Page 28 of Aaron (Dresden Pride #1)

Benjamin watched each person in the bank.

He would only admit this to himself, but he had no idea what his sister might look like now.

She’d been just a teenager when she’d moved out of the house, and he’d only seen her on occasional holidays when dad would demand that they all come together; he couldn’t remember what she looked like.

The bank sure was busy for a Saturday morning.

He thought that it had been Thursday when he’d entered the bank, and if not for the big calendar on the wall behind the cashiers, he might have gone on thinking that.

And all the tellers had their windows open to do business as well.

When he had to go to the bank on the weekend, which wasn’t all that often, there would be one teller there, and she’d be snarly with a person when they wanted to take out money from his overdrawn account.

Or it might have been him that she was snarly with.

He’d want money, and she wouldn’t give it to him.

But not today. He was going to get ten grand from his sister, or he’d tell her future husband the lie that he’d thought would make him run off.

He didn’t care if she was getting married; his needs were going to come first and foremost. Benjamin moved to the other side of the table for writing out deposit slips on when a big man crowded him.

He also knew that he could make it work out for him forever, too. He’d get her in trouble with her boss, too. Whoever that was. Like her looks, he didn’t know all that much about her either. Like, what did she do for a living?

The officers at the stationhouse didn’t know either.

Well, what they said was they weren’t going to tell him.

If it were not for his lying about her daddy being sick, he might not have known where she was living either.

Not that he knew. He’d just gotten the phone number from them, and that was all.

The big man crowded him again, and he was going to have to say something to him.

Looking the guy over, he noticed that he was taller than he was and a bit wider, but Benjamin knew how to fight, and that was what was going to save himself no matter the other man’s size.

He was street savvy and was going to use it if the man didn’t back off.

“Back off, man, before I have to teach you a lesson in crowding people meaner than you are.” He smacked the man on the chest and could feel the tightness of his chest. Not that it mattered, nope.

He was meaner than anyone he knew. “Go to your little gym and take your protein shakes. I’m not going to put up with you acting all tough when you’re nothing but steroids and protein shakes. ”

“Your sister sent me. She’s over there with the banker.” He looked and saw a beautiful woman standing at the desk, laughing. “I’m her soon-to-be husband. What did you mean you have something on her? If you had anything on her, the FBI wouldn’t have hired her.”

Benjamin didn’t like to be crowded, and the man was trying his best to piss him off. After moving back and telling the man to tell his sister that he wanted to see her, he just threw back his head and laughed. He didn’t much care for being laughed at either. Then it occurred to him what he’d said.

“She don’t work for the Feds.” He only stared at him. “Does she work for the Feds? I mean, I didn’t know that’s where…you’re lying to me to have her get out of paying me the money that she was going to give me.”

“She’s not going to pay you shit, little man, and what does her working for the Feds have to do with her not paying you.

I’m an agent for the Feds, too, and we’re going to get married soon.

Tell me what it is you think you know about her, and I’ll laugh, and you’ll go back home with your tail between your ass cheeks.

” He said that he lied. “Why do you think that? Is it because you lie all the time? Tell me your lie, little man, and I’ll tell you no, and we can go have lunch like we had planned. ”

“She’s married already?” He’d not meant for it to come out like a question, but he was finished fucking around with steroid man anyway.

Drawing back his fist, he hit him right on the nose and watched as his head didn’t so much as move back a little bit.

He might well have under-estimated his opponent. “There’s more where that comes from.”

The man put his hand on his, and Benjamin cried out enough to have other people looking at him.

Looking down at what he was sure was a knife in his hand, he was shocked to see not a knife at all but a giant paw on his hand.

And the claws that were coming out of it had to be at least two inches long.

He tried to remove the hand on his with his other hand, and all he did was see stars when the pain got to be too much.

“Does it hurt?” Benjamin nodded, still trying his best to get his hand out from under the paw.

