Chapter Seven
“So who is this woman?” Sterling asked as he turned off the trail and onto the road.
Benedict didn’t like the slick lilt of his voice, or the amusement in it. “Just a job.”
A snort rounded the cab.
Benedict frowned at him. “What?”
“Don’t think I didn’t notice the way you said her name.”
“How did I say her name?”
“Like a prayer.”
“I did not say it like a fucking prayer.”
“You kind of did.” They drove in silence for a while, because honestly there was nothing else to say, but then Sterling asked, “What does she look like?” He laughed when Benedict growled at him. There was no call to laugh. There was no call to ask what she looked like. The fuckwad. “I need to know what she looks like. You know. So I don’t shoot the wrong person.”
“You shoot her and I’ll skin you alive.” It would be a pleasure.
“I won’t shoot her…if I know what she looks like.”
Benedict glared out the window, but all he saw in his mind’s eye…was her. “Tall.” Willowy. “Curvy.” Tantalizing. “Short black hair.” That curled around her cheek like a caress.
“Beautiful?”
A sigh.
Sterling hooted a laugh. It took all Benedict’s legendary self-control not to clock him. Decking Sterling would have been inconvenient…considering the fact that he was driving the car. “Holy God. Never thought I’d see the day.”
Benedict scowled at him. “What day?”
“The day Lithium fell in love.”
“I’m not in love.” A snarl. A lie. Maybe. He wasn’t sure what this horrible feeling bubbling in his gut was, but it felt like hunger and weakness and need. Love was flowers and butterflies and fucking rainbows. Shit like that.
This was nothing like that.
“Besotted, then.”
“I’m not besotted, either.”
Sterling studied him with a skeptical expression. “I know the look, my brother.”
“What look?” Why didn’t he just shut up and drive?
“The look of a man lost.”
“You’ve never been lost a day in your life.” Of all his compatriots, Sterling was the most like him. The coldest. The hardest of heart. The man least likely to succumb to something as sentimental as love.
“I have been. I have been lost.” His tone was somber, flat. It caught Benedict’s attention. He shifted to the side and stared at his buddy. The lines on his face, the tightness of his muscles, the vulnerability were fascinating.
“Oh?”
Sterling nodded. A sharp dip of his head.
“Do tell.”
“I…met someone.”
Duh. “And?”
He lifted a shoulder. “And nothing.”
“Are you in love with her?”
“Might be.”
“Really?” How…interesting. Benedict leaned closer. “What does she look like?”
It was freaking hysterical the way Sterling’s knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. “None of your fucking beeswax what she fucking looks like.”
Benedict snorted. “Just thought I should know. So I don’t shoot her or something.” He turned away so Sterling couldn’t see his smirk, even though he didn’t care if he did.
“Be careful I don’t shoot you, buddy,” he growled. “It would be so easy to do.”
“Just drive.”
“Right.” Sterling set his teeth and focused on the road. But he didn’t stay quiet for long. He never did when there was needling to be done. “How are you going to explain it to Titanium?”
Benedict glared at him. “Explain what?”
“That you want to keep her. You know, when this is done.”
Keep her?
Why did that make heat howl thought him? Heat and something sweet.
“I don’t want to keep her.”
Oh. He did. He did.
Sterling just grunted.
“I don’t.”
“Whatever. But if she’s tangled with Red Wolf, she’ll never be safe out in the open.”
Oh fuck. There was that. “Wit-Pro, I guess.” But then she’d disappear. He’d never see her again. Ever. A fantasy, of bringing her back to his HQ, of moving her into his bungalow—of living there together, with her, forever—wafted through his head. It was stupid and foolish to even entertain the thought. What woman wanted to live like that? With a man like him? In a community of refugees? Ghosts?
“Roni lives with me,” Sterling said, as though he’d read Benedict’s mind.
“Roni?”
“My woman.” The thread of pride and possession in his tone hit Benedict hard in the gut. The bile rising in his throat tasted like envy. Sterling chuckled. “All the guys on my team have women now. Chrome. Steele. Adamantium…”
Benedict narrowed his eyes and tried not to glare. “Hardly a shock. You all were a horny lot.”
“And you’re not?”
“We have self-control.”
“My ass.”
