Rules of Bennett: The Complete Collection

by Ember Michaels

  Bruce still stood outside the door, looking at me when I walked through.

  “Just the person I’m looking for,” I told him. “I need you for a second.”

  He nodded and followed me back down the stairs. We strolled down the hall and stopped at another secured door. Behind that door were the other girls. I pressed my thumb on the keypad, allowing it to read my fingerprint before the door popped open. The hallway on the other side was rather quiet while the girls were in different parts of their living compound. Aurora’s screams sounded further down the hall, no doubt coming from the room where we chipped the girls upon their arrival.

  “The girl’s down here?” Bruce asked when he heard Aurora.

  “Yeah, but not permanently. Just a punishment,” I said, idly walking toward her screams. When I got to the doorway of the room, Aurora fought against them as the men’s hands wandered all over her.

  “Don’t fucking touch me!” she screamed, slapping Hulk’s hands away from her.

  “I want to break you in first,” he growled. “I want to hear you scream when I rip you in half.”

  “And I’ll kill you if you do,” I said, walking into the room.

  Hulk’s eyes snapped up at me, confusion on his face. “What, we can’t fuck the new girls now?”

  “Bennett, please get me out of here! I’m sorry!” Aurora wailed, still fighting to get off the table.

  I crossed the room to stand next to her, patting her arm. “You had your chance, and you blew it. I told you there were worse things than belonging to me, so here you are.”

  “Please! I’ll behave! Don’t leave me down here!” she exclaimed.

  “Too late for all of that,” I said with a shake of my head before looking back to Hulk.

  His tanned skin was red with anger, the veins along his forehead and neck bulging as he fought to restrain it. If he really wanted to, he could do serious damage to me. The man was a beast, stacked with thick muscle and standing over six-feet-six-inches tall. His large biceps flexed as he fought to hold Aurora down, his green eyes never leaving mine.

  “You’d kill him for fucking a random slut?” Matthews asked.

  “No one fucks her before I do,” I said to Matthew, though I continued looking at Hulk. “Do you have a problem with that?”

  “Your house, your rules,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Glad you understand that,” I said with a smirk.

  Aurora continued to struggle, giving Hulk a run for his money.

  “Get the needle,” Hulk grunted as he pinned her to the table with his weight.

  She punched and scratched against him as Matthews retrieved a pre-drawn needle and jabbed Aurora in the arm with it. She screamed a minute or so before her body went limp and all was quiet again.

  “Need something, boss?” Matthews asked.

  I gestured to Bruce. “I want him down here for the next twenty-four hours to watch over her. I only want her chipped, not tattooed. She’s not a permanent girl down here.”

  “Then what the hell are we supposed to do with her?” Hulk asked, panting as he stood upright.

  “She’s only down here for a punishment right now. I want to show her what her life would be like if she doesn’t work out as my pet. So, I don’t want any of the johns fucking her. I don't want any of you fucking her. I don’t want anyone to put a hand on her.”

  Matthews rolled his eyes. “Again, what are we supposed to do with her then?”

  I fought the urge to wrap my hands around this throat. “When one of the girls are with a client, I want her to watch. If someone’s being punished, I want her to watch. I want her to experience what it’s like to live down here so she knows there are much worse things than belonging to me.”

  “Why does he need to be down here? We can do this ourselves,” Hulk grunted in Bruce's direction.

  “Because I don’t trust you to keep your hands off her,” I said.

  “So, we’re babysitters now?” Matthews asked, folding his arms across his large chest.

  Though he wasn’t as muscular as Hulk, he was a large man. Some people around the compound called him Bone-crusher because if he trapped you in one of his bear hugs, all your ribs would be crushed when he finally let go. While they were good at keeping the girls in line, they knew better than to cross me. I’d taken out men just as big as they were, and I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.

  “I told you what your job is. When a girl is with a client or being punished, make her watch. Make her sit with the girls and hear what they go through down here so she’ll know what her other option is if she doesn’t get with the program,” I said. “We clear?”

