Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
He took a cab to the theater, waiting outside for Luka. It was over an hour, but he used that time to think about what he’d say.
When Luka emerged, wrapping his scarf around his neck, Benson had a moment when he wanted to blend into the wall of the theater and have Luka walk by.
He didn’t look good. Luka had lost weight, and he’d had little to lose in the first place. His face was gaunt, and Benson just knew it was his fault. Somehow, it was his fault.
But he gathered his courage and caught up to Luka as Luka made his way down the sidewalk toward the subway.
“Can we talk?”
Luka stopped and turned his head slowly. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to ask…I need to know, Luka, why did you stop returning my calls and texts? What did I do?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
Benson was so confused, he thought something had happened in his mind, making him dream the entire, short relationship.
“Luka, I called and called. I stopped by your place. What did I do wrong?”
After shaking his head, he said, “You aren’t kidding. Are you?”
“Kidding about missing you so much I’ve nearly lost my mind? No, definitely not kidding.”
Luka looked around on the street and hailed a cab. “Come on. We’re going to my apartment.”
They got into the cab, and Luka took a deep breath, watching Benson closely. “You are serious. You never sent her over. You never wanted to end things?”
“Why the hell would I want to end things before they even started, Luka? Luka, I know now that I was falling madly in love with you. I thought you felt the same, but…then we couldn’t…I…”
Luka shook his head as his eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re gonna be really mad.”
“Why? Luka, I’m not angry with you. I just wanted to know why you didn’t want to speak to me anymore, and why…why you were messing up at work. Please don’t be angry with Monty. Without him, I’d never have known you were struggling.”
“Not mad at me. You’ll see. You’ll…you’ll see.”
Benson paid the driver and then they got out of the cab and started for the door of Luka’s building. Benson held the door open for Luka, who grabbed his hand and led him up the stairs to the third floor.
The building wasn’t nice; it was rundown and shabby, but Luka’s apartment was neat, clean and painted a nice tan with gleaming wood floors underneath their feet.
“I know this isn’t like your place, but give me time.”
“I had an apartment that makes this one look like a luxury mansion, honey. I’m not judging.”
Luka offered him a seat on the sofa as he started taking off his scarf and coat. “Let me run and get it.”
“Get what?”
“You’ll see.”
Anxiety shook him as he waited for Luka’s return. Benson couldn’t imagine what it could be, what had taken Luka from him just as they were getting to know each other.
Luka came back with a check in his hand, giving it over with his mouth in a thin line. “Are you telling me you didn’t know about this?”
With a shaking hand, Benson took the check. When he saw it was written to Luka Babic, and the amount was fifty thousand dollars, he gasped loudly. “What is this?” he asked right before he saw his own signature on the bottom.
Luka sat on the couch next to him, taking the check. “I didn’t cash it. I didn’t want the money, and I really don’t know why I held onto it, except something nagged me that one day it could come in handy, I guess. Keep me from homelessness or something.”
“Luka, I didn’t write that check. I’ve never seen it before. Who gave it to you?”
“You did!”
Benson was spinning with confusion. “Luka, I’ve never in my life given you a check for anything!”
“Well, you sent it with the letter, on your company stationery, telling me we’ve gotten too close too quickly and all this bullshit. I know a fuck-off letter when I see one.”
Benson’s heart broke as he heard Luka’s voice cracking, but he was rather relieved, surprisingly. It hadn’t been a case of Luka no longer wanting him. “Honey, if I wrote this, why would I keep calling and texting?”
“I never got one call or text from you, Benson. Not after this letter.”
He started to protest, but then, like the clouds parted, he saw clearly what had happened. “Luka…I think we’ve been the victims of a…cold and heartless person.”
“What are you saying?”
Benson didn’t care any longer about keeping any appearances. He didn’t care if Luka spat in his face. He had to make Luka understand how he truly felt.
Sliding off the sofa and onto his knees, he faced Luka and took his hands.
“Luka, baby, I was heartbroken when I thought you’d dumped me.
I hurt so badly I wanted to just give up on everything.
You are the one I’ve been waiting for my whole life.
I know we were so new and it was fast, but sometimes things like love don’t take long.
Sometimes, you feel it when it’s right.”
Luka’s eyes welled and then emptied, and Benson brushed the tears from his face. “I hated you.”
“I’m sure. Do…do you still?”
Luka nodded as if he was affirming it, but his voice came on a whisper, “I love you so fucking much.”
Benson moved him into his arms and held him on the floor, as they both quietly cried in each other’s arms.
It was only then that the anger struck him. “I need to go. But…I’ll be back. I’ll be back, and then…then we’re going to be together. I don’t think I want to spend another second apart.”
“Then let me come with you. I don’t have rehearsal until Thursday.”
He nodded, unwilling to deny the man anything, ever. “Okay. Okay, but don’t be shocked when you see a side of me that rarely comes to the surface.”
They took another cab and Benson held Luka close, watching the city go by as he thought about what he had to do once he got back to his building.
She couldn’t have done it alone. He thought she could, but believed she would consider much of it beneath her.
There wasn’t any doubt in his mind who’d done it.
The only person opposed to him getting into a relationship.
And after he’d killed the merger, instead deciding to help George Regal, she’d been furious with him.
The tech department took up most of the third through the fifth floors. Nerds and geniuses all in their own cubicles, huge ones, as he’d insisted on — covered in their favorite anime themes, horror themes, or superhero themes, whatever they liked the best.
He went right for Kurt’s office, the head of the security division of the company.
So recently, Joyce had placed the fear of God into the man, making him think his job was on the line. Who better to talk into doing things that were against company policy, and mostly illegal?
He didn’t bother to knock, walking right into Kurt’s office. This shocked Kurt, who stuttered and stood from his cluttered desk. “Mr. Carter! What a surprise!”
