Chapter 33: Ben
I might have demanded Mr. Miller give me his car keys. It's not so much a carjacking as it is a... less-than-willing auto lending. I call the bakery as I drive. It rings twice before a chipper voice answers. "Olive Branch Bakery, can you hold please?"
"No!" I yell into the phone, but they've already switched lines and I'm left swearing into the void. "Come on," I chant. I'm only a few minutes from the bakery but I wait on hold just in case they pick up again before I get there. Soft music is still playing when I pull into the front of the bakery, wincing as the car bottoms out on the parking lot entrance. I might need to apologize to Mr. Miller. I end the call as I run up the front steps.
Searching the dining room, I think I see Lilah at a table in the corner. A glance up in my direction sends my heart plummeting. It's not Lilah. It's her sister, Olive. The look on my face must be enough to alarm her because her eyebrows scrunch up and she tilts her head. She looks so much like Lilah. The panic is rising up in me and I hate that I don't know where Lilah is.
Olive excuses herself, leaving a couple at the table to go through a notebook.
"Have you seen Lilah?" I ask.
Her confused look turns darker. "Not today, why?"
"Have you seen Terry, Lilah's boss from the bar hanging around?"
"Ew, no. Why?"
Ignoring her question, I head back towards the kitchen. Maybe she's back there? I'm grasping at straws, but I don't care. Olive follows me and smacks me on the arm hard enough to hurt but not derail me.
"Excuse you! I asked you a question. What is going on?"
It's not exactly my story to tell, but fuck it, it's not like Lilah would keep it a secret from her sister, anyway. "He's been stalking her," I say as I walk into the kitchen, checking the supply closet on the way.
"What are you talking about?!" Olive's voice sounds panicked, but I don't have time to explain it because Lilah comes flying in the side door. Relief washes over me, but it's short lived when I take in the tear tracks on her cheeks, the pallor of her skin, and the fear in her eyes.
"Ben!" Lilah shrieks as she runs and jumps into my arms. I catch her, sweeping her up in my arms. Nothing in this world can compare to the feeling of holding her. I bury my hand in her hair, cupping the back of her head and hold her against my chest.
"Ben, it's Terry. It was all him," she tells me.
"I know, Princess. I figured it out after--"
"No, you don't understand. He's here. He's outside. He cornered me behind the dumpsters- tried to - I kicked him..." She's shaking like a leaf. "I need to call the police."
Olive acts before the rest of us, snatching a phone off the wall and dialing 9-1-1. Her eye is twitching as she looks at me over Lilah's head, murder in her eyes. I suspect she'd be game to help me bury a body if it meant protecting her sister.
Lilah looks up at me. "Can you check on Luis? He's outside. He wanted to make sure Terry didn't get away."
The last thing in the world I want to do right now is leave her side, but the expression on her face is heart wrenching. I hold her face in my hands and bend down to kiss her. Our lips brush and I feel her sigh, relaxing into me. It's over in a second. I let her go with a painful twist in my chest. It feels wrong to leave her, but she needs to know Luis is safe and I'll do anything to make her feel better. Olive reaches out and pulls Lilah to her, shooing me out the door as she answers questions for the dispatcher.
I jog out the door to the parking lot, where I find Luis leaning casually against a dumpster. A familiar, ferrety looking man is weeping openly at his feet. He's holding his balls, a nasty black eye blossoming under a split eyebrow. Lilah said she kicked the guy, but a quick glance at Luis' right hand, the knuckles bloodied, explains the black eye.
"Can you believe this chuckle fuck attacked me?" Luis says in an outraged voice.
"He really should have known better," I reply darkly, shaking my head. Terrance sneers at me as I approach the two of them. I squat next to him, my body shaking with rage. I can hear sirens getting closer, but I want to make sure he hears this before they take him away. He threatened my Lilah, the first and only woman I'll fall in love with. He terrified the woman I'm going to spend the rest of my life with.
I grab his hair and yank his head back. "You are so fucking lucky the police are coming, you pathetic little snake. If I had my way, they'd never find your body. You are going to confess to all of it. You will plead guilty, without dragging this through a trial. If you don't, know that I can make your life a living hell no matter where they put you. I can ruin you and your entire family without blinking an eye. You damn well better remember that. If I hear even a whisper of your bullshit, I'll make good on my threat to rip your balls off and feed them to you. Cool?" I say, clapping a hand on his shoulder. He flinches and cries harder, but nods.
I stand as the first police car pulls into the lot. Luis and I stand aside as an officer cuffs Terrance, reading him his rights as he pats him down. Lilah and Olive step outside as Terrance is dragged to his feet and frogmarched to a cruiser.
It takes forever to file the police report, but Lilah leans against my side, letting me hold her close as we tell them the (slightly abridged) version of the phone calls and discovering the vandalism to my car. Lilah points the officers to the tracker that she left behind the dumpsters. She carefully leaves out my less-than-legal work, but I offer up the footage of Terrance entering her house. Anything to extend his prison sentence.
Lilah is incredible. She keeps her shit together, making sure she gives them every detail she can remember. She tells them how he cornered her and how she sweet-talked him to get close enough to knee him in the cajones. Just listening to her retell it makes my blood boil, but the female officer cracks a tiny grin and winces as she whispers, "Nice."
Lilah refuses medical attention every time I bring it up. After the tenth time, she smacks me on the chest. "It's not like his squishy little balls hurt my knee," she says. "Really, I'm fine. I just want to go lie down and take a nap. I'll be good as new, I promise."
"Not in your house," I say, disgustedly thinking of the video footage from last night.
"Ew," she says with a shudder. "I never want to set foot in that house again. Except... I need to get Frankie."