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I nod. “After everything with your sister, after your meltdown, and the hunt, the taunting… how did it feel to see a bullet pass through his brain and end him?”
“It felt good.” She blows out a gusty breath as Jay lines up to take his shot. “I should have felt bad, because that was still Jay’s dad. Like, there must be some thread of love there, so my happiness at Colum being dead felt like a sin. But I couldn’t quell it. I couldn’t find it in me to feel bad. He was gone, and I got to stare into his eyes while the blood dribbled from his forehead. I’ve dreamed of it, and every time I wake up, I still can’t find the sadness.”
“And then after? Once it was all done?”
“I had to do what you’re doing now. I had to be with Jay, but without that film of hatred, without my mission of tracking down my sister’s murderers. For years, searching for them was the only reason I got out of bed each day. They were my sole purpose, so when it was gone, I felt like I’d lost something.”
I nod. “I know exactly what you mean.”
She chuckles. “I told you, you and I have very similar stories. So now, instead of that hatred, I carry love. I have the man I will spend the rest of my life with – if only he’d get the proposal right. I have brothers now. He gave me Kane, and Spence, and Eric, and Cruz. All of them. They’re my brothers. And though Ellie is gone, I have sisters, too. They don’t replace her, but they add on to the love in me. Jess, Laine, Andi, Kat. There are dozens of them, and though I came out of nowhere and don’t have the history that they do, they welcome me anyway. Now Kane has babies, and right when we think things can’t get weirder, Gunner Bishop turns up and tosses us for another loop.”
“In my defense, I had no intention of telling you who I was. That was on Lib. She was all ‘Let’s go straight through the front door and use our words’.” I laugh. “I was planning to go a much more direct, much lesstalkyway.”
“Lucky you didn’t, huh? I don’t want a war. I want my family, so I’m glad you decided to join us rather than fight us.”
“I didn’t decide. I went to my cabin in the woods with my girl. You guys pulled us out and demanded we come along for the ride.”
She laughs. “Lucky we did, otherwise we’d have missed out on this.” She nods toward Libby when she turns to the giant Romeo and jumps to chest bump him.
He’s like a Great Dane, which would make her his kitten friend. Shelookssmall and fragile, but the moment she speaks, you know she’s not like that at all. And because of those contradictions, the guys kind of love her. The only person here receiving any kind of hate is me.
As though she can read my mind, Soph flicks blades of grass in my direction. “Don’t worry about Jay. I promise, it pains him to hold a grudge. It’s not who he is, so this front he puts up for you, it’s just his way of pouting. He thought you had the power to tear us apart, and he takes that shit personally.”
“I didn’t have that power?”
She laughs. “Not tempting in the least. I have money. I steal plenty, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. So your offer of money was moot. With that money comes freedom to buy any apartment anywhere I want, so your offer of a penthouse at Griffin Plaza was moot. You’re cute, Theo, and you certainly have the Bishop genes that I’m attracted to, but in my eyes, you’re like the off-brand version of Jay. And why would I want off-brand when I can have the real thing?”
“Ouch.”
She snickers. “I just mean in my eyes. Just like Jay is the off-brand version for Jess. We have the Bishop we want, so your offer for sex, implied or otherwise, wasn’t tempting. I had my very own Bishop right there and already in love with me. Why give that up?”
She’s not looking for a verbal answer, so all I do is watch Libby.
“The only temptation you provided that day we met was your brain. Theo Griffin surely had the brain of someone I wanted to know. So…” She waves her hand toward me. “That’s exactly what I got. You’re here, we’re pals, I’ve been picking your brain for weeks, and I still get to go to bed withmyBishop. It worked out kinda perfect, really.”
“Sounds very tidy… and manipulated.”
She laughs. “I’m always the smartest person in the room. It’s a curse, really. Oh, look.” She turns her laptop and shows me a map with a moving dot. “Our dude is moving.”
“He’s coming closer.”
“Yeah, and we still have no clue who he is. You’re using your smart brain, right?”
“I really don’t know who. Annaliese is my employee with the highest clearance. But I trust her. I really do. She’s good at what she does, and she’s loyal. Olly is my friend, and has been for a long time. My legal team is good at what they do, and they’re paid well. Not only that, but they don’t even know my connection to Bishop. I wasn’t lazy, Soph. I kept my worlds separate.”
“So maybe it’s not one of your people,” she ponders. “Dude could have literally sat in your lobby and done those searches. He could have sat in the bathrooms in a stall and did his work, and you have so many people walking through that place on the daily, we would have no way of knowing who’s who. Our guy has more than the average person’s computer skills, but not like yours, and not like mine.”
I frown at the implication in her words. “Why did you say it like that?” I sit up and meet her eyes. “Not like yours, and not like mine. Why not just say ‘not like ours’?”
“Because our skill levels are different.” She grins. “I’mwaysmarter than you, so I deserve my own sentence.”
I push her shoulder so hard that she squeaks and falls to the side, and because her laughter draws the eyes of the guys standing with Lib, I earn a brand-new scowl from Jay.
He’s so fucking angry at me, and it’s purely on the back of hitting on his girl. She’s the only thing that matters to him. Not his life, not his work, not even my plans to eliminate his brother. The rest is important to him, but nothing means as much as she does, and my failed attempt at luring her away has set us up for a lifetime of distrust and hatred.
When he’s spending time with Spence and doesn’t realize I’m near enough to hear, I get a glimpse of Jay’s complete opposite side. He’s silly and funny. He’s the group jokester. Which means he’s been wearing this mask of fury purely for me.
But this isn’t something a guy can apologize for. I couldn’t say it, and he wouldn’t listen anyway. This is a chasm that just won’t be leapt. I picked the wrong target, and now her man – my brother – won’t forgive.
