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Vito sat in the chair opposite the desk as darkness captured the world outside. Benny leaned against the oak desk, his stature creating a shadow over the pristine laptop placed there.
“First of all, when did you find this?” Benny said, holding out a thumb. “It’s nearly three o’clock. The gym closes at ten.”
Vito wasn’t the brightest spark. Benny knew that. He gazed up at the clock as if time had slipped through his fingers.
“I was thinking of what to say to you, boss,” he said, eyes still wide as saucers. “I went for a little prowl to get some energy out, ya know?”
Benny knew. Vito was a lion shifter. Benny was a tiger shifter himself, and he could relate to the impulse to run. But unlike Benny, Vito was unsteady, unstable, impulsive, and obsessed with his vanity.
He had noticed a few needle marks on his back when they changed at the gym at the same time, and he suspected the lion had been taking steroids. That certainly didn’t help the unstable factor.
“Okay,” Benny said evenly. “So, second of all, tell me what happened last night. What did this person see?”
Vito told him that he had broken the thumbs of a member of the gym who hadn’t paid his gambling debts. He had done it in the parking lot after the gym had closed, which gave Benny all of the vital information he would need.
“It seems pretty obvious to me that this person who saw the assault works at the gym, V,” Benny said. “You said it had just closed. It was probably someone who closes all the time. We can look into that. Plus, whoever opened this morning may have put the note in your locker.”
Vito nodded frantically, his charged energy never slowing down, yet the anxiety seemed to dissipate. It didn’t bother Benny a single bit, as the concept of blackmail wasn’t foreign to mobsters like him.
“That all makes so much sense, boss,” Vito said, clutching his chest. “What are the next steps?”
Benny stood, and he started to guide Vito out of the office.
“I’ve got a poker game to close tonight. Then, you and I can look into who was working, and we will do what we do best.”
Vito’s dark eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. Benny wasn’t against violence, but the way it riveted his foot soldier seemed a little concerning.
“Got it, boss!”
Benny closed the door behind Vito, letting out a heaving sigh. He then whipped out his phone, sending Florence a text that he knew would get her panties instantly wet.
“When you’re done down there, how about you get that tight ass up here so I can lick it?”
Chapter4
Liz
Another day of watching men compete for the alpha male title through weightlifting and leg presses. Liz’s dream. The job wasn’t bad, it had supplemental pay, and occasionally she got to secretly ogle all the men who were actually serious about their performance.
She glanced around at the white walls holding her captive. Using her customer service voice got tiring after a while. Between calls and greeting customers, she went over her studies in her mind. Affidavits, allegations, and appeals swarmed tirelessly. Sometimes she caught herself not even looking at anything. Her vision blurred with the pages she had read until midnight the night before.
The door swung open, and her favorite distraction walked in, Ben. Everything about him captivated her. She was entranced, from his biceps barely fitting into his workout shirt to the brown hair that made his piercing green eyes so intense.
“Liz,” he said to her with a nod.
“Good afternoon, Ben!” she said in her usual cheery voice. He didn’t seem pleased with her optimism as he walked by. A man on a mission.
Liz watched him walk toward the men’s room, admiring the strength of his legs. She wondered what he looked like when he showered after working out, how defined his abs must be, how big his ...
“Liz?”
She whipped around to face her manager. “Yes?” she said, trying to remain calm.
“The emails I asked you to send out?”
“Oh God, I’m ... I’m so sorry,” she said, sitting down in her chair and pulling up the emails on her computer. A surge of panic rose in her chest. Everything she did must be perfect, timely, and planned.
Her manager walked away, and she sighed. Ben was throwing her off her game, and she couldn’t afford to lose this job. She began typing away before she was jarred by a voice in front of her.
