Chapter 14

Bennett

I knew I was getting close. I didn't have all the pieces together yet, but things were swirling inside my mind, and I knew I was nearing the truth. After Reed's comments at the bar about Richie trying to buy Parkston's, I realized there was more going on behind those doors than I'd initially thought.

What had seemed like a convenient meeting place was something more. I didn't know how much Reed knew about what was happening inside his club. Did he know who Richie was? If so, he must realize that if Richie wanted the club, he'd find a way to take it. One way or the other.

The biggest question was why Richie wanted the club in the first place. Sure, it was probably lucrative as hell. But the Sanderson's already had more money than they knew what to do with. So why would they need another business to run? In my experience, crime families usually preferred something benign to use as a front for their illegal dealings. Surely a notorious sex club wasn't the best locale for an under-the-radar business.

None of it made sense. Yet.

I forced myself to shove it all aside as soon as Tori climbed into the passenger seat of my truck. Her eyes were wide. Startled.

"Tori—"

"What are you doing here?" she asked, closing her door. "You scared the shit out of me!"

"I'm sorry, baby."

She folded her arms, silently refusing to buckle up. "What do you want?"

Her frostiness surprised me. I reached for her hand, trying to get her to loosen up, but she resisted. "I didn't mean to scare you, Tor."

"Just answer my question. What are you doing? What do you want?"

A flicker of heat seared through me. "I want to make sure you're okay. But, for fuck's sake, Tori. What do you think I'm doing? What's with the ice queen routine all of a sudden?"

She released her arms and raked one hand through her hair, tearing out the pins as she went. She shook her head, and the thick waves fell around her shoulders. The image of her bent over the bench inside the sex room, with her hair falling down her bare back as I'd fucked her got me rock-hard again. I didn't care how cold she was acting. I could hear the echo of the sweet sounds she'd made and shifted in my seat. I still wanted her. And I knew she wanted me too. What Tori and I shared was something more than lust and sex.

Which made it even more critical that I keep her safe.

"Tori, I don't think you get it. The shit you've landed in."

"Then explain it to me," she flung back, pursing her full lips. "I'm tired of living like this."

I couldn't stop staring at her red lips and wishing they were wrapped around my cock. Pissed off—mostly at my own inability to concentrate, I growled and threw the truck into drive. I whipped out onto the street, cutting it too close for the cab behind me. A loud horn blared. Tori gasped and craned around to check out the back windshield.

"Fuck, Bennett!"

"Buckle up," I demanded.

I could feel the heat from her angry stare but ignored it as I wove through the endless curves heading up Mulholland Drive to break away from the madness.

Tori remained frozen in stubborn silence for about fifteen minutes before she cracked and asked, "Where are we going?"

"Away from the city."

She sighed. "Bennett, I have a life, you know. Did you ever consider that I might have other plans tonight?"

"It's practically one in the morning. What could you have to do other than get to sleep?"

Tori scoffed. "It's really none of your business. Is it?"

I pulled off the road into a lookout with no other cars in sight. We had a picture-perfect view of the Hollywood sign and the entire Los Angeles basin tucked along the Pacific Ocean. The sounds of the city had melted away, and I took a deep breath, threw the truck into park, and ripped off my seatbelt.

Tori didn't react to my jerky, terse movements. Instead, she remained calm, her expression almost bored as she stared at the Hollywood sign.

"I'm going to tell you something, Tori. Something that's probably gonna scare you shitless. But I've been putting the pieces together and think you deserve to know just what kind of danger you're in."

She turned slowly, still refusing to show any emotion. "I've been in danger since the night the feds forced me to pack up two suitcases of belongings and dragged me halfway across the country to live like some kind of Amish person in the middle of fuckin' nowhere." She stared at me, her eyes blazing with heat. "Do you even know what that was like for me? To lose my friends and contact with my family? I had to leave my dreams behind, a job I busted my ass for, to become some librarian. Can you even begin to imagine that?"

Actually, I couldn't.

She started up again. "If I'd stayed in Kentucky, working in that place, I probably would have thrown myself off a cliff just like this one." She pointed to the sign in the distance, "Maybe not like this cliff, but any cliff or bridge would've worked. So, I was safe from the Sanderson family, sure. But I wasn't safe. I had to leave. I had to get out before I went crazy."

She was shaking, her voice thick with emotion as the heat in her eyes blurred with tears.

"I can't imagine what it was like to be on the run like that and have to put your life in the hands of people you barely knew. I don't know everything you've been through. But I do know what it's like to lose friends, to not have a home, and how it feels to barely talk to your own family. Those things I do understand."

She glanced away and brushed at the tears in her eyes. "You chose this life, Bennett. This is your job. I didn't ask for this. Unfortunately, I ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes, I wish I'd never agreed to testify. Then I could be back in Vegas, living my life, and I wouldn't have to worry about looking over my shoulder all the time."

I brushed my fingers up her arm. "That's not true, Tori. You already know they wouldn't have left you alone. That's not how this works. They would have had you—" I stopped myself, unable to say the rest. "I don't blame you for slipping out and running away. But Tori, you can't stay here in Los Angeles. You can't keep working at Parkston's."

I drew in a steady breath. "Because Dalton is not a good guy, and as soon as he figures out who you are?—"

Her eyes widened once again.

"Damn! Bennett, no! I'm so tired of this—I can't?—"

The rest of her protests were lost as she started to cry, no longer holding back the tears.

I flipped the center console up and slid over to her side. I unbuckled her seatbelt and gathered her against my chest. "It's all right. You're safe now. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

"How do you know?" she said, her voice thick. "What if he already knows who I am and is just waiting to get rid of me?"

I shook my head. "No. He doesn't know. Trust me. Your WITSEC handlers wouldn't have given you up even though you left their program. As far as Richie—or anyone else in the Sanderson group knows—you're still in their protection. He doesn't know what name you were given, and with the amount of…action…at the club, I doubt he's even looked your way more than a few times."

Tori pulled out of my arms and scrubbed her eyes, smearing makeup down her face.

"I don't have anywhere else to go, Bennett. I can't go back to Vegas, and I don't think I have it in me to start over somewhere new. It's exhausting, and I'm tired—tired of running."

My fingertips slipped down the side of her pretty face, tracing her cheekbones and then down to her lips.

"I'm going to help you. You're not going to do it all alone. But, Tor, we have to get you out of this city."