Chapter 90 90

Chapter 90 90
Benji's POV

The girl was a shaking mess against my shoulder, her heels dragging uselessly across the floorboards as I hauled her out of the office. Every single breath she took came out as a ragged, wet sob that vibrated right against my neck, and it was driving me insane.

I didn't ask for any of this, I wasn't a kidnapper. I just wanted the cash from the drugs I sold, the money that belonged to me, so I could get the hell out of this house and buy a drink. Instead, I was carrying a bound-up, crying college student down a dark hallway.

My shoulder was aching from her dead weight, and my mind was racing fast, focused on how screwed my bank account was right now. I was dead broke again. The five hundred dollars I managed to squeeze out of my sister about a month ago was wiped out, spent within a handful of days on overpriced groceries, room board and my favorite top-shelf whiskey.

And the two thousand dollars I dragged out of that brainless prick Roman Foster didn't even stay in my pocket for twenty-four hours before the sharks on the street came collecting what I owed them for the bad sports bets. Every single dime from him went straight into their pockets. I had been counting on this cut from Bennett to finally put some real space between me and the gutter.

"Please," Sasha mumbled against my shirt. "Please, don't do this. Just let me go."

"Shut up!" I snapped, adjusting my grip on her thighs and shoving her further up my shoulder as we reached the door at the end of the hall. "Just keep your mouth shut."

Razor stepped past me, his long arm reaching out to turn the black iron ring on the basement door. The wood groaned as it swung inward, revealing a steep, pitch-black set of stairs. He pointed a single thick finger down into the dark, then stood back to let me pass. He wasn't going to help me carry her.

I took a deep breath, gripped the girl tighter, and started guiding my boots down the wooden steps. The wood creaked loudly under our combined weight. With every step downward, the air grew colder, biting through my thin jacket.

Finally we reached the concrete floor at the bottom. The cellar room was a miserable little concrete box with a steel door. A single bare bulb hung from a rusted wire, which barely even illuminated the space.

I dumped Sasha off my shoulder, letting her slide down onto the cold concrete. She hit the floor with a dull thud, her bound wrists twisting behind her back as she struggled to roll onto her side.

"Listen to me, please!" She pleaded as she looked up at me from the floor. "You d...don't have to do this. You're Benji, right? Harmony's b...brother? I'm sure Harmony l...loves you. Please, Benji, look at me. I'm a p...person. I have a family. Don't leave me down here in the dark."

Hearing her bring up my sister and try to touch some sort of human side inside me just made me furious. I didn't give a single flying fuck about a sniveling girl crying on a basement floor. I was the one who had just lost a thousand dollars on a deal I worked my ass off for. I was the one who was going to be broke, all because she couldn't keep her mouth shut.

"I don't care who you know!" I snapped, stepping back toward the steel door. "I'm sure your little chats with my sister are the reason Bennett has refused to pay me tonight. So save the tears."

"No, please! Don't lock the door!" she screamed, scrambling forward on her knees, her bound hands twitching wildly behind her as she tried to reach the threshold. "Please, Benji. Just let me walk out with you. I won't say a word to anyone, I swear, I'll leave the city! Just don't lock me in here!"

I grabbed the handle of the steel door, gave her one last look of annoyance, and shoved the door shut right in her face. The metal slammed into the frame with an echoing boom that cut off the sight of her terrified face. I threw the iron bolt over, twisting the lock mechanism until it clicked into place.

When it was locked, I turned around, intending to head straight back up the stairs, when I heard the sound of her crying. The girl threw her body against the metal, screaming my name over and over until her voice started to go hoarse.

I was an accessory to a kidnapping now. This wasn't just running some small-time drug deal on the side. This was a federal charge. If the cops found out about this, I was looking at decades in a maximum-security cell. But the worst part was that I knew I couldn't go to the police, even if I wanted to save my own skin. The moment I walked into a station, I would have to explain how I got into Bennett's house, which meant admitting to the drug distribution network.

And even if I got immunity, Bennett would find out about it. He would destroy my life, I had seen him do it to other people in the past. Sasha behind me was another living witness.

I stood there for several seconds, listening to the wails of the girl and feeling sorry for myself, until my eyes darted across the concrete floor toward the shadows under the old wash sink. Something bright caught the pale light of the bulb.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead, and walked over to investigate. Lying on top of a dusty wooden crate was a bright blue lady purse. It looked expensive, made of soft leather that stood out against the filth of the basement.

"Well, well," I muttered to myself, a sudden spark of hope flaring up in my gut. "What do we have here?"

This had to belong to Sasha. Razor must have snatched it along with her when they grabbed her and just tossed it down here out of the way. I grabbed the leather strap and ripped the main zipper open. I dumped the contents out onto the wooden crate, eager to find anything useful. A pair of silver car keys rattled out, followed by a tube of pink lipstick, a small pack of tissues, a student ID card with her smiling face on it, and a leather wallet.

I grabbed the wallet, ignoring the cards and receipts, and flipped open the cash compartment. My eyes widened. A thick little stack of dollar bills was tucked neatly inside. I pulled the money out with trembling fingers and started counting it out under the bare bulb. Twenty, forty, sixty, eighty, one hundred, one fifty, and so on. I counted it twice just to be absolutely sure. It was a little over two hundred dollars.

A cruel snigger escaped my throat. It wasn't the one thousand thousand Bennett owed me, but it was enough to keep me fed and drunk for the next week.

I walked back over to the steel door, tapping the green bills against the metal panel so she could hear the paper rustling. "Hey, Sasha. Guess what I found out here?"

The scratching inside the room stopped instantly. "Benji? Are you still there? Please, open the door!"

"I found your pretty blue purse," I announced. "And I'm currently looking at about two hundred and twenty dollars that belongs to me now. Consider it a convenience fee for hauling your silly ass down those stairs."

"No!" Sasha cried out, her voice cracking into a desperate sob as she banged her fists against the door. "No, please don't take that. That's part of my rent money. My landlord is going to evict me if I don't pay by the first of next month. Please, leave the money, take anything else!"

"Your rent?" I mocked her, stuffing the crumpled bills deep into my front jeans pocket. "Lady, you're living in a concrete cellar now. You don't have to worry about a landlord anymore. Your housing is free from here on out."

She let out a loud, heartbroken wail from the other side of the steel, but I didn't care to listen to any more of her garbage. I turned my back on the cellar door, ignoring her screams as they faded into the background. I walked across the concrete floor and headed back up the wooden stairs, ready to go back to Bennett's office and tell him I was leaving his house for the night.