Chapter 300 - Claimed By My Stepbrother (Cadell Security Series)
Seona’s POV
Pulling out a chair the man takes a seat at the table, still smirking at me like he knows a secret. Lowering my head, I hurry toward the coffee machine, concentrating on making him a drink, so I don’t have to look at him, acutely aware that he’s still watching me, his gaze never leaving me until I place the steaming cup in front of him.
‘Thank you’ he murmurs, taking a sip as his eyes close in pleasure, ‘damn, that’s good.’
Taking my seat across from the stranger, I clasp my hands in my lap, peeking up at him through my lashes as he lounges in his chair with open ease.
‘Umm . . so how do you know Mark?’ I ask tentatively before correcting myself realising I sound stupid. ‘I mean, I know you work with him, but did you work with him . . before?’
I look up to meet Benny’s eyes as the soldier’s normally sunny disposition darkens slightly and he shrugs.
‘I wasn’t part of Hallick’s team’ he mutters, placing the cup on the table between us, fingers curled tightly around it. ‘Wish I had been, might have made a damn difference to the outcome if I had been.’
The now familiar shadow of painful secrets that I see in Mark’s face, flickers over Benny’s features before he shakes his head and smiles up at me.
‘As I said, I met Hallick through the Cadell’s, I’d been with the group for about a year before he came on board. The guy is a legend man, I may have done the same job as the guy, but he still taught me a thing or two after joining us.
‘But you were military, right?’ I ask, hoping that knowing more about him will make me feel a little less self-conscious.
‘I was stationed in North Carolina, worked with my own team for ten years before I took a machete to the shoulder’ Benny tells me. He lifts up the sleeve of his t-shirt to show a violent scar running from the top of his arm and down underneath the fabric, out of sight.
‘Docs patched me up, I then did the physio the ordered me to do, but there was too much damage. I lost some of my movement in my arm, ain’t ever getting it back so I was no longer fit for active duty. I had two choices, sign up for desk duty and ride out my time, or come out as a medical discharge, I picked to come out.’
I’m surprised by the soldier’s openness, most of the men I’ve met from Cadell Security are tight lipped, keeping their pasts hidden from everyone around them.
‘Why did you pick to leave?’ I ask him, my curiosity growing, eager to see inside his thoughts, wondering if maybe that would somehow, help me understand Mark a little better.
Benny tilts his head, running his hand over the faint stubble on his chin, ‘I wasn’t built for a desk’ he admits finally, ‘I don’t think any of us are, not those that choose the life like Hallick, the twins, Callan . . we’re designed for the front line, protecting people, that’s who we are, take that away and we’re lost.’
I nod slowly, absorbing the blonde man’s words, ‘so how did you end up in Maine?’ I query, ‘you are pretty obviously not from around here’ I add with a smile.
Benny chuckles as he nods, ‘it was the accent that gave me away right?’ he asks, winking at me, ‘darn thing, I tried to get rid of it overseas, was damn good at sounding generic but it’s crept back in since I landed state side.’
I laugh, relaxing as I nod, ‘it is a little pronounced’ I tease him, making him laugh again.
Benny grins, ‘Ahh, I actually was heading home’ he tells me, ‘was all packed up at the barracks, waiting for my final papers and I get a text, an old friend from boot camp. We were tight whilst the Army tried to break us, but it fell to the odd message when we were stateside and promises of catching a beer that never happened. Well he heard through the grapevine about me, told me about this guy up in Maine who did private security, his sons working with him. They were looking for another body, was I interested. I didn’t think twice, sent a message to my Ma saying I found a job and jumped in my truck and drove straight here.’
I blink in surprise, ‘weren’t you worried?’ I murmur, unable to grasp someone just uprooting their life and moving across the country without a second thought. I agonised over moving to the next town with Davis when we got married, to just pack up and leave the state, my family . . I couldn’t imagine it.
Benny shrugs, ‘it was no different to being stationed somewhere’ he remarks. ‘I’ve spent my entire adult life being transferred, deployed, moved from one place to another, this is just the next stop on my tour.’
He gives me that cheeky grin again, the one that makes his grey eyes sparkle, and I can’t help but smile back, the man has an ability to just put you at ease, a rare gift around someone like me.
Draining his mug, the soldier stands up, walking to the dishwasher and placing it inside before turning back to me, leaning a hip against the worktop as he studies me.
‘OK, enough chat’ he states briskly, ‘I’ve been up since oh five hundred, the day is half gone already, you must have things to do.’
Pushing to my feet, I nod, smiling wider as I step toward the kitchen door.
‘I hope you don’t get bored easily, I have to go downstairs and make my fudge’ I tell him.
The soldier’s eyes light up, ‘you make fudge?’ he gapes excitedly, ‘I love fudge! I can totally get behind some fudge making, I’ll even taste test for you.’
I giggle at his words, ‘funny’ I muse, ‘Mark says the exact same thing.’
Benny chuckles, following me out into the hallway, ‘oh I bet he just loves to watch you work’ he muses, tapping his chin with his finger, making me blush.
Reaching the door, Benny holds out a hand stopping me, ‘hey, I might be the fun one out of the boys at Cadell, but I still got a job to do’ he warns me. ‘Stand back M’lady and allow me to check that your path is clear before we vacate your abode.’
Laughing, I step back, letting the soldier go first, watching him as he peeks through the peephole before opening the door and stepping out, body tensed, ready for anything that might jump out.
I follow him closely, giving the man time to shut and lock the apartment door before we head down, Benny still making funny comments, but just like Mark, I know he’s still on high alert. The similarity to Mark and the rest of Cadell Security members that I’ve met, warms me, each with their own traits but one common belief that bands them together.