Page 36 of Rogue

Time passes, but it’s hard to say how much. The men Diaz sent out haven’t returned. Another bang on the door, Diaz sends more men out as I look to Benny.

He shakes his head unsure of what is going on.

“Who did you bring with you, Benny?” Diaz asks.

“No one. I work alone.”

This is true. Benny didn’t have partners or even friends really. I only met Carlos Diaz and his wife Elena once at a charity event my cousin was hosting. Benny introduced me as his partner and not Giulia Bianchi’s cousin. Why didn’t make sense at the time. Now … now I wonder if even then he was protecting me. Benny knew Giulia would help me leave. She’s my best friend.

“It matters not. I set things up so the Legion’s Demons think you hired them to send a message to her and Giulia. They will be tied up in a war with the Kings of Carnage because bikers apparently go to war as much as the cartels do. Either way, when I finish today, none of this comes back on me.”

I want to scream and tell him, the Kings are smarter than he gives them credit. Rogue will come for him. This isn’t the end. He doesn’t get off free. I may not understand biker life yet, but I do see their loyalty.

And loyalty, I understand.

Diaz doesn’t. He thinks no one can be loyal or trusted. Not even a lover or a wife.

When did Diaz call for the hit on me? Was it after that party? For years, I loved Benny. For years, we had a very private relationship. It bothered me that he wouldn’t take me out. I didn’t understand even when Giulia told me not to pry or push.

I brought this on him and myself. I wanted to know why I couldn’t be seen. All because I made things about me. “Oh Benny, you’re ashamed of me, that’s why you never take me out.”I would tell him this over and over.

In this moment, all the things in my mind that tore me apart about being with Benny suddenly didn’t come from him but from my own head. He never told me I was anything less than beautiful. A gift to him, one he didn’t deserve. Only I couldn’t understand if I was special, why couldn’t we have a real date? Why couldn’t we live together? Why couldn’t I see his house? If Giulia hadn’t sworn to me he wasn’t married, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Yes, I literally asked him once if I was his mistress because I believed he had a wife and kids at home.

Benny didn’t, though.

Benny had Benny and that was it.

No parents, no siblings, no cousins, no one close to him. No friends. He had business associates and that was it.

Other than me.

I was Benincio Cartagena’s weakness, then and now.

He didn’t have to come here today. He knows Diaz sees me as a threat. He knows Diaz wants me dead. Hell, he knew it before I knew it. He knew coming here, he wouldn’t leave alive. He’s here to help me.

All this time I thought it was Benny I should fear, when he only wants to protect me.

He let me go.

Shots ring out from just outside the building. Everything happens in a flash.

Benny grabs me, putting his body between mine and Diaz. There is a distinct pop. I feel Benny jerk over me and warm liquid seeps onto my shirt as his weight takes me down. He reaches out trying to brace us both for the fall as my hands are bound.

“Loved you then, love you now, Leigh,” he whispers.

As I glance up, Diaz is smirking over us with his gun aimed.

“Benny,” I whisper his name, as another shot rings out. I wait for Benny to cry out or shift or show something. I wait to feel pain, but there is none.

Instead, Diaz goes down with splatter covering Benny and a little on my face.

Only then does Benny tell me, “Be free, Leigh. Leave it all behind. Find happiness. You are too good for my world.”

“Benny, don’t you give up,” I tell him shifting from underneath him. “Dammit, Benny you can be happy in your world, but don’t you give up.”

In seconds though, I have a chiseled face in front of me, one full of concern. “Michele, are you hit?” Rogue asks, instantly something inside me soothes like never before.

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