Kill Switch by Penelope Douglas

Damon
Present
“Ten moves and you have me,” Mr. GGarin told me. “Do you
see it?”
I stared at the board between us, calculating the moves I
needed to make for checkmate while trying to anticipate his
counter moves.
Yeah, I see it. But what fun would that be?
I reached for my pawn at E2.
“Don’t,” he scolded.
And he shot me the same look I’d seen since I was a kid.
But I couldn’t resist. Unable to hold in my small smile, I
ignored him and moved it to E4.
He let out a sigh and shook his head, exasperated with the
lack of control and strategy he failed at drilling into me all
those long afternoons after school, years ago, when he worked
for my father.
Or he thought he failed at drilling it into me, anyway.
People assumed I behaved strictly on impulse, when actually,
it required quite a bit of strategy being this fucked up.