I growl in frustration and decide to give up on sleep since I barely fucking sleep anyway. Unlike my twin who can sleep through a fucking bomb, I only sleep an hour or two a night and then survive on coffee and energy drinks. I wander downstairs to get something to drink, preferably some of Bishop’s good fucking whiskey. I head straight for Bishop’s office to raid his stash but pause when I hear him and King talking.
“We have to make a move, they are getting too close.” I can hear the frustration in King’s voice which makes me uneasy, King doesn’t rattle easily.
“We can’t make a move now. Pauly and Vinny know we are coming for them!” Bishop sounds stressed and he never shows emotion, so hearing him now has the hairs on the back of my neck rising.
“Bish, we need to––” I hear a fist slam down on the desk silencing King.
“I fucking know! We have so much more to fucking lose now, don’t you see that? It’s not just us anymore, King. We have the twins, Kiara, Ally and Mela. They will be used against us. I will not let Kiara be used again!”
“You think I want Allison to be fucking hurt? Or my daughter? I want this finished so that the girls and the twins can live a life we were never granted. I see the demons of Knight’s past in his eyes.” I suck in a sharp intake of air at the mention of my name. “He is drowning, Bishop, and I don’t know how to fucking help him.”
“I’ve been trying for years, King. Knight hides in the shadows while Rook buries himself in anything with a hole and uses humor as a mask. Knight needs your forgiveness––”
“How the fuck can I do that, Bishop? Every time I look at him all I see is him betraying me. He was sleeping with her, Bishop… he knew about Amelia!” Shame washes over me and I drop my head.
“He was a fucking kid that she manipulated. It wasn’t his fucking fault! He had no idea that Christine was pregnant withyourchild. He is the best hacker we have. He thinks I don’t know about his extracurricular activities. I know he is the one who is blocking Luka from being able to find more information on Koby and Dimitri. He is closing us out and pulling away, King. He doesn’t even spend time with Meelz anymore. I won’t lose another member of this family.” That piques my interest.
“We haven’ lost Car, Bish. She just needed a… break.” I hear Bishop sigh.
“She needed a break because I failed her. It’s my fault we lost our sister. I should have known what Tony was doing to them both, but I was too caught up in my own shit.” I clench my hands into fists at my sides, the reminder of what that sick piece of shit did to Kiara and Carlina makes me sick to my stomach. What kind of fucking person does that to a child? Fucking hell, Car was only a couple years older than Amelia when Tony started fucking with her.
“Carlina will come back. Until then, we need to focus on keeping the twins safe and the girls guarded at all times.” I hear Bish snort.
“How the fuck are we going to keep Knight here? Rook will do as he is told if it means he gets a new car.” I smirk, they’re not wrong. My twin will do anything you ask if it means he gets a new car, hence the fucker already has four!
“Simple.” The way King says that one word has my hackles raising, his tone is cold and detached. “You keep the Russian here and Knight will stay.” I grind my teeth, the fucker thinks he knows me but he doesn’t.
“I need him to get close to her, he’s been the only person she has let her guard down around.” Bishop catches me by surprise. “I just need the information from her. Rook hasn’t heard from Car again and that leaves us with Knight––”
“He’s too risky, we can’t count on him to get the job done.” Having heard enough, I walk into Bishop’s office. Both of them stand and stare at me in surprise. I keep my face blank as I look only at Bishop and ignore King.
“I’ll get you your information.” Bish’s eyes widen slightly. “When I get you what you want,” I look to King as I finish, “I want my freedom from this family. You won’t track me like you do Car. I want out!” I don’t wait for a reply, but stalk out of the room and make my way to the guest house. Koby may not know it yet but she will give me everything I need so I can get the fuck out of here and stop being the families fuck-up. I can’t stay here with King and Bishop. Bishop tries to hide his emotions but I can tell this thing with me and King is killing him. I won’t be the reason King can’t relax. He is always on edge when I’m around Ally or Mela and I don’t want that. I want him to feel comfortable with the girls roaming the house and not worried I’m going to fuck his girl.
Koby
He may think he moves silently but I heard the moment he opened the front door. Instead of greeting him with a fist to the face, I decided to lay here and see what he would do. I mean, I do have a gun tucked under my pillow and my switch blade under the side of the mattress. I keep my eyes closed and allow my other senses to take over as my bedroom opens. I hear him padding across the carpet. The mattress dips on the other side, I make sure to relax my body and face void of expression so I can keep feigning sleep. I expect him to lash out, or shake me awake, what I don’t fucking expect is to feel his lips against mine!
My eyes snap open, ready to shove him away, but when I meet his brown eyes and see the uncertainty in his gaze, I freeze. He pulls back slowly and stares down at me. I stay stock still as I gaze up at him waiting for him to explain what the fuck just happened. He opens and closes his mouth twice before he slips off the bed and heads for the door. I watch in stunned silence as he walks out without so much as a backward glance.
What the fuck just happened?
Rather than sit here and spend hours wondering, I launch from the bed and chase after him, I catch up when he is halfway across the lawn. I call out but he doesn’t stop, so I cut him off by standing in front of him. He glares down at me. I huff out my annoyance—he came in and kissedme, not the other way around, so why the hell is he pissy?
“Move,” he grinds out.
I place my hands on my hips and scowl up at him. “Get real, I’m not moving until you tell me what the hellthatwas!” He bends so we are eye level, the heat of his breath fans across my face.
“That was a mistake.” I make sure to keep the shock from my face, shove against his chest but he doesn’t budge. He grips my wrist in one of his hands and spins me so my back is flush against his chest. I don’t fight him, I want to see what he is going to do next. He runs his nose down the column of my neck, making a shiver roll through me. How Knight Murdoch can pull this type of reaction from my body I’ll never understand. His free hand runs across my chest electing a small gasp from me until he grips my throat.
“I’ll kill you before you try anything.” He chuckles and buries his face in the crook of my neck. The grip he has on my throat doesn’t tighten.
“I would love to see you try,Anya.” Everything inside me freezes. I stiffen in his hold as my mind reels. He just called meAnya! How the fuck does he know about her? No one knows about Anya and what we did to get here. I will not let Knight derail the plan I have in place to get us the fuck out of this. I keep my lips shut and say nothing, he can think what he likes but he’ll never know the truth, I’ll die before anyone finds out.
“Get your hands off me,” I grit out through clenched teeth. He releases me and I put a couple of feet of space between us, slam my mask back in place and watch as he does the same.
“Whatever you have planned, just know I will sabotage you. You will not take my family down.”
“You have no fucking idea what you are talking about. You are fucking pathetic and it is comical how you think you have the upper hand.” His upper lip pulls back in a snarl.