The Benefactor

by Nana Malone

  Thanks rationality, but you weren’t invited to the party.

  I stepped out the side door heading toward the garage, and I saw a familiar form leaning against the garage with a smirk on his face. The morning light was shrouded in gray fog and a little mist. In his left hand, Bridge held an untouched coffee. In the other, he had one that was open and steaming. As he sipped, he said, “I was wondering when you’d get your lazy ass up.”

  I scowled. “Remind me to revoke the passcode to the gate.”

  Bridge smirked. “We both know I can either pick it or climb the fence. And you’re lucky I didn’t walk into the house, but I didn’t want Erik and his goons to shoot me in the nuts.”

  “They’ve been instructed not to kill anyone. Because the next motherfucker that breaks into my house, I want alive for... questioning.”

  Bridge grinned. “Questioning? Riiiight. Note to self, don’t let myself into your place.”

  “Not a good idea. What are you doing here?”

  He shrugged. “It’s my job to keep you out of trouble today.”

  “So you turn up here, hoping to catch me doing something stupid?”

  He held out the coffee. “I just figured you could use a mate.”

  With a sigh, I reached out and took the cup from him before opening the garage door. “Thanks for the coffee, but I’m fine.”

  He laughed. “I’ve known you since we were eleven. Even longer if you count when we played football against each other. I know when you’re fine and when you’re not. This mess… what you have going on right now, it’s not fine. You’re wound up tight. Where are you going? Because I guarantee you it’s not the office. You used to be like clockwork, there every day at 6:30. Now I’m lucky if I can find you at all.”

  “I don’t need your help for this Bridge. I got it.”

  “Well, I’m glad you don’t need me, but I’m coming along anyway. Who are we fucking up? Did you find Todd all on your own?”

  I ground my teeth. How did he know I was looking?

  “I did not find Todd. And even if I did, I would let the authorities handle it.”

  He stalked around to the passenger side of the Spyder. “Let’s take this one. Been a while since I’ve ridden in it.”

  I was irritated that he knew exactly which car I was going to choose. I was irritated that he was here outside my house with his fucking coffee. Waiting for me. He knew I’d prefer coffee to tea. He also knew that this car was my absolute dream car and my favorite. And he knew me well enough to know that I was going to try to take care of the Todd situation on my own because as much as I loved my mates, I didn’t want to drag them down with me.

  Sometimes I really hated him, the smug git.

  “Why don’t I just drop you at your house. I’m sure Mina could use a good shag to put her in a better mood, though frankly, I’m not sure it’ll help.”

  Bridge rolled his eyes. “I get it; you two hate each other. Understood. But if you could refrain from making such jokes about my fiancée, that’d be brilliant.”

  I grumbled an apology under my breath.

  “What was that, dipshit?”

  I forced a sardonic smile. “I’m sorry I called your girlfriend a raving bitch, but to be fair, I’m trying to do this whole honesty thing Liv insisted on.”

  The muscle in his jaw ticked, but he didn’t say anything. I decided to let it go because he was not responsible for my problem. Nope, that was all me. Or more importantly, my dick.

  Dick: What’re you blaming me for? You’re the one who made that whole declaration that we’re not done. What the hell else was I supposed to do?

  Why had I said that?

  Because you fully intended to shag her again.

  Changing the subject, Bridge said, “So what’s the plan, mate?”

  “Fine. If you must know, the information that East gave me on Todd contained his personnel information. And as it tunes out, he has a brother. So I’m going to pay him a visit. See if he knows where his big brother has gone or what the fuck happened to him that would make him turn on his employer. See? Really boring stuff.”

  “Fantastic. I like boring. Who needs to work anyway?”

  I scowled at him. “Why are you doing this? I don’t need a bloody babysitter.”

  “Yeah? Prove it. You’re in love with a woman, but you won’t tell her. She was assaulted in your house, something you can’t get over, and currently she’s angry with you, which you can’t fix. Not to mention, she did something dumb that you don’t understand. Does that about cover it?”

