His words were cut short as a bullet pierced his stomach. The women all screamed, Aurora collapsing to the floor.
“Heath! No!” she screamed, snatching out of my grip and running over to him. “Oh no, no, no. Baby, I’m so sorry.”
“See what happens when you try to play the hero in real life, Fabio?” I asked with a shrug. “That shit only works in movies.”
“Fuck you!” Aurora screamed at me.
If only she knew how I planned to fuck her once we got back to California.
“Aurora, I need you to sign something as well,” I said to her, pulling out business transfer papers.
She ignored me, murmuring to Heath as he grew pale, still clutching his stomach as his blood stained the white couch. With a deep sigh, I walked over to her, grabbed her ponytail and dragged her across the floor away from him. She yelped, slapping against my hand until I plopped her on the other side of the coffee table and pointed at the business transfer papers.
“Sign it,” I ordered.
She picked up the papers and looked over them, shaking her head before looking up at me.
“I’m not giving you my business, you psychotic fuck!” she screamed, spitting at my feet.
I slapped her across the face, satisfaction flowing through me when she wiped blood from her lip.
“There’s more punishment where that came from,” I growled. “Either you sign it, or your little girlfriends here are gonna end up like Fabio.”
When she didn’t move, I strolled over to Savannah and grabbed her by the hair. “You’re a pretty little thing, you know that? I could sell you for a lot of money,” I murmured in her ear.
“Please,” she cried, squeezing her eyes shut. “I signed what you told me to.”
“Yeah, but Aurora won’t,” I said, looking over at her. “Do you want her to pay for your stubbornness?”
Aurora looked at me with tears in her eyes, her shaky hand reaching for the pen on the table. “I’ll sign. Please just leave them alone,” she pleaded.
“Then sign,” I said.
She looked down at the document, slowly signing it as her tear drops splashed onto the paper. Once it was signed, she pushed the paper away with a sob.
“Thanks for doing business, ladies,” I said, picking the contracts up and putting them back in the folder. “Kandice and Savannah, you’ll have your money before the week is out. If you even breathe a word of what happened here, we’ll hunt you down. Got it?”
They both nodded, their eyes cast downwards. I grabbed Aurora’s arm and pulled her off the floor.
“Time to go, buttercup,” I said.
She looked back to Heath, who’d bled out on the couch, a sob ripping through her. “Can’t I say goodbye to them?”
“No. Let’s go.”
“No!”
She fought against me, trying to pull away to get to Health, to hold on to the sliver of her life that she finally thought was going right, to the life that was about to evaporate in the next few moments.
I holstered my gun and put her in a headlock, squeezing until she went limp. “That was fucking annoying,” I muttered, dropping her to the ground. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Bruce picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder without another word. I looked to the girls, who looked at me in tears as their unconscious best friend was carried onto the elevator and out of their lives forever. I put a finger to my lips and walked backwards onto the elevator, making sure I was the last thing they saw to remind them to stay silent.
Otherwise, they’d learn that my thirst for blood was insatiable when someone crossed me.
I should’ve listened to him.
When my father told me to run, I should’ve listened.
I’d had my own thoughts on what could possibly happen when this so-called “dangerous guy” found me, but I never imagined it would be like this. I never imagined that I’d see the love of my life dead on the couch we’d just made love on the night before. I never thought I’d see fear etched in my best friends’ faces as their lives hung in the balance.
I never imagined that my perfect life I’d created for myself would be snatched from me.
When I finally awoke, my lip stung, and my head pounded something fierce. I didn’t recognize the cabinet-looking walls or the bed I laid on, surrounded by darkness. Light penetrated around the edges of the door as a soft roar sounded around me from outside the walls. My heart sped up in my chest when realization slowly dawned on me.
I was on a fucking plane.
“Help!” I screamed, attempting to sit up only to find that my arms were handcuffed to the railing above me. I jerked until my wrists throbbed with pain, but they didn’t give. “Help me!”
