Page 35 of Wickedly Played (Checkmate #1)

Chapter Thirty-One

MAX

My phone is ringing next to my bag as I pack it. Fuck. I look at my phone to see that it is Lorcan McGuire. “What?” I bark into the phone.

“Is that the way to answer the phone to your boss?”

“What do you want? I’m at Serena’s.” I look at the door to my room, and then immediately close it. I don’t need Stella to overhear my conversation.

“I know where you are.”

Looking at the camera in my room, I flip it off. “And? What can I do for you, McGuire?”

He clucks his tongue. “I wonder how my daughter would feel if she knew the truth about your ex. Or how she would feel if she knew you worked for me.”

“What do you want?” If Serena knew I was paid to be her father’s hired gun, she would fucking hate me. As it is, she has never shared her connection with the McGuire family with me.

“I want my daughter to come home. It isn’t safe for her out there.”

I growl. “Are you saying I can’t keep her fucking safe?”

He chuckles. “If you could have kept her safe, how come I watched you and my daughter fucking with another girl there? Do you think I wanted to see that?”

“Then why did you watch it?”

“Listen, you feckin’ idiot.”

“I’ve done the jobs you wanted. I am watching your daughter like I promised I would.”

“Are you expecting a parade for that?”

My shoulders raise to my ears. I can’t wait to kill this mother fucker. “Nope. But a little respect would be nice, boss.”

Lorcan’s throaty chuckle would send a person not in this life into a panic. “Funny thing I found out the other day, Max Fitzpatrick.”

“Yeah? I found some funny shit, too,” I retort. I’m trying to get myself killed. It would take Lorcan just two minutes to put a hit out on me and have it executed. It doesn’t matter how good my security system is. If they want in, they get in.

“Don’t play me for a fool, mother fucker.” He hangs up on me.

“Fuck!” I blurt. I immediately take my phone out to call Franky.

“Yeah?” Franky answers on the third ring.

I’m monitoring the camera feeds throughout the house on my phone to ensure Serena's safety. I have a feeling that Lorcan is going to take a hit out on me, and he knows who I am.

“McGuire knows.”

I hear a stream of explicit language in Gaelic escaping my boss’s lips. “What happened?”

“He called and told me he wanted his daughter back and that he found some shit out.”

“And?”

“Jesus. I got pissed and told him I found shit out, too.”

“You’re a fucking dumbass who should have been shot into a white sock,” he slanders.

My patience has run thin. I’m pissed that this is getting in the way of my time with Serena. I’m feeling murderous that she invited that loser to play. I’m also not stupid enough to not predict what the boss is going to say next.

“You have to give her back. If Lorcan wants her, and then we can stick to our plan, let him have her.”

“No,” I blurt.

“I wasn’t asking, Max.”

Shaking my head, I look up at the ceiling. “She’s mine. She’s not going anywhere.”

“No one told me that being a Don would feel like having fifty children instead of foot soldiers.”

Through the feed, I see Serena snooping through the surveillance room. “I have to go.”

Franky’s abrupt voice rings through the line as I attempt to hang up the phone. “I don’t give a fuck about some pussy. I want a call in four hours about the plan to give her back.”

I hang up the phone, swing my backpack over my shoulder, and then walk out of my room. I run down the stairs to grab my girl, and I am holding her hand tightly in mine as we walk to the car.

“Baby,” I kiss her on the cheek while opening the door for her. She smiles at me while sliding into the truck. “You ready?”

ME: Bro, I need you to pull the camera breach at her house and see who has been hacking in

ADAM: What the fuck? This job is costing me more money than I’m getting from it

ME: It is almost over

ADAM: Yeah, Franky called, and he’s pissed

ME: Of course he is. Let me worry about him

ADAM: Look, I get you like this girl, but she isn’t worth blowing up the Family for

ME: I’m not doing anything

Serena’s little giggle rings through my ears. “We’ll see you there, pet,” she says.

