Gemma wasn’t part of our world like Soph is; she didn’t understand, so when the heat came for us… Well…” The breath still stops in my lungs when I think of the woman I married fresh out of high school. The pain slices through my chest and clogs the oxygen in my throat. “Soph is different. That’s all I’m saying. You’re fine with her, so you shouldn’t worry so much.” I slap his leg and stand, because I’m not lifting the no-talking-about-Gemma ban I’ve had in place for so long just because today is a special occasion. “It’s a happy day. Be happy.”
Raising my voice, I walk through the crowd and pull Jessie out of her man’s lap so I can lay a wet kiss on her cheek. “Congratulations, Jessie. You captured the elusive Kane Bishop, and now you’re incubating and making more.” Kane stands with a wide smile. For just this moment, he’s so happy and distracted, he doesn’t even shoot me when I pull her in for a second hug. “I hope you realize you two are solely responsible for the end of the world when your spawn arrives. Ever watched any of those Lucifer movies with the evil child tearing cities apart? Unquenchable thirst for blood, uncontrollable desire for violence?”
“What the hell kinda movies you watching?” Jess smacks my shoulder and steps back with a laugh. “But also, yes. I know exactly what you’re saying, and I’m deeply apologetic for what we’ve done.”
I turn to Kane and pull him in, clapping his back and squeezing extra tight. “Congratulations, brother. I’m proud of you.”
“You okay?” Of course he’d ask. Of course he’d talk of something none of us have mentioned in so long. “Need a time out?”
“I’m better than okay. I’m excited for you. Can you name him Eric? Or Albert Limpick the fourth?”
“No!” He pushes me away with a laugh and pulls Jessie in. “I’m having a little girl, and I’m gonna call her Princess Perfect.”
“Oh, God.” Jess grabs her stomach. “I’m gonna barf if you say that shit again.”
“Hello? Are you guys open?”
I step back to make room for Spence, and since everyone else is busy not working, I follow the feminine voice back toward reception and stop on a professionally dressed woman in a skirt suit, fancy hair in a bun, and heels that maybe got mixed up between the date box and the work box.
She’s beautiful enough that I stop in my tracks, but not so much that while I stop, I don’t see Katrina in my mind and wonder what she’s up to right this minute.
“Hello.” Friendly smile, PR voice, greet the potential client. “Can I help you?”
The woman is short, even in her hooker heels. She looks up from light eyes and long lashes and flashes a beautiful smile that makes me smile in return. Stepping forward, she extends a hand and takes mine. “Hey, my name is Jo, and I’m looking for a little help with my security. Word on the streets is that Checkmate is where I’ve gotta be.”
“Okay.” I turn and indicate for her to follow, and as we move, I do my best to shield her from the idiots still partying in the main office. Of course she sees them, but I herd her toward the boardroom without stopping and close the door to block the noise out. Nodding toward the desk, I grab a fresh file on the way past a work station Laine set up to keep us organized. Instead of notes on scraps of paper flittering from office to office, we now have files set up, and an electronic database just waiting for input.
“Alright.” Selecting a pen, I drop the file on the table and sit down. “My name is Eric DeWhit, and I can help us get started. We have experts in every field, so why don’t you tell me a little about your situation, and then we can allocate someone to your case.”
Setting her leather purse on the floor, Jo sits back and plays with a stray pen. “Allocate? I didn’t realize there were a bunch of options.”
“The sky’s the limit. We have men who can provide personal body protection, depending on your budget. Home security. Cybersecurity. We could investigate someone if that’s what you’re looking for. Maybe you have an ex who wronged you or something.” I shrug. “Perhaps you’re looking to learn how to defend yourself.” I pause when her cheeks flush. “Lots of options. But there’s a lot to take in, so instead of overwhelming you with information, you can tell me what you need, then I’ll tell you who you need.”
“Okay.” Sitting taller, she crosses her legs and clasps her hands on the table. “So mostly I was just looking to secure my home. I’m a single mom, and my son is growing up. I mean, he’s not moving out today, but that will be a reality in just a couple more years. Jake’s a worrier. I want to be ready for when he graduates and goes off to college, so that he won’t be tempted to pack me in his suitcase and steal me away.”
