by Lexy Timms
Benny shook his head, ponderous and slow. Making a point at how little anything he could say now mattered. At least they were in accord there. His next words, though, were downright chilling. “Don’t know who you are, and I don’t care; I have other things to do. But I will tell you this, if you ever hurt that little girl I’ll be smiling at you while you lay dying in a pool of your own blood. I will see you scream. You understand that?”
Luke nodded, smiling. His smile was becoming more than a little strained. Benny’s hand gripped his shoulder, harder than a man his age ought to have been able to grab. “Larry!” Benny shouted, steering him toward the front door. “The good doctor’s car is all blocked in; make sure he’s able to leave as soon as possible.”
Benny let go of Luke only when they’d reached the front porch. He nodded once, his face falling into a neutral expression as he reached into his jacket. Luke held his breath. Benny’s boys tensed and hands covered their weapons. Benny slowly pulled out a cigar and bit off the end.
“Have a nice day, Doctor,” Benny said and walked into the house, closing the door firmly behind him.
“Time to go.” A tall man in a dark suit moved in next to him. A little too close. “Your car’s ready.”
Luke pulled out of the driveway, careful not to scrape anything.
He was home before it occurred to him to breathe.
Chapter Thirteen
Dani waited in the office for her uncle to come back. She wandered around, restless, anxious, finally settling at her father’s desk to get some sort of clue where the man could have gone. It didn’t take long to give up in frustration. She was so rarely in here, she wouldn’t have known if he had taken anything or not.
The best she could hope for was that he’d left some sort of note behind, explaining where he’d gone and why. Something obvious. Maybe a confession that he was guilt-ridden about trying to kill David…
She shook her head. That was too much. She didn’t like her father; he didn’t much care for her. But to believe he would threaten his own son was ridiculous. Even he wouldn’t stoop to something so heinous.
Would he?
She was rooting around in the desk, idly opening drawers, when something caught her eye. The floor of the office was covered in a thick luxurious carpeting, and her father’s chair sat on a plastic mat to make it possible for the chair to move around easily.
She’d moved the chair out of the way and turned on the desk light. The light caught the edge of the mat and a strange reflection caught her eye. The top drawer of the desk held the usual detritus: pens, pencils, thirty-two cents in loose change, rubber bands, paper clips…
But the reflection of the floor mat showed an irregular lump on the back wall of the drawer. Dani crawled under the desk and found something taped to the drawer.
Gotcha.
With a certain amount of delight at having found anything at all, she pulled on it till the tape gave way. Only a rattle at the door warned her that interruption was imminent.
Benny shouldn’t see this.
She jumped back out and was sitting on the chair as the door opened, the small object concealed in her hand.
“Uncle Benny,” she said, smiling as he came into the room, willing herself to look…well, normal. Or as normal as one could look under these circumstances.
Benny wasn’t smiling. He stood at the doorway watching her. “What’re you doing?”
Dani huffed and threw her empty hand in the air in frustration. “Trying to figure out what the hell is going on around here!” She sat back in the chair and palmed her prize. “Dad’s gone, someone’s trying to kill David…”
“Wait, what?” Benny closed the door behind him. They were alone and suddenly the room felt too small. Especially as Benny approached the desk. She had only a moment. Sitting behind the desk is supposed to make someone feel powerful, in charge. Dani felt trapped and small. She honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt either.
From what she’d heard, Uncle Benny had that effect on everyone. Just…never before on her.
She examined him as he approached. He wasn’t physically imposing, but his facial expression and demeanor were very intimidating. His eyes were dead-looking, flat and hollow. Dani stood and put her hands in the back pockets of her shorts, carefully dropping her discovery into the depths of the pocket on the left. She hadn’t had the chance to look at it, to see what it was, just a small plastic box of some sort.
“Did Dad’s therapist leave?” she asked, her tone as light as she could manage it, though even to her ears it fell flat.
“Yeah.” Benny nodded, but his gaze never wavered. “But he’s no therapist. He’s your boy toy.” A smile tried to cross Benny’s lips, but it looked out of place on him.
She looked away. Benny took it as assent and nodded. “I thought so.” He tsked a few times. “Ah, you’re growing up so fast… Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt him.” Benny’s eyes locked on her own. “Yet.”
Dani inhaled sharply.
“Only if he breaks your heart.” Benny’s lip curled. It might have been a smile. “Now tell me what you meant by someone wanting to kill your brother.” Benny motioned for her to sit in one of the armchairs opposite the desk, but Dani waved to the couch.
“Can we sit over there?” she asked, edging around the desk so that her back was never to him. “I never liked this office. I was only ever in here for punishment. I don’t want to sit there.” She kicked the chair gently, and very casually shoved one of the drawers shut as she passed.
“Wherever you want.” Benny was watching her, and Dani wished she hadn’t worn such tight shorts today. She was sure that the thing now in her back pocket, whatever it was, had caused a huge imprint and was obviously bulging over her derrière. She pictured it growing in size, until it was the size of her ass. Tearing the cloth and dropping to the floor behind her, giving away that she’d been trying to hide something from Uncle Benny.
And Uncle Benny wouldn’t like that, would he?
