AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You don’t get a fucking choice,” Alex shouts. “We need to talk about Evie. She’s the one with yourfriend. Move it, now. We don’t have time for–”
“Come.” Jay arrives in front of us and grabs my shoulder. “We’re team four or ten or whatever number we’re up to; Alex, Aiden, Kane, you, and me.” He looks into my eyes. “The girls are gonna be together, I guarantee it. We need to talk fast, then we’re setting out to find them.”
It takes minutes to move through all the bodies. There are easily more than a hundred people in this one building, and though an attempt at order is being made, everyone is panicking, and no one is listening, so when Kane shuffles our smaller team into his office and snags Sophia on the way through, he closes the door and turns to me.
“I don’t know! Olly is my friend. He’s my driver. He’s been working for me for fifteen years.”
“Security footage shows him walking into the parking lot out back with my daughter,” Aiden growls. “She is a fuckingchild! No matter his intentions, that is a crime. Stop defending him, and start answering.”
“Who is he to you?” Kane asks. “Specifically.”
“He’s my employee. He’s Oliver Dunne, I call him Olly. He’s twenty-five. I’ve known him since he was, like, twelve… thirteen.”
“How’d you meet him?” Alex demands.
“On the streets. I lived in an alleyway during my youth. That was my stomping ground, and over the years, I saw this kid hanging around. We said hey, but it wasn’t much. I left that place when I was eighteen, built Griffin up, but those streets were still my beginnings, so I visited. This same kid was still there. If I had an errand to run or whatever, I’d give it to him and slide a little cash his way for his troubles.”
“Illegal errands?” Turner prods.
“No, legit errands that I didn’tactuallyneed help with. I was trying to help the kid out, but when you live that life, you know not to accept cash for nothing. So I gave him work and made him earn it. Just little things, like… head up to the computer store and get me more ram. I gave him the cash for the parts, and what was left over – which was always enough for his time and appetite – was his. We did that for a few years. He was still a minor, so I couldn’t just ask him to come home with me.”
“Did he ever give you another name? Any clue to who he really was?”
“No. He didn’t give meanyname for years. We don’t much like to talk, so when I needed to address him, I just called him kid. It was fine, it worked for us. When he was eighteen, I pulled him off the streets, gave him a place to live and a salary to keep him happy. He’s been mine ever since.”
“And his family?”
I shrug. “He’s never mentioned them. Not once.”
“Did you ever mention yours?” Soph asks. She’s mostly silent, tapping away at her laptop while listening to the others speak. “Did you ever talk about you?”
“No. Never. Bishop isn’t a name I’m proud of. It’s not something I toss around.”
Alex’s eyes widen when my words penetrate his brain. “You’re a Bishop?” He looks to me, then to Kane. “You’re a Bishop… and you’re with Tate.”
“Don’t do that, Chief.” It burns me up to see his pale face and the judgments being laid down just how Libby always feared. “She is not her father, and I’m not mine. Don’t lump that shit together.”
“Oh my god.” He sits on the edge of the desk and rubs a hand over his face. “She’s dating a Bishop.”
“Griffin,” Kane intercepts. “You’re saying in fifteen years or so, you have never once slipped that you’re a Bishop to that man? Not once?”
“I mean…” I try to cast my mind back. “I don’t think so. It’s not something I chat about. The first person to call me Bishop since I was a kid was Libby. And that was three months ago when I came back to town. I honestly don’t recall anyone using that name since I ran out of Hayes’ club when I was eleven.”
“Hayes’ club,” Alex chokes. “Fuck me. History is rolling back around.”
“What else did this dude do for you?” Jay asks. “On a day-to-day basis.”
“He shopped for groceries if I asked, collected my dry cleaning, intercepted meetings if I deemed the client too stupid for my time. He collected orders, signed for orders. He interviewed some of the lower-level staff. He was very much my second in charge the way Annaliese is. She takes care of corporate, while he’s more hands-on.”
“Did you teach him the things you know about computers?” Soph asks. “You spent all these years building machines and software. Did he have that same skill?”
“Yes… no… sorta.” I run a hand through my hair. “I taught him things, and he learned more than the average dude in the street. But it didn’t come easily to him. I think he’s dyslexic or something, because he struggled with numbers.”
“Dyscalculia,” Soph says. “We’ve long said whoever was trying to search our files was clumsy, right? He’s good, but he’s clumsy.”
“Fuck.” I let my head drop into my hands. “He just… it can’t be him. He’s Olly. He’s the closest thing I have to family.”
“He’s the only choice you had,” Jay counters. “You chose him because you had no other options. That doesn’t make him worthy.” He turns to Kane. “What else?”
