“No, you won’t. For one thing, you won’t find anything. For two, if you do press charges, well, I think you know what will happen. You are catching on by now I hope,” she said, shrugging her shoulder.
Tim stepped back. “You think you’re hot shit because you got a little dirt on me. I’m not the only one who suffers if you follow through with your threat. How do you think a judge is going to respond to your threatening to reveal he took a bribe? Your little plan is going to blow up in your face if you’re not careful.”
“You look at her again, you threaten her again, and it isn’t jail or prison you’re going to have to worry about,” Ben said, stepping forward, standing between Tim and Katherine.
“Call off your bulldog,” Tim said.
“There is nothing more for you here. Leave,” Ben growled.
Katherine waited. She was actually hoping he would swing at Ben. She wanted Tim to do something. If he did, she would have no qualms about following through with her threat. She wanted a reason to bury the man.
“I’m leaving. I don’t plan on coming back. The last thing I want is to see her face again. She’s all yours man. She’s your problem now,” Tim snarled, his look of pure disgust twist
ing his face.
“Good, but let’s be honest. She’s been mine. And by the way, I don’t need your blessing,” Ben said, his voice feral.
Tim turned and walked away. No one said a word or moved until he stepped into the elevator and the doors slid shut.
“Well, that didn’t go quite like I was hoping,” Meredith quipped.
Katherine sighed. “I thought it went great. We got what we wanted, right?”
Meredith sighed. “Well, I was hoping Ben would take another swing at him. I already had the defense planned out. Nothing exciting ever happens around here,” she muttered and walked away.
Ben and Katherine burst into laughter. “She’s bloodthirsty,” Katherine said.
“I had no idea. Are you ready to get out of here?” he asked.
She nodded. “More than ready. Maybe we should wait a few minutes. I don’t want to run into Tim outside.”
“You were great,” he said, turning to wrap her in his arms.
She took a deep breath. “I can’t believe it’s over.”
“Well, I don’t know if it’s over, but I think he got the message,” he assured her.
“What about what he said about that judge? Should I be worried you think?”
Ben shrugged. “I don’t know. If Tim admits he was dumb enough to keep evidence of the bribes, I can’t imagine the judge would be all that pleased with him.”
“I just want it to all go away,” she groaned.
“We’re working on it,” he assured her, “and you’ve made a big step today.”
“Let’s go. I’m starving and I feel like celebrating,” she said, leaning up on her toes to kiss him.
He grinned. “Let’s go somewhere nice, incredibly overpriced and pretentious.”
“I could go for that.”
They walked towards the elevator, his arm wrapped around her shoulders. She leaned on his shoulder, happy to have him next to her. Tim used to have so much power over her. On any other day, she would have cowered and given into his intimidation. But the documents proving his illegal activities were only part of her newfound strength. It was the knowledge that Ben would be in her corner no matter what that made the difference. He had proven he was in it for the long haul.
Ben’s limo was waiting for them when they walked outside. Katherine couldn’t stop herself from looking around, looking for Tim’s large figure.
“It’s okay,” Ben assured her.
“It’s going to take me a while to get used to the idea of not looking over my shoulder,” she said.