“What?”
“You didn’t even take off your clothes.” He sounded horrified.
“Yeah. So?”
“And now what? You just zip up your jeans and go?” he teased, staring at me like I was candy.
“You know, I do kind of want Indian food, so yeah, I’m gonna go get that. I’ll be right back, sweetheart,” I said, cackling, adding a salacious wink. “You keep yourself hot for Daddy.”
“Oh dear God!” he yelled. “Get out of my house!”
I was at the front door when I turned around to look back, and he was there on the balcony, gazing down at me. “You called it your house,” I barely got out.
He sucked in a breath. “Because it is.”
I nodded. “Yes, it is.”
“Have the food delivered,” he husked, his eyes absolutely molten. “Come back. Come here. I need to… I need…” His voice broke, and I would have rushed up the stairs and given him the hug of his life, but I’d opened the door, just a fraction when I was about to go out, and someone pushed from the other side at that exact moment.
“What the fuck!” I roared, and would have shoved the intruder outside, but the gun stopped me as he stepped into my foyer.
“Get inside,” he ordered, and I noted the Glock 19 in his hand, leveled at my chest. “Benjamin Grace,” he called out then. “I need to speak to you.”
Glancing up at the balcony, I realized Benji was gone.
“Benny,” he called again, louder, and because it was also a bit high and sweet-sounding, it made my skin crawl. “If you don’t come talk to me, I’m going to shoot your lover dead right here, right now.”
“He’s not here,” I lied, and the stranger’s brows furrowed.
“You’re lying. I saw you both come in.”
“Sure, but there’s a back door,” I told him. “And one of our neighbors needed some––”
“They’re not our neighbors, not his and yours, they’re just yours. He doesn’t live here.”
“Yes, he does,” I assured the intruder, getting it suddenly, the pieces clicking into place. “You’re the ex. You’re Justin.”
“I am,” he gasped, clearly surprised, sounding manic. “How did you know? Does he talk about me? Show you pictures? Has he––”
“What’re you doing here?” I asked softly, soothingly, not threatening in any way.
“I came to bring him home.”
“I see.”
“He needs to come with me.”
“Why’s that?”
But he didn’t answer. He just took a deep breath and stared at me.
“Maybe I can figure it out,” I offered because as long as we were chatting, he wasn’t shooting at me. “Should I try?”
He nodded.
“I think you kept tabs on him after he left,” I began, checking his face, the subtle changes in his expression, making sure I was on the right track. “And I think it was fine at first, the separation he forced on you, because you didn’t think it would last.”
“That’s right,” he conceded.
“But then it started taking too long. What the fuck was he doing in Rune, am I right?”
“Yes, God yes,” he rushed out. “And the ghost business and living like a homeless person when he has so much money and… I was terrified that he’d lost his mind.”
“Of course you were.”
“I spoke to his parents and begged them to interfere, have him committed as, like I said, he was clearly suffering from some horrific psychotic break. But they don’t want anything to do with him, and talking to them made me so angry. I knew the only thing to do was to bring him home myself.”
“Because you love him so much.”
“Yes,” he said quickly, without a trace of emotion, “and…things have happened and––”
“You need his money,” I stated because that had to be it.
His gaze was riveted on my face. “You understand.”
“I do. But maybe you could have just asked for a loan.”
“No, because—see, I asked him in the past when things got bad and… did he tell you I have a slight gambling problem?”
“No, he didn’t.”
“Yes, so I still owe him from a loan he gave me before, and even though he said I didn’t have to pay it back, I felt that I should and…well, you understand.”
I understood he was batshit crazy was what I understood. When this was over, I was going to point out what bad taste in men Benji used to have.
“May I ask a question?”
“Of course,” he replied, smiling, almost like he was flirting.
“Why the attacks on Benji? What’d you hope to accomplish there?”
“I thought he’d be scared, and finally run home to me.”
I nodded.
Everyone thought they could scare Benjamin Grace. First Belmont, Alameda, and Lindstrom, and then his ex-boyfriend. It was interesting that none of them really knew him at all.
“It makes perfect sense,” Justin apprised me.
“Sure,” I agreed, and then tipped my head at the gun. “And this? What’re you hoping is gonna happen now?”
His face, which was quite plain, nothing interesting about it at all, scrunched up. “I don’t—I’m not… everything is falling apart and he’s so happy here, with you, and I just couldn’t watch it anymore.”