He knew that the man was a shifter now and didn’t remember the lore that went with one of them cutting you.

How it would never heal or some bullshit like that.

“It’s going to hurt more if you don’t shut your mouth and listen to me. Shut up.”

He stopped whimpering and looked up at the man. Benjamin knew that there were tears in his eyes when the man looked blurry. But he never so much as moved away from him, just continued to hold his hand down with his own.

“Let go of my hand before I hurt you.” He didn’t know where all his bravo was coming from when he could see his blood dripping onto the floor beneath the table. “You heard me. Let me go before I have to call the police.”

“I’m a federal officer. The police can’t do shit to me.

But I can rip your hand off at the root here, and you’ll bleed to death before anyone can get to you if you don’t pay attention to me and what I’m telling you.

Are you going to listen?” He said that he would just not to hurt him anymore.

“You’re going to get out of this bank and forget the phone number that you used to call your sister.

And Mac is all right with not paying you unless you think otherwise.

She said that I could have some fun with you before you left.

And you will leave here by body bag or on your own two feet.

Which will be up to you on how you do it. ”

“What about my money?” He told him there wouldn’t be any money. “Of course there is. I need it and I know that she—Christ oh mighty, that fucking hurts. Don’t do that again or else.”

“Else what? You’re going to suddenly draw out the gun you have on you and try to kill me?

There are ten cops in here right now just itching to kill you.

If you look around, you might even be able to see them.

They certainly see you all right.” He saw them then.

All ten of them were standing there with their guns out and pointed at him.

Why they weren’t pointing them at steroid man, he didn’t know, but he was in too much pain to ask.

“You’re going to leave here all in one piece and never return.

And if you’re really smart, you’ll tell your other brother and dad that Mac is mine and I’ll protect her with all that I am if someone fucks with her. ”

“Benjamin?” He looked at his sister and couldn’t believe how beautiful she was.

She even looked like she glowed a bit. Nodding to her to let her know it was him, he asked her what she was going to do about getting him his money when Steroid Man walked away.

“He’s a tiger, you idiot, not on steroids.

And it looks to me like he’s got you right where he wants you too.

Why don’t you do what he said and leave here while you still can?

It seems to me that you can’t afford to lose that much more blood without some serious damage being done to your brain.

If you even have one that is. Do you, Benjamin?

Do you have a brain cell one in your head? ”

“I got plenty of brain cells in my head, you bitch.” The pain in his hand had him laying his head on the table, he thought for sure he was going to pass out.

Raising his head to look at her, he tried to reason with his mouth to shut up so that they could live for another day.

But his mouth just wasn’t having it. “You get me my money, or so help me I’m going to do to you what he’s done to me. ”

“And how are you going to do that? You’re not a cat, nor a shifter that I know of.

” Steroid man said that he wasn’t a shifter; he could smell him.

“Why don’t you cut your losses while you still can?

I’m not going to give you anything now nor forever.

I don’t believe you have anything on me that the Feds wouldn’t have found when I started working for them. ”

“That’s what he said, but I got something more.” She asked him what. “Wouldn’t you like to know. Just enough that this man won’t give you the time of day when I’m finished with you.”

“Whatever.” She looked at the man and smiled at him. It was blinding that smile of hers, and he didn’t mind saying so. “Just do what you need to do and let’s go. I’m hungry, and we still have the rest of the day to have fun in.”

“Don’t you even care that I’m your brother? That he’s hurting me?” She looked thoughtful for a couple of seconds, then told him no. She didn’t care about him anymore. “You’re nothing but a cunt.”

If he’d not been looking at the man, he would have missed it.

He’d gone from big, bulky steroid-taking man to cat in a second.

Not only that, but he was on the floor with a claw now in his chest. Benjamin felt his bladder let go and piss run down his leg and under him.

He hoped that some of it got on the large cat and had him leaping back, but all he did was dig the claws in his chest deeper.