Chapter 7
Catalina’s heart was beating out of control. She’d gotten caught! By Benjamin of all people!
She couldn’t believe her bad luck. Her sixth sense had tried to warn her, yet she’d ignored the signs—and now she was paying for it.
She hadn’t recognized Benjamin from behind when he was dealing with the newly arrived guests, while she’d snuck up the stairs as quietly as a mouse.
She’d been concentrating on picking the lock of the safe, and hadn’t heard him enter the room.
Picking locks was a skill she’d taught herself in the past two months while working a temp job at a locksmith firm.
She’d told the owner, who’d had a little crush on her, that it would be cool if she learned how to pick a lock.
He’d never asked how she would use that skill, and she hadn’t volunteered any information either.
In his tuxedo, Benjamin looked different from the previous night.
He looked older and carried an air of authority with him that had been entirely absent when they’d been alone in his flat.
In bed, he’d been more than accommodating to her needs rather than being demanding. Nothing of that man was visible now.
Had somebody else caught her, she could probably have talked her way out of what she was doing in the Prestons’ master bedroom, but obviously, Benjamin wasn’t taking any shit from her.
He was all business. Figured that he would side with the rich people, just like everybody else.
It pissed her off, particularly since he’d been her hero last night.
He’d somehow made the rich asshole who’d nabbed her parking spot give it up, and in that moment, he’d looked like a man who would always help those who couldn’t help themselves and put the entitled rich people in their place. Apparently, she’d misjudged him.
At the foot of the stairs, she noticed Benjamin put his finger on his earpiece.
“Ethan, cover the front entrance for me. I have to step away for a few minutes,” he said in a low voice.
There was a brief pause, then he added, “No, everything’s fine.”
Well, at least he wasn’t asking his colleague to help drag her away. Maybe that meant she still had a chance to turn things around. At least, she had to try.
Gripping her elbow tighter now, he ushered her outside into the dark night.
She immediately shivered in her uniform.
San Francisco wasn’t exactly known for warm evenings, no matter how high the temperature rose during the day.
The fog was already making its presence known.
In Fresno, far away from the Pacific, where she’d lived most of her life, hot days were followed by sweltering nights, which were unbearable without air-conditioning.
Benjamin didn’t seem to notice that she was cold, because he continued leading her away from the house without stopping.
“Where are you taking me?”
He grunted. “Somewhere where we can talk without anybody listening in.”
She stumbled, not used to walking so fast in high heels, and would have fallen had he not still been holding her elbow. “Damn it, Benjamin, slow down.”
But he didn’t listen to her until he stopped next to a black Porsche. He shoved her against the car and let go of her elbow. Still, there was no occasion for escape. He was practically caging her against the car with his massive body.
“Now talk,” he demanded. “What were you trying to steal from the Prestons?”
“Nothing, I swear.” It was the truth, no matter how ludicrous it looked and sounded.
He scoffed, and she wasn’t surprised that he didn’t believe her. But to explain what she was really doing there wasn’t something she could say in two sentences. The truth was much more complicated than that. Where would she even start?
“It didn’t look like nothing,” he ground out. “So, what are you? A professional thief? Or just an opportunist?”
“I’m neither. I’m just trying to make things right.”
He moved closer, and now, there was barely an inch of space between them.
She could feel his body heat as if he was trying to scorch her with it to force her to tell him what he wanted to know.
Why did it feel like he was taking this personally?
As if this wasn’t about the Prestons at all? As if he was disappointed in her?
“By breaking into a safe?” he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “That makes no sense. Don’t you see that?”
All she could see right now were his blue eyes pinning her.
They rendered her speechless. It would be so easy to give in and tell him exactly what she was trying to do.
But he wasn’t her friend. He was on the side of her enemies, the Prestons.
They were paying him. Just like they paid everybody else to get what they wanted.
“Damn it, Catalina.”
She felt his hot breath ghost over her face and closed her eyes, trying to push down the memories that arose with his tantalizing scent. Memories of a carefree, passion-filled night in Benjamin’s arms. The first and last night she’d ever spend with him.
“Fine,” he said, his voice clipped. “If you’re not ready to talk, we’ll do this later.”
She heard a click of the car’s locks, then Benjamin’s hands were on her.
At first, she thought he was pulling her into his arms to kiss her, but he simply made space so he could open the passenger side door.
Before she could protest, he shoved her onto the car seat and opened the glove box.
To her surprise, he retrieved a pair of handcuffs from them.
Not the kind of handcuffs that some people might use during kinky sex, but ones made of cold, hard steel.
Her mouth gaping open, unable to get a single word of protest out, she stared at them.
Benjamin grabbed her by her right wrist and clicked one cuff shut around it, then hooked the other into the inside handle bar of the door and clicked it shut there too. He’d cuffed her to his car!
“You f—”
He pressed a finger over her lips to stop her from finishing her sentence.
“Now, let’s not say something you might regret later,” he said with a smug expression. “Why don’t you cool down here, and when the party is over, I’ll be back. And then we’ll talk.”
“You can’t just cuff me! That’s kidnapping!”
“Actually, it’s not. I’m arresting you. Or would you rather I get the police to immediately take you to jail?”
“How can you do that?” She scrambled for something to say that would sway him. “After everything we did last night?”
Admittedly, mentioning their passionate night was kind of desperate, but what else was she going to say?
“Really? That’s what you want to invoke? That we had sex?” He huffed. “May I remind you that you ran away in the middle of the night? Without saying goodbye? Without giving me a means to contact you?” He glared at her. “You and I, we’re not done.”
He slammed the door shut and turned on his heel. She turned her head and watched him as he walked back in the direction of the Preston mansion.
Fuck!
In frustration, she slammed both her hands on the dashboard, only to feel pain shoot through her right hand as the cuff around her wrist jerked her arm back.
“Ouch!”
What now?
In her mind, she replayed Benjamin’s last words.
They weren’t done, he’d claimed. Did that mean he would give her the benefit of the doubt?
Why else had he practically smuggled her out of the house and not even mentioned to his colleague that he’d captured a would-be thief?
Or had he only done it so that there wouldn’t be a scene at the Prestons’ party?
After all, the Prestons had been in the papers more than enough in the past few months.
Surely, they didn’t want their name mentioned in conjunction with a crime yet again.
Perhaps that was the reason Benjamin had snuck her out of there without anybody being the wiser.
They’d probably given him strict instructions in an event like this.
She shook her head. No, she couldn’t trust Benjamin to do the right thing.
He worked for the Prestons, and everybody working for them knew that they demanded absolute loyalty.
And once she told Benjamin what she was really trying to do, the Prestons would be warned, and her chance of exposing them would vanish into thin air.
As much as she regretted not being able to spend another night in Benjamin’s arms and to see where their attraction would take them, she had to look out for herself and her brother. Nothing could come between them.
Catalina looked around the interior of the car. She opened the storage compartment in the center console and rummaged through its contents: coins, tissues, receipts, and other odds and ends. Nothing useful. She closed it again, then opened the glove compartment.
Bingo!