Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
Bennett
I’m rarely nervous. I’ve never struggled with delivering bad news. I can’t remember the last time I avoided a conversation with someone.
Today is different. This is going to be Monday night with a twist.
And the twist is, Leo’s girlfriend “Nadia” is a lying, cheating thief.
Aarvi and Chul have checked and double-checked everything three times. There’s no doubt about any of the information I have. I just haven’t shared it with anyone yet.
All Worth, Fisher, Jack, and Byron know is that I have to deliver bad news to Leo about Nadia. I want us all to be together, although Byron can’t make it as he’s traveling.
Leo will need the support. And I want them all to hear what I’ve got to say so there’s no chance of a divide in the group. Nadia lives with Leo now and there’s no telling the lengths she’ll go to in an effort to explain herself. I just hope Leo hears me out. I know I’m running a risk. Leo might not choose to believe me; instead, he might think I’m trying to destroy his relationship.
Worth offered his place up as neutral territory. I press the bell on the brownstone, part of me wondering whether I should have brought security.
I’m six minutes late. Enough time for everyone to have arrived before me. I’m a horrible actor, and I don’t want to have to small talk with these five people who’ve become my family over the years. As soon as I see Leo, I want to rip off the Band-Aid.
Worth opens the door, his expression grim. He knows I wouldn’t have asked for his and the others’ help if this wasn’t serious. At the same time, I don’t want Leo thinking this is some kind of intervention or that we’ve all been scheming behind his back.
That’s not what this is about. There should be no muddying of the waters. Everyone will find out at the same time, with me using the same words.
“Everyone’s here,” Worth says.
I nod. I wonder if “everyone” includes Nadia. But I don’t ask. I don’t want to preempt anything.
Worth and I get down to the basement and everyone turns to me in silence. They all know something’s going down. They just don’t know what. Thankfully, I don’t see Nadia in the faces staring at me.
Worth fixes me a large whisky and Leo starts toward the sofa. I know it’s time.
“Leo,” I say, and he turns back to me, grinning like I’m about to tell him a joke. But this isn’t going to be funny. “I need to talk to you about something.”
He cocks his head and his forehead furrows slightly. The anticipation of what I’m about to say, what I’m about to do to him, is like a rusty knife in my gut.
“It’s about Nadia,” I say. “She’s been using you to hack into my phone on Monday nights, and using my phone as a gateway into Fort Inc. We have some advanced AI capabilities that no one outside of the company knows about.” I glance around. Now these guys know too. “We suspect it’s what she’s been after.”
“Fuck,” Jack says over the murmurs of the other three.
“What?” Leo shakes his head. “What are you talking about?”
“You know I left my apartment because my team and I thought someone was stalking me. Apparently, it wasn’t my paranoia in overdrive. Turns out it was the organization Nadia works for. They made the connection between me and Ben Fort. Found my friend group and… found a way in.”
I wince as I hear how it sounds out loud. Leo was a target. A mark. A means to an end.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“Your paranoia is out of control, Bennett,” Leo says. “Nadia’s a model, not a fucking spy or hacker or whatever the hell you’re accusing her of being.”
“I get it,” I reply, keeping my tone even. I don’t need to add fuel to the fire I’ve ignited. There will be enough damage tonight, whatever happens. “It’s hard to hear. And I didn’t believe it at first. Partly because the way she set things up, she made it look like it was you trying to get through the Fort security systems.”
“So you suspected me too?” he asks, his tone almost goading.
I shake my head. “Not for a second.”
My phone beeps. I know it’s Chul giving me an update on what’s happening at Leo’s apartment. He had a team go over there to keep an eye on things in case Nadia was there, and to be there when Leo found out. Just in case.
“Bennett, seriously. Have you heard yourself?” Leo asks. “This isn’t a Jason Bourne movie. Nadia’s not a villain.”
Worth slaps Leo on the back. “Dude, Bennett’s not lying to you.”
His support feels like a hand on my back. He knows I’m not lying.
Leo turns to Worth. “You knew about this?”
Worth holds up his hands. “Absolutely not. We’re all finding out at the same time. But Bennett doesn’t lie. You know this. I know this. We all know that about Bennett. We don’t lie to each other.”
