CHAPTER 25
Ben
I let her go because it hurt too much to hold onto her anymore. I fear she will get herself killed, and I won’t be able to stop myself from seeking revenge, even if it was Titus that did it. I see her most days, but I keep my distance so I won’t reach out for her. The only thing worse is Jolie. She is so excited by our break up, feeling as though she has a chance to get back into my bed. And now that she knows I’m taking over for Titus, she is all the more persistent. The announcement was made amongst the leaders only. Word will surely spread, but I am not anxious to help it along. There are a select few who are not at all happy about the transition. Nathan is hoping he can change Titus’s mind before it’s too late. Titus promised him he would be safe, and he made me promise to his face. I don’t think he believed me, maybe because I wasn’t sincere. Surprisingly, Titus, of all people, hasn’t been joyful about my heartbreak. He almost seems sympathetic.
“You know, when I met your mother, I thought there would be no one else. Stupid love. I was in stupid love. She was smarter and knew better. It just took me longer to understand.”
“Are you trying to pretend to give a shit about me?”
“I don’t want what happened to be the cause of unnecessary pain.”
“She didn’t break up with me, Titus. I broke it off with her. I am not going to sentence anyone to this life without their clear willingness to do so.”
“Maybe if you told her your new status, your new power, she would be more willing.”
“She’s not Jolie, Titus. She doesn’t care about any of that, if anything, it would only make her less willing.”
“Contrary to what you may think, Benjamin, people can be persuaded to think differently than they do.”
I look around, trying to understand the insanity that this man portrays. “Do you really think people just decide one day they are going to love someone or not love someone? You may change what people say or do, but it doesn’t change how they truly feel.”
“What’s the difference?”
“The difference is clearly you and me. That’s the difference.” After the conversation, I avoid discussing anything outside of business with the man whenever possible.
As far as Nathan, his days are numbered, I can’t trust anything he says or does. As each day passes, he’s only becoming more desperate. Titus keeps him alive because he provokes fear in his enemies, and keeps them in line. That’s the way Titus runs things, that’s not the way I will run things. Nathan knows as soon as I have a say, he’s dead. He dares me to come after him, but his cold nature makes me believe he wants it too much. I refuse to deal with crazy. He and Jolie would make the perfect couple. Everyone else treats me like I am going to explode any second. Egg shells all around me, and no one wants to be the first to break them. Even Luca has been overly nice and concerned. He stayed at my place the last few nights. I don’t know why, but he seems to think he can find a way to cheer me up.
His latest attempt is to have a guy’s night. He hopes I can meet someone that will interest me enough to get laid. I have avoided his offer for a night out until I had to spend the day working with Laila. There was no one else to work a key meeting but us. No one else could handle the challenge safely. She’s an amazing shot and even more amazing fighter. In the end, she complimented me well in the task, and I couldn’t help myself. I was happy for a moment, and I needed to make her laugh and be happy with me. Her eyes smile beautifully at me, weakening my resolve.
“I know we are not—together—anymore, but if you’re interested, the guys and I are going out tomorrow night. I think we all need to let off a little steam. I don’t want you to feel like you aren’t still a part of the group, and I know everyone would love for you to be there. I promise I won’t let you get drunk and take advantage of me.”
She laughs, reaching out to touch me but stopping short with an unstable hand. “No, I can’t. Thank you though. Next time for sure. I promised Henry I would help him put up some shelves in his work room. He’s wanting to retire, and for some reason, he thinks that’s going to make him some kind of carpenter. The man has never even seen a saw before.”
“Okay, I understand. If you change your mind though, let me know.” I drop her off at her Henry’s, taking a few moments to see Harrison before heading home and drinking myself into a dark night.
