Page 49 of Checkmate

All the pieces start to click together. Chester is a scientist in the making. Creed works at the morgue. I can’t believe that I didn’t even think about it.

“As you’re aware, with our advanced genetics, we can’t use any normal medications. So, I had been working on a drug that would help slow our hearts to the point of almost stopping them completely. It wasn’t perfect and very well could have killed them…” Chester explains.

“Then why even take that risk?”

“Baby, it was our only shot at making our deaths believable. He wasn’t going to stop until one of our teams was dead. We betrayed him, so he had to send a message.” Laughn reasons.

“So why not tell me?”

“How could we have told you? You ran off to meet with him and didn’t tell any of us,” Davis snaps. My eyes meet his, and the fire burning in the depths of his deep brown eyes makes my breath shutter. Chester’s hand falls to my knee and his fingernails dig into my skin. I place my hand over his to help calm him down.

“Because I was doing what I thought was right,” I throw back.

“Ditto,” he replies. “We needed it to be real and we didn’t want to put you in any danger if the plan blew up in our damn faces.” I smirk at him, I have missed his snarky quips at me.

“Where have you been staying?”

“When I was hiding out after you went to foster care, the loneliness was debilitating. So, the guys started to build a bunker in the backyard, with a tunnel that leads into the morgue.” Trace adds.

“So that’s why Laughn crawled out of a damn dead person fridge.” Creed snorts.

“While my brother was balls deep inside of you.”

“We had an agreement,” Boston snaps, looking around the table.

“What agreement?” I ask. “To not fuck me while you were all lying to me?”

“Blame Brennan. He broke the spell first,” Kai says with a laugh. Boston turns his attention to his brother, looking like he is ready to climb across the table and snap his brother’s neck. Brennan stays silent, his refutation that it never happened holding strong.

“Oh for fuck sake, not this shit again. I will fuck who I damn well please,” I snap and Chester mumbles to himself. “Sorry, I will fuck any of you that I damn well please.”

Boston's brows dip low on his forehead, not understanding what’s transpiring between Chester and I.

“Not him too.” Boston mutters, shaking his head.

“Yes, him too. I thought you were all dead! Did you honestly think I would sit around and twiddle my thumbs all day just waiting for you to rise from the dead? But who I’m sleeping with should really be at the bottom of the priority list of shit we have to deal with. How about we start with a real plan to take down Mr. Z because I’m sick of waiting for theright time. There will never be a right time. Or how about the fact that my mother is still alive? Or that my friends are in Olympia? Or that I plan to be friends with Colt whether any of you like it? And once the shock that you’re all alive wears off, then I really think I might have more to say on the matter.”

“How about we start with an apology. We thought that by not telling you, Mr. Z wouldn’t hurt you if he found out. Look at what he wanted us to do for lying to him about you and our involvement in what we did to make you disappear.” Trace says.

“Whatyoudid. Not us.” Davis snaps, pointing at his brother.

“You didn’t run to him and tell him the second you knew, did you? No, so he didn’t care how involved you were. In his eyes you were guilty.” Trace throws back.

“Can you two stop?” I cry. I don’t need them at each other's throats.

“What the hell are we going to do now? If he finds out you’re all alive, he isn’t going to spare any of you. We need a plan.”

“I might have an idea. We know that we can’t just kill him outright, and even he knows that. If anything happens to him, all of his teams will fire back. It’s what they all have been told to do. We need you to spend more time with him, play the role of a loving daughter. We need access to his computer to find out what he has planned and who he is working with. Not even Marlow has been able to hack his system from the outside, so we need you to do it from the inside.” Brennan says. Amongst all of this, Case has been awfully quiet. I look over at him and he just stares at me, as if he is committing the way I look to his memory.

“And how do I do that?” I ask looking towards Marlow.

“I will create a virus that will attack his system long enough for me to gain access. Once I’m in, the security he has in place will be mirrored by mine, but I will have access to everything he does from that point forward.”

“Okay, so at this point, killing him isn’t the only objective.”

“It never has been. We need to study his network, weed out all of the bad eggs and make sure that in the event of his death, no one comes after you. Everything we do is to protect you. Any smart man would have a fail safe in place, and his mind knows no bounds. And at least this way, we will know for sure. If we’re lucky, his phone will be linked to his computer giving us full access.”

“Just tell me what you need me to do.”

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