There it was again. The derision. She was a princess. She was entitled. It was time to call it. Time of death eleven forty-eight. She twisted her arm, ignoring the pain even as she reached up with her free hand and popped him right on the nose. Ben cursed and let go.
“What the fuck, Kenzie?” He put a hand on his nose.
“Oh, I would like to know the answer to that question,” a familiar voice said.
Awesome. Her twin was here. She turned and saw that Kala wasn’t alone. Cooper was with her, and TJ, too.
Kenzie let the sleeve of her robe fall down to cover the red marks on her wrist. She didn’t want some big scene that everyone would call dramatic. “Nothing. Benjamin and I have decided to part ways.”
“Why?” The question came out of Kala’s mouth directed at Kenzie, though her eyes were on Ben.
“It doesn’t matter.” Work. She could change Kala’s focus with work. “He’s had a call from Huisman. We need to meet in the conference room so he can fill us in.”
“Or I can leave since I’m obviously not needed here unless I’m playing your idiot stud.” Ben massaged his nose, but it didn’t look like she’d broken it. She’d pulled her punch.
Oh, Huisman had done spectacular work this time. “You don’t have to worry about that anymore, Ben. I get it. I was fun for a while, but the great Emmanuel Huisman has spoken and now I’m a whore who’s using you. Or is it worse? Am I after more than your hot bod? Am I distracting you for him? He’s trying to kill my father, but I’m probably working with him because that’s what women do, right?”
The words seemed to hit Ben as he briefly lost his angry expression. But it was okay because he’d obviously rationalized it all. “Or your father’s in on it, too. Wouldn’t that be perfect?”
“Dude, you think way too much of yourself,” Kala said, looking from Kenzie to Ben as if she wasn’t sure if she should comfort hersister or pull Ben’s balls off his body.
Cooper looked her way. “Can I trust you not to kill him?”
“I think Lucifer is right and he’s going to do more damage than I ever could,” Kala replied with absolutely no humor.
So that was where Lucy had gone. Well, it had to be awful for Lucy to call in Kala, but it looked like a day for everything to break down, including the fabric of the universe since Lucy stood way closer to her twin than she normally would.
“Oh, I disagree. I think we could do a lot of damage,” Lucy countered.
The last thing she needed was those two deciding they could actually work together. “It’s fine. Kala, you were right all along. He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t even like me. I was a means to an end, but we have to work together. I’m going to change and I’ll meet you up in the conference room. Leave Tim out of it.”
“I’m not leaving the only person I can trust out of it,” Ben shot back.
“I’ll go get the parents. Lucy, can you inform Ollie our play time is getting cut short?” Cooper was calm and collected. Like he’d always known it would end like this since it was how Kenzie’s relationships seemed to go. “Also, inform him that Ben has injured a submissive in anger and he shouldn’t be allowed on the dungeon floor again.”
“What are you talking about? She punched me,” Ben complained.
Kala moved in and gripped Kenzie’s arm, way more gently than Ben had, but the sleeve fell back and there was a clear imprint of his hand on her wrist. “He’s talking about this. You weren’t playing with her. You were trying to hurt her, and that is not allowed in this club. Consider your rights here stripped. You can leave the dungeon floor, Master Ben. Also, you don’t get that title anymore.”
“Could you back off, please?” She didn’t need her twin’s rage. She needed to be alone. She needed to mourn him. Or at least mourn the him she’d thought he was.
Ben had gone a pasty white as his eyes found her wrist. “I didn’t mean to do that. I needed to talk to her.”
TJ stood at Kenzie’s other side. Cooper had left to inform her parents that the world had blown up. “Yeah, that’s why she said you touched her in anger. Man, I get something happened, but that’s not right.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt her. Kenzie, let me look at it.” Ben started toward her.
TJ stepped in between them. “No. Cooper can look at her when he gets back. He’s had some training. He’ll decide if we need to call a doctor. I have no idea what happened, but you two need some space.”
“I know what happened,” Lucy said. “Huisman called and Ben picked up like the good boy he is.”
Kala’s eyes flared. “He did what?”
The words seemed to remind Ben that he was the injured party here. He straightened up. “Yes, Manny called me and I answered because I know what happens when I don’t. He laid some hard truths out for me.”
Kenzie felt infinitely tired. She covered her wrist again. “You can tell us all the horrible things we’ve done in conference. That way you don’t have to do it twice. Or you can write it up before you head back to Toronto.”
A low huff came from Ben. “Ah, now I’m getting kicked out.”