“We do.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“How long did you know this tall, beautiful black-haired vixen before you fucked her?”
Heat crawled up Benedict’s neck. “She’s not a vixen.”
“How long?”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“How long?”
Benedict crossed his arms and scowled out at the passing trees. “Couple hours.” A mumble.
“What was that? I didn’t catch it.”
“Couple hours.”
Sterling hooted a laugh. “Right. You’re not horny at all.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“Wasn’t it?”
“This was…different.” She was different.
“Look, Lithium. I get it. I understand. That’s the thing about guys like us. We don’t let people in easily. Loving someone is even harder. But, shit, when we fall, we fall hard and we fall fast. And there’s no crawling out of the hole. It’s just the kind of guys we are.”
And fuck. He was right. It was true.
Michelle was in his blood, in his heart, his mind, his soul. He couldn’t envision life without her and didn’t want to. He loved her.
Yes, it was crazy. Yes, it was too soon. But it was.
It just was.
“So what do I do about it?” As though there was an escape.
“What do you do? You go fucking rescue your woman, that’s what.”
They fell silent then, but somehow silence didn’t help. At least during their exchange, Benedict had been a little distracted. With time to think, his angst rose again. He couldn’t help blaming himself that they’d found her. There must have been something he missed. Some tracker he hadn’t found. Something.
He should have listened to the paranoid voice in the back of his head. Should have looked harder.
But he hadn’t. He’d failed her.
He wouldn’t fail her again.
“Do you have a plan?” Sterling asked after a while.
“Is guns-blazing a plan?”
“Works for me. And if that won’t work?”
“I have something they want. I can trade it for her if I have to.” And shit, he would, even if it meant the complete failure of this mission. He would do anything to get her back safe.
“What is it?”
“The file she has on Red Wolf.” He pulled the envelope out of his pocket and held it in trembling fingers. He didn’t have the best memory, but if he read it, maybe he could retain key facts in the event he had to turn over the intel to get her back. Slowly, he opened the envelope and slid a single piece of paper out. And stared.
Shit.
“What does it say?” Sterling asked.
“Bananas. Grapefruit. Kale.”
“What?”
“Red beans. Rice. Soy milk.”
“What kind of shit is that?”
“Code?”
“What the hell kind of code is that?”
Benedict studied it. Deconstructed the words. Rearranged the letters. No matter what he tried, it didn’t make any sense.
And then it hit him and hit him hard.
This wasn’t the all-important file.
This wasn’t the file at all. It was a grocery list. A decoy she’d used to placate him when he’d first dragged her from her apartment.
Two questions whirled in his mind.
First, where the hell was the real file? The one that could help them close in on Red Wolf?
And secondly, what would he do now, when he didn’t have any leverage whatsoever?
How on earth would he save her?
***
“Where is it?” Ralley’s face was red. The veins on his forehead bulged out and throbbed. His neck muscles were visible as he yelled. He’d been yelling a while.
Michelle stared at him in fascination. She’d never seen him so upset. He’d always been calm, cool, collected. Slick, smarmy even. They had her tied to the chair, the chair the dumbass guard had been lounging in, in the empty hangar. The four men surrounded her, all glowering…especially the one she’d stabbed. His jacket was stained with blood and his expression made it pretty clear he’d be more than happy to snap her neck anytime now.
But he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. Not until they got the file.
So, when Ralley shouted at her to tell him where it was, she pressed her lips together. She wasn’t stupid.
“This is getting us nowhere,” Jonas said, pulling out his luger and cocking it. “If I shoot her in the leg, maybe she’ll be more cooperative.”
The look she sent him said, No. Probably not.
“You’re not shooting her,” Ralley snapped. Michelle nearly slumped in relief until he added, “There’s always the chance you’ll nick an artery and she’ll bleed out. Knives are better.”
Jonas nodded and pulled a long blade from a sheath on his belt. He twirled it around. “Should I start on her face?”
Ralley put out a lip. “She has such a pretty face.”
“That won’t matter much when she’s dead.”
Ralley narrowed his eyes on his lieutenant. “What makes you think I plan to kill her?”
“Because she’s dangerous?”
