Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Hill
When we step into the apartment, Lucian comes out to greet us. “How was the back country?” he asks in a terrible accent, giving me a hug.
“Good. Fun. Eventful.”
He looks at Menace and clears his throat obnoxiously. Rolling my eyes, I say, “Lucian, this is Menace. Menace, this is my best friend, Lucian.”
“Nice to meet you, Lucian,” Menace says in his deep, rolling voice.
Lucian titters, covering his mouth with his free hand. “Nice to meet you, too. I’m a big fan of your work.”
“Modeling?” Menace asks, a smirk on his face.
Lucian shakes his head. “No, your real work. I hope you don’t mind that Hill showed me.”
“Not at all,” Menace says as I take his hand and lead him to the living room. “I wish I could hang it in the fucking Louvre for all to see.”
Lucian sighs as he sits on the couch. “Same. You’re doing a service to the world.”
I roll my eyes again as I saddle close to Menace. “We might have a job to do.”
Lucian’s journalist ears perk up and he sits straighter. “What is it? You got a lead on something?”
Shaking my head, I wave to Menace. “Not me, him. But I don’t know anything either.”
Wrapping his arm around me, Menace pulls me closer and says, “This could be dangerous, for both of you. Robert isn’t the type of person who allows gossip.”
“It’s only gossip if it can’t be proven,” Lucian says. “What type of person is this Robert?”
“His name is Robert Beningfield the fifth. He’s—”
“Generational wealth, his family owning half of fucking upstate New York,” I finish with a gasp. “What did he do?”
“Before I left, he put three women in the hospital, or at least I suspected he did. Now it’s a pattern that I can’t ignore.
I got an alert when we landed that the woman he met at the charity gala was in the hospital.
He moved faster with her than the others, but I think she might have told him no about something and he lost his temper. ”
I snarl. “Those types never like to be told no.”
“Exactly,” Menace says. “So now I’m going after him. But I need him paranoid and his guard to drop. That’s where you two come in.”
Lucian wings up a brow. “What do you need from us? You want backup?” The feral grin that crosses his face makes me laugh. Lucian loves his killing.
Menace’s lip twitches. “Not yet. Right now, I want you two to write a hit piece on him. Dig into his background and uncover any dirt you can on him. If I know his type, he’ll have had the women sign NDAs so they can’t press charges against him and probably throw an obscene amount of money at them.”
I cackle, thinking that just a few weeks ago, Lucian and I were thinking the same thing. I mention it and Menace cracks a grin. “Guess he’s a shitbag on everyone’s radar.”
“We have some connections that can get me into files like that, easy peasy,” Lucian says and I nod. We both have people that we can slip a few hundred dollars and about a pound of weed to find all the things we need them to.
It pays to have good people in low places.
They’re probably not as good as Menace’s people, but they haven’t let us down yet.
“When can I expect you to have it published?” Menace asks and Lucian points to me. While we’re both journalists, Lucian works for a reputable news station, farming stories and giving them to show editors for broadcast. The kind of piece Menace is asking for would be more my wheelhouse.
My editor likes expose pieces, he loves the salaciousness of a juicy story, and he’s never backed down from getting word of wrongdoing into the world. It might not always pay off but he stands on business, so this story is mine.
Grinning, I rub my hands together like a cartoon villain.
“I might get a raise, bringing two stories to Clifton in a month. He’ll love me for how many papers he’ll sell.
” Print is a dying form, and most people just go online to get their news.
We’ve been slowly transitioning, but Clifton is hanging on to print for as long as possible.
Hell, we might have to pry physical copies from his cold dead hands.
Menace kisses me on my forehead. “I’m sure he’ll be pleased with you. Now, here’s all I know about Beningfield.”
He tells us everything he’s been able to dig up on Beningfield over the past year and a half he’s been looking into him. I can tell by the look on Menace’s face that he’s blaming himself for those women getting hurt, even though no one is to blame but Beningfield.
After he tells us about his business dealings, Menace walks us through the security around his home.
“It’s hard to get into his place and he always has security around him.
I’m good, but I don’t want to risk shooting at him with a high-powered rifle only to find out he has bulletproof glass.