  Bruce nodded. “Crystal clear to me, boss. I’ll make sure nothing happens to her.”

  “Fucking kiss-ass,” Hulk muttered under his breath.

  Bruce crossed the room with lightning speed, grabbing Hulk by his thick neck and slamming him against the wall.

  “And yet, I’d put a bullet between your eyes before you could even blink,” he snarled. “How’s that for a kiss-ass?”

  “Put your dicks away, fellas,” I mused with a chuckle. “Bruce, just look after her. And if I come down here tomorrow and see that someone’s touched her, I’ll be sending your bodies to your families in pieces.”

  There was no need to confirm whether or not they understood the threat; they’d worked with me since I'd entered the business eight years ago. They knew what I was capable of. They’d witnessed me taking care of old friends who thought they could stand up to me with no consequences or those who thought they could betray me or steal from me.

  With a final glance at Aurora, I walked out of the room, mentally starting the countdown to when I’d have my little pet back in my grasp again.

  I walked up the winding staircase and went into my bedroom, unsurprised to see Carrie there with a rack of clothes. She looked at me and cocked her head, a slight frown on her lips.

  “Where’s the girl I’m supposed to dress?” she asked.

  Walking over to her, I tilted her face up and examined the forming bruise on the side of her face.

  “You need to get some ice on that,” I mused, changing the subject. “Does it hurt?”

  She shrugged away from me, rolling her eyes. “I can take a hit, Bennett. I’m not as delicate as you like to think I am,” she protested.

  I smirked and chucked her under the chin. “Atta girl. But aren’t you glad you have a brother like me to slay your dragons for you?”

  Carrie wasn’t my sister by blood, but she’d grown to be the sister I didn’t get to have. As children of mobsters, we saw a lot of each other growing up. Her father used to work for mine, but when he was killed on the job and her mother went missing, my father took her in and raised her as his own.

  “I don’t need a personal hitman,” she said, placing a hand on her hip. “Did you have to kill her? I thought you were going to punish her.”

  “She didn’t die because she hit you,” I said as I took my phone and wallet out of my pocket. “She died because she tried to run away again. Considering it was her second time, I had to make an example out of her just in case any of the other girls got any ideas.” I turned to look at her. “That’s how you prevent herd mentality.”

  “You’re a scary guy, you know that?” she said with a slight grin.

  “Some call me the devil,” I said with a wink, plopping down on the side of my bed.

  She took a few steps toward me, folding her arms across her chest. Her chestnut hair sat high on her head in a messy bun, her pouty lips tipping up in a grin as her blue eyes pierced me. She wore a simple white t-shirt and jeans on her curvy figure, her hip cocked to the side as she planted herself in front of me.

  “So, are you ever going to answer my question?” she asked.

  “What question?” I asked, pulling my shoes off.

  “The girl I was supposed to dress. Where is she?” When I didn’t immediately answer her, she let out a loud sigh. “You didn’t kill her already
, did you?”

  “Nah,” I said with a chuckle. “I can’t believe you’d think so low of me to assume I’d kill my pet on the first day.”

  “It’s not like you aren’t capable of doing so,” she reminded me. “So, if she’s not dead, where is she?”

  “Downstairs,” I said. “She doesn’t need to be dressed today after all. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

  “Downstairs…with the other girls? Do I need to dress her for a client or anything?”

  I shook my head. “No. She’s not a working girl. I just put her there to teach her a lesson,” I stated as I unbuttoned my dress shirt.

  Carrie stood quietly as I shrugged off my shirt. “I feel like you want to say something,” I said with a sigh. “Spit it out instead of making this awkward as hell.”

  “She kind of reminds me of her, you know?” she finally said.

  I ground my teeth, pulling off my socks. Of course, she’d bring that up. There wasn’t much I could say because she wasn’t wrong, but I knew I wasn’t in the mood for that conversation.

