“He took her,” Hallease said, coming up behind me where I stood in Jocelyn’s office.
“He, who?”
“Benjamin—”
I made it to her just before she fell to the floor, and sat her in the chair across from Jocelyn’s desk.
“Benjamin James?”
Hallease ran down what had transpired in the office before Benjamin knocked her out. She’d managed to trigger the security alarm from the button underneath her desk before he hit her.
“He lied to us for months. He pretended to be a client. He told Jocelyn that his boyfriend was cheating on him.” Tears streamed down her face. “We have to call the police.”
I nodded. “Yeah—”
My phone rang. Every muscle in my body tensed when I saw the call coming in was “Restricted.”
“Benjamin,” I answered.
His voice came through clear this time around. “You know who I am.”
I stiffened at the sound of hearing his actual voice for the first time. The memory of one of my first visits to Jocelyn’s office when we’d started working on this case together flashed through my mind. I’d been on cloud nine as I exited her office, so much so that I hadn’t paid attention to the guy who’d walked right into me.
That guy’s voice was the same one on the other end of the phone.
“You were here that day. You walked directly into me. You son of a bitch.”
He chuckled humorlessly, and the sound had me seeing red.
“I was directly under your nose the whole time. Not so fucking smart, are you?”
“You were at the club that night too. In the alleyway. You were hiding like the bitch you are.”
A guttural sound pushed through the line. “You think you’re so tough? How does it feel knowing I’ve got your girlfriend?”
I fisted my phone in my hand, so much so that my knuckles ached. “Where is she?” I demanded through gritted teeth.
There was a pause.
My heartbeat pounded in my ears and I flexed my fingers, doing my best to keep it together. Jocelyn needed me to maintain a level head.
“She’s with me. She’s safe for now. How long that lasts is entirely dependent upon you.”
“What do you want?” I hated to even ask the sick bastard that question, but Jocelyn’s life was on the line.
“What I’ve always wanted. For everyone to see what a bunch of screw ups you are at Rescue Four. I want the world to know that you all don’t take your job seriously. You think everything is a damn joke and innocent people lose their lives because of it!”
“You don’t need Jocelyn to prove any of that. Let her go, and we can work something out. Just you and me.”
“What the hell do you think I am, an idiot? She’s the only leverage I have. Besides, this is payback.”
“Payback for what?”
I thought back to the limited information I’d gathered from Benjamin’s file. There was nothing there that spoke to why he was so filled with anger directed at Rescue Four. He’d been somewhat of a troubled teen but appeared to have straightened out in his early twenties. Kyle Ellis had said that Benjamin hated when we’d play jokes on him. There had to be something to that.
“You don’t know?” he asked with a sneer in his tone.
“I don’t. Why don’t you tell me where you are? More importantly, why don’t you tell me why you don’t like it when we joke around at the station? Why do jokes make you so damn uncomfortable?”