The guys meet me at the bar, and the only rule of the night is no talk about relationships, Laila, or women at all. They’re all acting stupid and fun as hell. It’s karaoke night, and everyone knows I like to put on a show. I had a band back in high school and thought I was the next big thing in my leather pants and no shirt. Then, reality hit, and I realized I needed to make a living sooner rather than later. Nonetheless, I still enjoy the show, and the boys enjoy encouraging me. I have a great time, until she walks in with him.
I haven’t liked Daisy since the first time I met him, and I like him even less now. We are tucked away in a private section of the bar, a perk of owning the place. Luca and I own the bar together, and we help make it money, which also makes Titus money in the viscous circle that this world works in. He owns everything in one way or another. In this case, he owns the building the bar rents from. No one would really know that on their own, and Laila wouldn’t know that unless she asked, but pretty boy should know because he tried to buy the bar when we did. We battled it out to the bitter end. The building suddenly sold, and the owner refused to allow the bar if Shepherd was the tenant.
As much as I hate the guy, we do seem to have similar tastes in the finer things. He could have easily opened his lounge in another part of town, but this building is what makes it. It provides the atmosphere and ideal location. It’s a perfect setting to relax and get away from your troubles for a brief time. Daisy tried to get the police involved—his friend Henry involved. He even tried to sue us which didn’t get far. Titus likes challenges, but he doesn’t care for pests who stick around simply to annoy. He finally gave up, but not without swearing that he would do everything he could to ruin the business. I had forgotten about the fuck until Laila introduced us again. I can’t imagine why he would bring her here, unless he did it on purpose. I am sure he did. He holds a grudge better than Titus. I glance over at Luca who follows my eyes and sighs back into his chair.
“It’s my fault, Ben. I ran into him the other day, and I bragged that we were celebrating tonight at the club. He was being smug about your breakup, and I wanted to shut him up. I had no idea he would bring her here. He’s such a prick.”
“You know, I asked her what she was doing tonight, and she said she was putting up shelves with Henry. I told her if she changed her mind she was more than welcome to come out with us.”
“Ben, what the fuck? How the hell does that help you get over her?”
“Clearly, it doesn’t matter because she turned me down to be with that fuck.”
“Ben.”
“What? I’m good, Luca. I mean, if she wants to do boring then, by all means, she should stick to Daisy.” Before I wallow deeper in my sad story, the hot girl in a barely there outfit comes out with a lit up cake. She sings her best version of Marilyn’s birthday song. It’s hot, and I love every second, but I still can’t take my eyes or mind off Laila who now realizes I’m here. At least she didn’t come here on purpose like Daisy did. Still, those shelves must have went up real quick. Everyone’s focus is on me, including Laila who I give a wink to before blowing out my candles. It must have pissed Daisy off because he grabs her hand and takes her on stage to sing a song, which she clearly doesn’t want to do. He takes it upon himself to sing some ridiculous song to her, getting a few women screaming for him and Laila trying to pull away into a dark corner. Watching him with her, holding her and knowing he has a chance for a future with her, I want to put him in his place. He’s purposely rubbing it in my face, and I’m tired of his shit.
“Oh fuck, Ben,” Luca sighs, taking his time to look at me. I wait for it, and he finally waves me on. “Y
eah, go ahead. You gotta do it.”
“Thank you.” I stand up, making my way through the crowd and taking hold of Laila’s hand. I faintly hear her call my name, but I ignore her and continue on. The music hits the speakers, and the people scream, ready to sing along. I belt out the lyrics of “Mustang Sally”, the perfect song for her. It’s easy for me to be on stage and more than gratifying to watch Daisy’s face contort into all sorts of rage. He’s pissed and ready to kill me the moment I step off stage. I don’t care. Women are screaming and clawing at me, Luca has his head in his hands, Daisy is ready to kill me, and Laila—breaks my heart when she looks up at me as if I just crushed hers. I wasn’t expecting that. She runs out of the bar, and I chase after her, having to run to catch up to her. “Laila!”
“Leave me alone, Ben.” I manage to get a hold of her and stop her. “What are you trying to prove?”
