Page 129 of Checkmate (Checkmate 8)

28

Gunner

Theo Plus Two

“Theo Griffin! Get your ass in here. Now!” Jay’s voice booms from his room like an explosive going off. “Bishop!”

First Spence, and now Jay. I look into Lib’s eyes in question, but obviously she has no clue. Jay stomps through his doorway and stops in the breezeway with something akin to murder in his eyes. “Get in here. Now.”

“The fuck is going on?” I stand and extend a hand to pull Lib up. Jay doesn’t stick around to discuss, instead he forces us to follow him into the room where Soph sits at a table with her laptop. “What?”

“Check it.”

Jay stalks his room much the same way I do when I’m pissed, but I ignore him when Soph turns the laptop and shows an email taking up most of her screen.

--------------------------------

To: AcesAndEights

From: Checkmate

Aces,

I’m willing to talk if you’re willing to be honest.

It never had to be this way. If only the Bishops knew how to tell the truth, none of us would be here today.

I’m interested in the Bishop fortune. I’m interested in how you earn your means.

Being the blood of a fallen king doesn’t qualify you for immunity, so truth and honor is all you have left.

I was forced into this war more than two decades ago. An innocent, thrust into battle with nothing to his name but his hands and wits.

But that’s not fair, is it?

I’ve never hurt yours, but yours have hurt mine.

Someone must speak, they must explain, or they must pay.

--------------------------------

“What the fuck is going on?” Jay stops stalking, instead snatching a duffel from the closet and begins to fill it with guns and cash. Lib’s brows shoot up high. These guys, while we know they’re always packing, are usually pretty discreet about it, but now Jay literally packs handgun after handgun like they’re protein bars. “Why is he giving us the same story you gave us two months ago? Why is his email addressyouremail address?” He pauses and glares into my eyes. “What the fuck is your game?”

“That’s not me. I was sitting outside just now, talking to Lib.”

“It wasn’t him,” Soph confirms. “But whoever he is, he’s here.”

“Here?” Jay races to the window and tears the curtains open. “How close?”

“About twenty miles out,” she murmurs.

The email remains up on one side of her screen so I can reread it, but her fingers fly over the keyboard in a race to find this guy’s exact location.

“Guys, I don’t know who the fuck that is.”

“He knows your name,” Romeo murmurs from behind me. “And the original searches began at Griffin Plaza.”

Soph nods. “This is absolutely connected. And he’s looking to get you in trouble.”

---