The Benefactor

by Nana Malone

  Ben blinked at me several times. “You’re bloody serious.”

  “Unfortunately. It’s horrible, isn’t it? What’s more horrible is that no one cares when it’s penniless, nameless girls, but what’s unusual about this is that no one cares when it’s rich teenagers who are missing. Because by and large, everyone should care. But still, Interpol can’t get anyone to talk.”

  “Unless people are being paid not to talk.”

  “Exactly. So my mom theorized that there’s this whole network, that they pass around these girls and they must have some kind of code. If two have been returned, one by force of her father going to get her, and the other on her own, how many others are there like this? Those whose families never called the authorities. Those whose families don’t even know to call Interpol or just aren’t paying attention and don’t know that they’re gone. They just assume their daughter is in St. Moritz or something. And the women are too afraid to talk. That’s what my mother thought anyway. Now I just have to prove it.”

  “Jesus Christ, and you pieced that all together from your mother’s notes and the obscure photos of a man with a burn scar on his hand?”

  “I’m so close. I can feel it.”

  “Liv, you need to be careful.”

  “I’m not coming after anyone; I’m not Interpol. I’m just digging through files and trying to tell a story. Besides, I think I already have one set of people trying to kill me. Anyone else will need to join the queue.”

  He puffed out a breath. “Please don’t joke about that.”

  “Sorry. Too soon? It’s just that when my mom asked me to finish it for her, I promised I would. I just need to put all these pieces together.”

  22

  Ben

  I paced the length of Bridge’s all-white living room as more and more of our team piled in. I didn’t know how in the world this had gone from a small endeavor to something much larger. I was okay with East, and Bridge, and Drew, of course, and I begrudgingly accepted Livy in the situation. And, obviously, we needed Lucas. Jessa, Roone, they were trusted family, of course. But it was difficult to keep a secret with so many damn people.

  And now Livy was campaigning for Telly to be included. After all, she already knew what part of this was about. She’d decrypted the file. And then Telly had wanted her guy from New York up to speed on things too.

  With everyone piled into the room and drinks served, I stepped forward. “Right, thanks for coming. Obviously, we now need to be a little more careful with so many of us. We don’t want to take any chances if anyone puts two and two together. So, where are we?”

  Livy spoke up. “Well, we’ve put out feelers for an invitation to the Art for Charity lunch. We should get word back in a day or two. It should be an easy get.”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Cool. Let us know as soon as you’ve heard.”

  I turned my gaze to Roone. “Security at the event?”

  “It’s pretty standard. I have Ariel looking into any hidden blind spots. It won’t be at the Van Linsted estate, so it’ll be easier to get the jewel out. But, considering that thing is insured for two hundred million dollars, April’s going to have a security detail. So Lucas is going to make sure that they never have any reason to even suspect that what’s on her wrist isn’t the real deal.”

  Bridge rubbed the back of his neck. “Explain to me why we can’t just break in and steal it under the cover of darkness?”

  East laughed. “Mate, have you been paying zero attention? That thing is kept at the Van Linsted estate, and while we were able to walk out of there with some files, they keep their diamonds three floors down, surrounded by walls of cement and steel. We’d need more technical expertise than we have currently on hand, several other sets of hands, and one hell of a distraction. And likely we’d need some kind of sacrifice to the gods.”

  Bridge cracked his neck. “We’re putting Jessa in the line of fire. This still makes me nervous.”

  Roone lifted his chin in the direction of Bridge, as if to say a silent thank you. Jessa, on the other hand, just rolled her eyes. “Bridge has a point. But Lucas is the best, right Lucas?”

  The prince grinned. “Of course, I am. Bridge, do you need a watch, mate?”

  The way Lucas said mate made East snort a laugh. Bridge scowled when he glanced at his wrist, and then his eyes went wide before a deep furrow appeared on his brow. “Fucking-ay. Seriously?”

  Lucas shrugged. “You seemed resistant. I had to show you I am actually pretty good at what I do.”

