Better with Ben (How to Tame a Heartbreaker Book 3) (5 page)

Ben had been out of town for the past few days. It was a chilly evening in Nashville—much colder than Miami, which was where he'd been. He didn't really care about the cold, though. He was nice and toasty in the brand new SUV that had been waiting for him at the airport when he touched down. It had all the bells and whistles, and Ben sat in it pushing buttons for several minutes like a kid in a candy store before he drove it home.

He went to the airport in his pick-up truck, and only found out 24 hours earlier that the new vehicle would be waiting for him when he returned. His old truck was the same one he had when he joined the military years ago. It wasn't even new when he got it in high school and had issues from lying idle in his parents' backyard for so many years.

This new one came as a bonus with his job, and until he laid eyes on it, he didn't know what kind of vehicle it would be. They'd just sent him a text with directions to pick it up in the same parking spot where he'd left his truck and that the keys would be in the glove compartment. He smiled and cranked the stereo on his way home.

The SUV was extremely nice—something he'd choose for himself. He couldn't comprehend that they just bought him a truck like it went along with the job, but there was a title in the glove compartment with his name on it.

It was Monday around dinnertime when he pulled up at the apartment he shared with his sister, Molly. He knew she'd be there because he'd just talked to her a few minutes ago when he landed. He called to let her know he was back in town and would be home shortly.

Molly was standing in the kitchen with a hand on her hip when he opened the door. He knew she was on edge when he'd talked to her earlier, but the girl standing in front of him was more upset than he imagined. She looked at him with narrowed eyes as he came in, sat his bag down, and took off his shoes.

"Good to see you too," he said, giving her a look like she might explode any second.

"Ben, what in the world are you driving out there?" She threw her hand to the side, pointing out the window toward the parking lot. She'd apparently taken note of the new ride.

"It's a company truck," he said calmly. He gave her an easy grin, which infuriated her even more.

"A
company
truck? Is this for your landscaping job? Are
they
the ones that made you leave town without warning the other night?"

Ben put a hand out in a gesture that told Molly to calm down. "I told you I would have another part-time job besides landscaping," he said. He crossed to the kitchen, took a banana off of the counter, and began peeling it. He leaned back and regarded her casually. She was staring back at him with an expression that was equal parts confused and irritated, but he just shrugged as if he didn't see why she was so worked up.

"You get a call at eleven o'clock at night and have to pick up and leave town for three days—then you come home in a brand new truck and expect that I won't ask questions about your
part-time job
?" She did air quotes around part-time job just to let him know how ridiculous it was. Then she stared at him, waiting for an explanation. He was silent for long enough that she pointed to the window again. "That's not a company truck, Ben. A company truck has a logo on the door, and probably some dirt on it. That thing out there is secret service."

Ben didn't flinch at her words even though they hit somewhat close to home. He smiled patiently again. "It's not
that
kind of company truck," he said. "It's just one that my new employer paid for."

"Who's your new employer, Ben?"

"I can't really give you all the information you want on that, but I can tell you I'm in a similar line of work to the job I was doing in the Army."

Molly could just imagine. She stared blankly at his chest, and he could tell she was making all sorts of speculations.

Ben had been out with Molly and some of her friends the night he got called away. They were in downtown Nashville at the same bar where their friend Cam Bishop was discovered. Cam was a friend of Molly's boyfriend Nick—a fact that Molly still hadn't gotten used to since Cam was one of the most famous people in Nashville. Actually, he was one of the most famous people in the world, but Molly couldn't think of it like that, or she'd be too nervous around him to carry on a decent conversation.

Anyway, a group of their friends, including Cam, had all been hanging out a few nights ago when Ben got the call to leave town. All he told Molly at the time was that he was on call at another job and had to head home.

It wasn't until she got to their apartment the following day that she realized he wasn't even in Nashville. There was a note on the counter saying he had to leave town for his job, and would be back in a couple of days. It informed her that he wouldn't be able to have his phone with him. He left the email address of someone who could reach him in an emergency, but Molly obviously hadn't reached out to the person since
worrying
couldn’t really be classified as an emergency.

"Are you working for the CIA or something?"

Ben let out a laugh. "No, I'm definitely not working for the CIA."

"Who then? Who calls you at eleven at night to fly out to some undisclosed location without your cell phone, Ben?"

Ben breathed a sigh as he contemplated what to say to his sister. "The location was disclosed to me," he said. He thought for a second then added, "I'm working for an independent party. They'll call me when they need me, and when they do, I'll have to go—even if it's eleven o'clock at night." He paused. "I'm honestly not sure how often they'll be calling, there's no way to predict that for sure. But I work with guys who lead normal lives, so I can't imagine it'll be constant."

"Normal
lives
? If you even have to say that—" she trailed off, but then her head snapped around when she thought of something. "And what the heck does independent party mean, anyway? Is this illegal? Are you a hit man for the mafia or something?" Molly's eye's had gotten progressively wider with her questions, and he could tell she thought she was right on with her mafia question.

That caused him to laugh again. She just stared at him with the same annoyed expression she'd been wearing since he came in. He gave her a sweet smile. "I'm not going to get in trouble," he said. "I'm technically working for an independent party, but the job I do could definitely be classified as official business."

That was all he said before crossing to the trashcan where he threw away the banana peel he was holding. Molly sighed, knowing by her brother's demeanor that she wasn't going to get the details she wanted. "Are you gonna get hurt?" she settled for asking.