She swallowed tightly and walked carefully to the couch. Benny took the other end, not seeming to notice anything out of the ordinary at all. Though, with him, who really knew? Her father used to complain that playing poker with Benny was like handing him the numbers to your Swiss bank account.
Used to.
He’s not dead. He’s okay. Quit thinking like this.
“David didn’t tell you?” she asked, desperately needing to keep Benny distracted. Though, truth be told, she was more than a little surprised that he hadn’t known.
Hadn’t he?
She was distrusting everyone and everything at this point and not liking the tight way that made her feel all over.
Benny shook his head. “No. I think I want to hear it from you first, though. I can ask David later.”
Dani took a deep breath and told him about the note on David’s back, and her father’s dismissal of it as a school prank. If Benny agreed it was harmless or not, his expression betrayed nothing. When Dani got to the climb and the vandalism on the car, Benny sat up and began questioning her.
She told him who was there; he didn’t seem surprised that Luke had attended, and didn’t know the others. He seemed disgusted when Dani explained that Sam had spent most of the day drugged to the gills. It seemed a bit hypocritical given it was his organization that provided much of the drugs to the Gulf area in the first place.
Strangely, his questions seemed to revolve around Katie and her odd reactions. Even the simple fear of not wanting to rappel down the cliff face seemed to be laced with conspiracies and hidden meanings but, again, that basilisk gaze revealed nothing of the thought processes behind it.
“You called your father when you saw the marks on the car?” Benny asked as she got to the end of the story.
Dani nodded. She was so relieved to be taken seriously for David’s sake that she probably told him way more than she should have. His intensity here, though, was unsettling, and she started backtracking the conversati
on in her mind, wondering just what details she’d given away that she shouldn’t have.
“And he sent…” Benny floundered for the name, “what’s his name…”
“Marcus?” Dani guessed.
“That’s him.” Benny nodded, his lip curling up in distaste. “Not someone I would want to guard my back. How long has he worked for your father?”
“I’m not sure.” Dani leaned back against the couch cushions and tried to think this through. She’d been gone so long, and there had been such limited contact with anyone back home. David hadn’t mentioned anything about Marcus that she could remember but, then, he’d also been away at school.
Benny waved it off. “No matter. Anything else?”
The item she had concealed? The fact that Luke wasn’t who he said he was? Dani shook her head. “No.”
“All right.” Benny stood and waited.
Dani got to her feet and remembered the small bulge in her hip pocket almost belatedly. She fussed at replacing the pillow on the couch, moving carefully to keep her hip out of his direct line of sight.
“You let me know the instant that something like this happens again,” he said as she straightened. He looked at her from under bushy eyebrows, and Dani had the strange thought that he was trying to be supportive. It didn’t work on his face any more than the smile had.
Dani had been dismissed and had no choice but to turn around and walk away. The bulge in her pocket had taken on huge proportions in her mind and she was sure he would spot it. The thought of good ol’ Uncle Benny checking out her ass was a bit nauseating, but most men did.
She swallowed hard though her mouth was dry, and turned to leave. She was at the door when Benny called out.
“Just a minute, young lady.”
Dani turned, frozen in place, her heart beating savagely in her chest.
Benny’s hand reached inside of his jacket where a shoulder holster would be. She could see the leather strap of one across his shirt as the jacket opened up.
She was too far away to attack him before he drew, there was nothing close enough to hide behind that would stop a bullet. Dani’s heart skipped a beat.
“I had one of the boys get you that $100 Grand I owed you.”
He pulled out a candy bar, the wrapper a garish red that caught the light when he tossed it to her.
“I remember when you were a little girl,” Benny said. “It was your favorite game to play with me. You love those $100 Grand bars.”
Dani smiled and tried not to wet herself. “Thank you, Uncle Benny.” She was clutching the candy bar so hard it was a wonder she hadn’t already melted the thing in her hand.
“I see you’re not too old to play games, eh?”
Dani tried to figure out if that was teasing or a threat. She smiled. “I guess not.” She hesitated a moment. “Uncle Benny,” she said slowly, a plan of desperation coming to her as she spoke, “the young man who was here, Luke…”
Benny nodded, his smile gone.
“I was… planning on seeing him tonight,” she said lamely. “Can you ask your men to move their cars so I can get mine out?”
Benny looked at her for a long moment. “Tell you what,” he said. “I’ll have them drive you there in the limo.”
“I really don’t want to—”
“I insist,” Benny overrode her. “Besides, I’ll be staying for a little while, to help David find your father and to help him get settled in. He’s going to need some help if he’s going to be running Markland all by himself.”
Dani’s knees weakened. “Thank you, Uncle Benny,” she whispered.
Chapter Fourteen
“Randy, I’m not kidding. The man was holding my hand. Yes, I’m positive it was Benny Bianchi.” Luke paced around his apartment impatiently. Angry. Though, truth be told, he wasn’t sure who he was so angry at. Mostly himself. He should have guessed this could happen. He’d gotten in too close. Had allowed himself to be distracted. All that damn do-gooding with Katie had thrown him off.
Yeah, like Dani hadn’t gotten him so twisted around that he couldn’t tell up from down anymore.