  “Yeah, you surely could steal, but can you put it back?”

  Lucas grinned. “You should probably check your pocket.”

  Bridge lifted a brow in suspicion and then reached into his breast pocket. Sure enough, there was his watch. I watched my friend chuff a laugh and shake his head. “Okay fine, you’ve proven your skill. Fair enough.”

  Drew bounced from foot to foot nervously by the door. “Have you forgotten what the crucial elements are? First, she’ll have to wear it for us to steal the diamond. Second, Rowan Downs is going to help us by swaying the vote. All well and good. But we still have one crucial problem. We haven’t put up a name for the vote. We need an opponent to put up against Bram Van Linsted.”

  I was afraid he was going to bring that up. Those fucking bylaws. I hated them. But Drew was right, we needed to come up with a replacement.

  I glanced at East, and he laughed before I could even formulate the thought. “Mate, no fucking way. You know I don’t want that headache. Plus, it would mean dealing with my father. No way.”

  Bridge just folded his arms. I knew Bridge was a bad choice. No one would support him, which really only left Drew or someone controllable.

  Drew nodded. “I’m the easy choice. It makes sense. The Five will like my pedigree.”

  “I’m fine with it.”

  East and Bridge exchanged glances as East spoke up. “Drew is the logical choice, but Ben you actually have a better pedigree. You father was a Prime Minister. You’ve never wanted power. It works.”

  I blinked in surprise.

  Bridge shrugged. “I don’t know what pedigree you’re talking about, but if we’re talking about Ben being a leader or some shit, it makes sense. He even has that arsehole swagger to him.”

  East gave Drew a sheepish smile. “Sorry, mate, Ben screams leader. Those twats will be more than happy to follow him.”

  I appreciated the vote of confidence, but there were some hard truths to face. “You all are forgetting one simple little thing. I can’t stand the Elite. I hate everything they stand for.”

  Jessa smiled. “Well, at the end of the day, you could probably dismantle it from the inside.”

  “No. I don’t want it. Drew is the better choice.”

  East and Bridge shrugged. “Drew works too. Look, the point is to serve someone up by the next meeting.”

  “Drew, are you ready for that?” I asked. There’s going to be a lot of scrutiny, and the Van Linsteds are going to be coming for you.”

  “My receipts are clean, mate. Nothing to find. They can’t come for me with anything.”

  “Okay then, we’re in agreement. Drew is our man. How many do you need for a nomination?”

  “I just need a motion and a second. As long as two of you knobs turns up to the meeting, I’m good.”

  I nodded. “All right. So, the meeting is in two weeks. Drew, you’re the man. We will have the invite in the next day or so.” I glanced around the room, meeting everyone’s gazes. “Are you sure you’re all in? It’s going to be—”

  The door swung open with a bang and clatter, and Bryna stumbled in. Her eyes blinked as they adjusted to the light in the room. Lucas stood immediately. “Bryna, what are you doing here?”

  “Do you understand what I had to do to follow you?”

  He swallowed hard and glanced around. “What?”

  “I had to put a tail on you, but you ditched me. So then, I had to resort to the tail I’d put on Jessa.”

  J
essa stood up. “You put a tail on me?”

  Bryna smiled at Jessa sheepishly. “That friends app sure came in handy.”

  Jessa frowned at her phone. “Damn.”

  Lucas crossed his arms. “That was you following me?”

  “Yeah, it was. So, I see some of the usual suspects. Ben.” Her gaze flickered to Bridge and she smiled. “Oh, hey, handsome. I remember you from the wedding.” And then she smiled warmly at East. “And East, right?”

  East grinned at her. “Lady Bryna.”

  “Do you guys mind if I steal my fiancé for a minute?”

  She dragged him from the room and then closed the door. Unfortunately, we could hear every damn word thanks to the acoustics in there. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  His voice was hushed compared to her angry one. “I’ll explain it to you later.”

