“It’s there,” Lou said, pointing to the back of the café, in the leftmost corner. There was a small bistro table with a laptop sitting open.
He moved to it, ready to pick it up and run. He looked at Lou. “Get back to The Garden. Now. I’ll call when it’s safe. It’s a public café. What’s he going to do?”
“It’s a public café owned by a friendly syndicate,” a smooth voice said. “Thanks for bringing my prize. At least one of the bitches can do their job.”
Manny. He stood in the kitchen doorway, and he had an entourage. No one in the café even looked up.
He turned and Lou was in a large man’s arms, her whole body limp. They drugged her.
Fuck. This had never been about him. This had been about getting Lou out of her hidey-hole. It was a gamble, but Manny was willing to take them.
Gabby said Sosa was sick like Tim, but he happened to know Sosa didn’t eat that pizza. She hadn’t been in Tim’s room that night at all. She’d been working, and he’d even heard her talk about skipping the pizza in favor of a turkey sandwich.
Fuck, he’d been played, and it was going to cost him everything this time.
“Don’t harm her. She’s important,” Manny ordered. “Get her in the car. You can rough this one up all you like. He’ll enjoy it. My Benjamin is quite a masochist, as you’ll find. And a bit of a fool, though I always forgive him for it.”
Ben tamped down his panic, though it was easy to see not a single patron in the café was going to help. They were all ignoring the fight for life and death happening in their midst. Lou. He had to get Lou out of here. Kenzie would never forgive him if he got Lou killed. She had to be his priority.
He let his training take over. He kicked out, catching the guy nearest him in the gut.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the man closest to Manny pull a gun, but Manny put up a hand.
“No, let him play. He’s going to have to deal with so much heartache. Let him get some of his anger out now.”
Ben continued to fight, punching out and trying to make his way to Lou, but there were so many of them. A massive man got up from the table across from him and joined in.
“Benjamin, did you like the photo?” Manny asked. “She can’t wait to see you again. I told her she could play with you when I’m done.”
Pain flared through him. He was surrounded and being attacked from all sides. Only the fact that they were strictly using their fists saved him. Though he felt a rib crack as he was shoved down on one of the tables. He fought back but they had hands on him now, dragging him to the ground and holding him there.
He was useless. Pathetic. He couldn’t save himself.
This…this was how he died. This was what Ian had been talking about. It wasn’t a bullet, but it would kill him all the same. He put himself here even when he’d known it was likely a trick. He’d convinced himself he was smarter, that he could win this game. He’d been running headlong to this point, desperate for something in his life to change even if that change was death.
Manny stood over him, a syringe in his hand.
But he didn’t want it now. He didn’t want this. He wanted her. He wanted to make different choices, to decide to be more than Manny’s partner in a twisted game.
He should have given in, should have accepted whatever she was willing to give him. Should have been her boyfriend, her Dom, her husband. What a life that would have been. It flashed through him, what they could have had.
All gone now.
The only way he was ever going to win this game was to walk away and refuse to play at all.
“Well,mon frère, it looks like we’re moving into endgame, you and I.” He chuckled and looked genuinely amused. “We’ll see how your girlfriend likes the gift I’m sending her. And while I’m thrilled to have the surprisingly gifted Ms. Ward on the team, I want Kala under my roof again. I’ll see if taking her best friend brings her back where she belongs. It’s going to be so much fun. Consider this our family reunion.”
Ben fought until the end, until the needle pierced his skin and darkness began to encroach. He felt himself lifting, the men carrying him, following the one who had taken Lou out the back.
His last thought as the drugs took over was for Kenzie to forgive him.
Chapter Sixteen
Kenzie’s hands were shaking as she stared at the security cam footage of Ben racing out of The Garden, with Lou following behind him.
It had been twenty minutes. She hadn’t even realized anything was wrong until she got that video.
Kala stormed in. “They’re gone, and apparently that fucking café is a syndicate front. Not one friendly to Dusan and our cousins. I didn’t go in. It’s a trap. I did manage to pull their CCTV footage, and the fucker carries Lou out himself and winks at the camera.”
