Chapter 7
Ben
“Who are you?”
The woman dressed in purple and a familiar scowl asked him the minute he pulled back the curtain to the space where they were examining Victoria.
“I’m Ben Donovan, ma’am,” he said clamping down on his anger and the urgency to see Victoria because he suspected this was her mother.
They had the same light complexion and high cheekbones. Her hair was a different color but he didn’t believe that was natural. It had probably been as dark as Victoria’s years ago. And she was looking at him the same way her daughter had earlier today in the elevator.
“I didn’t hear a doctor before that name, so what are you doing back here?”
She’d narrowed her eyes as she glared at him, taking a step closer. Ben took a breath and tried to tamp down on the rage that had only increased since seeing Victoria on that stretcher. Instead, he tried for charm.
“I’m a colleague of your daughter’s, ma’am. I just came to make sure she’s alright,” he told her.
“A colleague? How did you know she was here? I just got the call about twenty minutes ago. I don’t see why they would call someone from her job so quickly.”
He could see where Victoria got her skepticism.
“Ben?” Victoria whispered from the bed. “Mama, let him in.”
Her mother looked at him like she had more questions but moved to the side so Ben could get past. Ben felt her eyes on him as he moved closer to the bed, the term “watching him like a hawk” didn’t seem quite sufficient. His neck even felt hot because he knew her eyes were fixated on him.
“How are you feeling?” he asked Victoria.
Her face was red and splotchy. The gray of her eyes seemed a little muted as red and puffiness surrounded them. She was no longer crying or tearing up which was good because seeing that had given Ben an unexpected jolt.
“I’ll be okay. The burning in my eyes has ceased a bit.” She coughed and Ben hurried to the table beside her to pour a cup of water. He handed it to her and she drank deeply.
A few seconds later she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’ll be fine,” she stated firmly.
She would, because he would guarantee that himself.
He nodded. “I know you will. I talked to the doctor. They’re going to keep you until morning.”
“What? No. I can’t stay here. I’m just fine. I’m going home,” she protested and tried to push at the sheets on the bed.
“You are not,” her mother came to the other side of the bed pulling the sheets back up and tucking them tightly beneath her arms. “If the doctor says you need to stay, you’ll stay.”
The feisty older woman met Ben’s gaze with tight lips.
“Your mother’s right,” he said looking down at Victoria. “Besides your window needs to be fixed before you can go back home.”
“Right, they broke the entire front window,” she said with a sigh.
“That’s a big window,” her mother added. “Kids play too seriously nowadays.”
Ben wondered if he should tell them it wasn’t kids. She needed to be alert and she deserved to know if she was in danger. He also wondered if she’d seen the Lexus before the windows were broken?
“You’re working a really high-profile case,” he began. To be forewarned was to be forearmed. Besides, he already had plans for her protection.
“The police are going to want to investigate the scene a little more closely than they would if it were just a classic case of vandalism,” he finished.
“But it was just a classic case of vandalism, wasn’t it?” her mother asked.
“This is my mother, Naomi Lashley,” Victoria said by way of introduction. “Listen, I really don’t think police investigation is necessary. I’m sure it was just kids driving by and playing a prank.”
“Like a gang initiation prank?” he asked with a tilt of his head.
“Yes,” and then, “No!” she yelled.
“Look, I don’t want to upset you.” Ben moved closer touching a hand to hers. “I’m not saying definitively that it wasn’t vandalism. I’m just saying that in light of the case you’re handling, the police are going to take more precautions. And so should you.”
“Do you think there’s a hit out on her?” Naomi asked in a hushed whisper like she thought whoever put the hit out was somewhere close by to hear.
“No. No. Nothing that serious,” Ben said but inside he knew it was that serious. There was already a person connected to this case that was missing. Intimidating a DA wasn’t something that would scare Vega and his crew.
“I’m not being targeted,” Victoria replied somberly. “The police can investigate all they want. First thing tomorrow morning I’m going home and then I’m going back to work. I still have a case to try.”
Ben nodded. He’d expected nothing less from her. Naomi stood beside her daughter, holding her hand. She attempted to look as strong and serious as Victoria, but fear etched her eyes and Ben wanted to tell her that he felt the same. That he was worried about Victoria’s safety just like she was.
