The Promise
Page 135

“Your dick been in her mouth more than once?” Benny asked.
“Not that it’s your business, but yeah,” Heath bit out.
“Then she’s your woman,” Ben decreed.
I grinned and leaned into him, wrapping my hands around his bicep and murmuring, “You’re so awesome.”
He tipped his head to look down at me. “Babe, you wanna focus?”
I kept grinning and murmuring when I said, “Right,” let him go, and looked back to Heath.
Heath was staring at us, and when he got both our attention, he announced, “I think I’m gonna throw up.”
“I failed to introduce you two,” I said, ignoring his remark. “Heath, this is my boyfriend, Benny Bianchi—master pizza maker, super protective Italian hot guy, and man who knows how to treat a woman.” I looked up to Ben. “Ben, Heath—a man who gives all us salespeople a bad name.”
“Jesus, I didn’t ask you here to give me shit,” Heath said.
“You didn’t ask me here at all,” I pointed out as Benny asked over me, “Why did you ask her here?”
Another shrug. “Colleagues and shit. She tried to do me a solid, I threw it in her face. She should know,” Heath told him.
“The guy tell you he’d give you the photos if you resign?” Benny kept at him.
“No. He said I wouldn’t see them on the Internet if I resigned.”
“He keeps it and knows you’ll fold, he pulls it out anytime he needs somethin’ from you,” Benny guessed.
“If I did something as weak as resign, I wouldn’t be around for him to blackmail me,” Heath returned.
“You’d probably go to another pharma and then who knows what he would expect from you,” Benny wisely pointed out.
“Then it’s good I’m gonna call his bluff,” Heath fired back.
“Resign,” Ben replied firmly, and Heath’s eyes narrowed.
“Dude, I do not know you. I didn’t ask you here. I do not want you here. And I sure as f**k am not gonna take career advice from you.”
It was then Benny lost patience and pinned Heath with his eyes.
“Right now, two Chicago wise guys are workin’ over the PI who took that picture. They’ll have all he has on you probably within half an hour so he won’t have it to hold over you. And word on this guy is, he’s a big fan of piggybacking his clients’ blackmail attempts. The next couple of days, the rest will be collected. You resign. Shit goes down. Things are explained, including why you resigned. A week, two, you’ll have your job back.”
Heath’s head twitched when Ben started talking, and he was staring with his mouth open when Benny quit.
He pulled himself together to whisper, “Fuck me, you’re in the mob?”
“Not me, not even close. But Frankie has connections, so heads up on that, I wouldn’t f**k her over,” Ben told him.
Heath’s eyes near on bugged out of his head and I had to swallow a giggle. Since it was such a big giggle, it wasn’t easy, and I almost choked on it.
But Ben wasn’t done.
“She’s got your back, and by that, I’m thinkin’ she more has the woman you won’t claim as yours back, but you get to enjoy that protection. Just resign. It’ll all be good.”
“How can I be assured of that?” Heath pressed.
“You can’t,” Ben returned. “You just gotta trust that not everyone in this world is an ass**le out for themselves like you are.”
I couldn’t stop that giggle and Heath turned his scowl at me.
I waved a hand, forced myself to sober, and said, “Sorry, sorry. Inappropriate.”
“You gonna f**k me?” he asked.
“What I’m gonna do is make sure Sandy doesn’t get f**ked, which means I have to do the same for you. So, no. I’m not gonna f**k you,” I told him.
Heath’s eyes narrowed. “You know why Bierman wants me out?”
“You aren’t gonna know that,” Ben took back the conversation, though I didn’t know, neither did Benny. But obviously Ben had made the decision that we weren’t sharing the rest with a jerk like Heath.
Heath looked to him. “Why not?”
“Your protection,” Benny said.
“That’s jacked,” Heath bit out. “It’s my ass on the line.”
It was then I knew Ben was done.
I knew this when he stated, “Okay, I’m hungry. I don’t wanna be here with you. I wanna be home with my woman and my dog, so this is the gig. It’s lost on you but bigger shit is at play here and whatever your part in it is small. So we don’t have time to jack around with you. You either trust Frankie or you don’t. But I’ll tell you something, you go in the office Monday morning without your resignation typed out in order to take the back of the woman who’s warmin’ your bed, you are not a man. You’re a dick, a weasel, and a douche. That play you make is gonna be on you. And it might not f**k with your head but I cannot imagine how it wouldn’t that the woman you toss right in front of the bus is gonna pay for your ambition and probably have men say shit and even do shit to her that she won’t deserve. It could even put her in jeopardy because they saw that out there.”
He tilted his head to the envelope on the table and kept talking.
“But I’ll know, and Frankie will know, and your woman will know, and she’ll live the rest of her life wishin’ she not only never went down on you but never saw your face. You’re willin’ to do that to her, you can live with that, right. But you can, you’re one serious dick, a huge-ass weasel, and a total f**kin’ douche.”
Ben said his piece and we were gone. He pulled me right out of the booth, the bar, and took me straight to my car.
He backed me into it and ordered, “You lead home. I’ll follow.”
“That was awesome,” I replied.
His lips quirked, but he said, “I’m not out of your rearview.”
“And you’re awesome,” I kept at it.
That got me a grin, but he asked, “Frankie, you hear me?”
“How hungry are you?” I asked back.
“I worked out after lunch so that’s long gone.”
This surprised me.
“Where did you work out?”
“Is this information you need before you drive home?”
“No, except for the fact that if you’re really truly hungry, that’ll be a bummer, because if you weren’t, I was so going down on you the minute we got home.”