Flawless Danger (The Spencer & Sione #1) (45 page)

Rubbing his chin, Ben said, “He wouldn’t have killed you.”

“He said that, too,” Spencer said. “He told me I was no good dead. What did he mean by that?”

“Sweet girl, listen to me. We need to leave,” Ben said. “We need to go back to the house Fong told you to go to last night. Can you remember where the house is?”

“I’m not going back to that house,” she said, sidestepping away from him, glancing around the small, humid shed, looking for a weapon.

“That’s where you left your purse, remember?” Ben said, his calm tone laced with barely suppressed irritation. “And you put the envelope in your purse, so we have to go back to that house and—”

“That’s where Tommy Fong attacked me! Because of you!” Spencer screamed at him. “Because Richard wanted to make you behave! I was taken so you could learn to be obedient! That’s why I went through this hell!”

“Sweet girl, what are you talking about?” Ben glared at her.

“I thought I was going to die!” she screamed at him. “I was treated worse than a dog because you disobeyed an order!”

“No man gives me orders!” Ben thundered.

“Richard gives you orders!” She took another step back. “If you had obeyed them, this wouldn’t have happened to me!”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said. “We need to go!”

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” she said.

“Sweet girl, you have to trust me!”

“Trust you!” she screamed. “You threatened to kill my grandmother! As soon as you get what you want, you’ll kill me, too! Just like you killed Maxine Porter and Carla Garcia and—”

“Listen to me!” Ben grabbed her and shook her so hard, her teeth rattled. “If I wanted you dead, I would have killed you a long time ago! I could have done it the last time we made love. Don’t you remember that night? And the next morning?”

“I woke up to a knife in my face!”

“Did I cut you?” Ben asked. “Did I slit your throat? I could have put that knife in your chest while you were sleeping next to me! But I didn’t, and do you know why? Because I love you, Spencer!”

Shocked, she stared at him.
Spencer?
Her stomach jerked, and she felt something within her began to plummet. Since when had Ben ever called her Spencer? From the first day she’d met him, she’d been his
sweet girl
, not Spencer.

When he said her name, it was as though he was talking to someone else, talking about someone else. It didn’t sound natural coming from his mouth. It made him seem like a stranger.

I love you, Spencer.

That wasn’t true. She didn’t believe it. She wouldn’t believe it.

“Why do you look so surprised?” he asked. “Don’t you know by now how I feel about you?”

Confused, Spencer shook her head. “I don’t understand. How can you say—”

The door burst open, banging against the wall. Ben released her and turned, blocking her view. Spencer took a few side steps to the left. Tommy Fong stood in the doorway.

Glaring at Ben, Fong growled a series of harsh words Spencer didn’t understand but knew were Chinese. Ben replied in Chinese. Fong spoke again, his voice wavering with furious accusation. Stabbing a finger at Fong, Ben let forth a litany of phrases. She knew they were curses, and while not directed at her, they affected her as though they were, chilling her to the core.

Ben’s epithets seemed to have manifested into something sinister. The unseen terror appeared to grab Tommy Fong around the throat. Eyes wide, petrified, the small, wiry Asian turned and fled.

Ben faced her. “Stay here,” he said and then took off, following Tommy Fong and slamming the door behind him.

Confused, she stared at the door, feeling forlorn and abandoned.

Seconds later, there was a crash, something banging and tumbling, hitting the floor. Spencer went rigid, listening, trying to make out the sounds beyond the closed door. What the hell was happening? Were Ben and Tommy Fong fighting? Were they killing each other?
 

A wild, hoarse cry startled her, sending her heart into her throat.

A gunshot echoed.
 

Her heart racing, Spencer ran to the door, and without thinking, she flung it open.

In the living room near the coffee table, Fong crawled slowly across the floor, coughing and spitting blood, heading toward the front door. Ben stood over him, the muscles in his arm contracting as he lowered the gun in his hand until the barrel was aimed at Fong’s legs.

Gasping softly, Spencer held her breath. Ben muttered more words in Chinese. The gun went off again, abrupt and deafening, shaking her from the inside out. Fong screamed. Seconds later, another gunshot blasted. The report reverberated off the walls, mixing with the hoarse, strangled cries of Fong as bullets slammed into his legs.