  “Do you have a point?”

  “Yeah, the point is you can use a mate. I’m not judging. I’m just going to be here and shit.”

  “Isn’t this East’s job? To harangue me until I give in?”

  “It’s my turn today. He has you tomorrow.”

  I studied him, his silver eyes more of a stormy gray today. “Any chance I can convince you to just go away?”

  He shook his head.

  “Okay fine, let’s go.”

  He was primarily silent on the drive to Clapham. The GPS led us to a small rowhouse on the end. There was no car parked out front.

  I walked up and rang the bell, but no one answered. But after a second ring, someone came down the stairs, unlocked the door, and held it open for us. “Well, get on in then.”

  “Cheers.” I called out.

  I looked back at Bridge. His mouth was set in a firm line, his jaw ticking. This rowhouse reminded him too much of where he’d grown up.

  We took the stairs and went one flight up then knocked on flat three. It took a moment, but when the door swung open, Todd’s brother, Harry, stood on the threshold. I knew right away it was his brother because he looked exactly like him. Although, his hair was longer than Todd’s, it was much thinner, and his skin was more sallow. The kind of sallow that indicated...

  His eyes were slightly glassy, and he frowned. Great, we were talking to somebody that was high. “Harry Spivey?”

  He nodded slowly. “Yeah, who’s asking?”

  “Ben Covington. And up until a couple days ago, I was your brother’s employer.”

  He ran his finger under his nose and rubbed his neck inelegantly. “Haven’t seen him.”

  I sighed. “Is there any chance maybe you left the flat to go do something and came back to find anything askew or missing?”

  He shook his head. “He in trouble?”

  Yes, he was in a fuck ton of trouble, especially if I got my hands on him.

  “We’re not going to hurt him; we just need to talk to him.”

  “Well, I don’t have to talk to you.”

  “No, you don’t. But you’re going to.”

  “Don’t be so sure of that,” he mumbled under his breath. “Piss off.”

  He tried to close the door in my face, but I shoved it aside, causing him to stumble. When we stepped inside, the stench nearly knocked me over. “When was the last time you saw Todd?”

  “I don’t have to talk to you. I have rights.”

  “Those rights and procedures only apply to the police. So me and my mate here, we can ask you as many questions as we want, and if you don’t answer, we can make your life unpleasant. How do you feel about that?”

  Even Bridge had had enough of waiting for the show to get on the road. He leaned against the door to block Harry’s escape. “Listen, your choices are either talk to my mate here, tell us about Todd and any trouble he might’ve been in, or he’s going to get stab happy, and there’s not going to be a damn thing I can do to help you. What’s it going to be?”

  Harry started pacing. Opening drawers as if looking for something. “Look, Todd came round a few weeks ago to check on me. He pays for the flat. He’s been a good brother. I didn’t always have my shit together, you know? But Todd saw to it that I had a place.”

  “Get to the point,” I mumbled.

  “So anyways, I might’ve gotten myself into a bit of a spot with these blokes from before I got clean. I’d bee
n gambling and lost a bunch of money. I’m working to pay them back, but they came to collect one time when Todd was here. And they applied pressure. Todd told them to piss off, and then they got proper twisted. Threatened our mom. She’s moved to Bristol. Retired. She had nothing to do with any of this. I know it’s my fault. If Todd wasn’t trying to protect me, he never would’ve gotten involved with them.”

  “Who are they?”

  He shrugged. “Just these Albanian blokes.”

  Bridge asked, “Where do you know them from?”

  “I don’t know, around. I met one of them at a bar. Next thing I knew we were playing cards somewhere, drinking, and I was writing checks with my mouth that my wallet couldn’t cash. They beat me up pretty bad. Had to go to hospital. Todd paid for it. Mom came to see me and everything. That’s when I got my act together and stopped drinking. I’ve been clean a whole month.”

  My stomach turned. “So your brother wanted to get you out of trouble?”