“What are you doing here? Don’t you have shelves to put up? Or are you too busy moving on?”
“He is an old friend.”
“Heard that one before. I also remember you telling me that you’ve been in love with him since you were a kid. And then you weren’t anymore. So what’s the story now?” Before she can answer, Daisy jumps between us and pumps his chest out at me.
“I don’t care who you are. I won’t let you touch her. She deserves better.”
“Oh yeah? And is that you, Daisy?”
He laughs. “You know, you will never understand what it means to be able to provide a real life for someone. A life that doesn’t include being shot at on a daily basis.”
“You’re out on one date, and you are already planning your future together? Have you asked her what she wants?”
“I don’t have to. Now leave her alone.”
I look around him to stare into her eyes, holding onto my anger and ending my feelings for her for good. “She’s all yours! And don’t ever come back to my bar again, either of you.”
CHAPTER 26
Laila
Every second of free time I have, I spend at Mika’s side, looking through all the information he has managed to download. We find a ton of evidence to destroy Titus. It’s a shame none of it was obtained legally.
“Laila?” I look up from my pile of paperwork as Mika bounces in his seat.
“Did you find him?”
“No, not yet, but I did find something very interesting. Very interesting.”
“Mika, we are here to do one thing. I don’t want to get into anything else at this point. I just want to do this and be done.”
“Okay. But?”
“No.”
“But Laila, I found the access point for all of Titus’s accounts.”
“His money?”
“Yeah, it’s locked in here with total access if only—never mind. You don’t want to know about anything else.” He turns around, purposely putting me in suspense.
I ignore him for as long as I can, and those two minutes felt like forever. “If only what?”
He slowly turns around with a smile so wide I am pretty sure it wrapped around his head twice. “If only we could figure out the passcode. I tried to run my program through and get it, but the best I can do without anyone noticing is find the passcode clue. And all it said was, ‘My heart’.”
“Well, forget it. We are never going to figure that out. Titus doesn’t have a heart.”
“But, I got us ninety percent there! If we could figure that out we could …”
“Mika, the man doesn’t love anything other than himself and his money.”
“I tried all of that.” I roll my eyes. “I meant I tried all that during my break.”
“You don’t have any breaks, Mika. You are not Dave at State Farm. You are Mika at stealing and swindling where the medical plan sucks and there is no 401k.”
“Fine. If you want to be poor forever, then I’ll forget it.”
“If we steal from Titus, we might as well go ahead and dig our own graves. Titus would come after us with everything he had.”
“Fine. You should also know that Titus just sent out a message to a ghost. He wants him to watch one of his key men, ‘his highest of men’ as he put it. There is only a code for him, Legion, no name. He says Legion has caused too many problems for him to continue and ‘is a mistake the future of the organization can’t risk’. The ghost has orders to kill the first chance he gets without issue or unwanted investigation. Do you know who that might be?” My immediate thought goes to Ben. He’s in trouble and seemingly no longer the favorite.
I wake up in the middle of the night to an alert from Nathan.
All security to report in immediately.
I rush to Titus’s estate, unsure what to expect. Everyone is tense. I begin to wonder if someone didn’t die. I walk towards our team meeting room as Titus’s office door swings open.
Ben steps one foot out. “I don’t care what you want. I’m not doing it.”
Titus boils over, chasing Ben out of his office door with his finger in his face. “Benjamin! Do you want to die?”
“I can think of worse things,” Ben yells back with finality.
“That’s it! Nathan, you handle it. We don’t need him anymore.” Titus nods to Nathan who follows with a tone of victory in his swagger.
Nathan downloads the details of Titus’s latest deal gone bad, extremely bad. Titus’s accountant and money man was assassinated and left on Titus’s lawn. I have a feeling Nathan wants a war, that’s where he shines and Ben doesn’t. To make Titus proud, Nathan sets up a meeting with a key ally that could help end this war before it ever gets started.