A harsh bark echoed through the chamber. “She’s only dangerous if she can share the information she has. And I seriously doubt she’ll be contacting the authorities from a brothel in Shanghai.” He shot Michelle a sickly sweet smile. “Would you like that, darling? Living out the rest of your days as a sex slave?”
Something nasty bubbled in her belly. Bile rose.
“Well, not all your days, of course. I’m sure your beauty won’t last for long. Some of those clients can be brutal. Such…depraved tastes. You should probably get used to pain.”
Jonas flipped his knife and stepped toward her and then slowly, methodically, sliced open her sweatshirt. It fell around her in tatters.
It was far too mortifying, sitting there half-naked with all those male eyes on her, so she turned her head away. To her astonishment, she saw a flicker of movement at the hangar door. She focused on it and froze. Something leaped in her chest.
A man skulked there and, if she wasn’t mistaken, she recognized the silhouette. Relief and fear and anticipation warred within her.
It was Ben. It had to be.
He wasn’t dead!
She wasn’t alone.
Jonas stepped toward her with the knife.
“Wait. I’ll tell you where the file is.”
Jonas stilled. “Where?”
“If you answer one question for me.”
Ralley laughed. “Darling, I don’t think you’re in any position to negotiate—”
“How did you find me? At the cabin? It’s been driving me crazy.”
“Oh. That?” His smile was reptilian. He drew his finger over her upper arm. “Do you really think we care if you get the flu?”
The flu shot? Seriously? “It was a bug?”
“Technically, a GPS mini tracker, but yes. Very handy, wouldn’t you say?”
“Also, illegal.”
“Like I give a shit.”
No. He wouldn’t. “Are all your employees tagged?”
“Naturally.”
Lovely.
“Now. Where is the file?”
She pretended to hesitate, but not for long. Then she gusted a sigh and said, “Back at the cabin.”
Ralley stared at her. Then he whirled on Jonas and slammed his fist into the other man’s cheek. “You dumbass. Did you not even search?”
“Shit.” Jonas held his cheek and glared at Ralley. “You said you wanted her.”
“You knew we needed the file.”
“We’ll send the men back for it.” He waved his hand at the other two goons. They were both scowling at her now, as though they wanted to kill her. But honestly, it was hardly her fault they’d screwed up.
Also, they could take a fucking number.
“Where is the file?” Ralley snapped.
Michelle nibbled her lips in feigned resistance. She didn’t expect Ralley to bury his fist in her belly. It knocked the breath from her. “The soldier had it,” she wheezed. “In his pocket.”
Ralley nodded at the two men and they skulked out of the hangar. As they rounded the corner and disappeared from sight, Michelle heard a slight whizzing sound and a thump. She coughed and then coughed again.
It might be naïve of her think she could cover up the sound of two grown men falling to the ground a hundred yards away, but the distraction seemed to work.
“You’d better not be lying,” Jonas said, twirling his knife some more. Like it was supposed to be impressive or something. Like it was supposed to scare her.
“I’m not lying.” Nope. It was the truth. Ben had taken the file. And it was in his pocket.
It just wasn’t the file they wanted.
And he wasn’t at the cabin.
Thank God. Thank God he was—
Something zinged past, creating a disturbance in the air around her. A plop. Then something red and wet spattered her cheek. She was vaguely aware of a groan to her side and the fall of something heavy. She glanced over to where Jonas had been.
He was gone.
Well, not to put too fine a point on it, part of him was gone.
The face part.
He lay in an awkward pile on the cement floor. A red pool formed about his head.
She barely had time to process his death, the gore, her unsettling relief, when Ralley grabbed her from behind and put the barrel of his pistol to her temple.
“Not another step,” he called.
Nerves humming, Michelle glanced up, toward Ben, where he stood in the door, backlit by blinding sunlight, with his hands raised.
And her heart dropped.
Not because Ralley had a gun to her head…but because she realized it wasn’t Ben. It was some other man. A warrior, like him, but not him.
Agony and grief roiled through her anew. She’d been mistaken. She had to have been.
Was he dead after all?
She couldn’t bear it. She couldn’t.
“I just want the girl.” The warrior’s voice echoed through the empty space.
Ralley pressed the pistol harder against her, forcing her head to tip. “I’m not giving her up.”
“I have the file.” The warrior reached behind him and pulled the envelope from the back of his pants.