Then he’ll double his security and only make it harder for me to kill him in another way. ”
Lucian smiles that angelic smile of his that has both men and women falling at his feet to do his bidding. “Don’t worry about that. When we’re ready to pull the trigger on this thing, I can get us in if you can’t get to him.”
I grin and throw a pillow at him. “I bet you can.”
“After your piece comes out, we can move in,” Menace says to me. “We’ll have to make his death look like a suicide so no one is caught in the crosshairs, least of all the women he’s hurt.”
I huff and cross my arms over my chest. “I really wanted to use an axe on this guy. If anyone deserves it, it’s him.”
“Aww,” Menace says, pulling me close and kissing my forehead. “I promise I’ll let you chop the head off the next abusive asshole, okay?”
“Fine. I’m gonna hold you to that.” Menace gives me one last kiss, then sits up. “I should be going.”
“What? Why?” I ask, feeling needy.
“So you can talk to your friend. You’ve been gone for ten days. I’m sure there’s some stuff you’ll want to catch up on.”
I sigh because he’s right. I want to spend every minute with Menace, but I missed Lucian. I also want to fill him in on what we did and gush about being in love.
“Okay,” I say, standing when he does. “Let me walk you to the door.”
When we get to the door, I wrap my arms around Menace’s neck and pull him down for a deep kiss. He groans in my mouth, placing his hand on the small of my back and melding our bodies together.
“Just stay,” I say when we break the kiss. “We got interrupted on the plane,” I pout.
Laughing, Menace kisses my nose and flicks the deadbolt. “Tomorrow. For tonight, go talk to your friend. I know you missed him.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Text me when you get home. Love you.”
His smile is so bright, like just hearing the words makes his heart soar. “Love you too, little psycho.”
He leaves and I press my back to the door, still not believing that I belong to Menace Grant.
“Come back here,” Lucian calls from the living room. “I want to hear all about your trip.”
I rush back to the couch and flop onto it, making Lucian laugh.
Scooching over, I lie on his lap so he can run his fingers through my hair.
“We had such a great time, Lu. I got to watch him model. It’s such a demanding job, only for the photographer to end up using less than half the shots.
But Menace didn’t seem to mind. He was in his element.
I could tell from how energized he was after what I thought was a grueling session. ”
“You’re in love, huh,” he teases, poking me in the cheek.
“Ugh, hopelessly. Where will I find another man that’s just like me?”
“Maybe prison,” Lucian quips and it’s my turn to poke him. “So, what else did you do besides watch your man pose for photos?”
“Well,” I say, turning onto my back, “he set up a date for us, super sweet picnic on the beach at sunset.” Lucian makes an aww noise. “Then he took me to kill a black widow.”
“Oh my god, I’m so jealous. Give me all the details.”
I tell him everything, from start to finish and how much fun it was to watch him kill. “He was annoyed with her for lying, but so in control. He kept his cool, did what he came to do, and left without much fuss. It was…really fucking hot.”
“I can imagine. I’ll find my match soon, I know it.”
“Yeah you will. You’re great, Lu. Anyone will be lucky to have you.”
He hums. “Now that you’ve sufficiently made me jealous, let’s talk about this Robert asshole. Let’s see what we can dig up without calling in our friends. I don’t feel like going to the dispensary until we have to.”
“Agreed.” I roll off his lap and hurry to my room to get my laptop.
When I come back, I boot up my computer, and we get started on searching up Beningfield’s bitch ass.
Lucian grunts when we get down to the last option on the first page of the search engine and points to it. “Look here. Seems like someone might not think he’s the best thing since sliced bread.”
I open the option and see that it’s a lawsuit that was filed three years ago. It was from a business manager who said wages weren’t fairly paid and was suing for wages owed.
When I scroll to the bottom, I see the verdict and frown. “Case dismissed. Wonder why.”
I go back to the search engine and type in information about the lawsuit in the court database but keep getting the notification that the case is closed. No further information on whether it was settled out of court, if charges were going to be levied later, nothing.
Groaning, I say, “Guess we’ll have to go to the dispensary after all.”
Lucian nods with a sigh. “Unfortunately. But they’re fast and efficient. We can have it done by next week.”
“Want a by-line?”
“Nah,” Lu says, stretching his arms over his head. “I’ll help take this fucker down for the love of the game.”