The Fix Is In (Torus Intercession 4)

“Are you all right?”

“No,” he snapped, not irritated at me, but at the situation in general. “What if whoever goes after Sian and Delly?”

“I don’t think this has anything to do with anyone but you. Have Sian or Delly ever been attacked at all?”

He was quiet for a moment and then shook his head.

“Okay, so let’s go home and go to bed, and tomorrow we’ll go to my office and work on this. Sound like a plan?”

“How about we go home and lie in bed and brainstorm instead.”

“Okay,” I agreed, knowing without question that the second we were lying down we’d both be out like a light. “I’m excited to be a part of this plan.”

I got the smile I was after, and as expected, once we were home, showered, and in bed on clean sheets, he rolled over into my arms. As soon as I had him tucked tight against me, there was a deep sigh followed by a long yawn.

“Oh look,” I said with a groan, “he’s checking on us.”

Benji lifted his head up off my chest to look to the doorway. “Hi Kevin,” he greeted my cat. “Do you want to come get on the bed?”

Kevin made a sound like a grunt, flicked his tail in disgust, and moved on.

It took a second. “He’s kind of rude,” Benji said flatly.

“Oh you have no idea,” I snickered, hugging him tight.

14

A week later, we were no closer to figuring anything out. Owen had basically scrubbed Benji’s entire existence and turned up nothing. Everyone in his life checked out, all squeaky clean and not at all interesting.

Not surprisingly, Benji’s insurance company did not cover his house being blown up. The owners of the house wanted him to pay for the repairs since he was the one whoever caused the explosion had been after. Jared took care of it, much to Benji’s horror, and said that Torus was liable, even though we were not. At all.

“How is he somehow responsible for the actions of a madman?” Benji questioned me.

“Please, Jared Colter does whatever he wants, and questioning him is not a good idea.”

“Like really not a good idea,” Nash echoed from his desk, looking worse for wear.

“Who beat you up now?” I asked irritably.

“Why are you annoyed with him?” Benji inquired from where he sat at Ella’s desk, which used to be Croy’s. Ella was in Vermont of all places and was apparently not having a good time, even though it was pretty with the snow this close to Christmas.

“Because he doesn’t take care of himself, and clearly, he’s getting too old to be out there trading punches with people,” I responded to Benji, realizing I was sick of Nash being bruised and bloody all the time.

“This is what I said,” Rais added, walking into the room with two mugs, one full of tea for Benji, and coffee for himself.

“I get no coffee?” I groused at him.

“Two hands, brother, only two,” he replied snidely.

“I’m not old,” Nash threw out.

“Yes, you are. You’re fifty-something.”

“Oh, screw you,” Nash said and winced at the same time because he hit his elbow on his desk. “You’ll be fifty soon enough.”

“Yeah, in like twelve years.”

“Please stop talking,” he begged me.

“You’re not old,” Benji told Nash and then turned to me. “And you need to stop being so antagonistic with your friend. Baiting others is not kind.”

I huffed out a breath as the phone rang on Ella’s desk.

Benji watched it ring.

“You gonna answer that?” Rais asked him.

“Is it for me?”

“You’re the one sittin’ there,” he reminded him.

Benji picked it up on the fifth ring. “Torus Intercession, Benjamin Grace speaking, how may I help you?”

“That’s better than you do it,” Nash said to me.

I flipped him off.

Benji said “yes, of course,” like, three times and then hung up. Seconds later, the door to the outer office opened and Benji stood quickly, took a pad and pen off Ella’s desk, and crossed the floor to meet the man there with a smile and a handshake.

“The hell is going on?” I asked the room.

“Obviously your boss is using your new boyfriend, the trained psychiatrist, to vet clients,” Nash explained, like I was slow or something.

“Oh, that makes sense,” Rais commented before the phone on his desk rang as well.

“Why would Jared have Benji talk to clients?” I queried Nash.

“Why wouldn’t he? Benji can read people, that’s a huge help, and if they’re nuts, in theory, he would be able to tell, wouldn’t he?”

“Probably.”

“Yeah, so, your boy felt bad for Jared paying for that piece-of-crap house and all new equipment, right?”

Benji had said as much many times.

“So payin’ him back with some client vetting is a good exchange.”

“Logical,” I agreed.

“Yeah, well, we try.”

I flipped him off again, because he brought that out in me.

As I sat there thinking that we were no closer to finding out what was going on with Benji, I got two phone calls.