Chapter Fifteen #3
If you want to know the truth, come to Café Orleans. There’s a laptop with all the information you need to find out about what truly happened that day.
Kenzie called out after him. He knew what she would want and knew she wouldn’t listen to him.
He briefly thought about taking her as backup but discarded the idea. He would never put her in Huisman’s way if he had the choice. Never. Tim. He needed Tim.
That day. That day. It flooded his brain, tuning out everything else.
He strode down the hall, trying not to think about the attachment that came through.
It was impossible. The “photograph” Manny sent was burned in his brain now. The one that sent him back to “that day.” The one where his world fell apart.
He’d stood there after the doctor declared Deanna dead, and Manny had chuckled and shown himself truly for the first time.
It’s better this way, Benjamin. She wasn’t worthy of either of us, and now you can concentrate on something more intellectual than tossing a ball around. Now you can come with me and change the world.
He’d punched Manny right then and there and told him to never contact him again.
You’ll regret this, Benjamin. You’re the only friend I have in the world. Do you really want to be my enemy?
Deanna Fisher.
There was no question it was her, and she stood beside Manny, older than he remembered. She had a scar on her arm from the accident, but other than that she looked good for a dead woman.
Tim. Tim would be able to tell if that picture was a fake. He would run it through all his software and tell Ben that it was an AI fake and here were all the reasons why.
Deanna wasn’t alive. He’d gone to her funeral.
Her closed-casket funeral.
His heart raced, brain throbbing. He heard Kenzie on her phone. Calling in the cavalry, he was sure.
He would be out of the building before they managed to catch him. He knew that café. It was bustling and right down the street. Smart of Manny to pick a place that was always full. He was sure Manny would try something, but it would be hard in a place so public.
There was a certain amount of safety that came with being surrounded by millions of people.
He stalked through the club level of the building, trying not to think about how at home he’d felt here once.
He’d been becoming someone new here, someone happier and more settled.
Someone who had a place in a family that didn’t only involve work.
This evening when the space transformed into a sensual dreamland, he would be barred from entering.
He couldn’t think about that now. He had to concentrate on the mission. The mission was everything.
“Are you okay?” a quiet voice asked. Gabby.
She was walking out of the hall that housed the privacy rooms. She was still in pajama bottoms and a tank top she’d gotten when Vivi and Sophy took them to an H&M.
“Are you sick like Tim? He and Sosa are violently ill. Like terrible. I do not think they will eat again.”
Something about what she’d said sparked in his head, but he couldn’t think about it now. “I need his technical skills.”
He pushed through anyway and was greeted with Tim looking shaky and pale.
His cell buzzed again.
If you’re not here in fifteen minutes, the laptop will disappear.
Damn it. He should let it. He should put this in Big Tag’s hands and march into those Colorado woods with Kenzie and just be with her until this was over. If he did that, he might be able to save his relationship with her.
Deanna wasn’t alive.
The doctors had told him she died on the operating table.
The doctor in the hospital that likely had affiliations with the Huisman Foundation.
He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. Not for all these years. He knew Manny. If he’d been hiding Deanna, he would have taunted him by now. He would have used it.
“I’m pretty sure I’m dying,” Tim said, his voice hoarse.
“I need you to look at something for me. Huisman sent me a picture I’m certain is fake, but I need you to verify,” Ben said and frowned. He was being an asshole. Tim looked real rough. “Do you need a doctor?”
“Cooper already looked me over. He’s a medic. No fever. Just food poisoning. Those girls must have cast-iron stomachs,” Tim said and paled. “Uh, you should ask Lou. She’s down here working with Kala on her nanite project. I have to…”
He ran for the bathroom.
Ben’s time was running out. “I’ll handle it and come back and help you. Don’t die, man. I’ll run out and get some electrolytes. Hang tight.”
He would have to go without verification.
He turned and ran straight into Gabby, sending his cell to the floor. It hit the carpet and bounced but didn’t break because Tim knew how to protect their tech.
“Sorry,” Gabby said, dropping to her knees. She reached for the cell. “I was worried about…”
He knelt down and realized something was wrong. Her hand started to shake. Was she getting sick, too? “Are you all right?”
“This,” she said, showing him the screen. The picture of Huisman and Deanna was there. “Where did you get this? Who sent it to you?”
