“But Lakeview feels kinda random.”
Kane shrugs. “Could be, but I’m tossing it all in the same basket until we get this shit figured out. None of us are safe in our beds until it’s sorted, so…”
“So we sort it out.” My heart slams around inside my chest and brings my thoughts swinging around to Dee. She’s at the gym this morning, and not due home for a while, so I shouldn’t worry, but… “Do I need to worry about my place? I don’t even have security. I don’t know if it’s necessary.”
“It’s necessary.” Kane points along the table. “Eric’ll be by this afternoon to have the whole place covered. Don’t worry; nobody will be watching to catch your girl in her panties. But I feel like this shit is important. Something’s going on, and I don’t like it.” He flips the TV back to the twenty screens, turns to toss the remote down, only to stop at the sight of Dee coming through the back garage.
“The fuck?” I push off the wall and step closer to the screen. This isn’t the first time she’s come here during work hours. It’s not even the first time she’s come through the garage. But Kane’s officially got my blood running hot, and my heart yearns to pull her close.
Just in case.
I push away from the table and head toward the door with my cane touching the floor every fourth step. “I don’t like this, Bish. I don’t fuckin’ like any of it.” I slam out the door and back into the office that bears a massive Checkmate insignia on the wall. Dee spent a solid month sketching that up and painting it. Turns out my girl can draw, and gets off on painting whole walls while Nacho honks around offices she shouldn’t be in and delights client and staff with her tutu’d ass.
Kane and Angelo are first through the door, on my heels like they know this is important, but Spence and Eric are just a second behind them. I walk through one office, then the next, and the next. This complex is long, so offices line one side, and a hall and amenities line the other. Walls separate each space, but apart from Kane’s, the walls don’t touch the ceiling. They’re just separators, for visual privacy, but we hear conversations from one to the next.
Like Dolly is completely incompetent – or enthralled by our actions – the phones ring incessantly while she moves to the war room doorway and blocks the twins from following us out.
But then again, maybe she’s not incompetent at all.
Maybe she’s doing exactly what Kane has ordered her to do.
The minute it takes to move from the TV that shows Dee’s sweet face, until I push through the garage door, is the longest minute of my life. Without her right in front of me, my heart runs into overdrive and almost makes me dizzy. My leg is still a work in progress. My gait isn’t perfect, so while I can move legions faster than I used to, I still need my cane to keep me from dropping to my ass.
I slam the garage door open, surprising Dee with the loud boom, only to breathe easier when she looks up and meets my eyes. “Jesus, Riley. You scared the piss out of me.” She drops her hand into Nacho’s satchel twenty feet from where I stand to calm the squealing pig.
I take a step closer and study the pockets of pitch black in the corners of the massive twelve car garage. Kane has officially spooked me. “What are you doing here, Dee? Why aren’t you at work?”
“Um…” Her eyes widen as the rest of my crew step into the garage. We’re like soldiers going to war. Like fighters stepping up to the cage. “I went home, because I forgot my stretch bands. But… someone was in our house, Riley. It’s completely trashed.”
I spin back to meet Kane’s eyes. “Yours wasn’t trashed. Spence’s wasn’t trashed.” I turn back to Dee when Nacho’s squealing turns up to impossible decibels.
My eyes meet the stranger’s for just a beat, then my hand whips down to my hip and I come up with my gun cocked and loaded as Dee squeaks and a thick arm wraps around her stomach.
Kane storms forward with his gun high and ready to kill, then Eric, Spence, and Angelo do the same. Our visitor wears all black, including a ski mask and ball cap pulled low. He pulls a screaming Dee against his broad chest, but his eyes, they flick from mine, to Spence’s, to Ang’s, to Eric’s.
“Let her go, motherfucker.” I step forward with a steady hand. There’s no panic. No fear. Because we won’t lose this.
Kane and Ang separate and circle him. Spence and Eric do the same. My breath whooshes through my chest, but my eyes stay locked to Andi’s as she clamps her lips shut and goes with his jerking movements. He’s bigger than her by a long way. Stronger. More determined. But she trusts me to keep her safe.
I move forward one step, then two, then three, four, five until the barrel of my gun sits just inches in front of his forehead. She’s a foot shorter than him; safely away from my gun. “It’s five against one. Step the fuck down.”
His eyes dart from one man to the next. “I’m looking for Kane Bishop.”
“Well she ain’t him, and she lacks self-preservation skills. Using her was your first mistake. Let her go, then die like a man.”
This story is not yet over…