“Thanks for coming, Ben. Even though I still don’t know why you showed up in the first place,” Victoria said, her voice softer now. They’d probably given her something for pain and it was starting to have that relaxing effect.
And that was her way of telling him he could leave. Ben wasn’t going to argue with her, not now. Besides he’d come here to see that Victoria was okay and she was. Now, he’d go home and take care of the rest of this business.
“I’ll see you in court,” he told her. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Mrs. Lashley.”
Naomi only nodded to him as he walked out of the room.
He knew she still watched him carefully, knowingly.
Ben smiled at the thought when he was headed for the elevators.
If Mrs. Lashley had any idea what he thought of her daughter, she wouldn’t have just given him the evil eye, she probably would’ve punched him.
“You did what?” Trent asked, his eyes about to bulge out, his fingers flexing at his sides.
“I sat in the courtroom at the preliminary hearings yesterday. I saw Vega,” Ben told him.
“Why would you do something so stupid? And why would you do it alone?” Trent stood, paced the length of his office.
He moved with very controlled steps, hands at his sides as he thought about strategy.
Everything with Trent was about strategy, either divide and conquer or ambush and kill.
Either or, the SEAL mentality was something he’d never lose entirely.
Especially when he thought one of his family members was in danger.
“Look, I wanted to show the guy that he can’t intimidate me. Sending me some note as a message that he can do to me what he did to Ebony was a bitch ass move. If he wants me dead, I want him to know I’m not hiding.”
“He doesn’t want you dead. At least not yet.”
This low, raspy voice belonged to Trent’s former Captain, Devlin Bonner.
Devlin had just returned from Miami where he’d been helping Ben’s cousins, Sean and Dion keep their magazine.
Now, he was in Vegas, supposedly visiting Trent, but Ben knew it was something else.
Devlin had left the Navy SEAL unit a year after Trent but they’d still worked together on special op assignments here and there.
At least they had before Trent had married Tia and they’d had a son.
Now Trent ran D&D Investigations with Sam Desdune and went home every night to his beautiful wife and child.
As for Devlin, Ben had a feeling, he was having a harder time breaking free of his soldier mentality and the world of combat.
“Vega’s a professional hitman. He could have you killed, or do that shit himself, in the blink of an eye, the same way he did with your assistant.
Sending you the note was a warning alright, but it was a playful one.
The minute he gets serious about taking you out, you’ll know it.
Same goes for that prosecutor,” Devlin continued.
He sat in the corner of Trent’s office, the one with the least amount of sunlight from the open blinds.
He was a dark-skinned man, with steely eyes that resembled pieces of onyx.
The scar running in a jagged line from his left ear, across his jaw to stop just before his top lip, made him look angry and dangerous at all times, even when he wasn’t exactly trying to be angry and dangerous.
“Wait a minute, he’s not going to get the opportunity to kill Ben because Ben is going to start taking precautions,” Trent interrupted.
“I’m not going to hide, Trent.”
Trent shook his head. “You know I’d be the last person to suggest something that ridiculous. What I am saying is that you need to start thinking like a criminal to protect yourself.”
“He’s right,” Devlin added. “Vega likes people to take him seriously. If he’s called in on a job that means the job is serious, whether it be about drugs or money, it’s important enough to bring in the top of the line to make sure the job gets done right.
He was sent to kill the Congressman and his wife, there’s no doubt about that.
But the former prosecutor could never figure out why. Do you know?”
Ben immediately shook his head. “Client confidentiality. I can’t divulge anything I know about that case.”
“Even if it gets you killed,” Trent replied skeptically.
“I’m not going to compromise the career I’ve built for this guy. Besides, I don’t know for sure there was a reason he was hired to kill the Congressman. I don’t ask those types of questions.”
“Really?”
Ben nodded. “It’s a lot easier to defend a client when you don’t know if he’s guilty or not. And believe me I didn’t want to know what Vega was doing or not doing.”
“You just wanted to get him off?” Devlin asked with barely masked contempt.
“Everybody is entitled to a defense. It’s my job to defend until proven guilty. I take a lot of pride in my job.”
Devlin didn’t move a muscle. “And I take a lot of pride in mine. If Vega so much as steps on a blade of grass in front of your house I’m shootin’ his ass. One quick shot to the head,” he said making his fingers into a mock gun and pointing them to his head. “Dead and done.”