BenjiRick’s laughter increased to the point where he was almost cackling.I shot him a dark look. “Kevin. I’m out of the racing scene. I have been for a year. I’m not interested in being dragged back in.”“Come on, man. You’re the only guy I can ask—and the only guy who has a shot of winning if I put you in my car. Of course Mason would win if I asked him, but we all know he’s too infatuated with your sister to get back behind the wheel.”“Watch it,” I said.Rick continued snorting with laughter beside me.“Sorry,” Kevin amended. “But you know it’s true.”“Pointing it out is no way to get me to do you any favors.”“Fair enough,” Kevin swallowed. His eyes danced back and forth between me and Rick who was struggling to get his laughter under control. “Will you at least think about it? As a favor to me? I need your help and you’re the only one I can ask. I’ve worked so hard for this and you know how badly I want it. And I’m so fucking close I can taste it!”I sighed. “Even if I did win,
CharlieEspress-yo Self Coffee Shop must have exceeded its maximum capacity when I arrived a little before nine on Monday morning to meet Benji. I was looking forward to discussing the details of hosting his fundraiser. The door could barely close behind me as I squeezed in and immediately found myself at the end of the line. I leaned to the right to peer down toward the counter. There were a good fifteen people ahead of me.I’d be standing herd waiting to be served for at least ten minutes. Good thing I’d had the foresight to show up early.I should have asked for Benji’s number when we made the plans for coffee. I could have texted him and got his order so he wouldn’t have to stand in line when he arrived. Maybe I would order him a plain coffee. Or an Americano.Most adults liked that, right?A couple minutes passed and I had barely moved forward an inch. The woman in front of me, perfectly tailored in a crisp white business suit, muttered under her breath about how she was going to
CharlieI nodded. “Yes. I want to help you. And I have the means to do it. I already talked to some of my girls and they’re in. My bartender is pretty artsy and good with computers so she already made up some flyers and tickets. We’ve already sold nearly fifty.”“Holy shit,” he said, letting out a surprised chuckle. “I wasn’t expecting that. Thank you.”“I’ve got you covered. All the dance routines on stage will be PG based on, you know, the fact that this fundraiser is for teenagers. No nudity at all and nothing overly sexual. It will be clean entertainment—well, clean-ish anyway. If we can throw together a raffle and a fifty-fifty, that would help, too. Any other time I’ve had a fundraiser, games bring in good cash.”“Sounds like you have all the bases covered.”“You just need to show up,” I winked.“You can count on that.”I pulled the tab at the end of the string on my teabag out from under the lip of my cup, then proceeded to plunge the teabag up and down to speed up the steeping
BenjiI’d never been to Ascension before. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting.The club was located on the top floor of a high rise business building. There was a security guard in the elevator as I rode up, and he took the liberty to press the button labelled ‘A’ in cursive font. I wondered how much Charlie had paid to get that button in there.When the doors slid open I found myself standing in a lobby with a gothic sort of vibe. The carpet underfoot was dark red and plush, and the walls were black. Candle flames flickered in lanterns mounted on the walls, casting a warm but dim glow around the space.There were a few people milling around the room. I stood there, feeling a little out of place, until my gaze slid to the black double doors at the far end of the room. Another security guard was posted there. Written above the doors in the same gold cursive font as the ‘A’ in the elevator was the word ‘Ascension’. It screamed luxury, class and drama with a bit of edgy masculinity tos
Benji“Well, I—”Harley laughed. “You don’t need to explain yourself. There’s nothing wrong with it. I think my girl might fancy you too, philanthropist.”“I’m not a philanthropist.”“You’re the closest thing to one I’ve ever met,” she said simply.I looked around at the others, desperate for salvation from this conversation. “So. How long have you guys been here?”Harley’s eyes lingered on me for a while but she let the subject shift. Mason answered my question, thank God, and steered the discussion toward more comfortable subjects. “About twenty minutes or so. When we showed up the doors were closed and the whole front lobby was packed.”“It’s still filling up by the minute,” Laina said, nodding toward the door.She was right. The whole place would soon be packed to the brim and the doors would have to be closed. Talk about a successful business. Well done, Charlie.It was while I was watching people continue to file in and go to the bars to redeem their drink tickets that the house
Charlie“Fucking jerk,” I hissed, as I lashed out at the garbage can beside my desk in my office. The kick I dealt to the side of it sent it slamming into my desk, where it promptly fell over and spat out all the paper and trash. I groaned, crouched down, and gathered it all back into the can before standing it upright and putting it back in its rightful place.Then I dropped into my chair and sighed, leaning my head back and trying to ignore the pulsing pain in my hand.Why had I hit him? Usually I was able to keep my temper under control. But he’d gotten on my last nerve, and it felt so fucking good to feel his nose squish under my fist.I shook my head. Who was I kidding? If I had to do it over again I would have handled it the same way. He deserved it. Someone needed to put him in his place and I wanted to be damn sure it was me. My girls already dealt with some shady clientele. I had zero tolerance for harassment and it was my job to keep my girls safe. That included protecting t
CharlieI did as he said and he stood up and went into my bathroom. I leaned sideways to watch him crouch down and rummage around under the bathroom sink. He pulled out the red nylon first aid kit, unzipped it, and rifled through it until he found a long stretchy white bandage with metal pins. “Ah ha!” He cried victoriously before zipping the bag back up and tucking it back under the sink. He closed the cupboards and came back to me, assuming the same position in the collapsible chair.He held out his hand again and I gave him mine.Benji wrapped my hand like an expert. It wasn’t too loose or too tight, and the ice pack stayed exactly where it needed to.“You’ve done this before,” I said.“More than I care to admit.”“Ever done it for a girl?”He chuckled and shook his head. “No. This one’s a first for me.”“Is everyone okay out there?”Benji never took his eyes away from his job of wrapping my hand. “There was some chaotic energy for about five minutes, but your security guys calmed
BenjiCharlie made a mean martini—and I wasn’t a guy who drank them often.Or at all.I preferred a glass of whiskey or something simple. A one ingredient kind of cocktail. But her martini was something to be rivaled and I enjoyed every sip of it.Except, I passed off my olives to her.I liked watching her pop them in her mouth. And I liked how she chewed. In fact I liked everything she did.How she walked. How she talked. How she giggled in an almost reserved sort of way.We sat at the bar together and enjoyed our drinks and chatted about all sorts of things that didn’t really matter. Surface level things. Like how the evening went, how annoying Mason and my sister were when they were being lovey-dovey, and we even cracked a few jokes at the expense of the guy Charlie had decked earlier.“You should see if you can get a doctor to look at that hand of yours in the morning,” I said, as I finished my drink. “Just to be safe.”Charlie shook her head. “No. I’m alright. I swear. This isn’t