"Of course not," he said. "I'm the best." He smiled. "That's why they bought me the new whip." He pointed at the window like the most confident person in the world, but Molly suspected he was just trying to act tough so she wouldn't be scared. He sounded like the same big brother who promised her he could beat up Freddy Kruger when she'd come to him as a terrified ten-year-old. Molly knew him well enough to know that even if he would be constantly risking his life, he'd still lie and tell her everything was going to be okay.

She stared at the kitchen floor, contemplating everything. "I don't want you to do it," she said. "Can't you just tell them
no
and work at the landscaping place instead?"

Ben chuckled a little, but tried not to show how amused he was at the thought since she was so sincere. "That'd be like asking a doctor to do landscaping instead of surgery," he said.

"Yeah, but a doctor isn't putting his life at risk in the operating room."

"Sure he is," Ben said. "We all put our lives at risk every day. Think about it. He could get into a car accident on his way to work, or get hit by a bus. None of us are promised the next second."

"You know what I mean, Ben. There's a difference between a
doctor
getting hit by a bus and you doing
whatever it is
this sketchy new job has you doing."

"It's not sketchy," he said. "I know what I'm doing. I'm highly trained, Molly. I promise nothing's gonna happen to me."

She gave him a pleading expression. "You can't promise that," she said.

"Okay, so I can't promise it, but neither can the doctor or anyone else. We all die sometime."

She rolled her eyes. "I just don’t want you to speed up the process," she said. "I’m scared."

Ben crossed the kitchen and took his little sister into his arms. He could feel her shoulders slump. It broke his heart, but he really didn't know what to say to make her feel better. He'd already said enough. "I'm not in any more danger than anyone else in the world, Molly."

"You're lying," she said.

He hugged her for a few more seconds. He wasn’t going to deny it any more. She was right about him lying. The situations he'd be in were extremely dangerous, but he was good at what he did. "I was in even more danger when I was working for the Army," he said, honestly.

She pulled back and used her shirtsleeve to wipe at a tear. He hated to see her like that, but had to think she'd get over it once it had time to sink in that he wasn't cut out for life as a full-time landscaper.

"If you don't deny it, I'm gonna assume you kill people, or something." She added that
or something
as an afterthought because she really didn't want to believe it even if it were true.

She looked at her brother, and he regarded her with a serious, but otherwise unreadable expression. They stared at each other for a few long seconds, her wanting him to voice his denial, him wanting her to change the subject so he didn't have to lie.

"Dang it, Ben. I don't think I like this job." She gave him her best puppy dog eyes.

His face showed a hint of regret, but stayed decidedly neutral. "I've had the job set up for a while," he said. He gave her a shrug and a smirk. "I planned on giving you a little more notice about it. I'm sorry you worried."

She stared at him, trying to come to terms with the man standing in front of her. He was tall and thick in the chest—at least as big as her boyfriend, Nick. She marveled at how much he'd changed. Not to mention, he now had this new super-secret job that made him seem oddly like a stranger.

"James Bond?" she asked.

One corner of his mouth raised in a grin. "Not nearly that glamorous."

"Spy gear?"

He laughed. "Probably."

She shook her head in disbelief then neither of them spoke for a while. He wasn't going to say any more and she knew it. Then suddenly she remembered something. She reached over and swatted his shoulder. "You left in such a hurry the other night that I didn't even get to talk to you about Taylor."

His gaze instantly shifted to hers. "What about her?"

"Oh come on, don't act like you didn't almost rip Cam's head off when you saw him sitting next to her on the couch."

He started to deny it, but just shrugged and looked away. "I just don't like that guy," he said.

She coughed a laugh. "Oh, you
don't like
Cam Bishop? I guess you meet ultra-famous singers all the time, and sometimes they just
rub you the wrong way
."

"What do you want me to say? That it's cool that you had Cam Bishop over to Nick's house?"

"You know it's cool, Ben. You just don't like him because you wanted to sit next to Taylor."

He shook his head. "All right, if I tell you Cam Bishop is the best and it's amazing that you're friends with him, will you get off my back about it?"

"I'll get off your back about it when you tell me you think Taylor's hot."

He shrugged, looking a little annoyed. "That's easy. She's hot. That's obvious." He paused. "And maybe she reminds me of a girl I dated in Germany a little bit."

Molly looked surprised. "You had a girlfriend in Germany?"

"I wouldn't say she was my girlfriend, really. But I dated a girl in Germany, yes."

"And this girl looked like Taylor?"

"I guess, a little. It's not like that, though. I just don't like that guy."

She laughed. "You're funny."

"What?"

"I hope you're a better liar than that when you're doing your spy job."

"I'm not a spy."

She nodded and pointed in his direction. "See, that's the truth. I can tell you're telling the truth about not being a spy, but you're lying about not being attracted to Taylor."

"I'm not lying about that. I'm attracted to her. She's hot. I already told you that."

"So you
do
like her," she said, raising her eyebrows suggestively. "I can totally set you up. You want me to?"

He looked at her like she was crazy. "No," he said. "That's the
last
thing I need—a girlfriend to ask me all these same questions about my job and get mad and worried when I have to leave town." He paused shaking his head. "No thank you."

Molly thought about that. She could see his point. That was the last she mentioned about playing matchmaker.