Page 15 of Wickedly Played (Checkmate #1)

Chapter Thirteen

MAX

I’m a fucking asshole who deserved to be slapped across the face for the amount of pain I have caused this beautiful woman. Whenever I try not to be a total asswipe, it comes out stronger than ever.

Fuck.

After I heard the bedroom slam, I went to the security room to start researching information about her. Sure enough, after three hours, I found out so much more about her.

If I were her, I would have fired my marriage therapist for the lack of privacy they have for their systems. I have managed to find all of her records, video recordings of her and her ex-husband fighting in a room, and then in court.

Serena doesn’t look like her usual self in any of these recordings, and I miss the cocky smile she has on her face like she has a secret.

“I guess that makes perfect sense that he doesn’t want me anymore, Dr. Reynolds. He’s with my sister,” Serena whimpers, holding a tissue in her hand. “I don’t know what I did that was so wrong to make him not love me anymore.”

Dr. Reynolds, a balding man, leans over and hands her a tissue box. “Serena, sometimes we can love someone so much, but it isn’t enough to make them love us back. It doesn’t mean you are a bad person. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

She blinks several times to clear the tears from her eyes. “Maybe I wasn’t sexy enough for him. He is the one who wanted to spice things up. I tried to be everything he wanted me to be. He just kept telling me that I’m too difficult.”

“Your husband is struggling with his own regrets and mental health. It is easy to blame yourself when these things fall apart,” he tries to console her.

“Maybe he didn’t love me at all. We got married because our parents arranged it. You know how things work in our world,” she tries to reason.

He sighs. “Serena, his cheating on you with Amanda was not your fault. He did that because it was something he wanted to do. It wasn’t you.”

Her tears flow faster and harder down her cheeks. “If that was the case, then why would he have married me? Why didn’t he just say he would marry Amanda? I don’t understand.”

“This is one of those things you might never know the reason behind. I wish I could give you a better answer than that.”

“I guess it is a good thing I didn’t get pregnant. It is obvious that a baby wouldn’t have solved our problems. I keep wondering if there was something more that I could have done.”

Dr. Reynolds sits back in his seat. “You are allowed to want a baby. You are allowed to want someone to love you for who you are. Serena, he wasn’t it for you. The person you need is out there for you.”

Her sobs are loud. “Maybe I’m the problem. Maybe I’m just bad at relationships. I never saw a good relationship as a child. My parents never cared about each other and only got married because they were betrothed.”

“I’m going to write you a prescription for an anti-anxiety medication. How have you been sleeping?”

“I get about an hour of sleep at a time. I can’t stop wishing things were different. I feel like I’m a desperate woman who can’t stop obsessing over someone who doesn’t care about me.”

I’ve become a man obsessed. Each of her sessions, until the last one, is similar to this one.

Serena’s blonde hair was shorter in these recordings of her sessions and court appearances.

When I get to the last video, she looks more like the woman I know today.

I would love to find him and beat his ass for putting this much stress on her.

What does that make me? Aren’t I hurting her, too?

God damn it.

In just an hour, I hacked into the system and obtained information about her family. Armed with this information feels dangerous. I know the ramifications of what will happen to me for hacking into their system to access it. I could be killed for it. With all of that known, I still look for more.

I’m fucking obsessed.

After clicking on the last video of her with Dr. Reynolds, only one thing is clear to me. I like her a lot more than I’m willing to admit to myself.

“Dr. Reynolds, I have realized something,” she confidently states.

He sits forward in his seat. “What’s that, Serena?”

She sighs while throwing her hair over her shoulder. “That I’m going to be okay.”

“You will be. I’m sure of it.”

“I cut off ties with my family, too. I can’t stand how they make me feel like it is my fault that he left me. I’m not the disgrace of the family.”

The doctor smiles at her with contentment. “You are not the disgrace of the family. You were given a shit hand and now you’re going to rise above. I can’t wait to see how high you can go.”

“Thank you for everything. I owe you a lot.”

Serena is about to leave when Dr. Reynolds calls her back. “Serena, one more thing.”

She tosses her hair back over her shoulder. “Yes.” Her hand is hovering over the doorknob.

“Please don’t shut yourself off for love. You are an incredible woman who deserves great love, okay?”

“I will try. Thank you.”

Dr. Reynolds is left alone in the room after she leaves, and then a man enters next. He’s holding the hand of a woman who looks similar to Serena, but with darker features. The man pulls out a seat for the woman.

“Hello, welcome. It is nice to see you again.”

This douche is skinnier with closely cropped hair. He is wearing a suit with his tie loosened around his neck. “Thank you for seeing us at such short notice.”

After everyone takes their seats, this fuckhead begins talking about himself. “We’re having a problem. Amanda is having a hard time with our relationship.”

“Why is that?”

Amanda begins to speak, but the cock sucker puts his hand in front of her face to shut her up. “She doesn’t like what I do for a living. Even though she loves to spend my money.”

“It isn’t that I don’t-”

“I said to be quiet!” cuntwaffle growls. “You spend my money a lot and don’t seem to care where it came from.”

“That was before I knew where you got it from,” she hisses.

Dr. Reynolds is observing the interaction with a neutral expression on his face. “And? Where did it come from?”

Amanda opens her mouth to speak, but the asshole stands up and slaps her across the face. “I said to shut your whore mouth! You don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re leaving!”

“Wait!” Dr. Reynolds tries to chase after him, but he’s already out the door.

What the actual fuck did I just see?

I scan a few more documents to gather more information until I find what I have been looking for. Serena’s family isn’t just connected to the McGuire Family. Her father is the fucking Don of the family.

How could her father have been okay with marrying off his daughter to someone who doesn’t love her? I want to slice his god damned throat, too.