“I need some information from you, Kurt, and if you don’t give it to me with little to no prodding, I’ll not only fire you but I’ll have you indicted for fraud.”
Like Benson imagined, there was no denying it as Kurt sat hard at his desk. “Mr. Carter, I didn’t want to. I swear it.”
Benson softened, but not much. He and Luka sat in the two chairs in front of Kurt’s desk after Benson set the books and papers that were on the seats onto other piles on the desk. “I didn’t think you would, Kurt. I need to know everything, however.”
“Sure, Mr. Carter. And if you still want to fire me, I understand. I swear.”
Luka looked him in the eye and said, “Benson’s not like that. If you tell him everything, he’s going to give you a break.”
Benson smiled at Luka and agreed, “That’s right. I will.”
After they listened to the explanation, Benson told Kurt to go home for the day. He knew Joyce would be in a rage and wanted to save Kurt from her wrath. He and Luka left Kurt’s office, heading straight for Benson’s.
In the elevator, Luka said, “Do you have a bathroom or closet or something?”
“Of course.”
“Let me go in there, and I’ll come out after. I don’t want her to see me and know right off the bat.”
“Guaranteed she knows you’re here, but in case I’m wrong, that would be perfect, actually.”
As they entered his office, Luka looked around in awe. “This is beautiful.”
“I live here often, especially when I got this place going. I wanted something I liked and didn’t have to put up with.”
“It doesn’t look as…”
“Fancy. I know. The bathroom is through that door over there. There’s a very comfortable bench in there, and if you open that door in the cabinet under the bookshelf, you’ll find drinks and snacks. I doubt you’ll have time for snacks.”
Luka kissed him and said, “I’m glad you came.”
“I wish I’d done it sooner.”
As soon as Luka was in the bathroom, Benson called Joyce and tried to keep his voice from revealing his anger. “Come to my office, please.”
“Sure, Ben. I’ll be right there.”
Having the second biggest office in the place, right down the hall, Joyce’s office and his own were vastly different.
She’d decorated hers to intimidate. There were tall metal art pieces that were pointed and sharp, like her cold, sharp demeanor.
She had white furniture, the thick, long, white oak desk taking up the center of the office.
He’d never liked her office; found it gave off the exact emotion she’d been looking for. She was superior and untouchable. Well, she wasn’t untouchable, not to him. He still held the company, though he was sure she’d thought about how to wrangle it from him time and again.
Joyce came in without an announcement and walked right over to his desk, where he sat, seething with fury.
She sat with a smile and said, “Is this about the new prototype for the banks? I’ve begged Kurt to finish, but you know him.”
He knew immediately what she was trying to do. It wouldn’t work. “Oh? He’s slacking again, is he?”
“Well, he’s never had our work ethic, Ben. You know that.”
He was quiet for at least a full minute, staring at her smug smile. Then, he couldn’t take it another second, never being one to play games.
“You’re just going to sit there, and act like you care about my company, and more importantly, that you care about me?”
She didn’t flinch. She knew Luka was there and could figure out for herself that her scheme had been detected. “I’m focused on this company and you, Ben. I do nothing that isn’t for this company and you.”
“So, trying to pay off Luka and get him out of my life — that was for me?”
“Well, that was more for the company, but you’re one and the same, really.
He was a gold-digger, Ben. You had to see that.
He took the money and never looked back!
So, you’re angry with me for pointing out the obvious, I’m sure, but once you think about it, that he was so easily bribed, well, you’ll see my intentions. ”
From his suit coat inner pocket, he pulled the check and slid it across the surface of the desk to her. “This check? The one he never cashed?”
Her eyes landed on it for the briefest of moments, and her face never changed. Her eyes, however, he could see the shock in them. Quickly, however, she recovered. “He’s likely holding out for more.”
“Really? Interesting. And…can you tell me this? Why were my calls to him, my texts, never received by him?”
Again, as stoic as she looked, he could feel her anxiety and anger growing. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. If he ghosted you, Ben, that’s certainly not my fault.”
“Wow, Joyce, you’re losing your touch. I know you had my calls and texts rerouted. You blocked them from his phone and sent them to yours. I know all about it, Joyce. Kurt confessed. Luka was as heartbroken as I was, and we’re back together now. Your ploys didn’t work.”
“Then it all worked out for you. Well, don’t blame me when he takes your money, your reputation and leaves you heartbroken for good, next time.”
He suppressed every instinct he had not to physically throw her from the office. “Joyce, I want your office cleared out and your letter of resignation on my desk by five this evening. If it’s not, I’m calling the police and telling them you had a hand in the fraud.”
Her brows rose, the first sign of her surprise he’d see plainly. “You can’t be serious, Benson. You hired me to watch over your interests, which was exactly what I did.”
“No, you’re watching out for your interests.
You never wanted me to be with Luka, knowing that if I was happy, like he’s made me, I wouldn’t be cut-throat like you love to push me to be.
Like that deal with George Regal. You blamed Luka for it.
You wanted to kill off that company and sell the pieces.
I didn’t, so you took out your revenge. That was all that was. ”
“You lost millions on that deal, Benson! And yes, I saw why!”
“Get out, Joyce, or I’ll have security throw you out.”
She stormed out of the office, and he was on the phone immediately with security to have them watch her as she left.
Then he called the IT department and had her security codes changed, any passwords she may have used changed, and when Luka came out of the bathroom, he was in the middle of calling a meeting with the top people from all departments to warn them she might try to hurt the company.
Benson covered the receiver and said, “I’ll be busy for a while. Would you like to go to my apartment and wait for me?”
“I’ll go to mine and meet you later,” he said before he leaned over Benson and kissed him. “Don’t leave me waiting too long.”
“I won’t ever leave you waiting again.”