A chill crept up his spine. She looked a little like Sosa had when she’d first seen a picture of Huisman. “Do you know that woman?”
Gabby handed the cell to him, her face a mask of disgust. “She’s the madam. She runs the chateau. She runs it for him. I think she is his lover.”
Ben felt his gut take a deep dive. She wouldn’t.
Deanna had been many things but cruel wasn’t one of them.
She’d been ambitious and na?ve, but she…
wouldn’t. She wouldn’t hurt anyone, much less innocent girls.
This was a trick. He had to prove it. This was one more way to fuck with his head.
If Deanna was alive, would Kenzie even believe him that he didn’t know?
This was how he would put a wall between him and Kenz. And her team. Manny wanted him alone and vulnerable, and that was when he would strike.
He could fix this. He needed that laptop. Whatever was on it Tim could prove it was false. And maybe this would be exactly what they needed to prove several of Manny’s crimes. This was a mistake on his part. Manny was so fucking arrogant.
He was halfway to the lobby when Lou ran up next to him.
“Hey, I heard something’s going on. Gabby said you need Tim to verify some file for you.
” Lou had her laptop in hand. “I was going up to Kala’s room to grab some clothes since the test went a little too well.
It’s okay. I adjusted and it should work now, but she told me the nanites bit her and she doesn’t trust them.
I tried to explain that was impossible. Ben, where are you going? ”
He strode out the door, hoping no one had taken his access code to get back in. He had to risk it because he knew something bad would happen if he didn’t get to that laptop.
He would take it and let Lou and Tim go over it with a fine-tooth comb. He was halfway down the block when he realized Lou had followed him.
“Ben, you’re not supposed to be walking around London alone.” Lou had left her laptop behind and jogged to catch up to him. “You need to take someone with you. Like Coop or TJ.”
Damn it, now he had to worry about Lou because neither of those people were around this morning, so he had to do this alone. “Get back in The Garden.”
His time was running out. There was another text, but he ignored it. He was certain it was another of Manny’s countdowns. He loved to put Ben on a timer and watch him run himself ragged, but this time Ben would find a way to make him pay.
“You can’t be out here alone. What’s going on?” Lou was surprisingly fast. He had a good foot on her and she was matching him.
He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.
It was a spectacularly sunny day in a city that didn’t have a lot of those.
There were people everywhere. Tourists and people going to work and running errands.
They were in one of the biggest cities in the world with an excellent CCTV network.
Lou was brilliant, and why was he freaking out?
Not even Manny would be able to pull off a kidnapping in the middle of a London street.
But his time was ticking down. He turned the cell to her, offering her the picture. “I need you to prove that’s a fake.”
Her eyes went wide as she studied the photo, moving out of the way as a group of schoolkids ambled by, their harried teachers trying to keep them together. “This looks like…”
“Deanna. Yes. My dead fiancée. According to Gabby, she’s also the woman who tortured and trained them. Which I find highly suspect since that woman had never fired a gun. But it’s fake because she’s dead.”
Lou bit her bottom lip. “I don’t know. I need to run it through a couple of programs.”
“Good. You can do it when I get back.” He turned and started walking. “He left a laptop for me at the café up ahead. I’ll get it and be back soon.”
“You can’t simply pick it up and run with it,” Lou insisted, her boots sounding against the pavement. “You have no idea what’s on it. It could have a locator or hell, it could have a detonator.”
He knew she was speaking truth, but it didn’t matter. His brain was concentrating on one thing—his mission. He had to get that laptop. It was all that mattered now. He would take it somewhere else. He would get a hotel room or…he could take it straight to MI6.
Yes. That was what he would do. That would please both his need to have all the evidence he could gather and Kenzie. He found himself nodding even as he took back his cell and started jogging toward the café. “Call Big Tag and tell him I’ll come in. He’s at headquarters right now.”
She kept up with him again. This time full-out running beside him. “I’m pretty sure Kenz is doing that right now, and Kala will likely come after us.”
Then he better get moving. “She needs to stay inside the club. You need to stay inside the club. Damn it, Lou, you would be a valuable hostage. I don’t know if you know this but you’re quite smart, and he’s talked about forcing you to work for him before.”