Ryan and Deacon found Ben and brought him back safely, but an early morning phone call from Cassie means more problems for the band, as well as for Ben and Ryan. Is there a way out of this mess? See what's going on in this week's chapter of In Pieces. Don't forget to visit the other Briefers and see what's up with them! Their links follow my tale! Enjoy!
Ryan felt better after pouring his heart out to Cassie,
feeling some of the stress of the situation ease a little. He trusted Cassie
implicitly, knew he could rely on her to keep his confidence.
“Ben’s lucky to have you, Ryan,” Cassie said when he had finished
speaking. “You two deserve to be happy, how dare this bitch try to keep you
apart, especially after what she’s done to poor Ben? I can certainly understand
Ben getting away from her. It’s not right that she pulled him right back in
like that.”
“I don’t know what will happen if she pulls her backing,”
Ryan said. “At the same time, I’m sure Ben doesn’t want anything from her
either. So I’m not sure where that leaves the band, you know?”
“I’m sure we can figure something out, Ryan. I think right
now you need to focus on taking care of Ben and keeping him away from her.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Ryan agreed. He heard a knock at the
bathroom door.
“Ryan, you there?” Ben’s voice sounded slightly panicked.
“Yeah, be right out,” Ryan called out, quickly rising from
the floor where he’d slumped while talking to Cassie. “Look, Cassie, I have to
go, Ben’s up. I’ll call you back later when I know something.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.” Ryan clicked off and opened the door. Ben’s
expression changed from worried to relieved in a moment.
“Sorry, I didn’t want to disturb you,” Ryan apologized,
holding his phone up. “I was talking to Cassie. She called.”
They headed back to the bed, sitting on the edge, side by
side. “Is she okay?” Ben asked. “Nothing’s wrong, I hope?”
Ryan took a deep breath, hating what he was about to say, as
he explained about the threatening call Cassie had received from Liza. “I’m
sorry. I don’t meant to upset you, but I had to tell you, I swore to you I’d
never lie.”
“Yeah, I know, I’m glad you told me.” Ben shuddered. Ryan
quickly put an arm about him, and they huddled together.
“I’m going to be free of her,” Ben said. Ryan was glad he
sounded less lost and more in charge of himself than he had the night before. “I
don’t care what she says. She’s no good for either one of us. Just have to
figure out how to get the band out from under her thumb financially, now that I
know it’s been her, not Cameron.”
“Absolutely,” Ryan agreed, although he didn’t have the first
clue as to how they were going to do that. He was also reminded that the next
time he saw the man, he had a few choice words for Cameron Pope. “Do you have
any ideas?”
Ben sighed softly. “Not really. I think the first step is to
talk to Marge, see if she has time before she has to go so we can go over
things with her, see what she thinks.”
“That sounds like a very good idea,” Ryan said. He pressed a
soft kiss against Ben’s forehead.
At that moment, they heard a ding, but it wasn’t from Ryan’s
phone. They glanced apprehensively toward Ben’s phone on the nightstand. “Do
you want me to look?” Ryan offered.
“No, I have it.” Ben reached for his phone and checked the
text message that had just come in. Ryan watched him anxiously until he saw Ben
visibly relax. “Speak of the devil, it’s Marge. She wants to know about
breakfast. Brunch now.” He quickly typed in a reply and hit send. “I told her
we’d love to. We’re to meet up in her room in half an hour. I’ll contact the
others, then we can get dressed.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Ryan said. As Ben texted the rest of
the bank, Ryan watched him anxiously, but he seemed to be doing okay. Once he
received replies from Aiden and Deacon, they got dressed and headed up to
Marge’s room so they could have a few minutes alone with her.
“We’ll have to go get Cameron’s car,” Ryan reminded Ben. “We
left it in the park last night.”
“If we didn’t need it, I’d be tempted to leave it there,”
Ben Said. “But I won’t. Yeah, after breakfast we can go after it. We can Uber
over or something and drive it back.”
Marge didn’t seem surprised to see them when they knocked on
her door without the others. She ushered them in and invited them to have a
seat on the extra bed. The reason became obvious when she began to speak.
“I didn’t want to say anything in a text, but I got an odd
call last night—” she began. Ben and Ryan groaned in unison.
“I’m sorry, Marge. It was my mother, wasn’t it?”
Ryan took Ben’s hand in his and squeezed it reassuringly.
“She said she was,” Marge replied. “Told me the band is
breaking up and my services were no longer needed.”
“What the hell?” Ryan spluttered.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t believe a word she said. I told her
where to go and what she could do with herself once she got there.”
“I’m glad you knew better,” Ben said. “But there’s more to it than that. Apparently,
she’s been bankrolling us, not Cameron. We have to figure out how we’re going
to make it without her money.”
Marge frowned at his words, falling silent for a minute.
“You know something,” she said. “The group has a little break coming up. You head
back to Mandeville tomorrow. Then you have one date in Lafayette, two nights in
Baton Rouge, and then you’re back at Cameron’s place. Then nothing for a week.
That might be a good time to re-organize. What do you think?”
“Sounds like a great idea,” Ben said.
“Okay then. Contact me when you’re ready and we’ll get
together?” Moving toward them, she hugged both men. “Now, how about some
breakfast?”
to be continued
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