  “Nope, you’ll explain it to me now.”

  Livy winced. “Should we be listening?”

  Roone chuckled and inched closer to the door. “Who are you kidding? Of course, we need to listen in on this.”

  Jessa tried to pull him away, but he was far too strong.

  Inside the room, Bryna said, “You don’t trust me.”

  “It’s not about that. I do. I just don’t want you anywhere near this.”

  “I am team Winston Isles, you idiot.”

  “I know that, but this isn’t the Winston Isles.”

  “Are you bored? Is that what this is?”

  “A little. It’s hard to explain,” he muttered.

  Her voice was shaky when she asked, “You’re bored. With me?”

  There was a beat of silence, then his voice went soft. “No. This isn’t about you. I love you. This is about me. I have no idea what my place is. What I have to offer you.”

  There was some shuffling and what sounded like crying before Bryna murmured, “I think we need to talk about this later.”

  “That’s what I said. You dragged me in here having a full-on tantrum.”

  We all winced. Even I knew that was not the right thing to say. There was a long beat of silence, and then Bryna shoved open the door and stalked out. Jessa glanced from Lucas to Roone and back to her brother again, and then rolled her eyes before going after Bryna. “You fucked up, you idiot.”

  Lucas threw his hands up. “What?”

  Roone clapped him on the shoulder. “Listen, she’ll settle down. Jessa will talk to her.”

  “I’m not sure she’s going to let this one go.”

  The tension swirled around the room, thick enough to suffocate, so I tried to let him off the hook if need be. “Look, we can run the play with someone else.”

  “No, it needs both Jessa and I. Bryna will be okay.”

  Somehow, I doubted that. “If you’re sure.”

  “I’m sure. I need to do this, and this is what we’re doing. End of discussion.”

  “Right. In that case, let’s make sure we get those invites.”

  Livy nodded. “I’ll follow up. Make sure it happens.”

  Her gaze flickered toward the door Bryna and Jessa had gone out of, and I could tell she was internalizing the fight between Lucas and Bryna. If they couldn’t work, how would we? Especially through something like this?

  I would just have to show her that we could. It might take a little convincing.

  23

  Ben

  The knock on my door yanked me out of my reverie. I found East leaning against the jamb, a look of consternation drawing his features. “Mate, what’s up?”

  “I ran the facial recognition software on the photo you gave me. Initially, nothing came up, but then I paid a little backdoor visit to our pals in the US. The NSA keeps track of everybody.”

  My brows lifted. “You did what?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Oh, relax. I didn’t get caught.”

  “Jesus fucking Christ, East, you were the one who told us to keep a low profile, remember?”

  “I know. But I knew I’d seen that guy’s face before.”

  “What guy?”

  “The photo from Livy and the research she’s doing for her book. It’s Evan Zolov. He’s Chechen, I believe. But more importantly, I remember him because I saw him before when we were kids.”

  I frowned. “What are you talking about?”

  “It was during some training session at the Van Linsted estate. I don’t know where you were. I think it was when you had pneumonia or something.”

  I sat forward. “Yeah?”

  “I fucked something up. Well, Drew and I fucked up. We were so hungover and we were just looking for a place to throw up. We wandered out of bounds and saw that bloke there.”

  East strode in laid his phone faceup on my desk. “He works for the Van Linsteds. He’s a cleaner. Drew and I hadn’t even gotten far. We’d just opened a couple of doors looking for the loo to pray to the porcelain god. Security found us and then stuck us in Marcus Van Linsted’s office for two hours. Then that guy walked in, and it was interrogation 101. They separated us. He took me somewhere else while his friend dealt with Drew.”

  I sat back and ran my hands through my hair. “What the fuck?”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t put two and two together before, but I didn’t get a hit until I hit the NSA. His record? Completely expunged. All his dirty mercenary deeds are gone. It’s like he barely exists except for when he needs to exist. The guy is a ghost, mate.”