  “Yeah, and?” I finally said, looking up at her.

  “I think she has potential.”

  “Yeah, you thought that about the last one, and she was killed because of me,” I spat, sighing when Carrie cringed. “Look, Aurora isn’t Stephanie, and I’m not going to be stupid enough to think a pet is actual wife material. I’m no better than my dad with being the cause of an innocent woman’s death. Aurora is property; that’s it.”

  “So, what are your plans for her then?” she asked, leaning against the wall.

  “What I do with any other pet. Use her until I’m bored with her,” I stated, though I wasn’t completely sure that was true.

  There was something about Aurora that made me crave to hurt her. Maybe it was how feisty she was or how innocent she looked on the outside. It made me feel powerful to know I was all she had because I’d destroyed and taken away everything she’d ever loved. She had no choice but to submit to me, since she had nothing else. On the other hand, that also made her equally dangerous, because she had nothing left to lose.

  “I think you should give it a try,” Carrie finally said, rolling her rack of clothes toward the door. “Love-struck Bennett is a lot easier to be around than Killer Bennett.”

  I glared at her while she smirked at me. “I wasn’t love-struck back then,” I countered, but that didn’t feel true either.

  My father had given Stephanie to me on my twentieth birthday when I joined the business, my very first pet. “She’s yours to do whatever you want with,” he’d told me before demonstrating what he’d meant.

  She was gorgeous; blonde hair, ocean blue eyes, porcelain skin, curves and legs that went on for days. My father had warned me that she wasn’t meant for me to fall in love with, but I didn’t listen. I got too close to her and in my carelessness, it cost her life.

  “Well, you know you can’t inherit the entire empire without a wife and baby,” she said as she opened the door. “It’s something to think about.”

  I rolled my eyes and pushed off the bed. That was still a topic my father and I skirted around. He’d always told me that I needed a male heir to take over the business when he was ready to retire, but I just couldn’t see myself as a father, let alone someone’s husband. Especially not after Stephanie.

  “Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled. “I’ll deal with that when the situation comes around. For now, it’s the last thing on my mind. No woman is strong enough to spend eternity with someone like me.”

  “You’d be surprised,” she said with a wink of her own before pulling the rack of clothes out of the bedroom and disappearing.

  Closing the door behind her, I stripped out of the rest of my clothes and padded across the carpeted floor to the master bathroom.

  The cool tiles under my feet sent a chill up my spine, and the vent behind me blew cold air on my bare skin. As I looked at my reflection, I ran a hand along my growing five o’clock shadow. Just thinking about marriage made me cringe.

  I wasn’t husband material. There was too much blood on my hands, and I couldn’t imagine someone I loved earning the same fate as my mother and baby sister. I was broken beyond repair, unable to give any woman the affection they’d want. Bennett Moreno wasn’t much of a family man; I didn’t know how to be. After my mother was killed, all I knew was blood and violence. And as much as I wanted to cause Aurora pain, even I had limits.

  Goosebumps rose on my skin as the cold spray pelted down on my head before it grew hot. Even as the water burned, I didn’t move, wanting to melt away the traces of death that clung to me from my last trip.

  Killing people in the moment was easy but trying to wash invisible blood off of you was hard. The self-proclaimed devil also had his own demons. His own anger. His own desire for vengeance.

  I pretended every person I murdered was the coward who gunned down my family. Every time I tormented someone, I imagined I was avenging my sweet mother, my innocent sister who never got to know me, and the woman I thought I’d have a family with. No matter how many bodies I collected, it didn’t fill the emptiness left behind by their death. No matter how many women I broke, it didn’t fix the darkness swirling inside of me.

  Maybe I was just destined to be doomed.

  The steam from the shower fogged the glass, cocooning me inside of my dangerous thoughts. My mind played back all the events over the last twenty-four hours. Sergio and Farrah: dead. Heath: dead. Aurora's friends: paid off and watched. Aurora had probably started to plot ways to kill me so she could get away.

