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Unfortunately for them, Jay mentioned my mom, and I’m willing to die for my cause.
My hand shakes, not from fear, but from the flood of adrenaline that pings through my body. Rage chases it, burning up the energy and leaving behind lava. Bubbling, angry, boiling hot. “Theo Griffin,” I grit between my teeth. Neither men take my hand, and when more step up behind the duo, I understand I will not pull a weapon and survive this place today. “Griffin, of Griffin Industries.”
Jay’s jaw ticks as he snatches Sophia’s hand and tears her around his body with a hard yank. “Had you not been touching my fucking girl, I might be fangirling for you right now. I love your tech, I love your brain, but then you had to go and put your hands on something that belongs to me. Now you risk your life and every fucking limb you possess.”
“Jay,” Sophia growls. “Women are not possessions. I do notbelongto anyone.”
My brain files away the fact that Sophia has been claimed by the youngest Bishop, but that she doesn’t tolerate the idea well. I didn’t know I was hitting on his girl, but I’m not sorry for it.
“You need to zip it, Soph.” Jay’s eyes meet mine. His gaze drops to my jaw, to my eyes, down to my jaw again, then back up to my eyes. “State your business, or get the fuck out.”
“Or how about we skip right to the end, and you get the fuck out,” Kane finally breaks his silence. “Whatever you’re selling, we don’t want it.”
“Your company is reliant on Griffin tech,” I answer in a bored tone. “Without Griffin, Checkmate suffers. I’m here as representative for the technology you purchase, so you’re going to want to cool the fuck down.”
Kane takes another step forward and effectively shields his brother from my sight. He’s my height, a little broader than me. Possibly, unbelievably, he might almost be angrier than me. “I will burn my place down with you and your tech inside, motherfucker. Business is just business to me, and if I lose this place, I’ll build another someplace else. That’s where you can’t relate; if you’re Griffin, you sure as hell ain’t gonna risk what you’ve built. So now you need to explain to me why you had your hands on her mere seconds after meeting her.”
“Business.” My word is barely a hum, because he deserves nothing more. “A man is allowed to look, and I assure you, she wasn’t asking me to back up.”
“He was discussing the new prototype,” Sophia pushes around the guys and places herself between me and Kane. “He’d like to discuss it over dinner, and I’m thinking it might be a good idea. Business is business, after all.”
“Absolutely not.” Kane’s gaze sears straight over the top of her head and into my eyes. “You can ask me to dinner, pretty boy. Your offer still open when we switch whose eyes you get to stare into over candlelight?”
Ignoring him, I look back to Sophia, to the woman Iknowis my enemy, but that doesn’t mean I would pass up an opportunity to talk to her in private. They protect her, which means she’s a liability. It means she’s a weak link that I could work.
I meet her eyes and sign my own death warrant. “Dinner, drinks, and a job.”
Her brows pop high.
“Whatever you make here, I’ll double it. And I’ll get you out of this podunk town and put you up at Griffin Plaza.”
“The plaza?” Her eyes widen. “For real?”
“Forty-three floors in the plaza alone; forty-first is my office. Forty-third is my penthouse apartment.” I pause and let the pressure build. “Forty-second is sandwiched between, and I’d be willing to open it up to new tenants, especially if they’re beautiful like you.”
“Motherfucker!” Jay lunges so fast that his fist snaps my head around before I can lift my hands. I slam into the receptionist’s desk, catching myself, but remain on my feet while the rest of the room erupts and holds Jay back. “I’ll kill you, Griffin! I’ll take you out and bury you in a shallow grave.”
“Dude!” A tall fucker, the tallest in the room, pins Jay to the wall six feet away and holds him down despite his animalistic roar or the strength with which he tries to escape. “If he’s Griffin, he has more money than God. Our lawyers and his aren’t compatible.”
“I don’t give a fuck about lawyers! His lawyers have no case if they have no body.”
“Dude!”
“You don’t hit on someone else’s girl!” Jay roars. “You don’t try to break up a family! I don’t give a fuck how much money you have; money cannot buy the things I have.”
“Stop.” Soph rushes toward him, slipping between Jay and his captor, and presses her body against his. Thigh to thigh, chest to chest. Her hands come to his face and try to calm the bull. “You need to stop. He’s being a dick, maybe he thinks I’ll respond to the D rather than an above-the-table business proposition. But he does wanna talk business, and I wanna listen.” When Jay thrashes and almost pulls free, Sophia says a word that makes everyone in the room freeze. “Jericho. Hey.” She grabs his jaw in a rough hand and waits for his eyes. “Jericho. You need to calm yourself.”
He’s like a wild animal. His eyes swing from me to her almost like he’s high and can’t focus. “Sugar Plum?”
“You need to relax. You can’t kill a man because he’s arrogant and likes my legs.”
“Yes,” he murmurs. “I actually can. I can kill a man for any fucking reason that I want.” His eyes swing up and stop on mine. “You stay away from my family. Take your tech, take your lawyers, take your money and arrogant ass and get out of my town. Checkmate is cutting ties with Griffin technology – effective immediately.”
A man I recognize from the hours I’ve spent studying the Bishops steps forward and offers a hand. Eric DeWhit is a former agent, just like Kane and Jay. Maybe he’s the third in Colum’s trifecta. Colum lost me, but he gained another.
“We don’t want your business.” He leans forward and grabs my hand in a tight grasp. “Walk away and don’t come back. Griffin is no longer our preferred supplier, which means you have no business here. Move off of our property and don’t return.”
“I want a meet.”
