“Good Lord,” Soph rolls her eyes. “Are you done, drama queen? You need to dial it back.”
“Alright. Now we’ve established half of my team are attracted to you folks, how about we get back on track?” Kane takes a pen from the table and quietly spins it. “Why are you here?”
“Colum Bishop.”
Jay and Soph stop at my words. They stop bickering, stop slapping at each other’s hands, they stop breathing altogether and turn to face me.
“Colum is dead.” Kane’s eyes flicker between me and Lib. “And I was unaware this particular cop had any interest in him. The chief is my point of contact, and as far as I was aware, he’s keeping the Colum shit on lock.”
“Um…” Libby glances from one set of eyes to the next. Fear buzzes beneath her skin, and surprisingly, her hand slides from her lap to mine. “You must know my part in Colum’s world.” Her eyes continue to stray back to Sophia. “I didn’t change my name, and my father is still doing time. You would have run everything and everyone Colum knows, so you know there’s a connect.”
“Yes.” Sophia watches us. “Yes, I know Raymond Tate was a soldier for Colum. I know you’re Raymond’s daughter. You should know I ran you to make sure you were clean. Alex wants to keep you on at the station, but how was I supposed to know you weren’t a next generation scumbag just like your daddy?”
Those words hurt her. Every syllable Sophia spits out is like a bullet that slams into Libby’s chest.
“And what did you find?” Libby asks quietly. “What were your conclusions?”
“That you were a hard worker. That you live within your means. That you were almost the reason Kane’s final mission was killed, because you watch too close and nearly uncovered Kane’s cop contact.”
“Who was Kane’s cop contact?” I look between Sophia and Libby. “You had a soldier after all?”
“Cruz was his contact.” Libby squeezes my hand. “Dude outside with the cane? He’s recently retired. But there was a long time there where I felt like he was dirty. He set off my alarms, so I was keeping a close watch.”
“He took a bullet for me,” Jess murmurs. “I had no clue he was Kane’s guy, but he stood in front of me and my sister when a man came to hurt us. He lost his leg, and it’s directly on the back of protecting me.”
“He’s okay, Jess.” Sophia reaches into a bag she has hanging on the back of her chair and digs around. She’s like the pusher for the group, the mother hen, in a way. Because she tugs a small bag of gummy worms out and places them in Jay’s fidgeting hands. Then she takes a candy bar and slides it across the table until it stops in front of Jess. “Cruz is up and running again now. He has a badass bionic leg, and we’re designing him an even better one. Soon he’ll thank you, and we’ll all wish we could hide weapons inside our legs.”
“Alright, we’re gonna need to move this along,” Kane snaps. “What do you want, Griffin? We’ve established it’s not business. And we know you know about Colum. If you think you can come up in here and hurt my family because of Colum, you’ll be comforted to know that the chair you sit in is spring-loaded and set with explosives. If you stand, it’ll wipe you from existence. We will no longer be punished for the actions of a prick. Make no sudden movements, or prepare to be buried in pieces.”
My heart stops for a single beat as I stare into his eyes. “You wouldn’t set an explosive this close to your pregnant girl. No way will you put her in danger.”
“Try me.” He lifts a brow. “There’s this company dominating the military markets right now.Roarexplosives are the best, and they’re accurate. Tate will probably go down with you.” He looks to her, “Sorry about that. But this is one of those things where if you lay with dogs, you’re gonna get fleas. You brought him in here, you brought him among my family, so if he dies, you’re probably gonna go too.”
“Threatening a police officer,” Jess coughs. “I intend to marry you next week. Don’t fuck this up.”
“She ain’t a police officer when she’s on my property. She’s a trespasser and associated with some motherfucker I don’t trust.”
It really bothers me that, as he sits and speaks with such calmness in his voice, he looks just like the man I met two decades ago. Dark eyes, dark hair, formidable and unafraid.
“They’re yet to state their business,” he continues. “I trust your chief, Tate. Barely, and only because he’s family to my girl. But I can’t say I know you beyond pleasantries. I don’t want to jump the gun, so get to the point, then we can move on and decide where we go next.”
“Alright…” Lib pulls the unharmed side of her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment in contemplation. “I organized this meet for Theo, but he’s not feeling awfully verbose at the moment.”
“Makes him a pussy,” Jay swipes. “Real men speak up. Real men take the lead. I swear, before yesterday I would have wet my pants if someone told me Theo Griffin was coming to town. But every time we’re in the same space, I like you less and less. First, you hit on my girl, and now you grow a vagina and make Tate speak for you.”
“Because real men wet their pants from excitement?” I lift a brow in question. “Don’t mistake my silence for weakness. I speak when I want to speak, and not for the sake of hearing my own fucking voice. You think my silence is a fault, I think your big mouth will get you killed someday.”
“I already died, motherfucker.” He stands and leans onto the table to close the space between us. Tugging his beanie away, he shows me a scar and what is certainly a hole in his skull. “I already walked through death. I had tea with the devil, then I ran through the flames and came back to fuck people up again. You wanna test me? Colum already tried. He tried to fuck us up, he tried to kill the only family I have. He was weak. He was old and arrogant. And I see arrogance in your eyes. I can survive a bullet through the brain; can you?”
“Who did that?” My eyes narrow on the small divot in his forehead. It’s like I can literally see the hole in his skull, and though the skin has closed up, I can still see the hollow. The chink in his armor. “A bullet?”
“I’m not in the habit of telling strangers my business. You called this meeting, so how about you give us information before you ask?”
“Abel Hayes did it,” Jess blurts out.
The guys snap their heads around and stare at her in accusation, but she only studies me with firmed lips.
“Abel Hayes shot him. It passed through his skull, and–” She rolls her sleeve back to reveal a scar on her arm. “It passed through him and hit me. And Cruz? Kane’s cop, Libby’s former colleague? Hayes’ man got him too. Colum Bishop might be Kane’s father, he might even be my babies’ grandfather, but he’s not missed, and he’s not loved. We’re glad he’s dead, and if I could bring him back, I would, but only so I can let him die in a much more painful way. What he got was far too kind, and there’s nothing you can say that will change my mind.” She pauses, grabs Kane’s hand and brings it to her stomach. “If you’re here because you’re avenging his death, if you want to hurt us, if you try to hurt anyone I love, then you won’t make it out alive. If you’re here to punish us for something Colum did to you, then you need to sit down and get over it, because Colum was no friend of ours.”