Page 103 of Bene

Animals?

“Where’s the fucking respect, huh?” Bene shouted at a cop who was currently shoving his other brother, Chris, against the side of a car with a set of zip ties at the ready.

“Bene, don’t,” he heard Marcus warn.

Too late.

Bene was already heading right for the mansion the second another couple of cops dragged out a familiar man. His father. It was unusual for Gian to ever leave his house before he was entirely ready for the day. That meant his hair was combed back, his three-piece suit was on, and his shoes were shined. He looked his best because his image had to come first when it came to the public, no exceptions.

Now, though?

His father looked rough.

Thing was, he’d been in a meeting.

So, he would have been dressed, and good.

Why was he missing his jacket?

Why was his shirt a mess?

His hair skewed, missing a shoe, and—

“Gian!”

“Cara, it’s okay, bella, it’s fine.”

“Let me talk to my husband!”

Bene came around the last cop car keeping him from getting to his parents when his mother came flying out of the house, too. She moved for her husband, her hands curling around the arms that were tied to his back as she begged the cops holding him to give her just one second.

Please, she cried, please let me hug him. Please, just allow me a moment with him.

Instead of being decent, and giving his mother what she begged for—something Cara never did—the one cop let go of his father, and literally ripped his mother away from Gian.

She stumbled on her way to the ground. His ma fell because a cop dared to put his hands on her when all she wanted to do was hug her husband goodbye, and Bene saw red. He wasn’t sure what happened after that, really.

Bene went all fucking in.

Might have hit a cop.

Might have threatened a couple.

It was how he found himself bent over the hood of a cop car, blood in his mouth, and his hands cuffed at his back, too.

Fucking perfect.

His night could only go up from here.

Right?

“Where were you before you arrived at your mother and father’s mansion earlier?” the detective asked.

Bene tipped his head sideways, eyeing his lawyer for a response on that. This interview, as the cops posed it, although really it was just a fucking interrogation, had been going on for an hour and a half, but he was already done with it. Entirely. Depending on how the lawyer replied would determine whether or not he answered that question. The lawyer gave him a slight nod, and shrug, saying, “Your discretion to answer, as long as you feel safe to do so.”

Right, right.

“I was in the city,” Bene said.