  “Yeah, he said he’d get them the money I owed and cover my debts. Then this one guy, Nicolai, he says he was willing to forgive the loan if Todd would bring some bird to him. And if he didn’t, they were going to go after our mum. And then if he still didn’t, they were going to kill me. At first, Todd told them to fuck off. But then a few days later, he said they were following him, so he agreed to do it. And I haven’t seen Todd since last weekend.”

  I frowned. “Anything else you can tell me about this Nicolai?”

  He shook his head. “Albanian, big guy. That’s all I know.”

  Bridge looked out the window and frowned. “We have to go, mate.”

  I leaned close to Harry. “When you see your brother again, you tell him he’s going to pay. He can only run for so long.”

  Bridge grabbed me by the collar. “Time to go.”

  When we were outside again, I pulled free. “You can let me go. I was a good boy.”

  “Yeah, you were fine. But we picked up a tail. The same blue lorry has made three loops on this block.”

  I frowned as I glanced around. “Well, who do you suppose that is?”

  “No clue, but let’s get you back and then we can figure it out.”

  8

  Ben

  I might have been annoyed at Bridge and East for meddling in my social life, but having them in my corner wasn’t all bad. I could trust them to look out for Liv when I couldn’t.

  I told myself I wasn’t watching Liv’s every move, checking if she was okay, making sure she had everything she needed. Last night, one of the walls between us had come down. Not all of them. Hell, I wasn’t even halfway through, but one wall had come down. She’d let me hold her while she allowed herself to be vulnerable.

  Not that I’d been able to do much other than hold her. But still, I’d take it. I’d take anything that would get me closer to her. I might still be furious with her for making a copy of the flash drive, but we were connected and there wasn’t a chance in hell I was letting her go.

  For all we knew, that’s what could have put her life in danger. We were reckless and risky, but she had a lot of nerve putting all that blame on me. At least now I had the full picture, but still, I couldn’t stay the hell away from her. She was in my blood, like a virus, infecting every single part of me with her light. And there wasn’t a single part of me that wasn’t desperate to be near her. It was getting ridiculous.

  I walked by the conference room where she was in a meeting that didn’t include me three separate times. I knew from an email she’d sent that she’d negotiated a project manager from Peterman to help keep things moving. The problem was, he was some sleek git named Kevin with a too shiny suit and looked to be wearing no socks. The shoes that he wore were a take on Brogue’s. God, he was dressed exactly like some trendy hipster git from the pages of a magazine.

  Jealous much?

  I should be happy that she had help. I should be thrilled she’d found a project manager so she’d feel less stressed. But, when the third time I walked by and he was leaning over her shoulder, I lost my shit. My phone buzzed from a text, and I glowered down at it. It was Drew asking if I was in my office.

  I rolled my eyes. It wasn’t like I wanted to see him at the moment.

  I wanted to walk in the conference room and find out what the fuck that prick was doing so close to Livy.

  I replied quickly.

  Ben: Meeting. Why?

  Drew: Because I’m in your office waiting for you.

  Goddamn it. Why hadn’t he called?

  Probably because he knew you wouldn’t want to deal with him right now.

  I perched myself on the desk of one of the executive assistants who wasn’t there at the moment and glowered into the conference room. Livy was standing up, laying out some folders and pointing at things. Kevin was seated again, and his gaze was not on the fucking folders in front of him.

  I was going to kill him.

  I marched to the door and yanked it open. “Everything all right in here?”

  Livy jumped and whirled around. “Ben? What’s the problem?”

  Kevin, the wanker, didn’t look away from her ass.

  “Well, this is my company, I can inquire about any project.” It was only then that Kevin looked up.

  “Uh, sir, I’m Kevin Lynch, from Peterman Industries.” He stood and stuck out his hand as I glowered down at it.

  “What are you looking at right now?”

  Livy lifted a brow. She knew what I was doing. Well, tough. I didn’t give a shit if she knew. No way was I going to let him sit there and ogle her. “Well, we’re looking at the timelines for the Paris project. There’re two separate timelines. As you know, Max Peterman won’t be available, due to his paternity leave. But we have the subcontractor teams in place...”

