Chapter Fourteen #2
She wasn’t doing this with him. It was time to retreat and build up her defenses.
Hell, maybe it was time to request another assignment.
If she convinced her team to pull out and allow Ben to work with another Agency team, would Huisman leave them alone?
“Write up whatever story Huisman told you and present it to my team. They can decide if I’m a whore they want to throw away or not, but I’m not doing this with you. ”
She tried to turn but he reached out and gripped her arm again.
She was covered in his marks, every one of them a gift she’d accepted with glee because she was proud to have the whole world know she belonged to this man, that she’d finally found her one.
Not this time. He gripped her tight enough that it would bruise, and she would look at it and feel how much he hated her.
She might not be able to play that way again.
“I’m not some asshole you get to order around, princess,” he growled.
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 her sister 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.”
“Why the hell would you want to hang around with the whore who’s leading you astray?” She was getting sick of Ben’s crap.
Kala’s head shook as she considered Ben.
“What are you talking about? You’re listening to Huisman?
About what? You’re supposed to hate Huisman.
We went through this months ago when that fucker told us you were working with him.
Kenzie is the one who convinced us you would never.
Now you’re having long phone conversations with the man? ”
“He told you I was working with him?” Ben asked, his eyes going hard.
Kenzie didn’t care. She wanted to get this over with. “It doesn’t matter.”
“When we were in Nepal, Huisman had some interesting thoughts about you,” TJ pointed out. “He told Zach you were working with him. According to him, you were the reason they found us in Liverpool. Kenzie shut that down quickly because she knows he lies.”
“I would never work with that sociopath,” Ben said.
“But I would.” Kenzie knew the answer to that question. She’d known it would all go bad the minute he answered that call. He would believe Huisman because he desperately needed their game to continue.
She wanted out now. She’d thought she could save him.
You can’t save someone. You can only love them enough that they want to save themselves, but sweet girl, sometimes it doesn’t work and you have to know when it’s time to save yourself.
She could hear her mom’s words. She should have listened better. Her dad was all about the condom, but her mom was about protecting her heart.
“Did you or did you not know that Manny was aware the two of you were twins?” Ben asked the question like he already knew the answer.
What the hell? “Of course I knew.”
He nodded like she’d made his point. “You told him. Did you do it in Australia? How long has he known while you lied to me?"
Kenzie was so fucking confused. “Ben, have you read the files my father sent to your handler? He sent everything to you after Nepal.”
“Of course,” he replied. “Not that I can trust a word in those files since your whole family lies.”
Kala seemed to deflate. She moved in and put an arm around her sister, letting her know she was going to be what Kenzie needed her to be. “Dude, Huisman’s been watching our family since before we joined the Agency. Did you read that part? Because I know my mom and dad made sure your agency knew.”
Ben went still as though trying to figure out what he was missing. “Manny blames your father for his father’s death.”
Even though her father hadn’t been there that day and it hadn’t been one of his men who’d shot the elder Huisman.
“Yes, and Huisman’s grandfather kept a file on us from then on.
When we joined the Agency and they erased Kala and me, Huisman had the files from before.
Of course he knew. His family has been watching mine since we were children. ”
He didn’t move, as though he needed time to process information he should have already known.
“Wait, all of this is about Ben being pissy that Huisman knew you two were twins?” TJ asked, sounding confused. “But you sent him the intel as soon as you brought him in.”
“It didn’t say Huisman knew,” Ben argued, his hands in fists at his sides.
“Logic states that he knows if he’s been watching us since before we were redacted from life,” Kala said with a sigh. “Seriously. Did you even read the file? Should I tell you the moon is out or would you know that because it’s nighttime?”
“It’s not about that.” She had lost him, and this turn of events wouldn’t solve the problem.
“He can’t ever forgive me for lying to him, and beyond that he won’t ever trust another woman because the one he really loved chose Manny over him and then she died and he couldn’t beat Manny and win her back. ”
“I didn’t love her,” he said between gritted teeth.