Horrified, Spencer slammed the door and leaned against it, trying to get her bearings, trying to breathe, trying to think. She couldn’t just stand there and do nothing. She had to move. She had to get the hell out of the house. Her gaze flitted around the room, scanning objects, sizing them up, judging each as a potential tool for escape. Her eyes locked on a shovel leaning against a wall. If she hurled it at the window with all the strength she had left, it might break the glass panes.

A door slammed. Startled, Spencer turned, ran back to the door she’d closed, and opened it. In the living room, Tommy Fong was on the floor, moaning and writhing. Ben was gone. Spencer glanced around the living room, confused. Where had Ben gone? What was happening?

“Help me …” Fong whispered. “Help me … gun … need the gun.”

Spencer glared at him. Help him? Was he insane? He’d beat her and tied her up like an animal and he expected her to help him?

“The gun …” Fong rasped. “Table …”

Spencer spotted the gun on the coffee table and dashed to it. Grabbing the gun, Spencer ran back into the small, hot room. A door slammed again.

Seconds later, she heard, “You like to tie women up, huh?”

Ben was back. Gripping the gun, Spencer crept toward the door and stared out into the living room. Holding a red plastic gas can, Ben was walking around Tommy Fong, pouring gasoline on him as Fong writhed and cried, struggling to crawl away from the liquid splashing down around him, soaking his clothes and hair. Gagging from the smell of gasoline wafting in the air, Spencer watched, horrified, and yet mesmerized, as Ben doused Fong’s body with the gas.

“Did Richard tell you to tie her up?” Ben asked, staring down at Fong. “Did he tell you to beat her?”

Terrified, Spencer waited, her heart slamming as Ben reached into the pocket of his trousers and pulled out a matchbook. Growling words in Chinese, Ben struck the match and dropped it onto Fong. Screams filled the air as flames leaped across Fong’s body. Spencer turned from the hellish scene. Panicked and frantic, she didn’t know what to do, didn’t know what to think.

“Sweet girl …”

Spencer spun around. Ben stood in the doorway, staring at her.

“Stay back!” She raised the gun, pointing it at him, shocked at the weight of it. “Get away from the door and stay back!”

“Give me the gun before you hurt yourself,” he said, walking toward her.

“Get away from me!” Spencer ordered, the gun wobbling in her trembling hands. “I mean it, get away from me or I will put a bullet between your eyes!”

“Sweet girl.” Ben sighed and shook his head. “There’s no way your aim could be that good. I doubt you even know how to shoot a gun.”

“How hard can it be?” she asked, infuriated, terrified, and knowing he was right. She would aim at him and somehow end up shooting herself. “All I have to do is pull the trigger.”

“Instead of trying to shoot me,” Ben said. “Why don’t we go and get your purse so you can give me the envelope and I can give you the video?”

“I don’t need the video!” Spencer said, tightening her death grip on the pistol. “I’m going to tell the police what you did, and you’re going to prison for murder!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You just killed Tommy Fong! You burned him alive!”

His gaze curious, Ben took a step toward her. “Have you thought about what will happen if the cops come and arrest me?”

“Stay back,” Spencer warned, stepping backward.

“Eventually, I’ll go to trial, and you’ll have to testify against me.”

Keeping her eyes on him, Spencer tried to anticipate the sudden move she feared he would soon make.

“The police will want to know why I killed Tommy Fong,” Ben said. “And you will have to tell them that I blackmailed you because you stole from me.”

“Shut up!” She gripped the gun, struggling to keep it aimed at his face, feeling as though a noose had been slipped over her head, and Ben was steadily tightening the rope, making it impossible for her to breathe.

He was right, and she hated him for it.

“I will corroborate your story,” Ben said. “I will show the police the tape of you stealing from me. And what will Sione think about that? Doesn’t that worry you?”

Spencer wished she wasn’t worried. She wished she wasn’t terrified of what would happen if John ever found out about her “dating,” those awful things she’d never really wanted to do and had only done out of desperation. She wanted to be able to count on John’s feelings for her. But she didn’t know for sure that what she and John had was secure and stable, unable to be torn apart by the truth about her lies.

