Page 42 of Jacking Jill

Though of course Benson only knew the sketchy basics of what had happened to Kay seven years ago. He didn’t know exactly how she’d responded to the attack, if she’d been broken beyond repair, damaged beyond healing, the darkness taking over so completely that no light could ever enter.

Not so different from how Diego Vargas had been broken beyond repair by the cruelty of his own fate. Sure, Diego had shown a glimmer of light for Mercy and Cari, but it was too little, too late. There was no happy ending coming for Diego Vargas.

Could there be one for Kay Steffen?

Probably not, Benson thought with a hint of almost tragic disappointment. He wasn’t sure what Kay Steffen had been up to the past seven years, how she’d channeled her rage and hatred. But all signs indicated that the darkness had won the battle for Kay’s soul. There wasn’t even the hint of a normal human relationship in her life the past seven years. Kay might have been destined to cross paths with Darkwater, but she’d come up on the wrong side.

The losing side.

“Congratulations,” said Benson crisply. “So you know I’m ex-CIA. Sadly, that isn’t as big a secret as I’d like it to be. As for holding me personally responsible for every bad decision the Agency has made in the last forty years . . .” He raised an eyebrow at Nancy, who was looking at him with a sparkle of smugness in her eyes. “Well, maybe there’s some truth to that. All right, now that we’ve each struck a blow to kick off this negotiation, let’s get down to business, Counselor.” He leaned back in his chair, gazed up at the ceiling, then looked down at the phone. “And the cost of doing business is Diego Vargas. You know we want him, and I’m guessing you’ve already figured out why. You may have abandoned your sense of justice, Kay, but I suspect you’re still a patriot to some degree. Diego tried to assassinate a United States Senator who’s the leading Presidential candidate. And we know that Romeo Carmine was a big investor in Northrup Capital—and, by extension, in the Zeta Nation’s bonds which are siphoning taxpayer money. You don’t want any part of this, and that’s why you’re calling. So just tell us where we can find Diego. We don’t even start this negotiation until I’ve got Diego in my sights.”

“I don’t know where he is now,” Kay said evenly. “But I know where he will be in six weeks.”

Benson frowned. “What happens in six weeks? More importantly, what happens between now and six weeks from now?”

“Romeo and Diego are going to do some test runs of Fentanyl shipments from the Zeta Nation’s seaport to the Philadelphia docks,” said Kay after a pause. “I can give you the ship names and container numbers if you want. But Diego won’t be anywhere near those shipments, and if you or the DEA bust them up, he’ll never contact me or Romeo again, will go so far underground you’ll never find him.” She took a quick breath. “You need to let those shipments go through—track them if you want, so the DEA can seize them later. But if you want Diego, you’ll have to let the test shipments go through. After the last test shipment is through, Diego will leave a new burner phone number for me in a dead-drop location. You can stake out the location and nab him then. If that doesn’t work, you can still track him using the new burner phones when he calls me.”

“Well, that sounds very convenient and easy, Kay.” Benson chuckled dryly. “Maybe I’m a bit jaded after forty years of backstabbing and double-dealing, but it seems a bit too easy. Hell, you haven’t even told us what you want out of this deal.”

“Nothing.” Kay’s response was curt. “Not a damn thing. I just want out of this whole mess. This deal with Diego and the Zetas felt wrong from the beginning. And after your action-figure Delta-Force hero Jack Wagner showed up at the cocktail party and we realized some off-the-books CIA-linked team is after Diego, I told Romeo to walk the hell away from the whole thing before we crossed the point of no return.”

“Oh, hey, Kay?” Jack leaned in between Benson and Nancy, his voice dripping with cool sarcasm. “Just so you know, the point of no return has been crossed. Action-figure Delta-Force heroes tend to take it personally when someone tries to kill them.”

Benson raised a stern eyebrow at Jack, who shrugged, sighed, and stepped back from the phone again. Benson thought a moment, then shook his head.

