Page 55 of Benjamin and the Thief

The last word was spoken as if he’d put it in parentheses.

Before she could say anything else, another man entered behind him. He appeared younger and was Asian. She recognized him from the party at Benjamin’s flat, but she couldn’t remember his name.

“I asked you a question!” the mean bald guy said.

“Give her a break, Zane,” the Asian guy said. “That’s Catalina, Benjamin’s woman. You’d better be nice to her.”

She cast him a thankful smile. “Sorry, we met at the party, but I don’t remember your name.”

“Sebastian,” he replied.

“Yeah, whatever,” Zane cut him off. “Just because she’s Benjamin’s girl doesn’t mean that he can skirt the rules.” He pointed to her while looking at Sebastian. “She needs a visitor pass. We can’t just let anybody run around in here.”

“Alright, alright,” Sebastian said, obviously not intimidated by the other man. “I’ll take her to the reception to get her a pass.”

Zane grunted. “And tell Benjamin the rules are there for everybody!”

“Come along, Catalina,” Sebastian said in a much friendlier tone than his colleague. “I’ll take you there.”

“But Benjamin should be back any minute now. He won’t know where I went.”

“We won’t be long,” Sebastian assured her.

Zane hadn’t moved an inch, clearly bent on making sure she actually went to the reception to get a visitor pass.

“Okay then,” she relented and followed Sebastian out of the office.

When she walked alongside him toward the elevator, he leaned in and whispered, “Just ignore Zane. Like he’s never broken a rule in his life.”

“I heard that,” Zane called after them.

Catalina looked over her shoulder and saw that Zane stood just outside of Benjamin’s office. How could he have heard Sebastian’s whispered words, when she’d barely heard them?

25

Benjamin stepped out of the elevator and almost collided with Nicholas.

“I was just on my way to see you,” Nicholas said. “What do you need me to do?”

He motioned for Nicholas to walk with him, and they continued toward his office.

“I need a deep background on a public defender. I suspect that she might have been bribed not to put much effort into defending a young Latino who went down for burglary.”

“That’s easy,” Nicholas claimed.

“I’ve already looked at her financials, but there’s nothing out of the ordinary. But she has a brand-new Mercedes, and there’s no way she could afford that car on her salary.”

“I can totally look into that. Give me her details, and I’ll start right away.”

“Great,” Benjamin said and stopped in front of his office. “I’ve also got the name of the dealership that transferred the title. Why don’t you start there?”

He opened the door and entered his office, Nicholas on his heels. One look, and he realized that Catalina wasn’t inside. Panic instantly rose inside him.

“Fuck! Where’s Catalina?”

“You brought your girlfriend to the office?” Nicholas raised an eyebrow. “At night? When the building is swarming with vampires?”

“I had no choice.”