by Finn, Emilia
Till The Sun Dies
Checkmate, #2
Emilia Finn
Contents
Also by Emilia Finn
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TILL THE SUN DIES
Prologue
1. Laine
2. Angelo
3. Laine
4. Angelo
5. Laine
6. Angelo
7. Laine
8. Angelo
9. Laine
10. Angelo
11. Laine
12. Angelo
13. Laine
14. Laine
15. Angelo
16. Laine
17. Laine
18. Angelo
19. Angelo
20. Angelo
21. Laine
22. Angelo
23. Laine
24. Angelo
25. Laine
26. Laine
27. Angelo
28. Laine
29. Angelo
30. Laine
31. Angelo
32. Laine
33. Angelo
34. Laine
35. Angelo
36. Laine
37. Angelo
38. Laine
Epilogue
Author’s Note:
Acknowledgments
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TILL THE SUN DIES
By: Emilia Finn
Copyright © 2019. Emilia Finn
Publisher: Beelieve Publishing, Pty Ltd.
Cover Design: Amy Queue
Cover Photographer: Golden Czermak
Cover Model: Joey Berry
Editing: Brandi Bumstead
ISBN: 9781095702024
This Book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This Book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return and purchase your own copy.
To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at [email protected]
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of Emilia Finn’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
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Also by Emilia Finn
The Rollin On Series
Begin Again – A Prequel
Finding Home
Finding Victory
Finding Forever
Finding Peace
Finding Redemption
Finding Hope
Written in the Stars – A Short Story
The Survivor Series
Because of You
Surviving You
Without You
Rewriting You
Always You
Take A Chance On Me
The Checkmate Series
Pawns In The Bishop’s Game
Till The Sun Dies
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TILL THE SUN DIES
Checkmate # 2
Emilia Finn
Prologue
When the most important person in your world is hurt – and I don’t mean an accidental bump in the street, or something a little more serious like a car accident, but something more, something so much worse – a man learns who he is right down at the core.
Will he protect her? Can he do what needs to be done to make it better? Is he willing to take it as far as it needs to go, or is he a pussy that talks a big game but has no guts?
And if he chooses the second, then did he truly love her at all?
No.
The answer is no, because a man that loves with his whole heart won’t be stopped. There is no line. There’s no ‘too far’.
There’s just her.
And her pain is his responsibility to fix, even if she’ll never know it was he who stepped in.
I stop behind the new couple in Oz’s living room and watch the way they gravitate toward each other. She leans into him, despite his scary exterior, and each time she does, he accepts her touch and gives back some of his own.
Kane Bishop is a fucking criminal. He’s a gun carrying, throat slitting, zero tolerance for fuckwits, criminal. He might also be a cop, but in his blood, deep in his soul, he’s pure thug.
And he’s exactly who I need today, as I approach that line that so few men are willing to cross.
For her, I would do anything.
Silently, I tap his shoulder and hope no one else is paying us too much attention. This is between me and him. Not the other cops in this room, and definitely not his girl, who just so happens to be an identical twin and carbon copy of the woman I love.
The woman I’ve loved since before I should have.
“Bishop?”
He turns away from his girlfriend’s silly joke, and the moment his dark eyes meet mine, his smile is wiped clean. Kane Bishop knows how to read moods. He knows how to gauge a situation.
And he knows danger when he sees it.
A lifted brow is the only permission I get to speak, but his eyes scream ‘what the fuck do you want?’
“Can we talk a sec?”
Kane has been an undercover cop for a long time. He’s been under for what must be most of his adult life, and just weeks ago, he was thought dead.
For months, Jess grieved his death, and for months, we, her family, held her while she cried.
But now he’s back.
And when a guy he hardly knows taps him on the shoulder, he pays attention. He needs no other words. No explanation. He simply drops a kiss on Jess’ brow, whispers something I don’t need to know into her ear, and turns away from the guys he was talking with.
I lead him toward the back door, because what I have to say isn’t for the ears of those inside this house.
I don’t slow when the twins’ brother curiously watches us move through the crowded living room, or when Alex and Oz watch us in that suspicious way cops watch everyone.
The chief and his deputy know who and what they have in this house today, so they stay vigilant, but when your baby sister is in love with the guy, and he saved your life a few months ago, you tend to be a little more forgiving.
