“I fucked that up when I got Frank riled up enough to hit me on camera, and my dad… fucking A…my dad sold me to Frank. He sold me to be scapegoated and then sent to prison.”
The entire room watched as my world crashed around me, again. I had given up on my dad long ago and I worked out for myself that Frank was never a friend, but I hadn’t realized just how ugly this all was. “That’s what they meant when I’d been sold to him,” I said. “I’d been sold to take the fall for some hideous crime.”
I stood up and walked toward the back of the room. I didn’t stop at the door. Instead I went out searching for a restroom...fuck, a closet would work, anywhere I could be alone for a moment to get my head on straight.
I found a bathroom and went inside, locked the door behind me, and splashed water on my face. “Fuck me!” I said out loud and let myself slide down the bathroom wall and face the sink. “Fuck me!”
Les
I was surprised when Bentley called me and asked if my dad and I could come up to Edmonds. I hadn’t expected him to get personally involved. Sandra was the one who handled the West Coast stuff, and her dad only got involved when things got tough, or more specifically when law enforcement got involved.
When we finally arrived at the nondescript office, he met us and filled us in on the mess poor Bennett was involved in. “He’ll be lucky to survive a week here.” he told me, and my mom’s first cousin wasn’t prone to exaggeration. I understood Bennett was in serious trouble.
As we listened to him tell Bennett what Frank and his dad were really up to, I watched as the news physically affected him. I’d wanted so badly to reach out and hold him, reassure him, but Bennett needed to hear the stuff that Bentley had to say.
When Bennett left, I stood up to follow him, but both my dad and Bentley stopped me. “Let him go, son,” he said. “he needs to process this.”
“Yeah, but not alone,” I said.
“He’ll be back. That man is stronger than you think he is.”
I almost challenged him, asking him how he knew, but I already knew how he knew. Bentley and Bennett had more in common than anyone else in the room.
My mom’s cousin had been directly in line to inherit his dad’s business, which was a contingent of the Irish Mafia. When his dad handed over the reins, he’d just begun the process of taking over when he learned the Mafia was dealing in child sex trafficking. He immediately called the FBI in and they busted not only the ring in his own organization but in all the adjoining organizations as well.
Needless to say, that instantly earned him a target on his back. None of us knew exactly how he survived, but we did know a lot of blood was shed in the process. Now Bentley was in charge of the top private security company that local, state, and federal governments turned to when they needed to ferret out corruption. My cousin had ties with criminals, the CIA, and law enforcement. If he wanted to know something, he was often given discrete access to that information behind the scenes.
Bentley had predicted correctly, and Bennett came back into the room a few minutes later. He didn’t bother to sit. “How do you know about all this?” he asked him point blank, the lack of fear in his expression impressed me. Everyone, including me, was afraid of Bentley.
“Because the FBI knows and has been working to unravel the corruption for several years. You seem to be the linchpin though, which is why so many people would like to see you dead.”
He nodded. “So, what now?” he asked.
Bentley sighed. “Son, you aren’t safe here. I don’t have enough agents in this part of the world yet, considering we just got our office set up in San Francisco a few months ago. We just rented this one when we took on your account. None of us knew you were going to be this level of a client until today though.”
Bennett’s sigh matched Bentley’s. “Well, if I can’t stay here, where do you suggest I go?” He asked.
Bentley’s eyes stayed on the face of the man I was so fond of for several seconds before he spoke. “If you’ll accept my advice, you’ll be coming with me to Boston where I can watch over you myself.”
He sighed. “I’ve never been to Boston.” he said. And with a concerning detachment, he sat heavily into the chair he’d vacated earlier. “I don’t have any money, well, not a lot of money. I think I have maybe three grand, so I’ll have to stay in a cheap hotel. Do they have hostels? If I could stay in a hostel, that would help save money…maybe I should call the broker and ask him to unload some more of the properties. I’ll need money…”
He continued to mumble out loud, trying to figure out what he was going to do when my dad put his hand over his. “You’ll stay at our house. Bentley can put someone in the spare room during the night and Les’ siblings will take turns showing you around Boston. It’ll be like a vacation.”
Bennett’s gaze settled on him, but I could tell the words weren’t quite registering in his head. He nodded though and it did stop his mumbling.
“My mom,” he said then. “If I’m in danger, she is too. They’ll try to get to her if they can’t get to me.”
Bentley shook his head. “No, she’s under your dad’s protection.”
“Huh?” he asked. “My dad’s in prison. He can’t protect her.”
Bentley shook his head, “Well, he is, and he isn’t. He has to stay there, but he isn’t in a jail cell. The warden is corrupt and is below your dad in the organization.”
“Fuck,” Bennett said again. “so, my dad really is behind all this.”
“Maybe,” Bentley said. “We believe he’s in the upper management and he’s high enough to keep your mom off the hit list, but we don’t think he’s calling the shots. We aren’t sure who is yet, although we have some ideas.”
Bennett turned to me and frowned. “I won’t be able to help with the show. I’m going to get fired and sued by the network.”
