I don’t see a way out.
Ben wasn’t giving up, but the odds weren’t in his favor.
I just moved in with Erik, and it was going so well. We’re a good match, better than I ever thought I’d find. He’s everything I ever wanted in a partner, and for the first time in a long while, I’ve been happy.
When Ben made the move to Cape May, he wasn’t sure he’d find his footing or ever fall in love again. Rental real estate was a long way from being a cop or a detective. That was the point, plus taking over the rental company, but it really seemed like a long shot.
To Ben’s surprise, he found himself liking a job that wasn’t one emergency after another, and realized that he was good at it. Returning to the town brought back fond memories of spending summers helping his aunt and uncle when he was a teenager. Cape May, which he had feared would seem dreadfully dull after the big city had grown on him. Of course, the supernatural dangers he and Erik fought were anything but dull.
Most of all, he’d met Erik when Ben had nearly given up finding a forever match. And now their time was being cut short.
I’ll fight to keep what we have with everything I’ve got, but we might have run out of luck this time.
I hope Erik knows how much I love him, how much I cherish the time we’ve had together. If this is all we get, it’s better than none at all.
But damn, I wanted to get old and gray and totter into the sunset together.
We never even had a chance to get a dog.
If I don’t make it, it’ll throw a wrench into my aunt and uncle’s retirement. I was their way out. Will they find someoneelse to buy the business, or have to sell off the properties piecemeal? That’ll play havoc with their plans.
With the power out, I wonder how long it’ll take the police to find those bodies on the steps at the other house. Hendricks will have a heart attack over that. Jenny will worry herself sick over me.
And being the scene of a Mob hit isn’t going to do good things for attracting new renters.
Not to mention that Erik and I might not be around to do our programs for the festival. I wonder if new attacks will make the organizers decide to cancel, just to be safe. That would be a shame. People put in a lot of work. One more thing I was looking forward to.
Ben shook off the mood.Feeling sorry for myself isn’t going to change anything. Either we’ll live through this or we won’t.
But it sure would be great to take some of these sons of bitches out with us. Screw up their plans, keep the Tiffany windows out of their boss’s hands, make this an expensive failure for them.
In the absence of hope, Ben decided vengeance would do.
SEVEN
ERIK
Erik stared at his phone, unable to breathe. The mobster’s threat chilled him to the bone, and he feared for Ben’s life.
It took a couple of moments to control his breathing and let his heartbeat slow so he could think.
New Jersey accent, so that’s Newark Mafia. They must have grabbed him at one of the rental houses. Where would they take him, and how do I get him back safely?
The reality of the threat had barely sunk in when his phone rang again. Erik answered, expecting the first caller to set out the terms of trading the windows for Ben.
Instead, a new voice with a thick Russian accent spoke. “Mitchell. Give us what we want, and no one dies.” A photo of Ben held captive between two masked toughs made it clear that there had been some kind of dangerous hand-off.
“Who is this? What do you want?” Erik’s training kicked in even though his heart thudded and his mind spun at this new twist. The Newark Mob didn’t cooperate with Bratva. Whatever had changed didn’t bode well for Ben’s safety.
“The window from the Wildwood collector, and the dome from the Commodore Wilson. You’ll find out where he is whenwe get what we want,” the Russian replied. “Keep the cops out of it, or I shoot him.” He ended the call.
“Shit, shit, shit.” Erik reminded himself not to grip his phone so hard that it cracked.
He tried to get a location on the number that called him and wasn’t surprised that tracking had been disabled. Bratva was a dangerous criminal organization, professionals on a different level than the Newark mobsters.
The power was still out, so Hendricks and his officers would be busy dealing with the storm’s effects. Without more details, there was nothing Erik could tell the police that was worth the risk of making contact.
His phone rang, and Haley’s number came up.