“When Sione finds out the treacherous bitch you really are—”

“Shut up!”

“You think you can explain to Sione why you stole from me? You think you can make him understand?” Ben asked, glaring at her. “You really think he wants to find out that this beautiful woman he is falling in love with is a heartless criminal who drugs men and steals from them? Think of how disappointed and disillusioned he would be. How could he ever trust you? Every time you fixed him a drink, he would think twice before he—”

“Go to hell!”

“Come on, sweet girl,” Ben chided. “Think rationally. You have Sione. He wants to be with you, he may already be in love with you, and if not, then he is very close to being in love with you.”

“I doubt that,” Spencer said, wondering if she could dare to believe John had fallen for her.

“You’re so close to getting what you want. Don’t blow it now, sweet girl,” Ben told her. “You need to think of yourself, think of the life Sione can give you. You can’t let this opportunity slip away. You may never get this chance again.”

Wary, she stared at him. He was right. She couldn’t let the opportunity to be with John slip through her fingers. And yet, she still had to think it all through. She had to make the right decision.

“Sweet girl, listen to me.” Ben edged closer. “You need to let me go. Then you can live happily ever after with Sione. Isn’t that what you want?”

She did want that, but she didn’t know how she felt about Ben giving her the chance to make a life with John. She wasn’t sure what that once-in-a-lifetime chance would cost her, but she suspected the payment might be her sanity, her dignity, and her independence.

But what had her fierce self-reliance profited her? Nothing she could boast about. Why hold on to it? Spencer wanted to be with John. She wanted him to protect her and take care of her. She wanted him to do all the things she’d never wanted, or trusted, a man to do for her.

“There is no time to waste, sweet girl,” he said, walking toward her. “What are you going to do?”

“Stay back,” she warned, panicked. “Don’t come any closer, or I will—”

“You’ll what?” Ben stopped a few feet away from her. “You’ll shoot me? And leave me for dead, again? That’s what a treacherous bitch like you does, right? But you remember this, sweet girl … the robbery of the wicked shall destroy them.”

“Get away from me.” She took a step back, keeping the gun aimed at his face.

Smiling, Ben started toward her again, saying, “… and whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein …”

“I mean it, Ben, stay away.” She took another backward step, slipping, gasping as she struggled to stay on her feet.

“The way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble …”

Two more quick steps backward and she felt herself pressed against something hard and unmovable. Ben had backed her into the wall. He was still coming toward her, and she knew he wouldn’t stop.

“The wicked worketh a deceitful work—”

Terrified, Spencer squeezed the trigger.

San Ignacio, Belize

Location Unknown

There was a hollow click.

Shaking and bewildered, Spencer pulled the trigger again. Another hollow click, and her heart sank. The gunshot she’d expected to deafen her ears didn’t come, but another sound caught her attention for a moment. Faint and distant, it seemed to be like—

“I knew you couldn’t shoot me, sweet girl.” Ben yanked the gun away from her, threw it onto the mattress, and then grabbed her. “Not without bullets.”

“Get away from me!” Spencer tried to push him away as he clamped an arm around her back, pinning her against him. “Sonofabitch, you knew that gun was empty!”

Ben stared at her, giving her his sly smile.

“And you just stood there and let me point an empty gun at you,” she said, trying to yank away from his iron grip.

“Even if the gun had been loaded,” Ben said, “you still wouldn’t have shot me. You would have let me go because you want this fantasy with Sione so desperately.”

As she tried to twist away, the faint sound grew louder, and Spencer realized what she was hearing—tires on gravel. Tires … a car? Was someone—

“Sione is not what you think, sweet girl,” Ben told her. “You think he’s your knight in shining armor, but the truth is, we are more alike than we are different.”

“You’re nothing like John,” she said. “He is good and decent, and he wouldn’t force me to pay for my mistakes over and over—”

“Sione would never forgive you if you made a mistake, sweet girl,” Ben pulled her close, caressing her cheek. “He would never understand your choices, and he would condemn you for them, but I understand why you made those mistakes, and I do forgive you.”

She tilted her head back, giving him an invitation, but to what, she wasn’t sure. And yet, he took her offer...