Roar (Military Bad Boy Billionaire Romance) (Soldiers of Fortune Book 4) (20 page)

But his eyes are still just as cagey and just as sharp as they always were.

He shrugs; “Alright,
fine
, let’s be uncivilized.” He reaches back and picks up a hammer, weighing it in his hand and turning it in his fingers as he grins at me; “So-“

“You need to lead with the questions first.”

He frowns; “Excuse me?”

“The questions, Benson; I mean when you’re trying to interrogate someone. You don’t just jump right into showing them the scary fucking tools; it puts them on edge and makes them clam up.”

His lips pull back in a wicked looking grin and he shakes his head at me; “I don’t know if I like this new sober ‘funny man’ Bryce. You know, I think I liked you better when you were that zombie junky you used to be.” When I don’t respond, he shrugs and drops the hammer back on the table with clang; “Alright you little prick, we’ll do questions first. Where the fuck are they?”

“Where the fuck are what.”

“Don’t be smart, kid. I was
there
, you little shit; we found them
together
.”

“The
fuck
do you need diamonds for, Benson? You guys are the like the largest DOD contractor in the system.”

“The heart wants, my little friend; the heart wants.”

“Excuse me?”

“I want bigger, and better.” He narrows his eyes at me; “I want a William Archer life; a charmed
Bryce Conners
life.”

“Trust me its not what it’s cracked up to be.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

We stare at each other like that for a moment; two soldiers, facing off; “So this is all for the money?”

Benson laughs; “Of course it is, the whole fucking world’s about money.”

Well, this sounds familiar.

He glares at me; “So where are they?”

I shrug, shaking my head; “I don’t know.”

Benson lets out a long a long sigh as he turns and picks what looks like an electric razor off the table; “Want to try that again, Brycey-boy?”

“I
don’t
know.”

“Wrong fucking answer.” The device in his hands sparks blue light, and I suddenly realize it’s a damned
taser
in his hands.

Well, shit; this is about to get a whole lot less fun.

Benson’s arm jerks forward, and I can’t help but scream when the thing makes contact with my shoulder. The taser is like twisting, biting heat lancing through me, clenching my muscles into painful knots and knocking the wind from my lungs .

Benson hoots as he draws his arm back; “Man, technology is a motherfucker, huh! Who needs creepy old tools anyways?” He laughs; “So you want me to keep asking until you piss yourself, or do you just wanna tell me now?”

“I’ve got no idea-“

The taser connects with my skin again, making me roar out a scream as the pain thunders through my nervous system, shorting out my brain for a second as my thoughts go numb.
 

“Fuck!” I shake my head as Benson draws back, trying to clear the thudding fog from my senses; “Jesus Christ, Benson, you knew me back then. I was a fucking waste-case; I was high out of my fucking mind. I’ve got no idea where we put them.”

Benson scowls at me, his lips drawing back from his teeth; “Oh I know where we put them, Connors. Problem is, the day you left, they weren’t there anymore.”

“It was a war -zone dickhead, anything could have happened to them.”

He’s grinning at me, but his eyes are anything but smiling as he leans closer to me; “You’re selling me bullshit, Connors, and I’m not buying.”

He turns his back to me, reaching for something else out of sight on the table; “How about a trade.”

“What?”

He turns, his hands wrapped around something and that wicked glint in his eyes as he grins pure evil at me.

I don’t like this.

“I said how about a
trade
.” He opens his hands, and I can feel my whole heart go numb as my eyes narrow in on the syringe in his hands. I’m drawn to it, like a moth to flame; unable to look away or even fucking blink. Five years clean, and I
want it
; I want it so bad I can fucking
taste
it. Five years without a drop of poison in my system, and I’m practically aroused just looking at the fucking thing.

That’s
addiction for you.

“So, how about it, Connors?”

My eyes linger on the silver and glass weapon in his hand before I finally tear my eyes away to look up into his face; “I’m clean, Benson; I don’t want it.”

He smiles, his eyes narrowing even further at me; “
Oh
, I
know
you don’t.”

A very cold feeling begins to spread through me, choking the blood to ice in my veins and seizing up my chest.

And I’m scared.

Benson sees it like the predator that he is, and takes a step towards me; “Yeah, thats right, you don’t want this at
all
, do you you little fucking junky.”

He moves his arm out, the needle moving closer and closer to my outstretched, tied-down arm, and I can feel every muscle in my body tense up. And there’s a war being fought inside my head, between the part of me that wants to run screaming from this nightmare and the part that
craves
every single fucking drop in the needle.

The room starts to fade around me, the edge of my vision growing darker as Benson moves his hand closer, until the cold metal of the needlepoint is against my skin. I’m drowning, my head swimming as the freezing chill of it all starts to claw it’s way up my throat. He draws the point of it up and down the skin of my inner arm, and I’m losing control.

I’m drowning.

