12. Ben
Chapter twelve
“ N o,” I say firmly.
“Ben, please!” Mina pouts her lip at me, and I know what she’s trying to do.
“No, don’t you dare stick that lip out at me, Princess!” I point a finger at her, staying firm as I stand by her bed.
“But I’m bored! I wouldn’t even need to leave this bed. You could bring me all the stuff, and I could do my GED from here,” she begs, giving me those big, pleading eyes. It’s hard not to be amazed at how far her speech has come in the three days since she’s been home. She’s able to speak long sentences easily now. But if she tries to do that for too long, then her throat starts to get raspy, clearly hurting her.
I sigh, shaking my head. For the past three days, the twins, Gideon and Tucker, have had to leave during the day to go to school, and Atlas, Dom, and I have been busy trying to work on our case. She’s been feeling lonely, and clearly, restless.
“You know you need to rest. Once you get your stitches out, you can start working on it. For now, just relax.” I sit down on the edge of her bed and grab her hand. “We’re just worried about you and want you to recover. You don’t need to worry about any of that right now. It’ll still be there when you’re all healed up in a week or two. ”
She blows out a big breath, clearly frustrated. “What are you doing today?” she asks, turning her focus on me.
“Me? I’m just working on my computer in my room down the hall.”
“What are you working on? No, wait, what do you even do for work?” Her brow furrows. She’s asked before, but I’ve never gone into detail, neither have Atlas or Dom. We’ve been carefully avoiding the subject, unsure how to broach the subject of our true identities.
“I do tech stuff,” I answer vaguely.
“Yeah, but what exactly does that mean? Can you show me?” She perks up, her eyes lighting with curiosity. “Please, Ben, I’m so bored.”
The way she says it, like she’s about to combust if I say no, makes me laugh. I squeeze her hand and give her a warm smile. “Sure, Princess. Let me grab my laptop.”
I’m gone for less than two minutes before I’m back, sitting next to her on the bed. I open my laptop and angle it so she can see the screen.
“I track things down online. I can’t give you too many specifics right now, but basically, I help others find things.”
“Do you look for anything specific?” she asks, leaning closer, curiosity written all over her face.
“Sometimes,” I say with a nod. “Sometimes I’m asked to look into finances that don’t add up, or missing people, or it could be a location where strange things happen. It all depends.”
“And what are you working on right now?” She points at the screen, where rows of numbers are displayed.
“Well, this is a smaller job I just took yesterday. Basically, this company asked me to look into their finances because they think they’re missing money but can’t figure out where it’s going. Everything matches in their books, but based on their quarterly earnings, they’re sure they’re missing twenty thousand dollars.”
“And you can do that?” Her eyes widen in amazement, making me smile. “How did you learn this stuff?”
“I always loved computers and video games as a kid. I was pretty lucky, having parents who indulged in my interests. I actually got my GED early by studying and writing the test when I was sixteen. I got a full ride scholarship to MIT and studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. My parents, they uh…” I pause to take a breath before continuing. “They died when I was at school. My dad had a heart attack and my mother passed from cancer two years later. She didn’t even tell me she was sick. But she left me a note.”
“Oh, Ben, I’m sorry. That must have been so hard for you!” she says, squeezing my hand with worry in her eyes.
I nod as I respond. “Yeah, it was hard. But they loved me and they knew I loved them. I wanted to make them proud, so I finished school. Top of my class, too,” I say with a proud smirk.
“Of course you were, you’re the smartest person I know! I bet your parents would be super proud of you, Ben. I know I would be, if you were mine.”
I glance at her, her choice of words making my heart leap in my chest. Did she mean that the way it sounded? Knowing it wasn’t time to push her yet, I change the subject. Pointing at the computer screen, I ask, “wanna help me?”
“I can?” she asks, her excitement making me chuckle.
I should let her relax, and not use her brain, but if I was in her position, I’d be feeling the same way, restless and bored out of my mind. So instead, I nod, then start showing her the patterns of deposits and withdrawals. We spend about an hour with me explaining what we’re looking at, what all the numbers mean, and the kind of discrepancies we could be searching for. I also give her a tutorial on how to use the computer and basic programs for documents and spreadsheets.
“You know,” I say, squinting at the screen as she scrolls through another bank record. “I bet you’ll be really good at this type of thing, with your natural talent for math and your photographic memory. Why don’t you give it a go?”
I let her take the laptop so she can go through it at her own pace. She goes back and forth between a couple of screens, her focus narrowing in on something she sees. Suddenly, she points at the screen excitedly.
“There!”
I lean closer, squinting to read what she’s pointing at. “Twelve hundred and eighty-two dollars.”
“And here,” she says, showing me another entry.
“Eight hundred and seventy-two,” I read aloud. She starts copying all the numbers she’s finding into a new spreadsheet, her fingers flying over the keyboard. She really caught onto using a computer quickly.
“Each of these amounts is indicated as employee benefits. But employee benefits are actually included in the payroll line. Meaning…” She trails off, waiting for me to catch on.
“Meaning they’re double dipping! Holy shit, you figured it out! I just have to track down the account it’s going into, and we’ve got our thief!” I stare at her in amazement. “Princess, you’re amazing!”
I can’t stop myself from leaning down and pressing my lips to hers. She hesitates for only a moment before she relaxes into me. I cup her jaw as my tongue encourages her to open for me. She obeys my unspoken request beautifully, making me moan against her .
I’ve never felt such a connection kissing someone before. There is something about Mina that is all-encompassing, making me want to push her onto her back and take her right now.
Knowing I need to cool things down, I slowly pull back before placing one last kiss on her lips, then the tip of her nose.
“You really are amazing, you know that, right?” I ask as I push her hair back behind her ear.
I kiss the top of her head, grinning like a fool.
“You would have figured it out eventually,” she says, her voice sounding like she’s out of breath. It’s sexy as hell.
“Sure, but it might have taken me a week.”
“Really?” she asks, her smile growing as I nod.
“Yeah, honestly, I would have been working on it for days, for sure.”
We share a warm smile, and she asks, “does that mean you have more free time to spend with me now?”
I close the laptop and move it to the other side of the mattress. “Why? You want to spend more time with me, Princess?” My eyes roam up and down her body. We aren’t supposed to touch her until she’s fully healed, but she’s so tempting.
“Of course. I love spending time with you.” She reaches out and squeezes my hand.
I start to lean toward her, but something stops me. We haven’t even spoken to her about what our intentions are with her, or our involvement in the murder case yet. I can’t take this further right now.
Instead, I grab my laptop and stand up quickly. “Alright, well, I think this discovery earns us a snack break and a movie. What would you like? Popcorn?”
She lets out a small breath, her smile faint as she nods .
I all but rush out of the room to get our snacks. We’ve been doing that a lot lately—keeping our distance. Since she came home, I’ve only given her a few pecks on the head or a squeeze on the shoulder. That was the first time I’ve truly kissed her. I know it’s confusing her, and honestly, it’s starting to get to me, too.
After how we acted at the hospital, I thought maybe we were ready to take a step forward. Max even called her his girlfriend. But now? None of us have brought it up again, and I can see her wondering what it all means.
I know what her mother did to her—what she said. She told her she was unworthy of love, that she had a demon inside her, that she was worthless. And I can see the fear in Mina’s eyes sometimes, wondering if those words are true.
But they’re not. And we will do everything in our power to convince her of that. She doesn’t know it yet, but we’re not done with her—not by a long shot. I just hope she won’t give up on us before we can show her what she means to us.