Page 40 of Benny

Jordan shook her head. “His bodyguards were slow. The second one got a shot off, but his aim was shitty and he just caught me in the side. I hit both of them in the thigh to drop them, but not kill them. Or at least that was my goal.” She blew out a breath. “I guess this gives IA one more thing to look into,” she said glumly as she met his gaze. “It was a righteous shoot, sir.”

“I have no doubt, Gonzalez,” he said. “We’ll have the Gang Task Force poke around a bit, make sure you’re truly in the clear when it comes to the price on your head.”

One of the techs came out and motioned the sheriff over. “We’re about ready to open the box.”

Jordan shuddered. “I really hope it’s not Cassandra’s head,” she said darkly.

It wasn’t Cassandra’s head, but rather her pinky finger in a really big box designed to give the impression that it held something more.

Jordan coordinated with the detective to reach out to the gang unit and have Cassandra pulled in and placed in protective custody if she was still alive. The girl would never be safe in Vegas again, but if she testified against the cartel, she could start a new life somewhere else.

~

They released Jordan and Benny after each of them gave brief statements, and they piled into Dev’s SUV with Spot and her now bug-free carrier and headed back toward the Zephyr.

“So, I’m officially CJ?” Benny asked.

“Affirmative,” Devin said as he twisted around in his seat. “You have a whole background now. I didn’t credit you with any military time, but gave you licensure as a paramedic in California, in case you want to continue to pursue medicine as a career.”

Benny sat with that for a minute. He’d been living in the now, rediscovering the joy of being with Jordan while trying to reclaim himself. But Devin was right. Sooner or later, he was going to have to figure out what came next. All he knew for sure was that he wanted Jordan to be a part of that new life, whatever it became.

Since the SUV that Dev had rented for them was part of a crime scene, they’d left it in the garage. He supposed Dev would have Malone go back and collect it, or maybe even the rental car company. And why was he thinking of such mundane things when he had so many bigger things to consider?

Tomorrow they’d have some sort of closure with Hayes and Overlander. He wasn’t quite sure what that looked like in his head.

Abstractly, he thought about what it would be like to dish out the same pain to Overlander that she’d delivered to him, but his stomach revolted at the thought. He’d always been a healer, even as a little kid. Which was probably why he hadn’t been able to say no to Spot.

The concept of dealing out pain didn’t appeal on any level, but the concept of just handing them over to the authorities didn’t sit well either. The two of them had done horrific things, things that had been so gruesome his mind had shut them out.

The more he thought about Jordan’s theory of the nanites fixing not only his body, but his brain, the more he agreed that was the likeliest scenario. Which meant he’d never get his memories of them as a couple back. While that thought brought anger, it also reminded him of what he’d told her this afternoon.

He’d love her like it was the first time. He’d fall in love all over again, and with the same woman. Who got that kind of opportunity?

He wondered if he’d always been a rainbows-and-sunshine kind of guy. Especially with what he’d seen in his career. He had no problem remembering war and death dealt in a thousand ways, and yet somehow, he’d always come back for more relatively unscathed.

He wondered, as they pulled beneath the portico at the Zephyr, if he’d used his art as a way to expel all that darkness. If he could use it that way again.

Once they were safely within the confines of the penthouse and seated at the kitchen table, they recapped what had happened.

“Your Chance Johnson alias is solid across the board. I’d suggest staying away from the base for a while, though, at least until the latest rotation moves through. You might also want to consider growing out your hair and having a little plastic surgery, like we discussed earlier,” Devin said.

Benny just sighed. “I’m going to grow a beard. That should obscure my facial features enough, especially if I grow my hair and use a pair of cheaters.”

“Contact lenses for your eyes,” Jordan decreed. “I always wondered what you’d look like with blue eyes.” She didn’t even try to hide the playfulness in her tone.

So much for the cheaters. It looked like it was contacts for him, tinted blue.

“About that,” Devin said. “How long were you two together before Benny got hit by the car?”

“Four months, it started after therapy,” Jordan said. “It was pretty serious, and we were going to tell all of you at some point. It was just nice to have something that was for us.” She shrugged. “To see if it was real or passing.”

Benny reached out and linked his fingers with hers. “Jordan has a theory that whatever they did to me so damaged my psyche that the nanites fixed it, but by taking away the trauma, they erased the joy as well. They erased us.”

Devin sat back hard in his chair. “Jesus,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.

Benny had never seen him look that unsettled. Or that frightened.

“When I think of the ramifications of this... It could revolutionize medicine...” He trailed off.