My voice was raspy and dry, as if someone had taken sandpaper and rubbed my throat raw. Memories of Heath’s pale face filled my mind and my heart broke all over again. How were we on top of the world less than 24 hours ago and now he was dead?
I stiffened as the door opened and light spilled into the room, a tall, muscular figure looming in the doorway. The light flipped on, the brightness of it burning my eyes as they adjusted.
“Good. You’re awake,” a deep voice said. He walked over and stood on the side of the bed, his head cocked as he looked at me.
Looking at his face brought memories of the last few hours flooding in. Heath was gone. My company was gone. My life as I knew it was no more. The look in his man’s eyes was dark, hungry for violence and blood. And the sinister smirk on his lips as he watched me silently alluded to the horrors he had in store for me.
“Help me!” I screamed again, pulling against my restraints. He smiled, a beautiful smile of white teeth that would’ve melted the panties off of any woman he’d granted it with. But I knew what he was capable of. I’d witnessed the evil harbored within him.
Even the devil was beautiful.
He put his hands in his pockets. “You’re screaming and I haven’t even touched you yet,” he mused.
“Please just let me go,” I begged, tears burning my eyes.
He raised an eyebrow. “Let you go, huh? You wanna go now?”
“Please,” I whispered.
He nodded. “Okay then.” Keeping his eyes on me, he called out over his shoulder, “Bruce, the young lady would like to leave.”
He walked out of the room and came back with a key. My heart thrummed in my chest while he unlocked the cuffs and secured my arm. We walked out into the cabin that held four sets of chairs with polished wooden tables in between them. The brute, bald man with a scar across his cheek that’d been in my house earlier sat in one of the chairs, along with a guy with dark skin, dreadlocks, and a permanent scowl on his face across from him as they played chess.
My captor leaned down and whispered something to who I assumed to be Bruce, who nodded and stood up. We followed him down the aisle to the emergency exit and before I could react, the door flew open.
“You can leave now,” the man said a grin.
Bruce grabbed me by the back of my neck and arm, dangling me out of the flying plane.
“No!” I screamed. At this rate, I would’ve died of fear before he’d even dropped me.
“What was that?” the man yelled over the noise, cupping his ear. “You want me to let you go?”
“No! Please!” I cried. I dared to glance to my left to see the blades of the turbine engine whirring. The thought of dying by those blades was enough to scare me shitless.
The man looked over to Bruce and nodded. I screamed again when Bruce let go of the back of my neck, dangling me outside by my arm.
“Please! I don’t wanna go!” I screamed, squeezing my eyes shut. After what felt like an eternity, Bruce ripped me back into the plane and threw me onto the floor before quickly moving to secure the door.
I moved to my hands and knees, forcing myself to try to breathe as my body hyperventilated. My body trembled as uncontrollable tears ran down my face. My breaths choked me and the mixture of emotions—terror,
anxiety, fear—were bound to drown me.
The man squeezed the back of neck and yanked me to my feet before slamming me against the very door I’d just dangled out of.
“Let me make something crystal clear for you,” he growled, squeezing my throat. I gasped, trying to get his hand from around my neck. As if hyperventilating wasn’t enough, he had to torture me a step further to rob me of oxygen.
“The only way I’d let you go is when one of my men collect your dead body when I’m finished with you. You. Belong. To. Me. Get that in through your dense fucking skull.”
I crumbled to the floor when he let go of me, gasping for air. I was as good as dead then. Maybe I should’ve died next to Heath had I known this was what I was walking into. Just thinking of his smiling face broke my heart. I was the reason he was dead. He was gone and I was trapped by the devil with no way out.
“Get up,” he barked.
My legs shook beneath me as I slowly stood to my feet, my previous desperate sobs now pathetic hiccups. He gestured back to the room he’d removed me from. I turned, keeping my eyes down as I slowly moved down the aisle and back into the room. He moved in from of me and lifted the bed until it rested inside of the wall.