My family has lived a colorful past and has done some shady shit to make some money.

My father, Sean, had been one of the top enforcers of the McDougal Family before Lorcan McGuire gunned him down.

It was a bloody war. Lorcan pillaged the McDougal Family’s assets, taking over contracts, government connections, and the security of being the top crime family in the Midwest.

Lorcan McGuire initiated the war that ultimately claimed my father's life. The battle lasted for three years, and it was often bitterly cold. No one was going to make a move until the others showed their cards. Well, that was until my good ol’ pop got sloppy one night.

I was there the night four of the McDougals died in the middle of the street.

I can still hear the gunshots flying through the air before eventually killing my dad.

I was inducted early into the McDougal Family and handed a couple of pistols to go to work.

That night, I killed two McGuires and injured six.

I didn’t have a say in enlisting in the Navy.

One day, I was sent away for training. The next day, I became a SEAL.

The next day, I was discharged. I knew what was expected of me to learn while away, and I met the requirements.

God damn it. If Lorcan knows I’m Sean’s son, what the fuck is he going to do? If he had made the connection before, he surely would have acted on it. Right? I would have thought so.

Shitbitchgoddamnmotherfucker!

The smart thing to do would be to inform Serena about the connection before she discovered it. However, what good would that do? She’s just my boss. Once her bodyguards are healed, they will return and take over.

Since returning from overseas, Lorcan has hired me to be his hitman.

Since his adversaries don’t know me, I’m able to sneak in and out without being detected.

I’ve completed several missions that have resulted in the desired outcomes.

Never in my life would I have thought someone as beautiful as Serena would come from a monster like Lorcan.

I’ve decided to call Adam. He answers on the second ring. “Hey, bro.”

“Why didn’t you tell me Serena’s a McGuire?” I accuse.

He coughs. “Uh, I thought I mentioned it?”

“No, you didn’t, fucker,” I clip. “If you had, I wouldn’t have found out this way.”

He sucks in some air. “I can see why you’re mad. It wasn’t Serena who killed our dad. You know that, right?”

“What is with you and this girl? It can’t be about the assholes down the street who are advancing more. It has to be for a better reason.” Adam doesn’t do things without expecting something in return. He has made it clear he will always come out on top.

“Um,” Adam hums. “Well, I can’t talk about it over the phone.”

“Mother fucker. What did you do, Adam?”

“Something not good. Look, bro, I need this job to go good.”

“You'd better start talking!” I growl.

“I have to go!” Adam hangs up the phone, and I’m left looking at the disconnected line.

I roll my neck to get some feeling back into my shoulders. After a quick look at my phone, I see it is after midnight. I’ve been in the surveillance room for the whole night. I check the cameras around the house to see that Serena’s light is off in her room.

I might have been cowardly for not running after her to tell her I’m a dick head. My feelings and thoughts about her are complicated, and I can’t do that to her. If she thinks she’s bad at relationships, I’m a nuclear bomb being dropped in one.

After grabbing a sandwich from the kitchen, I take the stairs up to our rooms. I stop in the doorway of her room to look in on her.

Fuck me. She’s beautiful.

Serena’s blonde hair is spread across her pillow with the blanket pulled up to her chest. Her lips are pursed slightly in a pout, with her cheeks having a pretty pink hue.

She looks undeniably sexy as she sleeps.

I fight the urge to crawl into bed with her to hold her close to me. I wish I were a better man for her.

Next to her, I see her phone light up. Looking at the screen to see who is calling her, I see it is an unknown number. I pick it up the second time it rings through.

“Hello?”

“Who the fuck is this?”

My teeth grind together at hearing a man’s voice on the other end of the line. “You’re the one calling a woman’s phone after midnight. Who the fuck are you?”

“Did you enjoy your reading material tonight, Max?”

It is at this moment that I knew who I was on the phone with. “Lorcan McGuire.”

Throughout my missions, I’ve never directly spoken to the Don. His right-hand man, Shamus, is the one who typically contacts me to alert me of the next assignment. For each of the kills, I get between twenty and fifty grand, depending on the severity of the kill.

This is all fitting into the one thing I have wanted to do since I got the notification of my father’s death. Since I saw his dead body. Since I knew it was Lorcan who fired the last shot that took his life from me.

“Well, seems as if you know who I am. Why are you answering my daughter’s phone?”

I click my tongue before walking out of her room. I would hate for her to wake up to hearing me on the phone with her dad. Well, especially since she doesn’t know that I know about him.

“I think you know why.”

“Stay out of my business, Max. If you don’t, I’ll be sure you know why you don’t mess with us,” he says as he hangs up the phone.

He even sounds like an asshole.

Lorcan McGuire has been the Don for two decades over the Detroit family.

Everyone knows that Lorcan and his soldiers live here.

I didn’t have to do too much research to gain enough information on him to understand his handiwork.

There have been bodies found all over the city and in Canada that have his calling card attached to them.

The found bodies have been marked with his signature on them- an X carved into their foot.

Jesus.

I place the phone back on her pillow. After finding a place on the wall, I lean against it to watch her sleep.

Tomorrow is going to be a new day, and I need to get my shit together to be a better bodyguard for her. I’m not willing to rule out her family’s involvement in Serena’s stalker.

McGuires have been known to fuck a lot of shit up. I wouldn’t put it past them to be the ones who are messing up Serena’s life.

I send a message out to Joey, one of the other men I have working on my team.

ME: Can you come to S’s house. I need to do an errand

JOEY: What’s the errand? Do you need help?

ME: Are you that bored with me being reassigned?

JOEY: I signed up to learn from you. Not from your brother

ME: Get your ass over here. I’ll be back in two hours.

Franky’s message, which provided me with the necessary information for the job tonight, was exactly what I needed.