“Get what?”
“You’ll see.”
Anxiety shook him as he waited for Luka’s return. Benson couldn’t imagine what it could be, what had taken Luka from him just as they were getting to know each other.
Luka came back with a check in his hand, giving it over with his mouth in a thin line. “Are you telling me you didn’t know about this?”
With a shaking hand, Benson took the check. When he saw it was written to Luka Babic, and the amount was fifty thousand dollars, he gasped loudly. “What is this?” he asked right before he saw his own signature on the bottom.
Luka sat on the couch next to him, taking the check. “I didn’t cash it. I didn’t want the money, and I really don’t know why I held onto it, except something nagged me that one day it could come in handy, I guess. Keep me from homelessness or something.”
“Luka, I didn’t write that check. I’ve never seen it before. Who gave it to you?”
“You did!”
Benson was spinning with confusion. “Luka, I’ve never in my life given you a check for anything!”
“Well, you sent it with the letter, on your company stationery, telling me we’ve gotten too close too quickly and all this bullshit. I know a fuck-off letter when I see one.”
Benson’s heart broke as he heard Luka’s voice cracking, but he was rather relieved, surprisingly. It hadn’t been a case of Luka no longer wanting him. “Honey, if I wrote this, why would I keep calling and texting?”
“I never got one call or text from you, Benson. Not after this letter.”
He started to protest, but then, like the clouds parted, he saw clearly what had happened. “Luka…I think we’ve been the victims of a…cold and heartless person.”
“What are you saying?”
Benson didn’t care any longer about keeping any appearances. He didn’t care if Luka spat in his face. He had to make Luka understand how he truly felt.
Sliding off the sofa and onto his knees, he faced Luka and took his hands. “Luka, baby, I was heartbroken when I thought you’d dumped me. I hurt so badly I wanted to just give up on everything. You are the one I’ve been waiting for my whole life. I know we were so new and it was fast, but sometimes things like love don’t take long. Sometimes, you feel it when it’s right.”
Luka’s eyes welled and then emptied, and Benson brushed the tears from his face. “I hated you.”
“I’m sure. Do…do you still?”
Luka nodded as if he was affirming it, but his voice came on a whisper, “I love you so fucking much.”
Benson moved him into his arms and held him on the floor, as they both quietly cried in each other’s arms.
It was only then that the anger struck him. “I need to go. But…I’ll be back. I’ll be back, and then…then we’re going to be together. I don’t think I want to spend another second apart.”
“Then let me come with you. I don’t have rehearsal until Thursday.”
He nodded, unwilling to deny the man anything, ever. “Okay. Okay, but don’t be shocked when you see a side of me that rarely comes to the surface.”
They took another cab and Benson held Luka close, watching the city go by as he thought about what he had to do once he got back to his building.
She couldn’t have done it alone. He thought she could, but believed she would consider much of it beneath her. Therewasn’t any doubt in his mind who’d done it. The only person opposed to him getting into a relationship. And after he’d killed the merger, instead deciding to help George Regal, she’d been furious with him.
The tech department took up most of the third through the fifth floors. Nerds and geniuses all in their own cubicles, huge ones, as he’d insisted on — covered in their favorite anime themes, horror themes, or superhero themes, whatever they liked the best.
He went right for Kurt’s office, the head of the security division of the company.
So recently, Joyce had placed the fear of God into the man, making him think his job was on the line. Who better to talk into doing things that were against company policy, and mostly illegal?
He didn’t bother to knock, walking right into Kurt’s office. This shocked Kurt, who stuttered and stood from his cluttered desk. “Mr. Carter! What a surprise!”
“I need some information from you, Kurt, and if you don’t give it to me with little to no prodding, I’ll not only fire you but I’ll have you indicted for fraud.”