“No deal, Kay. Six weeks is too long. We’ll find Diego on our own well before that. You wanted nothing out of this deal, right? Well, you get nothing. Nobody’s getting you out of this mess. Jack’s right. You’ve passed the point of no return, as far as I’m concerned. Besides, we aren’t law enforcement. Can’t do a damn thing to protect you from the fallout of your own bad choices. Thanks for calling, Counselor, but you don’t get to clear your conscience by trying to give us Diego after you and your gangster boss took a shot at one of my guys. You have my sympathy for what happened to you seven years ago, but it doesn’t excuse you from the choices you’ve made since then.”

“Fuck your sympathy,” snarled Kay, the rage breaking through her coolness, just like Benson had hoped to do with the emotional provocation. “You don’t know a damn thing about the choices I’ve made—and why I made them!”

“You’re right, I don’t know a damn thing about you or your choices, Kay.” Benson spoke with practiced smoothness, knowing he’d gotten his hooks into Kay now, had opened up a vulnerability which he could ruthlessly exploit to draw her in and see what was inside that secret space of her damaged psyche, her hardened heart. “And you know what? I don’t give a shit. Goodbye, Counselor.”

Benson hung up.

Every head in the room snapped towards Benson at the same time, every wide-eyed gaze asking him the same question:

What the hell are you doing, Benson?

“You didn’t even ask about Nina!” Jill tried to snatch the phone from the table, but stopped when it started to ring again, her own name and number showing up on the caller ID.

“I do know a thing or two about negotiating,” Benson said with a sideways grin as Jill backed away. He tapped the phone’s screen and answered Kay's callback. “Well, at least we know you’re desperate, Counselor. So give me something I can use or else I’m hanging up again—this time for good.”

“You’re desperate too,” said Kay coolly. “You’ve been after Diego for months—at least since that mess on the cruise ship last year. The Rivington, right? And I know all about the explosion outside Senator Robinson’s townhome two months ago. More importantly, I know that the Senator wasn’t the target, Benson. You were the target. You and CIA Director Martin Kaiser.”

Benson stiffened in his chair. “So Diego told you everything. That only drives home the point that you’re in deep, Kay. Way over your head. Seven years ago you were a star in the U.S. Attorney’s office. Now you’re brokering deals with men who try to murder American government officials. What went wrong, Kay?” He snorted. “Don’t worry about answering that. I don’t give a damn. Now, for the last time: Tell me where Diego is right now. The truth and nothing but, Counselor.”

“I am telling you the truth.” Kay’s voice didn’t sound strained in the least. She must have been a damn good prosecutor, Benson thought. “Look, Benson, I only got the full story from Diego a few hours ago. And you’re right—I want no part of assassination attempts on elected U.S. officials and folks who serve our country. But I don’t know where Diego is right now, and I have no way of contacting him.” She paused, took a breath. “And honestly, with Bobby Carmine getting his brains blown out . . . hell, Diego might decide it’s too risky to do any sort of deal with Romeo. He might cancel those test shipments, nix the whole thing, try to connect with some other mafia family or drug gang."

"I don’t think so," said Benson. "Because it seems Diego is desperate to make this deal—otherwise there’s no way he’d have agreed to Romeo’s reckless order to take out Jack Wagner.”Benson grunted. “Why did Romeo order the hit on Jack? Diego told you guys that Darkwater was after him. Which means Romeo gave the order knowing damn well that he was going to end up on Darkwater’s naughty list—regardless of whether he succeeded or not.”

"He needed to know Diego was on the level, that it wasn't a setup, that Diego hadn't been turned." Kay sighed. “And I think Romeo figured that if he was going into business with Diego, then he would have to go up against Darkwater sooner or later.” She hesitated, then sighed again. “But it was also impulsive, like something impelled Romeo to make that choice. Almost like he was drawn into it. I . . . I don’t know how to explain it.”

I do, thought Benson with a tight inside smile.

“Maybe it had something to do with that woman from IMG,” said Kay like she was thinking aloud. “She’s the one who sent Diego to us.”

Benson and Nancy both sat up straight, looked at each other, then stared at the phone.

“You spoke to someone from IMG?” Benson did his best to sound disinterested even though his head was buzzing as connections started to spark and the puzzle-pieces swirled around looking for places to fit. “A woman? What’s her name?”

---