Randy wasn’t usually at a loss for words. “She called him Uncle Benny?”
“Yeah. She asked him for $100-grand. Said something about it being a tradition.”
There was a brief silence while he digested it. “Did she get it?”
“He said next time. That she was too old for such things.”
“Heaven help me from ever being too old for $100,000. Did he make you?”
Luke threw himself down onto the couch, one hand shoving through his hair in frustration. “I think she did, but she told him I was her old man’s therapist.”
“Therapist! That’s a good one. I would say more like a priest, trying to get the confession.”
“Ha-ha. The guy threatened me. It’s hardly funny, Randy.”
“Benny?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you sure he didn’t know who you were? Why would he threaten you?”
Luke sighed. “He warned me not to break her heart.”
“From what you’ve been telling me, putting her old man away wouldn’t really upset her,” Randy said after a minute. “But if she’s dirty, too…”
“I don’t think she is.” Freakin’ A, don’t let her be—
As if able to read his thoughts, Randy’s voice took on a hard edge. “Listen, your girlfriend has a blind spot where her brother’s concerned, so don’t go getting one about her. Keep your head in your mission. Don’t get too close.”
You mean like fucking her? Too late.
“I’m not getting too close, for shit’s sake. Right now, though, I’m in further than we’ve ever had anyone.” At least he thought he was. Who could even say anymore? That last little bombshell she’d been about to drop… if it was what he thought it was…
“I know.” There was a pause, a hesitation as Randy thought this through. “I still don’t like that Benny threatened you personally. I think you’re in too deep. Tell me, do you want to come out?”
“No.” Luke said it too quickly. Like Randy wasn’t making note of that right now, wouldn’t tell his superiors. He’d be pulled off by morning if he kept that up. “Listen, it would take a long time to get someone else into the family. Hell, I’m even allowed in the house without a leash. You may never get that again.”
“We’re better than you think, you know. You’re not the only hot-shot genius here.”
“No!” Luke said, and held the phone away from him for a while until Randy spun himself out. “I know, I know. I don’t mean that I’m better than you or anyone else. But I’m already here. You don’t want to start over. It took months for me to reach this point.”
The doorbell buzzed.
“Randy, I have to go, someone’s here.”
“It’s late,” Randy said. “I was going to bust you for waking me as it is. I don’t like this. What kind of asshole would call at this time of night?”
“Thanks.” Luke moved across the room, and stared through the peephole of his door. “It’s legit. Nothing to worry about. Gotta go. ‘Bye.” He hit DISCONNECT on his phone, not doubting for a second that Randy had eyes on the place and knew precisely who was at his door despite all his protests. Randy was damn good at his job. It’s why he’d been assigned as Luke’s handler.
In the meantime, Luke needed to play the analyst. Or whatever the hell Dani thought he was. He kicked the dirty laundry that dotted the living room into the hall closet and opened the door.
He probably should have changed. Threadbare pajamas certainly weren’t the height of sexy. At the least he could’ve grabbed a shirt but figured, since she’d flashed him, why the hell? Besides, she’d seen him with less on than this.
Dani stood in the hallway, her face an interesting mixture of condemnation and hope. She was still wearing the shorts and t-shirt she’d worn while climbing. She looked absolutely beat. And beautiful. “You’re a cop.”
“And you’re a sold
ier,” he said, leaning against the doorframe, crossing his arms. Maybe he could have denied it, continued to play the game, but she already knew better and, frankly, this was Dani. Something in that steel-gray gaze of hers, the way she stared him down, the way she dared him to let him down had struck a chord within him. Despite all his training, he vowed he was done with deception and lies. At least in regard her.
“Can I come in?”
Luke turned and retreated into his apartment, leaving it up to her if she wanted to close the door. She did. “Who are you after? David?
“Did David do something I need to worry about?”
“You know he didn’t.”
“Then I have no need to catch him.” He brushed past her, heading for the kitchen. “Care for a drink? Non-alcoholic.”
Dani thought for a moment and nodded. She took a seat on the couch Luke had so recently vacated without being asked. She didn’t even flinch when a bit of stuffing escaped through the torn cushion and drifted to the floor like snow.
He should have been embarrassed, but why the hell should he care anymore? No one had thought any of the primary targets would ever show up his apartment. It was a local address where he could sleep, furnished by the nearby thrift store. Had anyone realized he’d be getting intimate with the daughter of the prime suspect, they’d probably have paid for some window dressing.
They’d also have bugged the place.
If they hadn’t already.
“Why did you fuck me?” she called as he crossed over to the cupboard, just out of her line of sight. He turned and leaned back to look at her. Her eyes were suspiciously bright, but she met his gaze without flinching. “At the party, in the conference room. Was that to get closer to David, or to my father?”
He didn’t answer right away, but instead took his time finding two glasses and pouring some juice from the fridge. “Does it occur to you?” he asked as he came back into the room and handed her one of the glasses, “that maybe I wanted to get closer to you?” He sat on the edge of the couch, there being a distinct lack of other chairs, and hitched up his pajamas which were riding dangerously low. “Don’t give me that sour face; I didn’t even know it was you.”
