Bonus #3
“I’m not going to play, Castellammare. Just keep one thing in mind. What I came here to do is for her. Only for her.” He stressed the last part, making rage stir in Thor’s eyes. “Antonella doesn’t deserve what she’s been going through.”
The reaction came from where he least expected. It all happened so fast that none of the men present could react to Pietra’s furious voice when she appeared from God knew where, with Nathan and Josie on her heels.
“She really doesn’t, does she, you son of a bitch?”
The feminine hand landed hard on the former security guard’s face before he could dodge the blow and before Nathan could restrain his girlfriend, pulling her away right after.
“Calm down, Pietra,” Nathan said in her ear.
She didn’t care. “How could you? All this time pretending to be her friend when you helped that bitch set her up. And to think I thought you were a nice guy. You’re despicable!”
Thor was ready to end it when his mind clicked.
“You helped Antonella run away with our son, didn’t you?”
Pietra threw her furious eyes to her brother. Nathan was still holding her in his arms. Josie, at the other end, didn’t look any happier.
“Didn’t you hear me, Heithor? This son of a bitch helped Norah! Antonella told me when I called. This… this miserable bastard helped that snake!”
Recovered from the slap, Ben confirmed Heithor’s question:
“I did nothing more than my obligation.”
“Where?”
“God! Are you listening to me, Thor? He helped that painted-up bitch!”
“I can’t say.”
Pietra stopped trying to escape Nathan’s grip.
Everyone was still stunned, but attentive to the two of them, especially to what Ben had to say. He sighed heavily, though no less uncomfortable.
“I didn’t know Norah’s plans. We were never very close. We treated each other with the cordiality of coworkers.”
“And still you helped her.”
“It was a shitty mistake, a moment of weakness.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I don’t expect anything. Look, Castellammare, I’m not proud of what I did. I don’t expect you to forgive me or sugarcoat anything. If I had arrived a little earlier, I wouldn’t have allowed Norah to push Antonella…”
Thor’s closed fist struck his face, and a crack was heard with the force of the blow, making the man groan in pain as he stumbled backward. He fell, taking the objects on the end table with him when he tried to grab something. Blood poured from his broken nose.
“It’s Miss Vicenti to you, you son of a bitch.”
The tension in the living room increased, but no one dared interfere. They were silent, the men watching the spectacle with no emotion on their faces while the women alternated between shock, pity, and rage.
Thor was breathing hard, his nostrils flaring while he stared at the man, his eyes flooded with fury demanding to leap out.
He sucked air in deeply and fought to regain control of his grip, then stepped away, having to repeat the order to his brain three times before it obeyed.
A few feet away, Thor planted his hands on his hips.
“Was your engagement real?”
The man was still trying to pull himself together from the fall and the sharp pain in his face.
“Y-Yes.”
“Spill every last bit of shit, Benjamin.”
“Everything was real. I never lied about Juliana and me. We were engaged… I truly had no idea what Norah would do until I got here with Sean. I was outside the mansion talking to him while waiting to take Miss Vicenti to the clinic when we heard a strange noise coming from inside… It was a shitty coincidence that it was the two of us… I tried. I ran to Miss Vicenti to try to catch her, but she had already reached the floor and quickly lost consciousness. Norah was above… If I had arrived earlier, if I had known she was in the mansion, I would have stopped it…”
The shoes.
The fucking shoes Ella had talked about while still in the hospital belonged to the worm.
His teeth clenched with such force as he felt a wave of violence rise inside him that he wouldn’t have been surprised if they broke.
“Where does Sean fit into this?”
“I don’t know if he knew what she intended to do. I don’t think that’s the case, but only he can tell you. Sean and Norah were lovers, and he was in love. I didn’t see their deal, but I don’t think it was hard for her to manipulate him.”
First, a shit drug dealer. Then a pussy. He lifted his eyes to the other man. And now, a fucking traitor in love.
“Sean got her out of the mansion,” Thor deduced.
“Probably,” Ben said. “He got her out of the living room. I wasn’t paying attention to them… After I agreed to get into the game… I waited for emergency services and…”
“…Called me, and then with Sean made me believe Antonella had caused the fall.” God, he felt so stupid saying that. “And why did you lie? For Norah too?”
“I didn’t…”
“No. It was for Antonella. She’s the one you love.
You thought by getting into Norah’s game, you’d have Antonella.
That was what the whore offered you, wasn’t it?