  As she kept talking, I took in everything about her. She was wearing the dress I liked so much. Burgundy. It looked amazing on her skin. It kept to her trim lines, showcasing that spectacular ass that Kevin had been staring at. Kevin shoved his hand back in his pocket.

  “Oh, right, sir. Yes. So as far as we know, Paris—”

  I shook my head. “Let Livy finish.”

  He sputtered and blinked, glancing to her and then back to me. “Oh, right. Sorry. Carry on, Liv.”

  She lifted her brow and then crossed her arms. “Mr. Covington, I assure you all of our timeline changes and issues we discussed in our normal bi-weekly meeting are covered. We’re just in a time crunch. Jessa would like us to finish this meeting and give her a call. So, if you don’t mind…”

  What the hell? She was kicking me out of the conference room. And the phone in my pocket was buzzing again. Fucking, Drew. I didn’t really have a reason to be there, and Drew was waiting. I also knew I had another meeting coming up soon, but still, there was no way I was going to leave her alone with him. “Livy, can I speak to you outside?”

  She crossed her arms. “Is now the right time, sir? I don’t want to waste any time on this.”

  “This will only take a moment.”

  I escorted her out of the conference room with my hand on her lower back, closing the door behind us. The moment we were out in the hallway, she whirled on me. I took a step back, keeping a professional distance between us. Her voice was low, murmured even. Anyone walking by wouldn’t have been able to hear what we were really talking about. But, her words... pure fire. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

  “Me? I wasn’t the one letting someone ogle my ass.”

  “Letting someone ogle my ass? Are you mad? Is that it? I am trying to do my job in there, and you’re interrupting because you’re being a brat?”

  I lifted my brows. “A brat? Do you know how long it has been since someone dared to call me that?”

  “Clearly, too long. Do you have a reason for having me out here? Or is this some awful bullshit pee-on-me thing? I have to tell you, I’m not into it.”

  “Neither am I. I’m not urinating on you. I just don’t want that pimply-nosed git getting any ideas
.”

  “Getting ideas about what?”

  The hairs on my nape stood at attention, perhaps in some feeble attempt to warn me. Maybe it was my survival instinct kicking in, but when I started talking, I didn’t see my error until the words were out of my mouth. “You can be a bit naïve—”

  One delicately arched brow slid up. “Excuse me?”

  Fuck me. How do you pull this one back, you twat? “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Don’t make me remind you that I happen to be very good at my job. And my actual boss will be in the office in just a few days, so I can’t afford to lose time by holding your hand, stroking your ego, or sucking your dick. All of those things you should be man enough to handle on your own without me. Are we understood?”

  I swallowed hard. “That’s not what I’m—”

  She lifted a hand and interrupted me again. “When I want your interference, or God forbid, for you to run in and rescue me, I will let you know. Until then, I can handle an idiot kid like Kevin. Honestly, do you think he’s the first man to stare at my ass today? Hell, in the last hour? Get real.”

  My jaw clicked. “Who the fuck else has been staring at your ass?”

  She folded her arms. “You, for starters.”

  Heat rose up my spine. “That’s different.”

  “Why, because I’m…”

  “Go on.” I wanted to hear her say it.

  She unfolded her arms to make air quotes. “Because I’m ‘yours’?” Her gaze skittered around when she said “yours.”

  I took a step toward her. “If you want me to prove it—”

  She interrupted me again. “It’s not happening.”

  It probably wasn’t a good idea to poke the angry tigress, but in for a penny, in for a pound. “Isn’t that what you said in my office a couple of days ago when you came back from Telly’s?” Yep. I was an arsehole. But she was kidding herself if she didn’t think we were happening.

  “Try me and see what happens. Right now, it’s company time, and I don’t have time for it.”

  She stepped around me and then marched right back into the conference room like I didn’t exist.