“Where are the diamonds, Connors.”

I want to tell myself not to break, not to give in. But the worse part is, there’s nothing to tell anyways; no answer that he wants to hear.

“
Tell me
.”

I’m drowning, my throat closing up inside, and the demon inside is
raging
. He’s tearing at his cage; ripping at the floorboards, shattering the bars, and screaming like a fucking banshee roar inside my head;
I WANT IT. I FUCKING WANT IT!

The needle pulls away, and suddenly, I can breath.

I gasp, letting the air fill my lungs as the blackness in the corners of my eyes begins to fade; the rampaging demon inside crawling back to his cage.

Benson laughs; “Jesus Christ, once a junky, huh?” He shakes his head as he walks to the door and knocks on it until a man in black comes to open it. He turns and waves the needle in his hands at me; “I’m gonna ask you again tomorrow, buddy-boy,” He says evenly; “And after that, I’m gonna keep asking you.” A wicked grin creeps across his face; “But Bryce, after tomorrow, you’re not gonna be worried about what happens if I
do
stick you with this.” He looks hard into my face; “You’re going to be a whole lot more worried about what’s gonna happen when I
don’t
.”

We’re silent as we sit across the table from one another; each trying to weigh out the other, as if we’re both looking for a weak point.

Sasha’s dark red lips turn up slightly in the corners, an almost imperceptible smirk on her face as she arches an eyebrow. Her eyes never leave mine, both of us locked in this ridiculous staring contest as she reaches for the silver case on the table and draws out a cigarette. She only looks away to light it, the curling tendrils of smoke in stark contrast to her jet-black hair drifting lazily up under the dim glow of the overhead light.

I’m still trying to convince myself that coming here with her, or trusting her for that matter, wasn’t a massive mistake. But, here I am, and as for the second part, what choice do I have?
 

Because I’m fresh out of options.

Sasha finally rolls her eyes as she blows a trail of smoke from her lips; “OK, this is getting absurd. Let’s just lay it out on the table, shall we?”

I glare at her; “Where were you?”

“My cover was blown, I
told
you that.”

“And I’m supposed to just believe you?”

A look flashes across her eyes, her usually obnoxiously smirking face suddenly dark and unsmiling; “I’m going to need you to trust me if we’re going to do this, you know. And right now, I can tell that you
very
much
do not.”

Oh, was I that obvious?
I grumble inside, saying nothing out loud as I purse my lips tightly together.

“And I think I know why, you know,” She says, that smirk finding its way back to her lips; “It’s Bryce, isn’t it?”

Keep it up, bitch
. I narrow my eyes even more at her, feeling my jaw tighten as I burn holes in her face with my pupils.

Sasha rolls her eyes dramatically; “I never slept with your little boyfriend there, you know.”

I want to play it neutral, as if nothing she says can affect me either way, but I can’t hide the sudden look of surprise in my eyes. I know she spots it as she grins; “Yeah, I figured that was it.” She shakes her head, leaning back in her chair and tapping her cigarette ash onto the floor; “Look, not for lack of
trying
, mind you, but it never happened. We were junkies, we both cared much more about the H than we did about
that
. I mean, I-” She looks away then, that shadow darting back across her face; “We felt
differently
about many things,” She says quietly.

Part of me wants to feel bad for her, even if it’s a
very
very small part. This woman obviously had feelings for him as well, and even if the thought of her with him makes my blood boil, I’m hardly in a place to judge someone for liking someone they shouldn’t.

“It’s in the past, you need to know that,” She says evenly, her eyes locked on mine; “That went away with my addictions.”

I nod, still silent, and still skeptical, even if she is baring it all here to me.

“Being one of - what, two women I believe there were - in a mercenary unit is
challenging
, to say the least. Rude jokes turned to ruder gestures and then even ruder
attempts
. But Bryce was always one to step in; always the one to step between the weak or outnumbered and the bullies and the predators. Even when he was in his lowest point, mind you; even when it was doubtful that anything else in the world but the smack mattered to him.”

She looks at me sharply; “Finding someone in this world who
cares
, someone who actually gives a shit about more than just keeping their own head above the water is a rarity, Peyton. But, I’m betting someone like yourself already knows that.”

I look away, stubbornly not wanting to give her the satisfaction of seeing how right I know she is on my face.

Sasha laughs; “Look, would it help if I mentioned that I haven’t dated men in four years?”

I jerk my gaze to hers, arching an eyebrow, and she laughs; “You can relax, darling. I’d have more of an interest in sleeping with
you
then your boyfriend these days, if you weren’t such a cold fucking bitch all the time.”

She grins at me, and I can’t stop my own lips from curling up at the corners; “Sorry.”

“Don’t be, I’d do the same in your position. Bryce is a…a
complex
man, but he’s one of the good ones, and you obviously care very much for him.”

“It’s-” I shake my head; “It’s complicated I guess.”