“No, you aren’t. Trust me, we’ll work around your absence. If your life’s in jeopardy, I’m sure they’ll work with you. They won’t want your blood on their hands.”
Bennett just nodded. “So what now?” he asked.
“We have a private jet waiting for us. We’ll fly back to Boston and I’ll assign a detail to be with you when I can’t be. Meanwhile, we’ll work with the FBI to try to chase down all the leads that have popped up since Frank sent everything spiraling.”
“How much is all this going to cost? I doubt the network will pay if I’m not working, I have to sell some houses!”
Bentley cocked an eyebrow and said, “You’ll have to get a new broker first, I’m afraid.”
“Why?” he asked shocked at the statement.
“That’s a long story, but let’s just say he’ll be spending some time in a jail cell awaiting his trial.”
“Really?” I asked. “I knew he was suspicious, but I had no idea…”
Bentley sighed and begun telling us what he knew. “The person who bought your houses…the FBI raided them shortly after the new owner showed up to take possession. He was about to store over a million dollars’ worth of heroin, fentanyl, and an assortment of weapons in them.”
“Oh God, they’re using my former houses as storage for their weapons and drugs?”
“Frank’s job was to control the movement. Apparently, they got all but one house cleaned out when your cop friend began to snoop around. The broker was tasked with getting the houses that still had drugs in them sold to the buyer to ensure they got their drugs and weapons back.”
“I don’t really understand. He paid me more than a million for those houses.”
“Yeah, but they couldn’t afford for their stash to be found. It would alert the authorities of their presence. I’m guessing the guy who bought the houses from you was trying to save his ass.”
“What about Frank? Is he going to end up causing Bennett more problems?” I asked.
Bentley shook his head. “I doubt they’re going to find Frank alive. He would’ve been punished for letting things get this far out of hand. I’d bet they’ll find hi
s body in the Sound or in one of the back waterways before too much longer.”
Bennett just nodded. “They blamed both me and Frank for this mess-up, but they had better access to Frank than me.” He turned toward me saying “They’d have had me too if it wasn’t for you.” The vulnerability I saw in his expression was doing painful things to my insides.
I blushed. “Maybe... maybe.”
Before Bentley carted Bennett off to the east coast, Bennett wrote down from memory all the houses he had vacant and handed me his keys. “I don’t want you to go alone. Make sure you have the Bloodhound or someone like him to go with you, but I’d like the cops to go through all these houses to make sure there are no more drugs or weapons. Then I’d like them to be boarded up and secured as much as they can be. I doubt I’ll be able to sell them until this mess is cleared up, if it ever is. But I can’t stand the thought of them being used for illegal stuff. I saw the effects of it too much while living on the streets. I don’t want to be a part of it, not in any way. I’d sell them, if I had a broker, but…” He put his head back into his hands. I could barely hear him through his hands, “…but I don’t know what the hell to do.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it. Okay?”
He nodded without removing his head from his hands.
I was going over to comfort Bennett when Bentley walked out of the office and motioned for me to follow him outside. When the door closed behind us, he led me to the opposite side of the building from where Bennett and my Pops were.
“You can’t go anywhere near those homes, I’m sorry but we have more going on here than just some dumb criminals. The cops are involved too. Well, at least some of them. No one knows how deep this goes or who can and can’t be trusted. If you’ll trust me to take care of this, I’ll hand the keys over to folks at the FBI who I trust.”
“Why didn’t you say this in front of Bennett?” I asked, feeling suspicious myself.
“Because it’s best that he doesn’t know. I shouldn’t be sharing any of this with either of you, and if it comes out that I did, I‘ll lose the trust of the FBI and possibly face criminal charges. But I do know if you go to those houses, you’re going to be on everyone’s radar.”
“I’m already on the radar.” I sighed.
“You are, but as a bystander. Let’s keep it that way, okay?”
I nodded. My cousin was smart and he’d saved our asses on multiple occasions of course, mostly before I was born. Hell, my folks had saved his too. He’d stayed with them when he was most at risk from his parents which meant they were at just as much risk as he was of being killed in an attack. I trusted him and if anyone was going to be able to keep Bennett alive, it would be him.
Bennett
Les hugged me before I watched him drive off with his father. I wondered if that was going to be the last time I saw them.
When I followed the big man and Sandra back into their offices, they asked for my phone. They opened the back and replaced the sim card and handed it back to me. Sandra said, “No social media of any kind, no contact with anyone you know here, and we are confident the bad guys will be listening to our cousin’s messages as well so you can’t contact him either. If you need to communicate with him, you need to ask us, and we’ll make sure to connect the two of you in a secure way. From this point, until we can ensure your safety, we need you to go radio silent. Got it?” Sandra, I was beginning to learn, was very matter of fact in the way she handled things.
I had lived on the street without a phone, without connectivity, but I’d had my mom through it all. Now I had no one except strangers.
