I’ve done a walk through of the parking lot, there were only three cars, and every plate is from Maine. With my Malibu in the far back of the lot, Katy and I have the perfect place to scope out cars driving in or out. If Benny’s here, I’ll find him.
This is important. Katy is right. I’m going to wait out Benny and then walk up to him and shove his note in his chest. When he’s startled and off his game, I’ll look him right in the eye and say, “I don’t have the diamonds so get the hell out of my town.” It’s a great plan. Katy’s a genius.
“So what’s the plan?” Katy asks leaning over to turn down the radio.
My favorite Radiohead song ends and I turn my head with a scrunched face in question. “What do you mean? This whole stakeout is your plan. Don’t you remember the whole ‘imagine this’ talk?”
“What, you listened to that?”
I sigh and turn the radio station finding one with music that isn’t country. My heart flutters, but not in the good way. In the oh shit nervous way. What if this is one of those crazy Katy plans Ridge warned me about?
Oh well, we’re here now. And it’s not such a bad plan. It could work. “We do the stakeout, figure out what room Benny’s in, I knock on the door and tell him off while you wait in the car.” I run through our third variation of the plan again.
“Why do I have to stay here?”
Because if Benny makes any mention of missing diamonds I’ll have a lot of explaining to do.
And Benny likes blondes.
“It’s a quick in and out job. I throw the note at him, say my piece and leave. I won’t step foot in his room. There’s no reason for you to get out in the cold.”
“Right, it’s a genius plan.” Katy turns the radio back up, but two songs later she reaches over to lower it again. “I’m bored. How long will we wait?”
“It’s only been forty-five minutes.” Even if every minute we wait I lose more of my bravado. “We’ll give it another fifteen.”
There’s a knock on my car window and I freeze, my eyes widening at Katy.
“Um….” Her sentence trails off.
I turn to the window and cringe at the person on the other side. Change of plans. We don’t need to wait another fifteen minutes.
“What are you going to do?” Katy slaps me on the arm.
“Get out of the car, Tabby.” Benny knocks on the window, but the three taps come harder this time.
There’s matching knocks on Katy’s window. A big burly guy I’ve never set my eyes on before blocks her doorway. He peeks into the window, a dark smile on his face as he grins at me through the glass.
And we’re surrounded.
I roll down the window and put on my best unaffected face. We’re totally here to meet friends for dinner, not waiting for him.
“Benny?” I stop the window half-way down and whisper out the open part. He can’t pull me through the crack. I’m too big. Thank you, extra doughnuts.
“Get out.” Benny sticks his hand through the open window and pops the car lock. “Your friend stays. Larenzo can watch over her.”
“I don’t like that idea.” I shake my head.
“She stays here with Larenzo or she comes up with us, but you’re getting out of the car.” Benny opens the car door, my seat belt pulling on my chest. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Tabitha!” Katy yells right as Benny reaches in and grabs my upper arm.
The last thing I need is Katy getting herself involved. Well more involved than I’ve already let her. “It’ll be fine.” I roll my eyes at her in hopes she’ll think I’m not scared. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
Benny jerks me from the car and I work to gain my balance in the parking lot as he pulls me along.
“I see you brought me a gift,” Benny sneers.
“What?”
“You’re little blonde friend.”
I freeze and he’s forced to tug roughly on my arm to get me walking again. “I swear to god, Benny. Don’t touch her.”
We turn the corner and Benny slams me into the side of the bed and breakfast, the vinyl siding cutting into my back. “Listen here, bitch, you are in no position to tell me what to do. I make the rules around here.”
Benny kicks open a back door to Clara’s and pushes me through a short wallpapered hallway. He stops at a door with a number six and Victorian looking flowers painted on it.
I’ve let him pull me this far, but I promised Katy I wouldn’t enter his room so I lock my knees at the threshold. My hands hold on to the door frame for dear life.
“Get your ass in the room. We’re gonna have ourselves a nice little chat.”
Yeah right. “No.”
“Get in the fucking room or I will kill your ass in this fucking hallway.” He reaches behind him and reveals a black shiny gun from somewhere behind him.
I step into the room, but turn and walk backward the next few steps never taking my eyes off the gun in Benny’s hand. It almost doesn’t look real. I’ve never been a big gun person, but in movies and on TV they’re always more… ominous. Benny’s is plastic, a toy. Although, I’m not willing to piss him off and find out if it shoots real bullets.
“Benny…” I plead but realize I’m not sure what you say to calm down a homicidal maniac.
He waves the gun around, pointing it to one of the twin sized beds in the room. “Sit.”
I do. The man’s carrying a gun. Now is not the time to question him. I stare up at Benny, but my mind is everywhere. Does Mario know Benny is walking around with a gun? How did he get it on the plane?
“Why the fuck are you here, Tabby? Did you bring me my diamonds?”
“I thought they were Mario’s diamonds?” The words slip past my lips and I hurry to cover my mouth with a shaking hand. Bad Tabitha. You do not argue with the guy holding a gun. What has gotten into me?
From the narrowing of his eyes, Benny isn’t amused. “This place has not been good for your personality, Bella.”