The opportunity you were waiting for to try to win Antonella over, since you knew I wouldn’t forgive her if I thought she’d tried to kill our son. ”
“You can’t exactly blame me, can you, Castellammare?”
Thor calmly went to Ben, a few inches taller than the other man, lowered his head, and looked into his eyes, ignoring the blood staining the man’s shirt.
“Like I said, I admire your courage in confronting me, especially when I’m ready to throw a shovelful of dirt over your corpse.
Keep going and we’ll make the whole thing more fun. ”
He gave Kane a short nod. Kane repeated the gesture to two of the five security men who had also entered the living room. They flanked Ben.
“Take him and wait for me,” Thor ordered Kane.
Recognition came into Benjamin’s eyes. There would be no redemption for him.
No forgiveness, only retaliation. He was the lesson for the others.
But it wasn’t as if he hadn’t known the risk when he walked into the lion’s den.
Heithor was not known for his mercy toward his traitors.
Or for giving them a little sadism and then a go-with-God-and-don’t-betray-me-again either.
Ben didn’t fight, despite the anger and instinct, when the security men forced him to walk. He let himself be taken.
“Did you warn Norah?”
Ben didn’t say it, nor did he need to.
Thor ran his hands through his hair, mad with rage. A murmur of voices settled in, but he paid no attention. He took the vibrating phone from his pocket.
He went to the office and picked up the two sheets the fax had spit out.
“I can’t believe Norah did this…” Eric was saying.
“No? And how exactly do you explain everything you just heard? And this? These are the altered records from that day. Norah did this right under your nose. I spoke with the pilot who made the flight. He recognized her.”
Shock took over Eric as his gaze jumped from the sheets to Thor. “This… Hold on, man! You had already talked to him before and…”
“Wrong pilot.”
Thor gave the guys a summary of his recent discoveries, only the essentials so they would know who they had been dealing with for so many years.
No one dared interrupt him.
The friends absorbed the betrayal.
Shock was soon replaced by rage on each of the men’s faces.
“Jesus, son. Anna? Anna?” Martha seemed lost.
“Yes, Mother. Anna kept her informed and was the one who brought her in here.”
“Bitch! I hope she lives in misery for the rest of her life,” Pietra murmured.
Eric, the most affected of the guys, opened his mouth but said nothing, still trapped in the discovery. He ran a hand through his hair and fixed on his friend.
“I still can’t believe that…” He exhaled, losing the words.
“You think I’m lying? That I like making myself look like a clown just to play a prank on you, fuck? Now explain this to me, Eric. Because if I remember correctly, you said Norah never left your sight, and we know that’s a lie. So did you get into her dirty game too, or were you deceived?”
The other man jumped to his feet, offended.
“I didn’t lie. She didn’t leave, but man, I wasn’t sleeping with her. If she had left that day, Jason would have come to us. He never let her go for anything.”
“It’s true, Thor,” Josie interrupted, drawing attention to herself, but she avoided her ex’s eyes. “Jason would have come… if he hadn’t been drugged.”
Eric narrowed his eyes on her.
“What are you talking about, Josie?”
“Norah drugged Jason when she made us believe they were having sex when we went to call them to go up the trail. Remember?”
“How can you be so sure he was drugged?”
Nathan entered the conversation.
“It’s true, man. I spoke with him too. What he described to us after waking up that day were the symptoms of someone who had been drugged, the same ones that, well…” He moved an angry look to his girlfriend, who offered him a little smile.
“Where is he?” Thor asked.
“A few days ago, when Ella called me to talk to J, she remembered that episode. Ella was sure that was the opening Norah used.”
Josie completed. “I didn’t pay attention to it the day she called us, and I don’t think Eric or Jason did either because, well, they were together. But afterward, thinking it through, what Ella said wasn’t that absurd.”
“Sex was an excellent excuse,” Pietra agreed angrily.
“Jason practiced BDSM. A sub. She had the perfect bridge. Tied up, he wouldn’t be able to go looking for her if he woke before she came back.
Eric and Josie catching them in that situation would take away any suspicion.
No wonder none of them talked about it at the penthouse.
The fact is, it stayed in our heads, so I asked Nathan to help me find Jason. ”
“Why didn’t you tell me anything?”
Thor felt insulted by all of them, but above all, by himself.
“It’s not like you were very willing to talk or consider anything that wasn’t a hammer, right?” Pietra shot back at her brother.
He chewed back a curse.
“Is Jason her accomplice too?”