Stella’s being walked out to Deacon’s car with his hand pressed to the small of her back. “I hate him so much,” she whispers to me.

“Why, baby?”

She shakes her head. “He reminds me of my ex-husband. He only wants her because he likes the idea of her.”

“What do you mean?” I’m pulling out onto the road to take us to The Checkmate Club. I place my hand on her thigh and squeeze.

“He’s pissed off at me because she’s a natural submissive for me, but not for him.”

Jesus. “Has he said anything to you?”

Serena twists a chunk of hair around her finger as she watches in the mirror at their car. “Sometimes. It almost seems like he is trying to compete with me over some bull shit.”

“Baby,” I begin, trying to figure out the right words. “Has he crossed the line?”

Her laugh is forced. “I’m a sex worker, Max. Everyone has crossed the line.”

“Are you going to tell me about your ex-husband? Or what happened with Murray?” I throw out.

She looks at me with narrowed eyes. “I want some information.”

Sighing, I nod. “All right. What do you want to know?”

“That night you ate me out… Who were you thinking of?”

Fuck. “Um.”

She huffs. “Max, if we’re going to do this, I need honesty. I’m horrible at relationships, but I need to feel safe. Honesty helps me feel safe.”

Shit. “I dated a girl for a while, and she went missing… and that night you came into my room, I was dreaming of some shit that went down.”

Serena’s sharp intake of breath is hard to hear. “I, uh, I didn’t know… Do you love her?”

“I thought I did,” I answer honestly. “At the time, I thought I was in love.”

“You don’t know what happened to her?”

“Baby, I wish I did. We think she was killed.”

“You never heard anything from her again?”

I shake my head while pulling into the club. “All right. Now it is your turn.”

Looking down at her nails to avoid me, I see the wheels turning in her head. “My ex and I never loved each other, and he cheated on me. He still works for my dad.”

“Who’s your dad?”

She picks at her nail beds. “I think you already know the answer to that.”

“I want to hear you say it.”

Serena’s eyes are full of fire as they stare at me. “My dad is Lorcan McGuire. Head of the McGuire family.”

This is when I see the crack in her armor, and she’s allowing herself to be vulnerable.

I hear the insecurities in her voice. I feel her pain and worry flowing off of her in waves.

Much more than that, I hear the self-doubt she has.

What kind of asshole would make their daughter suffer like this?

What kind of maniac doesn’t care enough about his daughter to protect her?

I will find Lorcan. I will kill him for the pain he has caused my family. However, I will also kill him for Serena. Serena needs to know how wonderful she is.

I grasp her chin in my hand to pull her closer to me. “Baby, I still want you. As you. Not some mafia princess.”

She lets out a deep breath, staring right through me with intensity. “All I have ever been is either the mafia princess or Mistress Aphrodite.”

I lay a sweet kiss on her lips. “They are both pretty great, but I like Serena more.”

Is it lying if I’m omitting the truth? Should I have told her about my intentions of taking out her father? Probably. However, once she finds out everything about me, she’s never going to want to talk to me again.

“Max?” Her breath is feather-light against my lips.

“Yeah?” I kiss her once more before breaking away to look at her.

“I wasn’t kidding when I said I was bad at relationships. There is no harm if you want to stop whatever this is.”

Red-hot rage flows through my veins. “Why would I hold something against you that happened years ago?”

She huffs. “Well, I’m still a Domme! I still do cam work!”

“Can we talk about that later?”

“Fine. Looks like we have a lot to talk about later, too.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, sweetness?”

The tension in the truck is thick with our adrenaline pumping through us. I have the urge to go and torture someone before hanging them upside down outside of Serena’s window.

“Do you still have feelings for her?”

This is my in. This would be the perfect time to let her know that my ex messaged me from the dead. This might have also been the ideal time to tell her about my family. About her family.

Maybe after I kill her father.

“No, baby, I don’t.”