So, instead of arresting him, they offer him a beer and congratulations on not being dead after all.
We step through the sliding glass door, down the back steps, and onto spongy grass. This house is surrounded by forest, which is handy for me.
I don’t stop on the grass.
I don’t stop at the edge of Oz’s yard.
I don’t even stop twenty feet into the trees.
/>
I walk for a full five minutes – and he follows.
His heavy boots trample the fallen foliage until finally, I stop and turn back to face him. I expect to come eye-to-eye with an intense black stare, but the gun he points at my chest is a surprise.
“I’m not gonna shoot you,” he starts warily. “You ran into a burning building with me, so I respect you. I respect the fact you’re willing to lay your life down for someone I love. We can be cool, so long as you don’t intend to fuck me over.” His dark eyes, almost black, glitter with awareness. “But in case you did come here to fuck me over, I’m gonna be first. I’m not going anywhere, I’m never leaving Jess again, and I refuse to be the reason she breaks. Which means I’m choosing me over you.”
I slowly bring my hands up in surrender. “Why would I kill you?”
He lifts his heavy shoulders and shrugs. “I dunno. Probably because you’re in love with the other twin. It must burn that I kissed her that one time.”
My heart pounds with the fact he knows my secrets when I’ve managed to hide it from everyone else this whole time. It pounds as I struggle to take my eyes away from the gun he points at my chest – a gun I guarantee the cops inside have no clue he’s carrying.
More than that, it pounds with the reminder he kissed Laine Lenaghan when he should have been kissing Jess.
I lift my chin. “How do you know I’m in love with her?”
“You mean, apart from the fact you ran into a burning club to save her life? Probably something to do with the way your eyes burn every time I mention I kissed her.”
“Yeah, can you stop fuckin’ bringing that up? I don’t wanna hear about it.” I lower my hands and continue to watch that gun.
I’m not entirely sure he’s stable. He’s been an undercover cop for so long, I’m not sure if I’m speaking with Special Agent Kane Bishop – respected and decorated officer of the law, or Kane Bishop – criminal, drug runner, gun transporter, hired muscle, and enforcer.
No, I have no fuckin’ clue who walked into the woods with me today, and I don’t care, because despite the fact I know a bunch of guys who own guns and know how to shoot, I trust Kane for what I need.
I need some of his crazy.
“I wanted to ask you a favor.”
“Yeah?” He lowers his gun, but he doesn’t put it away. “What do you need from a guy like me?”
“You know that fucker that hurt Laine? You know what he did to her?”
He gives one fast nod. “I know what he did. I know exactly what he did. Do you?”
“I know some. I know he hurt her. I know he kept her away from us. I know she cries all the time.” But worse, so much worse, I’ve heard the rumors that have circulated my family for months. “That’s enough for me to need something done about it. I’m under the impression that you’re no longer employed by the law.”
His wary eyes don’t leave mine for a single beat. “They had a problem with me coming out of hiding to let Jess know I wasn’t dead. I handed my badge in when they made me choose. I’m officially retired, but I have my own plans for work. I don’t need you.”
“I’m not offering you a job.” I stop. “Well, I wasn’t, but I got space at my garage. If you know engines, I could have you on.”
He shakes his head.
I shrug. “Whatever. That’s not why I brought you out here, anyway.”
“So get to the fuckin’ point.” His gun hand lifts a few inches. “Tell me what you need.”
“He still calls her.” It hurts me; my heart, my soul, my gut, and every inch of my body, it hurts me that he hurts her. “Every damn day, Graham calls. He asks her to come back. He cries on the phone and says he’s sorry.”
Bishop’s eyes narrow. “Do you have a problem with that because he’s an abusive piece of shit that deserves to be neutered, or because she’s yours?”
Kane’s my kinda guy. He gets it. “Both. He deserves to hurt for both reasons, so I was thinking maybe you can help me deal with him.”
“Help you deal with him?” He watches me warily. The ink on his neck ripples as he swallows. “I’m gonna need you to say the words. I’m not incriminating myself, and I hardly know you, motherfucker. What do you want to do to him?”