He uses the nickname Mario liked when he was trying to sweet talk me and I cringe. In the past earning those words from Mario was a thrill, now I hope to never hear them again. And definitely never from Benny.
“The diamonds. You must have them on you.”
“I told you. There are no diamonds, Benny.”
“If you don’t have the goods then why the fuck are you here?”
“I… um…” Katy’s whole “imagine this” plan doesn’t sound so smart now. “I brought back your note.” I reach into my back pocket and pull out his card. Two purple fingerprints are now permanently on the top.
He rips the note from my hands. “You think this is a game. Am I laughing?”
“No.” I slip back on the bed until my knees hit the edge.
With a twist of his hand, Benny raises the gun and presses it into my temple, my head bobs back and forth with the force. Oh god. My stomach drops as I fight back the vomit in my throat with a few deep breaths.
“Mario is going to get on a plane. I don’t want that. Do you?” he asks pressing the gun into my temple harder. “Give me the fucking diamonds!”
“Benny, I swear to you. I don’t have any diamonds.” Tears well up, but I refuse to blink and shed them.
My distress doesn’t faze him. “I should shoot you now. It’s better than Mario killing us both when he gets here.”
I gasp. Mario isn’t a killer.
“Stop fucking crying. It’s the last thing I need.” He digs the end of the gun into my temple and my head leans sideways with his erratic movements. “If this is some sad attempt for you to get attention from Mario and you think he’ll come here and win you back, you are a sadly mistaken.”
“What?”
“Are you looking for attention, Tabby? Get a little jealous when Mario fucked Lotti?” He steps back from the bed and takes the gun with him, my head bouncing back up with the release of pressure. “Stand up.”
“Benny, I promise I don’t have anything. It’s not a game. I
swear. Mario can have Lotti.” I’m crying in earnest now, the words said in between sniffles. I stand, my body shaking, a hand on the bed to keep myself steady.
“Step over there and spread your legs.” Benny points to a corner of the small room with his gun.
I’d thought I couldn’t get sicker, but my stomach seizes and the vomit rises in my throat until I’m forced to swallow it back. “You don’t have to do this.”
Benny stands behind me. The hand not carrying the gun rests on my hip, his touch like a thousand ugly worms crawling over my body. “Oh, but Tabitha, that’s where you’re wrong. I very much have to do this. Over there.”
With three uneasy steps I tread to the desk, my legs threatening to give out each time my foot shuffles against the floor.
“Next to the desk.”
I do what he says, holding on to the back of the wooden chair to keep myself standing. Still stationed at my back, he reaches behind me, cupping each of my breasts one at a time.
“Bend over the desk and spread your legs.”
My body quivers and the room darkens around me as my vision flashes in and out. “Benny, please don’t do this. Please.”
He slips his hand down my left leg circling my ankle then on the other side when he comes up again. “You think I’d touch you? You are a stupid bitch.” The gun bites into the middle of my back. “You belong to Mario until he says he’s done with you. And he isn’t done with you yet.”
Benny slides his hand down my right leg in the same movements he used on the left. His hand moves to my butt when he finishes and I realize he’s patting me down. I’m still clenched tightly as I stand at the desk letting him feel me up, but I release the breath I’d been holding allowing fresh oxygen into my lungs.
“You’re clean,” he says.
Even if I had known about the pat down, I wouldn’t have worried. The thumb drive is safely stashed in my glove box and the money is hidden in my house. Who the fuck knows where these diamonds are. “Turn.”
I do as he says and wipe the tears from under my eyes.
“I don’t know what fucking game you’re playing, Tabitha, but I swear to god when this is over you will find yourself in a shallow grave outside of town.”
My emotions well up again. My body shakes, but I don’t cry, too overwhelmed and numb from everything tonight.
“What am I going to do with you?” he asks waving the gun around.
My gun knowledge is next to nothing, but I say a silent prayer he has the safety locked. “Benny, I swear — “
“Don’t tell me you don’t have them, Tabby. One of these times I’ll believe you and then there’s nothing to stop me from blowing your fucking brains out.”
I wrap my arms around myself resisting the urge to continue pleading with him over diamonds I don’t have. I fear his belief I have the diamonds is the one thing keeping me alive.
“What am I going to do with you?” Benny leans next to me, the gun pointed at my chest. “You’ve become an inconvenience.”
“I’m sorry,” I squeak.
“Get your shit together and find me my fucking diamonds.” He flicks the end of his gun toward the room door. “Get the fuck out of my sight and I better not see you here again until you have what I’m looking for, Tabitha. I don’t know where you stashed them, but you have until tomorrow morning to get me my million dollars.”
My eyes widen and I stop breathing. “I can’t… tomorrow morning.”
“My patience has worn thin. Be here by eight tomorrow morning or I’ll come looking for you.”
I believe every word Benny says. His actions prove he’s serious. I’m stymied by the fact I could be around this man for four years and never see him act so cold. It was better being delusional.
“I need more time.”
Benny’s eyes light up and my tummy falls when I realize I’ve made the biggest mistake of my life.
“How much time?” he asks, stalking to the nightstand next to the bed.
