Fast as a whip, she comes around and pops the illustrious Bishop brothers with such precision, if they were real bullets, the guys would be toast. Kane takes a rubber bullet between the eyes, and Jay in the solar plexus, only for her to swing back and pin me and Jess again. “Three.”
“Sophia.”
“Two.”
“Sophia!”
“One!”
“I was hungry!” Jess bounds behind me and presses herself close to my back. “I’m so starving it hurts, so I stole. I’m weak, okay! It’s not my fault.”
“It was somebody’s fault, Jessica Lenaghan.” Sophia Solomon is… a unique creature. She was once a classically trained ballerina, one who was destined to become famous and wealthy, but a cruel twist of fate led her elsewhere, so now she can handle guns, even the real kind, and hack twisted and well-protected firewalls created to keep people like her out.
Sophia founded a school for dancers in honor of a lost loved one, and though she teaches preschoolers every single day, she’s also here, a strangely perfect fixture in an office full of hardened men, criminals, spies, as she stands at her man’s side and hacks the accounts of whoever’s file we put in front of her. She helps us do our job, and doesn’t take a single cent in salary for her hours put in here—something about how she’s self-funded and doing just fine for money.She’s our self-appointed head of cybersecurity – self-appointed, because when Kane Bishop proudly said he didn’t need her help, she hacked his life and company and locked him out until he handwrote an apology letter and delivered candy bars right to her front door.
An unorthodox approach, but effective as fuck and convincing as well.
So we took her.
We keep her.
But now she’s got the Checkmate queen bee in her sights.
“I feel like we have pretty strict rules set in place for a reason.” Soph begins to circle as the office fills with more of our staff. Riley, our bionic leg ex-cop steps in and rests against his cane. Spence, our seven feet of Army Ranger finds the girls ridiculously cute. Soph could be holding a real gun, and he’d still smile and call her cute. Angelo, my landlord, who’s not employed here at all but hangs out more these days than ever before, tilts his head and watches his girlfriend’s twin sister quiver behind my back.
“The only thing I ask of you people is that you don’t touch my food,” Soph continues. “I need to eat. I like to eat. Food is really important to me, and I’ve been known to torture a man for less.” She shoots off a round and nails me in the center of my chest. “Do you think that being royalty gives you freedom to steal?” She stalks closer, slowly, and ridiculously, considering it’s a Nerf gun and not a real weapon, scarily, until Jess is a mixture of shakes and laughter. “Do you think my simple requests are hot air? My threats baseless?”
“I was just so hungry.” Jess worms her way around my body as Sophia stalks. “I’m sorry I stole. I promise to replace it with ten more. Kane! Run to the store, babe.”
Soph shakes her head so her long hair sways. “I don’t want your guilty bars. I want the bar I brought in here this morning, and I wanted it ten minutes ago. Now my blood sugar is dipping, and my trigger finger might slip.”
“Don’t shoot me,” Jess whimpers. She slides around my body as I stand in the middle of the office and remain her bulletproof vest. “Please don’t shoot me. You’d feel bad about it.”
“Not sure that’s true.” Soph pulls the trigger and hits my jaw with a foam bullet. “I don’t feel bad about that.”
“I see how it is,” I rumble. “I see how I’m just a pawn in your game, Miss Wise and Peaceful.”
“I told you she was fresh outta the peace, Cap.” Jay steps forward slowly and moves up behind his girlfriend in preparation to disarm our hostile capturer. “You need to chill out, Sophia Solomon. Come to my office so we can… debrief.”
Everyone’s lips quirk at Jay’s lack of subtlety.
“Last chance!” Soph snaps. “I want a bar placed in front of me right now, or I want a valid excuse for stealing from me. Men have died for less.”
“It wasn’t my fault!”
“Whose fault was it?”
“It wasn’t mine!” Jess cries out. “I was weak and hungry. I didn’t think anyone would notice.”
“I noticed! I always notice when people steal from me. Last chance! Whose fault was it?” Soph rushes forward. “Whose fault? Whose fault? Whose fault?”
“It’s the baby!” Jess gasps when the words slip past her lips. She claps her hands over her mouth and stares wide-eyed when Kane’s head snaps up. Instantly, tears fill her eyes, and her hands begin shaking. “I’m so sorry.”
“Annnnd, my work is done.” Soph drops her rifle and pulls a new bar from her back pocket. Tearing the wrapper off while the rest of the office remains mute, she walks to the corner of my desk and sits down with an arrogant grin. “You should be more careful about your internet browsing history, Jess. I figured you out within two seconds.”
“Blondie?” Kane isn’t often struck dumb, but he looks like a guppy fish now as he steps forward and slowly draws his girl from behind me. “What…” His lips flounder. Open. Closed. Open. “What did you just say?”
“Um…” Jess looks back to me like I might save her again. “So… here’s the thing. Remember on vacation when we didn’t use condoms?”