  “Christ. Why can’t one goddamn thing be easy?”

  “I don’t know. How’s Livy holding up?”

  “You’ve met her. She says she’s fine.”

  East chuckled. “All the while freaked out but holding it all in?”

  My lips quirked into a smile. “Oh, so you have met her.”

  My mate leaned into my desk. “You’ve got it bad, don’t you?”

  “Is it that fucking obvious?” I asked as I scrubbed a hand down my face. “It’s bad East. I’m always worried about her. I keep trying to think of new and inventive ways to protect her. And she doesn't want any of that. She’s demanding her independence.”

  “And how are you dealing with her needing to be independent?”

  Terribly. “I’m not crowding her.”

  “Would she say you’re not crowding her?”

  I rubbed my jawline. “She doesn’t appreciate me trying to protect her.”

  He rubbed his jaw. “How does she feel about the house? Even better, how do you feel about the house?”

  I frowned. “Where are you going with this? The house is fine. It’s a house.”

  East laughed then. “Mate, it doesn’t escape our notice that you haven’t lived in Covington House since you built it, until Livy came along.”

  “I’ve been there.”

  “Yeah sure, you’ve been there, but you haven’t actually lived there since Lila.”

  I swallowed hard. “We’re not talking about her.”

  “You don’t have to talk to me, but you should probably talk to Liv about it, about her, the whole thing.”

  “Why do I have to talk to her about Lila?”

  “So she’ll know what the fuck happened. Mate, how are you so fucking smart and so dumb? You need to let her in. You’re into her. She settles you.”

  “You’ve got the wrong London Lord. You mean Bridge.”

  “No, I mean you. You’re clearly in love with her. It’s written all over you.”

  It felt like he was strangling me with the truth. “It’s not a love thing.”

  “Yeah, you can keep telling yourself that, but you’ve already proven that you will do anything to protect her, keep her safe, and that you’re willing to sacrifice on her behalf. You’re also showing your irrationality when it comes to things like talking to her about what she wants and how she’s feeling. Ben, speaking as someone who loves you, you can be a lot.”

  “I’m not a lot.”

  “I’m just saying you’ve got to consider how she feels about this whole thing. Her life has been taken over by
London Lords, by you. There’s no breathing room, man. So, obviously, we can’t offer breathing room right now, because her life is in danger. But maybe you should try to tell her that you understand how she must be feeling. Open up to her. If you don’t, she’ll bolt the moment she’s free.”

  My fists clenched at that. Fuck. He knew me too well. I didn’t like it one bit. “Is there any chance you’ll stop talking about this and leave me be?”

  He shook his head. “Nope. You’ve been running from yourself for a long damn time. Now there’s someone in your life who you can care about. Of course, you need to explore it.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You keep saying that. But if you don’t tell her that you love her, she won’t know. Then she’ll start making plans to be extra independent when this is all over. You love her, so tell her. If you want to keep her, hold on to her, be honest. You’re going to have to talk to her and tell her point blank.”

  “I just… I don’t want to think about what happens if she doesn’t love me enough. I’ll be gutted, mate.”

  “Well, man, that’s the thing about love, right? It’s a risk. And you’ve gone a long time without taking any risk. So you focused on the things you can do. Protect her, give her a job, and give her the fantastic lifestyle. But maybe ask what she wants because you don’t want to try to give her all of these things if she doesn’t want them.”

  “You been back at the head doc lately?”

  He shook his head. “I’ve been listening to Dr. Phil’s podcast.”

  I groaned. “That bloke?”

  “Hey,” he pointed at me, “to each their own. But talk to the woman. I like her for you. She keeps you on your toes.” With that, he pushed away from the desk and stood. Then I watched him walk out of my office.

  He was right. I was going to have to talk to her. And I wasn’t sure why, but that was somehow scarier than the idea of losing her entirely.

  Livy

  It had been three damn days since I’d heard from the charity board. The team was coming over for a meeting, and I had nothing to offer.