Page 250 of The Rules
They reached the car. Ben opened the passenger door for her, but she didn’t move. Just stood there, arms wrapped around herself, coat too thin to matter.
Her fingers were still curled into fists.
“Get in,” Ben said, low and quiet.
She obeyed.
The city blurred past as they drove. She stared out the window, watching the city lights blur across the glass like faded bruises. Ben didn’t play music. Didn’t fill the silence. The engine’s hum was the only sound between them.
She should have felt victorious. The man had cracked—nearly. One more push, maybe. But all she felt was hollow.
“You think we’re still on the right side?” she asked finally, her voice barely above a whisper.
Ben didn’t answer. Just kept driving.
She closed her eyes. Leaned her head against the cool window. For the first time in weeks, she didn’t want to talk strategy. Didn’t want to plan.
She just wanted to stop feeling like this.
Chapter 53
Benjamin
Tension gripped the room like static before a lightning strike—silent, charged, inevitable.
No one moved.
No one breathed too deep.
A choice hovered in the air. It wasn’t going to be easy.
Ben leaned against the bar, glass in hand, shoulders drawn tight.
The weight of what they were considering pressed against his chest like stone.
Across from him, Julian lounged in the chair like a man about to offer something no one sane should accept.
Shadows clung to him like loyal friends, softening the edges of his smirk until it blurred into something almost... elegant in its menace.
Ben didn’t know what he was about to say.
But he could feel it.
Coiled in the air.
Dark. Measured. Inevitable.
“So, we’re agreed,” Julian said finally, tipping his head toward the untouched drink on the table.
“Our friend doesn’t scare easy. Even fear has its ceiling, apparently.”
Ben exhaled hard through his nose, fingers pressing against his temple.
The pounding in his skull hadn’t let up all day.
Every thought slammed into the same wall—
Every legal path, every clean option—gone.