“You probably have questions,” he said with a grunt as he pulled a loop from the ceiling. The clinking of metal chilled me to the bone as a short chain came into view. “But unfortunately for you, I don’t give a shit.” Pulling the handcuffs from earlier from his pocket, he waved his hand to me. “Hands.”
I looked between him and the cuffs, which did nothing but agitate him.
“I swear if I have to fucking repeat myself again, I’m going to lose my shit,” he snapped.
Bruce leaned out into the aisle with a smirk. “You don’t want him to lose his shit.”
“Now,” he growled.
I unwrapped my arms from around myself and gave him what he asked for, whimpering when he yanked them hard. Once he’d snapped them on, he raised my arms, opened the loop, and secured my cuffs through them before closing the loop.
“Please,” I whispered, tears dripping from my face.
“My rules are simple,” he said, ignoring me. “You will bow, you will break, and you will obey. Do that, and you’ll survive.” He squatted in front of me, his fingertips skimming up my thighs as he lifted my dress.
“Please don’t do this,” I begged.
“If you don’t follow those rules…” He raised my tight dress over my ass and lowered my thong around my ankles. “I’ll break you in ways that’ll make you wish you were dead.”
I trembled as he stood up, watching as he loosened his belt and pulled it off.
“Now repeat what I just said,” he said, his voice calm.
“Please God,” I wailed, jerking at the handcuffs as if that would do something productive.
He stroked his growing beard and shook his head. “There’s no God here. Just Bennett,” he replied, the sinister grin on his lips again. “Let’s try this again. Repeat what I said.”
“Please don’t do this,” I begged.
“I don’t recall saying, ‘Please don’t do this,’” he taunted. “Try again.”
“If it’s money you want, I’ll give it to you,” I offered. Even someone as psychotic as this fuck wouldn’t turn down money.
“You’ll give me money?” He laughed, the sound sending chills of terror through me. “Did you forget I now own your company? I already have your money.”
“Then what the fuck do you want from me?” I screamed as circled around me.
“The rules,” he said again. “Say them.”
“What do you want from me?” I said again, despair lacing my voice. Within a split second, fire-hot pain erupted across my ass, followed by another. My screams filled the plane as Bennett’s belt attacked my ass and the back of my legs.
“Please stop! I’m sorry!” I cried out, but it didn’t stop his assault. My feet became tangled in my panties as I moved to try to avoid the belt, causing me to lose my balance. Bennett grabbed me by the back of my neck and put me upright.
“Now that I have your attention,” he said, moving back to stand in front of me. “Repeat the rules.”
My skin was on fire, the pain making it hard to think. Though my tears blurred my vision, it didn’t stop me from seeing the chilling grin on his face as he waited for me to speak. I licked my lips, tasting the salt from my tears.
“I-I-I will bow,” I forced out between hiccups. “I-I-I will….will…”
“Will? Will what?”
“I-I-I—”
“F-f-fucking today, Stuttering McGee,” he snapped, raising his belt to strike me again.
“I forgot! I’m sorry!” I cried. He sighed deeply and walked back around me. “Please! I’m sorry!”
“You will bow,” he growled. I screamed when the belt hit my already raw skin. “You will break.” Another blow to the back of my thighs. “You will obey.” He continued for what felt like eternity, repeating the rules to ensure the pain burned them into my mind.
When my legs gave out and I dangled painfully from the ceiling, he circled around me.
“Pop quiz, slut,” he panted. “Tell me the rules now.”
“I will bow. I will break. I will obey. I will bow. I will break. I will obey. I will bow. I will break. I will obey,” I chanted.
“Okay, shut up,” he said. But I couldn’t hear anything other than the belt and the sound it made connecting to my skin. I just wanted it to stop, for it all to stop. I wanted Heath to wake me up from this nightmare and run his strong fingers through my hair until I felt safe again. I wanted to laugh with my friends as they convinced me that I was paranoid and should see a therapist for my nightmares and delusions that someone was after me. I wanted things to go back to normal, when Bennett and his evil weren’t in my life.