  I couldn’t blame her.

  Sometimes I wanted to kill myself just to get away from the depraved thoughts in my head, to overcome the darkness. It made me angry to know I was trapped in this life and anyone I got close to would be consumed by the very same darkness that tormented me.

  I sometimes thought about how life would be if I didn’t join the family business. What would have happened if I would’ve been a decent husband to Stephanie. I wondered what kind of father I would have been. But the darkness of my life consumed her, too, and I couldn’t put myself through that again. I couldn’t put another woman through that again.

  The pain that constricted my chest brought me back to the present. This life wasn’t for the weak, and I couldn’t afford to be vulnerable right now. My shower was the only place where I could process everything and let it go before I came out as the killer everyone knew.

  The killer everyone feared—just like I wanted them to.

  A pounding on my bedroom door snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned the shower off and opened the glass door, the cool air from outside the shower causing me to shiver.

  “What?” I yelled.

  “Case just called! Said he just reached the city limits with a new shipment!” someone called from the bedroom.

  “Fucking hell,” I muttered. “Can’t even wash my dick in peace.”

  I ran a hand down my wet face. “I’ll be down when I finish my shower. Tell him not to unload until I get there,” I called back.

  “You got it!” they responded.

  When I heard the bedroom door close, I turned the shower back on and quickly lathered up. I fought to push the menacing thoughts to the back of my mind and to tuck any hint of emotions back where they belonged.

  I reluctantly washed away all traces of Aurora, my cock jumping just at the thought of being deep in her mouth. It was beautiful watching how she struggled and gagged with no choice but to submit. A part of me wanted to go downstairs and bring her back just to play with her some more, but she needed to learn her lesson. One more display of defiance in front of my father, and her punishment would be out of my control.

  And I refused to let my father touch what was mine.

  I turned the shower off and stepped out, wrapping a towel around my waist. My body moved on autopilot as I walked around my bedroom to get dressed, my mind reverting back to a safe place. Everything slowly relaxed as I got comfortable into my role, my earli
er demons evaporating with the dispersing steam in the bathroom. Once I was back in my element, it was time to handle business.

  “You did good, Case,” I said as my gaze swept along the trembling women lined up in front of me.

  Case nodded. “Thanks, boss. I figured you'd think so.”

  I stopped in front of a woman with wild red hair and smeared mascara and smiled. “Glad to see you again,” I said.

  Her head whipped up, and her eyes grew wide with recognition and fear. “No,” she whispered, shaking her head.

  I nodded, a smile still planted on my lips. “Oh, yes,” I said. “Aurora will be so glad to see that one of her besties has joined her after all,” I said with a wink.

  When I first saw Savannah, I knew she’d be perfect for a group of my clients. Her slightly pale skin and fiery red hair made my fingertips itch to be the cause of her pain. And if I had to choose between paying to keep her quiet or getting money out of her, I’d choose the latter every single time.

  The House Mother, Ursula, stepped into the room with her clipboard and pen, her stiletto heels clicking against the concrete floor.

  “Sorry I’m late. The new girl has been causing chaos ever since she woke up,” she said with a tired huff.

  She'd styled her graying hair in a tight fish braid, her thin body clad in a fitting black dress. She was responsible for taking care of the girls when they weren’t working and also helped me choose who stayed and who left.

  I couldn’t help but chuckle upon hearing her complaints about Aurora. I’d admit she was a lot tougher than I thought she’d be, but it would be interesting to see how she’d react when she saw Savannah joining the ranks as a working girl.

  “Now that everyone’s here, let’s get started. I have other shit to do than to be down here all day,” I said.

  I strolled over to a petite brunette woman who barely looked twenty-one—if that. Mascara ran down her face as large tears pooled in her brown eyes. Looking at her crop top, skirt, and fishnet stockings, it was easy to assume she was taken either before or after a party.