“But it’s impossible,” Leo says. “She’s—I’ve seen her on the covers of magazines.”
I shrug. That’s not difficult to fake. No images are difficult to fake anymore.
He shakes his head. “There’s no way. I—I—I?—”
We all stand in silence, processing, allowing Leo to process.
“If it makes you feel any better, this isn’t a girl and her laptop,” I say. “My people think this is likely the hand of a government.”
“You think it’s the CIA?” Fisher asks.
I shake my head. “Not the American government or any of our allies.”
“Holy fuck, Bennett. How do you get yourself into this shit?” Leo asks. My jaw slackens slightly. Does his reaction mean he’s accepted what I’m saying is true?
“I’m sorry, Leo,” I say.
“Fuck that. I’m sorry I let her… near you.”
“This wasn’t you,” I reassure him. “She’s… clever. I almost didn’t catch her.” If it hadn’t been for Efa, who knows how long it would have taken for Aarvi to tell me what she knew?
How ironic that Efa has earned a place at Fort Inc., and now that we’re not together, she can take it up.
“So the entire time we were… Jeez, she’s in my apartment. She’s alone there now. What’s she doing?” Leo asks, panic rising in his voice.
“I have a team watching your place, ready to encourage her to leave, if that’s what you want,” I explain.
“And when you say ‘encourage her to leave,’ do you mean hurl her out into the gutter?” Leo asks.
“If that’s your wish,” I say.
“It’s not just my wish. I insist on that happening. Because if I get there and she’s still there, I don’t trust myself.”
Which is exactly one of the reasons why I have a team there. Nadia’s caused enough trouble. Leo doesn’t need a criminal record as a parting gift.
“I’d like to be able to go through her things before she takes them if you don’t mind?”
“Do what you like with her.” He shudders. “I need a fucking shower.”
“You can sleep here tonight, if you want,” Worth says.
“You know I have a hotel I can stay at,” Leo says, not missing an opportunity to talk about his hotel. He’s definitely got something brewing there, but now’s not the time to press him on it.
“I know,” Worth replies. “But you might not want to stay in a hotel.”
“Thank fuck I never told her about that,” he says.
“I’m sorry, man,” Fisher says. “I know you liked her.”
Leo shakes his head, making it clear he doesn’t want to talk about it. And that’s it with Leo. He comes across as this open, affable guy who’s everyone’s friend, but he keeps his most important cards close to his chest. Sometimes I worry about him.
“I’m fine,” he says, then turns to me. “Did she get anything? Anything valuable?”
“Aarvi’s pretty sure she didn’t. In the end, Aarvi let her through a section of the firewall into a dummy system to try and collect some more data from her. It spooked her and… the attacks stopped.”
Leo shakes his head. “I’ve got to stop thinking with my dick. Honestly, the sex was pretty mind-blowing.” He shudders again. “I really gotta take a shower. Worth, man, do you mind?” He heads to the stairs, but pauses and turns back. “I’m sorry,” Leo says to me, and I just shake my head.
“Don’t,” I say. “I brought this to your door. I’m the one who’s sorry.”
He takes a step toward me and we hug, silently reaffirming the bond we share. It’s energy. It’s forgiveness. It’s life force. It’s friendship through every up and down.
“I love you to your bones, man,” Leo says. “I’m sorry this is happening.”
Worth and Leo disappear upstairs, and I feel my body sink into the floor, heavy with relief.
It’s over.
It went better than I could have hoped. Leo didn’t question me—not for more than a second. Neither did any of the others. Proof, not that I needed it, that these men are more than family. We might not share the same blood, but the bond of trust between us is unbreakable.
My thoughts turn to Efa. I wish I’d afforded her the same level of trust. I haven’t known her as long as the men here tonight, but she was just as loyal. I threw that loyalty away far too easily. I pushed her away and pushed her away until she disappeared. I have no one to blame but myself.
Now that the truth’s uncovered, now that Leo and the rest of my circle have been told what’s been going on, there’s a feeling of certainty about the world being back on its rightful axis again. I feel it in every atom of my body, but peace is a distant feeling nonetheless. Up close, all I can focus on is how empty I feel, how night feels like day and day feels like night, and no matter how hot it gets in New York in August, all I can feel is ice cold since losing Efa.