I continued chanting the rules until Bennett grabbed my throat and squeezed to shut me up.
“Shut. Up,” he growled. “Now, what will happen if you follow the rules?”
He loosened his grip enough for me to speak.
“I’ll survive,” I squeaked.
“And if you don’t?”
I swallowed hard as his hard, dark brown gaze held mine. “You’ll break me until I wish I were dead.”
He let go of me. “Good enough,” he said and slid his belt back into the loops of his jeans. He didn’t say another word to me as he grabbed the remote and turned on the tv that hung on the wall. “Stay tuned, pet.”
When he left the room, a sob ripped through me.
“Why me?” I whispered to myself. “Why is this happening to me?”
“Oh, I’m about to show you,” he said suddenly, reappearing in the doorway. Stepping in and closing the door, he strolled over to stand next to me. “Be sure you pay attention. I worked rather hard on this little presentation.”
The screen suddenly showed Bennett, smiling at the camera with my parents behind him.
“Aurora, hey. You don’t know me yet, but you will soon. Though, when you see this, I’ll have you in my possession. Anyway, I’m with your lovely parents here.”
The camera fumbled a bit before it turned to my mother as she stood next to my father, who sat bound to a chair. The living room they sat in brought in waves of memories, confusion and anger flooding through me. For years, my father had convinced me that they’d moved so that I didn’t go back to find them when I became of age. To see that they’d been living in the house I’d spent eight years of my life this whole time was devastating.
“You’re probably wondering what’s going on, but lucky you, I’ll tell you what kind of situation you’re in. Your coward father here basically traded your life so that he could stay alive after leaving my father’s organization.”
It suddenly all made sense. Him leaving me at the train station with no reason why. Not seeing him for years aside from the couple of times on video chat. He’d doomed me to this life before I was even born and all the hiding in the world wouldn’t cha
nge that. The very thought that this was my fate forever sent a wave of nausea over me.
I never even stood a chance.
“He sent you to South Carolina, thinking we’d never find you, but surprise! Now Daddy has to pay, and it looks like your mommy is going to do the honors.”
I watched as my mother took the gun from who I assumed to be Bennett, holding the weapon hesitantly in her hands. She and my father went back and forth, but I couldn’t concentrate on their words. Seeing them argue as my mother pointed a gun at him wasn’t how I remembered them. The parents I remembered were madly in love, always kissing and cuddling each other. Their loving marriage was being ripped apart by a monster who got off on the misery of others, leaving carnage in his wake.
My eyes cut to him, noticing him stroking his chin and grinning as he watched the video, proud of himself. Proud of the destruction, pain, and suffering he’d caused.
“Good part’s coming up,” he said, glancing over at me. “Keep your eyes on the screen, not on me.”
I forced my eyes back to the screen just in time to hear Bennett speak again.
“Wait, before you pull the trigger, I still need his last words,” he’d said. “Anything you want to say to your daughter, Sergio?”
My heart stopped as my father slowly brought his eyes up to the camera. Tears filled my own eyes upon seeing the sorrow and regret that filled his gaze as tears crested his eyes once more.
“Aurora, baby, I’m sorry,” he said and shook his head.
Just hearing his voice say my name broke my heart. Sure, I’d been mad at him and thought he was full of shit all these years, but just hearing him tell me he was sorry made my heart hurt for him. For our family. For myself.
“This is all my fault. I should’ve thought about the long-term consequences of my actions and I didn’t. I never intended to hurt you, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. I’m so, so sorry.”
The eight-year-old girl in me wanted to forgive him, but the present-day woman suffering because of his decision wanted him to burn in Hell. I understood why he thought he had to do what he did, but I hated him so much for doing it. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever forgive him, but it wouldn’t matter if I did or not.
Rules of Bennett Page 5