“Well, this is an easy one.” I make notes in Laine’s handy-dandy files, fill out the sections I know, and prepare to run Jo through a thousand more.
10
Katrina
Today was going to be a decent day. Not an awesome day, because those are rarely gifted to me. But a decent day, a day with work, but no spilled milk, of school, but no calls from the principal, of walking, since my car is still screwed, but no rain, of possibly seeing Eric, but not yelling at him.
I had grand plans to enjoy a perfectly mediocre day and fall into bed sixteen hours from now without more stress on my plate.
But, of course, my life isn’t that easy. With the wind taken from my sails and my stomach dropping with a fast whoosh, I sit on my old sofa with the phone pressed to my ear and fight back the tears that want to spill over.
“Umm…” I brush a nervous hand over my cheek. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you’re my closest friend, Kat. You’re the only person in the world who cares about me.”
“But you’re having another baby, Zeke… with somebody else.”
“It was just an accident,” he whines. “I don’t even know that bitch, and now she’s saying she’s pregnant, and that it’s mine. Why should I trust her?”
Probably because of your track record for knocking women up.
I wonder who he called when I told him the same news? I wonder if he called me a liar, too…
“This’ll be your fourth baby, Zeke. Four women. Seems to me you’re the common thread.” And I’m thrilled I was one of the earlier women. I was with him pre-STDs. “I hope you step up for her, help take care of that baby.”
“The only child I care about is ours! You and Mac are the only people who matter to me.”
His words don’t hurt me like they used to. I was once a young mom desperate for a family and willing to accept Zeke for who he was. Absent for a decade, and not a single hand lifted to help us, I still tried to convince myself that he had good reasons for his behavior. Perhaps he’d joined the military and was deployed for that whole time. Perhaps he’d seen the error of his ways, joined a monastery and cleaned up his act. Hell, maybe he was framed for someone else’s crime and spent that decade in prison serving someone else’s sentence.
Loneliness and a deep yearning for the family you see in all the Thanksgiving ads will do that to a young girl. The great novels tease us with perfect men and families, and encourage us to keep holding on, to fight for what we want, because eventually it’ll all work out.
But naiveté doesn’t pay the bills, and sex with your ex gets you nowhere but heartbreak hill.
I was a child when my world was torn open, but now I’m grown, and Zeke holds absolutely no power over me. Not even when he tells me he knocked someone up and is expecting a baby. Again.
My dropped stomach has nothing to do with me, and everything to do with my son. Every child Zeke creates is another brother or sister for Mac. I know it hurts him that these people float around in the universe and he doesn’t know them.
“Anyway,” he continues wi
th a gritty voice. “She said that she’s due in December.”
“December?!” I shout. I clamp my lips shut again when I remember Mac is only twenty feet away in his bedroom getting ready for school. “Zeke, it’s October! How long have you known?”
“Couple months,” he grumbles. “I tried to tell you the other day, but that fucker got in my way.”
“That fucker was my customer and didn’t like the way you were speaking to me.”
“You fuckin’ him, Kat?” Despite the fact it’s only seven in the morning, his words slur, and his bad attitude spikes mine. “You fuckin’ that dude in the back alley between customers? Because I might have a problem with that.”
“No! And even if I were, you don’t get a say in my life.”
“I get a say in my son’s life.” Grunting as though climbing out of a recliner, I listen to him move about as the rage bubbles in my stomach. “I’ve been really fuckin’ cool with you, Kat. Letting you take control and make decisions for my son, but I’m his father, and I get a say.”
“No, you don’t,” I hiss. “You have absolutely no say in his life, Zeke. You’re not on the birth certificate. You’ve shown no effort to clean yourself up and provide a stable home for him. You’d need to have DNA testing done to prove paternity, and then take me to court and fight me for him. Before you get to spend a single second with him, you’d need to pay fourteen years of owed child support; you’d need to prove you have a home and stability. You’d need to explain where you were for his first ten years. And on top of all that, he’s fourteen, not four, so they’ll ask him who he wants to spend time with. He won’t choose you, Zeke.”
“Because you poison him!” Zeke slams a door and stomps his boots against a concrete floor. “You fuckin’ poisoned my son against me, Katrina! You don’t get to steal a man’s son! He’s my heir.”