As much as I liked Mr. Cooper, I doubted I was going to get to stay in their home or get to know Les’ siblings. I was being placed in the private equivalent of witness protection. I should’ve been more concerned, more upset; but to be honest, I felt numb and the only person I was upset I wouldn’t see was Les. How insane was it that I’d stopped worrying about my mom? From my perspective though, if she’d stayed away from my dad all those years ago, like the courts had ordered her to or as I’d asked her to, I probably wouldn’t be in this shit. If I survived this, it was going to take some time to forgive her for that.
__________
The flight to Boston only took a few hours. Flying in a private jet, that was an experience I never dreamed I’d ever have. Who knew the first time I’d ever fly would be in the most extreme luxury?
Bentley was a man of few words. After we took off, he showed me his set up for watching movies, playing video games, and several other options of entertainment. Nothing really appealed to me. I was still too overwhelmed by all the information that I’d been given.
After landing, I was loaded into a limousine with an open seating area not unlike what you see on television. In any other circumstance, I imagined I’d be over the top exploring everything about the fancy car. But I was still in a daze.
After the jet and limo, I expected to walk into some palatial home, but was surprised when we pulled up to a very nondescript building that appeared to be more of an office complex than a home.
I followed Bentley into the building and upstairs to a nice sized room resembling a hotel. It had everything anyone would want, including a small kitchenette, a very nice bathroom, with a shower like you’d see on one of the shows my network did.
“Will you be okay here?” he asked me.
“I don’t have any clothes.” I said, and he nodded.
“Someone will be here in an hour or so to deliver those to you.”
I didn’t ask how he knew my size. This all seemed to be some figment of reality where people knew things about me that they shouldn’t, and it wasn’t surprising in the least.
As I walked around the room, I noticed for the first time the only windows were high up and near the ceiling, making it feel like I was in prison. I tried to shake the thought off as I remembered the night before I had slept on a blow-up mattress in the cold basement of my grandfather’s dilapidated old mansion. This was a million times better, but had I been given the choice between the two, I’m sure I’d have picked the basement.
Les
I was nervous about Bennett. The network didn’t even blink when I told them Bennett had taken some time off. I know they thought it was because of the injury and death of the realtor he was working with. The fact that we had so much footage of him and me walking through the house also alleviated some of the stress.
I had Emmitt film while I explained some of our methods since the final stages of the reno were often the most exciting for our viewers.
He and I had discussed how we’d do the final show if Bennett wasn’t back by then.
I spent most of my mornings working with Emmitt and the crew on the finish work and because my Pops joined me most mornings, I spent most of my afternoons with him and mom working on the duplex. The old lady next door moved as she’d told Bennett she would and when she came by to inspect the place, ensuring it had been cleaned to her standards, she handed me the key and asked that I give it to Bennett.
“Does he owe you a deposit or anything?” I asked her.
She just laughed, “No, honey. I’ve rented this place since it was brand new. They never asked for a deposit. But if you can, please let him know I’d like to see it when he’s done with it. I heard you boys were doing all that work and I just know my sister would’ve been over the moon knowing it was being fixed up for a nice family.
I smiled. “I’ll let him know to call you when it’s done.”
She waved as she got into the waiting taxi. Dad and I walked through the newly vacated duplex and laughed at how Bennett was right on the money: it had been the exact same layout as the one we were currently renovating.
“Should we do the work on it? Bennett did ask us to.”
Dad shrugged. “It’s up to you. Your mom’s about done with the four guys you lent us from the other project if you want to have them help you with demo.”
“I think it’d be a good welcome h
ome present when he gets back. His place was destroyed you know.”
Dad nodded. “Do the same demo you did before, and we’ll just make it a carbon copy. Just make sure you include the Master bedroom demo this time.”
We worked pretty much sunup to sundown on the project. We all decided to move out of the nice hotel and into one that was mediocre but closer to all the projects.
After several weeks flew by, and it still wasn’t safe for Bennett to return, I felt like I was starting to go a little stir crazy.
“Dad, can you call Bentley and ask him the latest with Bennett?” I asked. “We finished the rehab on the Victorian project, and I’d like to get it staged and do the final show. I’m sure he’d like to get it on the market too.”
Dad just shook his head. “Bentley said things have heated up. The FBI are about to move in. That’ll put him in a lot more danger. We were told not to try to contact him until he gives us the all clear.”
I sighed. “The network is going to throw a fit if we don’t button this up. You think I should just go ahead and finish the final episode myself?”
Mom came in behind me and put her hand on my shoulder.
“I’m sure he’d be happy to have it all done so when he gets home we can start the big renovation on the Deco mansion. You can make a big production of taking pictures and sending them to him. He doesn’t have to be really texting you back, but you can pretend that’s what’s happening. When he gets back, you can give him a tour of the place and it’ll appear as if he was never away. Either way, you can get this project done and keep the network happy.”
I nodded, knowing she was right. Emmitt and I had basically come to the same general conclusion ourselves, but I felt like I was betraying Bennett by doing it without him being here.
When dad walked away, mom rubbed my back in the way mom’s do when they know you’re sad. “Sweetheart, I know you’re hurting. In times like these, you just have to keep moving forward. Think about how much it’ll mean to him when he sees how hard you’ve worked while he was away.”
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