I nod. Understandable. “I want him to hurt. I have a workshop, I have chains, I have a blowtorch, and I have a bunch of different tools that might aid in relieving him of his nut sack. I can’t kill him, I won’t, but I can get my point across in other ways.”
Kane takes a single step forward. Then a second. He watches me through suspicious eyes. “Is this a hypothetical thing? A bad mood you wanna take out on him because she stepped away from you inside?” He points back toward the house. “Are you pissed because she doesn’t want you to touch her? Or are you being literal?”
She doesn’t want me to touch her, even after thirty years of easy friendship, silly games, and sillier laughter. Because of Graham, everything is gone, and the girl I grew up with can’t tolerate even a friendly hand on her shoulder.
“I’ve never been so literal in my life. He’s not gonna fuck anyone again, Bish, I’m making sure of it. Nor will he call and make her cry anymore. I figure you might be able to help. You don’t get to hurt people anymore; your life as a thug is officially over. Maybe you wanna revisit your old skill set and help me.”
His hand flexes around the handle of his gun. Open. Closed. Controlled as the corded muscles roll with the movement.
He watches me for a full minute as he thinks through every single option, every outcome. Then he nods.
“Alright. I can help, because if that was my girl, whether I was with her or not, I would kill for her. I have killed for her, and I’d do it a thousand times over.”
“You’ve killed for Jess?” I swallow nervously. “Legit?”
His thick brow lifts. “Don’t worry about it, but I’ll help you with your problem. You wanna hold the torch or the pliers?”
1
Laine
Time To Sleep
Everyone’s so happy.
So settled, content, and unbelievably happy.
Jessie, my eleven minutes older twin sister, is with Kane, and never in all our lives have I seen her smile so much. For months, her companionship was the only I allowed to intrude on my grief, because she was in pain, too. She was mourning a death just as surely as I was, and you know what they say about misery…
But now Kane’s back, and his reemergence into her life freed her from that thread of companionship I so desperately clung to.
I love my family. I especially love my sister. Best friends since the womb, her smiles these days are the only rays of sunshine that peek into my dead heart.
But it’s not enough anymore.
My brother is with Kari, and finally, finally their love is public. They spent years in the proverbial closet, but now they’re out and practically married.
I seem to have discovered a disturbing trend in my family; Jess hid her relationship with Kane, and I spent the last two years hiding away with Graham.
But what Graham and I had was different.
What Jess has with Kane, and what Luc has with Kari… they have the pure kind of love. The good kind that makes your heart beat faster and helps your soul flourish.
But mine… mine was black and poisonous. It was dark and horrible.
Graham and I hid, not because I wanted him all to myself, but because I was ashamed. I was too ashamed to let my family in, for fear they would see what I’d become.
I was ashamed, because I’d become weak and stupid.
Spineless and brainless.
But worst of all, I’d become a sneak and a liar. I became a pro at hiding his damage; the bruises, the pain, the trauma. I lied to my family for two years straight, and every time they extended a hand with a promise to help me, I learned to lie better, to laugh it off and call them silly.
I don’t recognize this version of me; the abused woman that spent two years with a man that would beat her just beca
use he enjoyed it.
A man that sold her to anyone with a fist full of cash and a minicam.
A man that stole me away from my loving family and kept me hidden.
Now my family hate me. They hate that I deserted them, that I chose a man over them, that I didn’t tell them my truths.
I’m broken.
I’m dirty.
I’m disgusting.
“Come back to me, Lainie.” Graham’s smooth voice slides through my cellphone. “Come home. I promise it won’t happen again. We got carried away, but I promise I’ll be better. For you, I’ll become a better man.” He sniffles. “I can’t live without you, Lainie. Please come home.”
“Graham…” My voice cracks. Pathetically, I’m just the weak shell of a woman who once lived. I was the crazy sister, the ballsy one who’d stand up to two-hundred-and fifty-pound fighters to save my friend a little heartache.
I could go toe-to-toe with anyone without fear, but now, I’m scared of my own shadow. I’m scared to look my family in the eye. I’m scared that I’ll always need five showers a day to get the stench of Graham and Infernos Club off my skin.
Most of all, I’m scared that Graham will win me back. That I’m so weak minded, so broken, that I’ll tell him yes, rather than follow through with my plans.
