But why? What did he gain by the subterfuge? And why would he try to set up the Black Knights?
Aloud, she said, “My god. What does Eliza think?”
“She’s devastated by the idea. Naturally.” He shrugged one massive shoulder. “But if Bishop ends up bein’ her dad, she’ll help us take him down.”
“I always thought they had an odd relationship,” she muttered.
“It might not be him,” Graham cautioned. His bearded jaw was cut close enough that she could still appreciate the depth of his dimples when he firmed his lips.
Those dimples had launched a thousand lady boners back in Georgia.
She suspected they did the same in Chicago.
“Why do you think it’s someone close to the president?” she asked carefully.
And then he told her. All of it. About the assassin they’d caught. About the intel they’d pieced together. About the chaos Bishop had been orchestrating from the shadows for years. Chaos that could only be set up by someone with a top-notch security clearance and knowledge of things only someone intimately acquainted with Sandra J. Stevens would know.
By the time he was finished, the fine hairs on Lura’s arms stood on end.
“I’m not a spy,” she breathed. “I have no training.”
“That’s why I’m here.” He looked down at her, all solid muscle and quiet determination. “And I’ll be here with ya the whole way through if you say yes. But ya should know…this is a dangerous game. Secrets have weight. The more you keep, the longer you keep ’em, the heavier they get.”
“Like pushin’ a wheelbarrow full of shit up a steep hill, as my daddy says.” She purposefully thickened her accent to impersonate her father.
His expression was grim. “You can say no, Lura. Ya probably should say no.”
He was right. She should. She wasn’t cut out for this sort of thing. And yet…
“There’s no fun in that. Plus, playing the detective has been my dream job since I read my first Nancy Drew novel at age eight.”
She’d meant to lighten the mood. She failed.
A muscle ticked in Graham’s jaw when he stressed, “Bishop, whoever he is, is a powerful man. A dangerous man. A murderous man. One with a lot to lose.”
A ghostly hand of apprehension trailed cold fingers up her spine.
“All the more reason to unmask him,” she declared staunchly, hoping she looked more confident than she felt.
His gaze flicked down the alley before zeroing back to her. “Okay. Then let’s get started.”
“Now?” She blinked rapidly. “Tonight?”
“Ya got somethin’ better to do? Ryan/Bryan maybe?”
She pressed her lips into a thin line. “Don’t be a dick.”
He grinned. And he was standing close enough that she could smell that impossible mix of leather and vanilla. It made her knees go weak.
It occurred to her then that Bishop wasn’t the only danger she faced. Working so closely with the likes of Graham Coleburn might be her ultimate undoing.
38
Black Knights Inc.
“Where ya headed?”
Hew leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb outside Sabrina’s room. Trying like hell to sound casual, friendly.
