Page 59

Bishop

I tapped the pen against my lips, staring down at the two texts that had come in minutes apart. My gut said it wasn’t a coincidence.

KNIGHT: You need to come over right now. I don’t care what the fuck you’re doing, get your ass to my place ASAP.

DEACON: Your boy is on the move. So am I. I’ll be at your place by the end of the day.

We’d been back in Glenville for almost forty-eight hours. I was supposed to be going to see Knight on Tuesday. What had happened for him to bring it forward by a day?

If Deacon was coming here, then that meant Chester Dulvaney knew where Eden was and was also headed this way.

My mind calculated the various outcomes. If I told Eden he was coming, she’d panic. If I didn’t tell her and she found out when Deacon arrived, she’d accuse me of keeping things from her.

I went over the agreement we’d made. The loophole was clear. I told her I’d treat her like my wife in all ways, except work. I could, with a clear conscience, not tell her about her ex-boyfriend’s whereabouts.

Except …

She also demanded that I didn’t treat her as a client.

If we had come together in any other way, would it be a reasonable assumption that I would tell her if an ex-boyfriend was sniffing around? Logic said no, I wouldn’t, yet my gut said that would be a mistake.

Tell her. Don’t tell her. The two options spun around in my head. Maybe I should wait until I knew what Knight and Deacon had to tell me. That way I’d have all the information instead of just part of it. It would be a valid argument that I didn’t want to cause undue stress when I didn’t know for sure what he was doing and where he was.

Decision made, I dropped the pen and tapped out the same reply to both of them.

ME: Okay.

Pocketing my cell, I stood and walked across my study to throw open the door.

“Eden?” I shouted her name, and she appeared at the end of the hallway a minute later.

“We’re going out.”

“We are? Where?”

“To Knight’s place. He wants to see me today instead of tomorrow.” I stepped out of the room and closed the door behind me. “Grab your coat …” My eyes dipped to her bare feet. “And shoes. We’ll leave in ten minutes.”

***

Knight’s apartment was an hour’s drive outside of Glenville, on a privately owned complex surrounded by walls, trees, and electric gates. A security guard was seated in the small hut to the right, and I slid down the window as the car rolled to a stop.

“Hi, Mr. Chambers. Your brother called down earlier to say he was expecting you. Go straight through.”

“Thanks.” I waited for the gates to open, then followed the road around to the four-story building Knight lived in. Residential parking bays lined the road and we pulled into the second one owned by Knight, next to his black SUV.

I climbed out, strode around to open the passenger door, and held out a hand to help Eden out, and we walked across along the path to the doors. A set of buzzers were to the side of the door, and I pushed the one with Knight’s name beside it.

“What?” Knight’s voice, distorted by the speaker, replied.

“It’s me.”

“Come up.” The door unlocked and we walked inside.

“Knight owns the entire building. He lives on the top floor. He just bought the rest so he didn’t have to deal with any neighbors,” I explained as we waited for the elevator. “The only way to get into the top floor apartment is via elevator. He blocked off the stairs.”

“That seems a little excessive.”

A quiet ding heralded the arrival of the elevator a second before the doors slid open. We stepped inside and I hit the button for the top floor.

“Knight is not as sociable as me and Rook.”

I quirked a brow at her quiet laugh.

“I wouldn’t put sociable in the same sentence as you. I’m not sure about Rook. But you are not sociable.”

“And yet I’m still more sociable than Knight.”

The doors swished open. “Just along here.” I led her to the left and rapped on the door at the end of the hallway.

There was a series of clicks, and then the door swung open. Knight stood beyond it. His eyes moved from me to Eden and then back again.

“Hmm. Wasn’t expecting you to bring her with you.”

I shrugged. “Safer than leaving her at home.”

His smile was crooked. “Sure, that’s the reason. Come in.”