We all pile into cars to keep Titus surrounded and protected. Pulling up on the deserted district, we park a distance from the warehouse where Nathan orders us into teams of two. There are twelve of us, and six of us are sent ahead to scout the place. Luca and I are teamed together, Gus with Mateo, and Ben is partnered with the new guy, Goodman, who is shaking like a leaf. Ever since he won Kian’s old spot, everyone has questioned how he got in. There was no interview process. His skills are unproven, and from the looks of him, I doubt he could protect himself from a mugger. I can’t imagine trusting him with skilled attackers. Gus immediately suggests he go with Ben instead of Goodman. Josiah attempts to take Gus’s place, believing everyone is in agreement to keep the newbie out of this one, but Nathan pushes him back.
“No. Ben can handle himself, and he will be a good teacher for our newbie.” Titus agrees with a hesitant nod, and Nathan is set up to direct us from his perch near Titus, his ever-devoted mentor. Each group takes a different entrance and patrols for any surprises. Luca follows me in, and we both take a sideways glance towards Ben and Goodman. He’s as worried as I am.
“Just go, Laila. Ben can handle himself.” I move forward and open the door, checking every corner with Luca following closely behind. There is something eerily wrong with this place. I don’t understand why we are here, why Titus would even agree to this?
“Luca, what is going on here?”
“No clue, but Titus has been overly paranoid lately.” Titus’s success has been primarily because of his ability to sense when things are about to go wrong. In the process, innocent people get killed while he looks for the issues and puts a stop to them. “I hate this. I hate everything about this.” Luca pauses when we hear a voice in the distance. “Goodman.” I nod. He’s panicking, and Ben is doing his best to keep him calm before he gets us all killed, but maybe that’s what Titus really wants. The six that came in, outside of Goodman, are the most loyal to Ben. I catch sight of Ben moving down the stairs to the basement with Goodman following and ready to shoot anything that moves.
“I don’t see anything Luca, but I still have a bad feeling.”
“Yeah, me too.” We both stop, and look at everything around us.
“There has to be something we aren’t seeing, something that doesn’t fit.” I start piecing the puzzle together. How does this place work? What is needed and where? I quickly go through the
whole process, eliminating every fraction of equipment, and that’s when I see it—areas strung off, not roped off, with thin, barely noticeable wires. I have seen them before. I was trained to look for them, and my body instantly reacts. I grab hold of Luca’s arm and push him back towards the door we came in and scream, “Bomb!” I push Luca out and away from the building, keeping him from looking back for Ben. We don’t have time. I know Ben can get out. I know he can. We almost make it back to the others when the building explodes, launching us into the air. We crash onto the broken, scorching pavement. Flaming shrapnel falls all around us, threatening to finish us off. My ears are drumming when I look up and check on Luca. He sits up, making eye contact with a nod. Gus and Mateo crawl out right behind us and are slowly dusting themselves off when we are all pulled out of harm’s way. The only ones I don’t see are Ben and Goodman. The rest of the team guards us as we wait and search every possible exit for them to come out of.
Titus steps out of the car, moves towards the building, and then eyes Nathan. Before we are even able to comprehend, Nathan announces, “Let’s go. Titus is in danger.”
Everything in me comes undone, and I run after Titus full force. “You son of a bitch! You set him up!” I run over top of Nathan easily, but Gus, Luca, and Kenny grab me and pull me back as my hand grazes Titus’s neck, drawing blood with the chain I rip from his freshly powdered skin. Eyeing him with intent to do deadly harm, I don’t break my stance as he stares at me, breathless. I had him. I had him. And he knows it.
“Laila, calm down. Calm down,” Luca whispers as Gus holds out his hands, smiling and trying to make a joke of my action.
“We are all good. No problems here. Right?” Nathan jumps up off his ass that I put him on in my rage. He takes out his gun and aims at my head. “Whoa, come on. The explosion messed with her head. No reason to take it out on one of your best people.”