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He ignores me and begins to wash himself.
“I was Googling the deposit box,” he snaps. “Nice to know what you think of me, though.”
I roll my eyes. “Ben…” I hesitate. “She rattled me.”
He shakes his head in disgust.
“She… she told me that you and she go way back,” I stammer. “That you would get sick of me.”
“Do my words mean nothing?” he cries. “I’m with you! I’ve never lied to you once. Not once!” He drops his head. “I left you so I never had to.”
“What do you mean?” I frown
“I knew I couldn’t look you in the eye and lie every time I went on a mission. I couldn’t do it. I knew that.”
I watch him, unsure what to say.
He gets out and wraps the towel around him then walks out of the bathroom in a rush and begins to dress. I run after him like a puppy.
“I’m just…” I hesitate and put my hands on top of my head in confusion. “You scare me, Ben.”
He turns to me and he shakes his head. “I scare you?”
I nod.
“Well, join the fucking club, because you scare the fuck out of me!” he cries. “I don’t know what kind of douches you have been with in the past, but when I say I love you, I fucking mean I love you, Bridget!”
I watch him as guilt washes over me.
“I’ve never loved anyone. Those words have never left my lips since the night my mother died, and to have you throw them in my face—” He hesitates. “Fucking hurts.”
Damn, that makes me feel like shit. Tears fill my eyes.
He pulls on his runners.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“Out.”
“Out where?”
“The gym.” He walks up the hall and disappears out the front door. It slams shut behind him.
I blow out a deflated breath and walk back up the hall to get back into bed. I punch the pillow in frustration.
“Good morning, Bridget,” I say out loud to myself. “Give yourself an uppercut.”
I pace back and forth in the kitchen. It’s 10:00 a.m. and Ben hasn’t come home. Is he still angry with me, or is it something more sinister?
I can’t find where I threw the damn napkin this morning during our fight, so I can’t even Google it or anything.
But I have two questions.
One: who is Jason Steel?
And two: is he setting Ben up to go to that place so that they can kill him for real?
It sounds obscure to me that he would ask him to go somewhere. Why would he trust Ben with information? Why Ben?
I make myself a cup of coffee and hear the front door open. My heart drops in relief.
Ben walks in. “Hi.”
“Hi.” I smile awkwardly.
He reaches around the back of the waistband of his track pants and then pulls out a small hand gun, placing it down on the table along with a large, yellow envelope. My eyes widen.
“I bought this home for you,” he murmurs as he taps the gun.
I frown. “Why would you think I need a gun?”
He shrugs. “Just to be sure.”
I watch him for a moment. “Where have you been?”
He tears open the envelope. “I went to the safety deposit box.” He pulls out a wad of paper and studies it. He frowns as he reads the writing.
“What is it?” I ask.
He sits down. “Not sure.” He flicks the page over and frowns harder. “It’s written in some kind of code.”
“Let me see.”
He hands it over and I stare at it. Letters, all in some kind of weird order, not making sense at all. I flick through the six pages, and they’re all the same. “What does this mean?” I frown.
He shakes his head. “I have no idea.”
At the top of the page there’s an arrow drawn in blue pen, pointing up. “What’s this arrow?”
He shakes his head and takes the pages from me again to study them. “It’s not any code that we use. I can’t read it at all.”
“You know who could read this?” I say.
“Who?”
“Joshua.”
Ben continues reading.
“This is Joshua’s thing. He loves mind-fuck things like this. He could break the code.”
Ben frowns. “I don’t want to get him involved.”
I shake my head. “As if he’s not safe with the security that he has. You should send it to him, he would break it in two days.” He runs the backs of his fingers through his stubble as he thinks. “Yeah, maybe.”
“Why did you go and get it now? I thought he said only if something happened to him,” I ask.
His eyes rise to meet mine. “Once he’s dead, it will be too late. I wanted to see what it is before then.”
“Are you in danger because you went and got this?” I ask.
“I don’t think so. They would be after him first if this is anything important.”
Her stands and gets a bottle of water out of the fridge. Then he sits on the lounge, and it’s obvious he is still angry with me. I follow him.
