Page 18 of Captured Pawn
“Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Better. Email me photos of the ship and what you can from the exchange. I’m calling in some help.” I was about to hang up, but added, “and Robert?”
“Yes.”
“Consider yourself on a performance improvement plan. Next fuck-up, you’ll be gone, got it? And I might remind you we don’t exactly follow normal human resource rules around here, if you get my drift.”
I heard the hitch in his breath as he recognized my threat.
“Yeah, I got it.”
After we hung up, I threw my phone onto the bed before hanging my head in my hands, my elbows on my knees.
About the only good thing that had come out of the call was that for a brief time, I’d at least forgotten about Matt and his sister down the hall. Had she fallen asleep yet? Christ, what I’d give to go to her room and take my frustrations out on that curvy body of hers.
Instead, I got up and got dressed. Nathan would be down and eating breakfast soon and as much as I dreaded the fucking ‘I told you so’ I had coming, this wasn’t something I could keep from him.
My brother’s raised eyebrow spoke volumes ten minutes later when I took my seat next to him at the dining room table. Despite eating alone, Nathan preferred the formal setting to the eat-in kitchen counter I normally ate at when I was at the main house.
“To what do I owe this early morning meeting?”
I heard the edge in his voice.
“Maximillian Bishop,” I answered as I nodded at Margaret across the room to let her know I’d be joining Nathan for breakfast. I waited until she’d left us alone before adding, “He didn’t honor the truce. The fucker got a shipment out overnight.”
Nathan’s fork clinked against the formal plate as he threw it down in disgust. “What the fuck, Nicholas. How did you let this happen?”
“I didn’t let anything happen. Bishop has become emboldened with his recent successes. It will be his downfall.”
“How do you figure? From where I’m sitting, he’s holding all of cards right now.”
“It looks like that. I have a few aces up my sleeve,” I countered, reaching to take a bagel from the breadbasket on the table.
“Well, buddy, it’s time to call his bluff and throw the aces down, because from where I’m sitting, you’re about to lose the hand, and since you’re playing for the whole family, that means I’m about to go down too.”
I finished my bite before answering, trying my best not to let his accusation bug me. “Max Bishop is going down. Let me handle this.”
“Not anymore. I need to know the details,” Nathan barked as Margaret got back with a plate of bacon and eggs for me.
I waited for her to leave before I leaned closer to remind him, “You don’t want or need details. What you need is plausible deniability. You’re the face of Knight Industries. When the cops come poking around, and believe me, they will since a fair share of them are in Bishop’s back pocket, the less you know the better.”
My brother’s face took on a deeper shade of red as it always did when he was trying to tamp down that nasty temper of his. “I don’t like this. We were supposed to have the asshole neutralized by now.”
“Yes, and the only reason we haven’t is that he got someone in under the radar. I don’t know who yet, but I’m going to find out.”
He leaned closer, getting up in my face. “You’ve lost control over your part of the organization.”
“Fuck you. How do we know it isn’t one of the suits that work with you at the office that betrayed us?”
“Because you don’t tell me everything, which means they know even less.”
I hated that he was probably right. I wouldn’t share details with him, but I could at least try to put his mind at ease.
“That’s why I’m calling in some help from the outside.”
“What kind of help?”
