Check & Mate

by Ali Hazelwood

God bless libraries.

look up and smile sweetly. “I like it better when men shut their mouths and stuff their rooks up their asses, but clearly we can’t always get what we want.”

Nolan’s “Hard to tell” overlaps with my “Never!” and completely swallows it.

Oop

“Mostly that. Only secondarily because he doesn’t seem to be able to look away from my most oblivious daughter.”

“I don’t think you understand.” He holds my eyes. I think his throat moves. “I want to play chess with you, Mallory.”

“It should have been you, yesterday. It was…I had you there. In front of me, across the board.” His lips press together. “It should have been you.”

“You’re not here because I…?” You’re not here because I’m here, are you? Come on, Mal. He’s not here because he’s still into that idea of playing against you. No way. He wants to hang out with his friends. Maybe he lied and he is into Tanu. Or Emil. Or both. Not my business. Who cares— “Yes,” he says. My internal monologue halts. “What?” “The reason you’re thinking.” His stupid, deep voice. Argh. “That’s why I’m here.”

His eyes alternate between me and my game, dark and focused and greedy in a way I don’t fully understand.

his faith in me is as solid as a boulder.

“But I want you, Mallory.”

“I am serious. Do you realize how exceptional you are, Mallory?” “What are you—” “I have never seen anything like what you do with chess. Never.”

“Mallory?” He rubs the heel of his palm in his eye. His voice is hoarse with sleep and something else. “Another dream, huh?” “Nolan—are you okay?” “You should come to bed. This is a stupid setup. I like it much better when we—”

I make to take it away, but he traps it under his. “Stay.” He leans into me, breath warm, chapped lips against my temple. “You never stay.”

now whatever small nerdy percentage of the world cares about chess thinks that we have a thing.” “And we don’t?”

“Was it at least the best game of your life?” I ask. He stares into my eyes. “No. It wasn’t.” “Which one was, then?”

“This apartment he left you…It’s big for one person,” I murmur. “Want to move in?” His tone matches mine, intimate.

“It’s the Challengers, Mal. They chose you as one of this year’s participants.”

“Do you think I can win the Challengers?” I ask her, trembling a little at the prospect of the answer. She takes my other hand, and I feel held. I feel comforted. I feel stronger. “Mallory. I think you can win the World Championship.”

But this…this was a chess-engine-level move. Perfectly designed to disrupt every single action, every single initiative you had going on—and you were playing some fucking great chess. It was something a computer would come up with.”

....did a computer come up with it?

“Nolan?” “Hmm?” “Why did you come to Vegas?” His fingers tighten around mine. My heart cartwheels. “Mallory. I came because you did.”

“You know what I fucking want, Mallory?” He leans forward, suddenly furious. “I want you to not be here.” I gasp in outrage. “Screw you! You asked me to be your second—” “I want you to be elsewhere. Training with your own seconds in preparation for me. So we can play a real match in Italy. The real thing.” His eyes blaze. His hand is still flat on mine. Pressing. Warm. “Your presence in this house might be what gets me up in the morning, but we can stop pretending this situation is anything like what either of us wants or needs.”

“Touch-take rule,” he murmurs. He stands, too. Every step back I take is one forward for him.

“I’ve got you, Mallory. Nothing bad is going to happen. You can let yourself want this, because you already have it. You have me.”

“Are you real?” The air between us swells, overflows. “Sometimes I’m scared that I imagined you. Sometimes I think you’re only in my head.”

“What do you mean, Koch cheated? There were too many cameras for him to—”

I WAS RIGBTTTTTTT

Nolan shrugs. “If some think that she needs an unfair advantage, then they need to pay better attention when she plays.”

“Man”—Nolan snorts into the mic—“she literally won the qualifying tournament to be here. Keep up, will you?”

I scowl harder. “Is that why you were late for the press conference?” He nods. “Darcy needed to try every single flavor before settling on an order. A problem, since samples are not a thing in Italy.”

“Because when I’m with you, Mallory, everything is different. When I’m with you, I want to play more than I want to win.”