Shit.
Her grocery list.
She could only hope it would fool Ralley…at least long enough to escape.
And then she realized…whoever this man was, he knew about the file. There was only one way he could have known about it.
If Ben told him.
Ben couldn’t have told him if those bullets had killed him.
Hope rose once more. Excitement and anticipation trickled through her. She forced herself to ignore it. There was no place for it now, in this moment.
“Don’t,” she croaked. “Don’t give him the file. He’ll kill us both.” It was a ploy, a ploy to convince Ralley the file was authentic, but there was some veracity in her words. Given half a chance, Ralley would end them both.
Ralley jabbed her with the barrel. “Shut up.” And then, to the warrior, “Put the file down on the ground and back away. Keep your hands in the air.”
Because he was still outlined by the bright light, she could only see his shadow, but he did as Ralley asked. Likely, the warrior didn’t hear the chuckle, but Michelle did. Before she could warn him, Ralley lifted his gun and pulled the trigger. The warrior took a round to the chest and fell.
She could not stop her warbled and anguished cry. It was punctuated by another sound, one behind her, one she had trouble processing. A whizz and a pop. Then a grunt and a thud. And silence.
She didn’t realize she’d squeezed her eyes shut. When she pried them open, it was to see the warrior sit up and brush himself off. He might have laughed.
Laughed.
“That went well.”
Oh. Holy God.
Ben’s voice from behind her made her heart sing, fly. She lurched around, taking the chair with her. “Ben!” she cried.
He was so beautiful. So precious and dear. So handsome. He cupped her cheeks and kissed her, and then he murmured. “Are you okay?”
“You’re here. Of course, I’m okay.”
He glanced at her bare chest and growled. “Fuckers. He pointed his gun at Ralley’s body, which was on the floor, lying on top of Jonas’ and shot him again.
“I think he’s dead,” a deep voice said from her side.
She whipped her head around and stared at the warrior. Her breath caught in her throat. Holy shit, he was big. And ominous. And handsome.
“Not dead enough,” Ben growled. He narrowed his eyes on his buddy and added. “I’ll fucking shoot you too if you don’t stop staring at her chest, Sterling.”
Sterling shrugged. Grinned. “It’s…a nice chest.”
Ben might have snarled. He looked his friend up and down. “You okay?” he asked, but there was little warmth in the question.
Sterling nodded and he slipped off his heavy jacket. Michelle recognized it as the same kind Ben had been wearing when he’d been shot. And it had stopped a bullet. Again. Still, Sterling grimaced as he moved his arm. “I’m fine. I told you it would work.”
Ben nodded and then picked up Jonas’ knife and cut her free. She worked her fingers to get the circulation going as he took the jacket from Sterling and wrapped her up in it. It was heavy. She could feel the weight of the metal plates.
“Shall we get out of here?” he asked.
“Oh yes,” she said. “Please.”
Sterling thrust a thumb at the doorway. “We have a transport waiting at Bolling to take us to HQ for the debrief.”
Ben curled his arm around her shoulder and led her out into the bright sunlight. “My boss is very interested in looking at your file. The information in it will give us a lead on Red Wolf.”
She smiled. “Without Ralley and ASTCORP, his plans to set up his minions in the senate will never work.”
“Right. But Red Wolf will always have some plot afoot.”
“Until we kill him dead,” Sterling added.
“Killing him dead sounds like a plan,” Ben said with a grin. He opened the back door of the truck and helped her in. “But before we leave, we need to go back to your apartment.”
She frowned. “Why?”
“We need that file.”
Michelle couldn’t hold back her laugh. “The file is not in my apartment, silly,” she said.
“Where is it?”
She pointed to her head. “In here.”
“In…there? All of it?”
“All of it.” Every word.
He gaped at her. She liked the awe in his expression.
But then, that look might not have been for her phenomenal skills. It might have been…just for her.
And that was mighty fine indeed.
He pulled her closer and kissed her. It sent a warm river of need and delight through her. He was alive and she was alive and life was too short for them not to do…more of this. Forever if they could.
“You are an amazing woman, you know that, Michelle Parsons?”
“Yes Sir,” she whispered, loving the responding blaze in his eyes. “I am.”