I’ve started down this path I can’t stop now. “A few days.”
“No time, Tabitha. You ran out of ‘a few days’ a few days ago. I gave you that much because I used to like you. Anyone else would be fish food by now.”
The situation is so fucked up I almost say thanks. “I have to go get them.”
“Fine. Take me with you. We’ll go get them together. Right now.”
“They’re with someone and I can’t get them unless I go alone.” The lies continue to flow. I’m not putting any thought into them. It’s pure survival instincts.
“Who? Your new little boyfriend? The one who thinks he’s a big bad Rambo?”
How does he know about Ridge? “No.”
He squints at me coming to stand inches from my face, the garlic on his breath pungent. “I don’t believe you.”
That makes two of us.
He lowers the gun and steps back giving me an inch of breathing room. “Fine.”
“Fine?” His easy agreement makes me more nervous.
“You don’t have them at the house.” He pauses for a moment as if gathering his thoughts. “Believe it or not I liked you, Tabby. You were good for Mario — kept him calm. Not now of course, but you were useful for a while. Against my better judgment I’ll let you do this on your own. I don’t think you’re stupid enough to con me. How far do you have to drive?”
Far. Like to a diamond mine. “I need to set up a meeting.”
He glares at me as I do my best to stop sniffling. If this is how he treats someone he likes, I’d hate to be on his bad side.
Benny laughs, but there’s no humor in it. “Fine. We’ll play your little game. I’m interested to see where you plan to take it. The end is the same for me regardless. Now get the fuck out of my room.” He jerks his chin to the door like I need a reminder of the exit.
I sprint for it, stopping long enough to turn the knob when his words cut across the room.
“I’ll be watching, Tabitha, and if you’re fucking with me, I will kill you. Slowly.”
I nod back into the room and close the door behind me. Racing down the hallway, I hit the exit door and keep running. At the edge of the building I slow to a fast walk, not willing to slow down more but also not wanting to scare Katy by acting like I’m running for my life. Even if I am.
Larenzo stands guard at Katy’s door. I pass over the hood and he steps back. “Did you and Benny have a nice talk?” He chuckles.
Without a response I throw myself into the seat, put the car in drive, and somehow maintain the twenty-five mile an hour speed limit on the way home.
“What the fuck was that, Tabs? Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I try to lie, but the quiver in my voice gives me away.
“Was that your ex-boyfriend?”
“Him? Hell no. A guy who works for him.” And apparently the one Mario calls when he needs his ex-girlfriend threatened.
“Did you tell him to leave you alone?”
“Oh… yeah, we talked.” I turn onto my street and with shaky hands pull into my driveway. It’s time to tell Ridge the truth.
“Damn, Tabitha. Your light bill will be astronomical.”
I stick the car in park and check to see what she’s going on about. Light pours from every window in the house, the front porch, and even the small circular window for the attic space.
My mouth falls open. “I didn’t leave any lights on.”
Oh shit.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Katy shuts her car door sealing us off from the world and whatever is in my house. “It’s possible Ridge stopped by.”
Yeah, sure. If Ridge stopped over and turned on every light. One brush of my eyes at his house confirms my suspicious. There’s no truck in his driveway and the house is dark.
“What are you going to do?” she asks.
“Me? You’re the girl with the plans.”
Katy turns, her eyes squinty in thought. She flicks her head to the house and then back to me. My stomach curls from all her
sudden movements, but if I didn’t lose my dinner on Benny’s shoes I’ll handle this.
Eyeing the house, she says, “Okay, here’s the plan. We’ll sneak around back and peek in.”
That’s it? “Can’t we call the police now and let them handle it?”
“Sure, but then if it is nothing at all, the whole town will consider you the girl who calls police when she leaves the lights on.”
But I didn’t leave any lights on.
“It could be a raccoon,” her voice skips on each word overly happy about her new idea.
“You mean a raccoon with a key and apposable thumbs?”
“Err. Okay let’s go.” She opens her door waiting for me with one foot on the ground.
I grab on to her upper arm and stop her. “Wait. What are we doing?”
“The whole sneak around and peek in plan.”
“Oh.” I’m not one hundred percent on board with Katy’s new plan, but it’s better than mine — hiding out in the car for the rest of my life.
“Come on.” Katy hauls her way out and closes the car door with barely a sound.
She sprints to the nearest tree and tucks her body behind it like she thinks she’s a ninja. It’s ridiculous enough to make me get out and follow her — but like a normal person.
Katy dashes across the lawn between the maple tree and the house, backing herself against it once she hits the corner. She shimmies along the siding, stopping to jump at every window and peek in. But she’s too short and the windows are too high to get much of a glimpse from where her eyes hit at the windowsill.
She stops at the other corner of the house and I stand beside her — again like a normal person. “You’re crazy.”
She flashes me a determined face. “No, what’s crazy is you not being in the shadows. Step back.”
There is a clear line of shadow created by the house and the light on the back porch, so I slide the few inches of my foot into the darkness.
With her back still flat against the house, Katy sticks her head and neck around the corner to see the back door. “Oh shit, Tabs.”
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