Love’n’Lust

Ben was accompanied by some of the same officers who followed him to the interrogation room the last time he was at the station.

The door was opened and Ben went in first, a smile hanging on his lips the moment he saw someone else other than Tiger in the room.

“You found him,” Ben remarked, turning back to the officers, his smile still there.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“It wasn’t easy but it was your order after all.” One of the officers insinuated that they knew he wouldn’t be pleased if Crow wasn’t found.

“Crow,” Ben called when he turned back to the two men chained to the same table. His smile didn’t disappear, not that he was generally happy to see Crow there too but he enjoyed the fear he saw on Crow’s face when he entered. He knew Crow was not as prideful and courageous as Tiger was.

“You know why you are here right?” Ben went closer to the table and took a seat opposite them.

“Tiger was fully in charge of the operation, not me.” Crow thought he should inform Ben about that. Tiger gave him an angry stare when he said that he didn’t care, he was more scared of Ben than he was of Tiger.

“I know.” Ben did.”That’s not why you are here,” Ben smile more maliciously.

“I want to talk to him alone,” Ben announced to the officers and his request was quickly met. Pretty soon, he was sitting with just Crow, no officer in sight, and Tiger absent.

“I’m sorry Mr Larkson, I didn’t know she was…” Crow wanted to help himself before Ben got angrier with him but his apology seemed to irritate Ben.

“Don’t.”Ben’s smile faded with that one word of command.”You lie, if you say that you didn’t know.” Crow swallowed saliva, it was more dreadful to be alone with Ben now that his smile was gone.”You’ve worked for me before, did you forget? For all I know, before you carry out a plan, you do your research. You knew who you were messing with.”

“I’m sorry.” Crow’s skin pores poured out more sweat with his every breath. He knew Belle probably told Ben about what he wanted to do with her.

“Why did you do it?” Ben asked simply.

“Tiger also had an eye for her, it wasn’t just me I swear.”

“Not the answer to my question.”

“I don’t know what I was thinking that day, I was high and I did what I did blindly…” Crow joined words to explain his actions the night he tried to rape Belle.

“You lie again.”

“I’m sorry, Mr Larkson I…”

“Just one thing would keep you alive now. Answer my next question without thinking through a lie.” Ben smiled wickedly because as much as he wanted an answer for what he was about to ask, he also wanted to kill the man in front of him in a slow, painful manner.

He saw Crow nod agreeably.

“Good. I want to know. Who’s order was it ?” His question was simple.

Crow blinked the moment he heard that question.

“I don’t know who but I know it’s a woman,  she paid really well. I know because Tiger didn’t want to do it at first but she double the amount he had demanded.”

“What’s her name,” Ben wanted to be sure of the name he had in mind.

“I don’t know, I swear, I never saw her.”

“So you want me to believe that for the first time since you started under Tiger, you don’t know the name of a client? Is that what you are saying?”

“I don’t know, if I did, I would tell you Mr Larkson. I swear on my mother’s grave that I don’t know who she is… but she asked us not to hurt her. We had to feed her every day and made sure she was okay. I don’t think she had intentions to hurt her, maybe she wanted her away from you. It may be someone close to you.” Crow said with hopes of being helpful to avoid Ben’s wrath but Ben already knew that; he knew it was someone who was somehow close.

Ben stood up all of a sudden and left the room.

****

Later that night.

Ben was on the bed reviewing some documents on his laptop. Belle was sleeping beside him, she had fallen asleep before he returned so he just pecked her on the cheeks when he saw her sleeping.

His phone vibrated but before it could ring out, he picked up the call. The call only lasted some seconds, after that, he immediately returned to the laptop but not to work, the caller had just sent him something.

He opened the file, it was a video.

“This would automatically delete after its first view.” Some words at the beginning of the video read.

“What did you tell him?” It was Tiger asking Crow in the cell. He didn’t know a camera had been activated there.

“Everything he wanted to know.” Crow sat far away from him, for his safety.

“You told him about her?”

“Look man, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to die yet. You know how deadly it is to play with him.”

“Son of a bitch.” Tiger cursed at him, indirectly calling him weak for having said anything.

“It’s not like I know much, you never let me be around whenever she comes to talk. I don’t even know what she looked like and I’m glad about that.” Crow confessed but got that angry stare from Tiger again.

“He’s unforgiving, he isn’t going to spare your life whether you give him what he wants or not. You tried to eat from the same place he eats,” Tiger chuckled before continuing.”He’s is still going to kill you, but that’s if I don’t do it first in here.” Tiger’s threat got Crow worried. He saw an officer passing by and went to the cell door.

“Hey, you’ve got to get me out of here, he is making threats, I don’t trust my safety here.” He called out to the officer but wasn’t given any attention. He turned back to see a smirk on Tiger’s face.