But what’s stopping me from slipping out the window to sit on the porch? I thought to myself.
It wasn’t like my tracking chip would detect too much because I would still be on the property. My heart raced a little with excitement as I rushed over to the closet to see if there was something I could wear. There were women’s clothes on hangers, no doubt probably belonging to Stephanie.
“It’ll only be for a few minutes,” I murmured to myself as I grabbed a dress off the hanger and quickly slipped it on.
Moving over to the door, I pressed my ear against the wood and listened. Bennett and his men spoke in hushed tones, making it hard for me to make out what they said, but it didn’t matter. As long as Bennett was occupied and wouldn’t come in here anytime soon to check on me, I’d be fine.
I unlocked the window and raised it a hair, testing to see if it triggered anything that would send Bennett rushing in here. I watched the alarm clock on the nightstand until two minutes passed before raising the window more. No alarm.
Perfect.
I felt around the window screen to find the clasps that would allow me to take it off. My heart raced in my chest as I worked to get the screen free. I constantly looked over my shoulder to make sure Bennett wasn’t standing in the middle of the room, waiting for me to notice his presence before he tortured me again.
The screen finally popped off, and I fumbled it in my hands for a few minutes in an effort to not drop it. I slowly lowered the screen onto the porch and glanced over my shoulder one more time. The welts on my skin from my earlier punishment reminded me of what could happen again if I got caught.
Did I really want to do this?
Pursing my lips together, I slipped out of the window anyway. The wood of the porch creaked under my foot, and I winced, waiting for someone to come outside at any moment and bust me. But no one came.
I tiptoed a couple of steps and lowered myself into a rocking chair. The cool night air washed over my skin, and I rocked back and forth. My mind wandered back to the days when things were good. When I had family. When I had friends. When I had love.
So much had changed in my life since I’d been with Bennett. Even being able to sit outside in silence was a luxury these days. There were no screams, no cries of agony, and no pain. A tear rolled down my cheek while goosebumps rose on my skin as a gust of wind moved over me. It seemed as if it’d been so long since I felt the sun or wind on my skin, since I smelled the rain, since I saw a thunderstorm.
“You know what we should do?” Heath asked as he wrapped me up in his arms. We were stretched out in a lounge chair on the patio, a small bonfire cracking in the fire pit.
“What’s that, babe?” I responded.
“When we have children, we should do this with them.” He kissed my forehead. “Just appreciate a beautiful moon while knowing that anything is possible, and that there’s beauty in everything.”
“I think that would be a good idea. But while we’re talking about children and moons…” I turned in his arms to look up at him. “Maybe one day we can conceive one of these babies under a beautiful full moon.”
He snorted. “That sounds like some kind of ritual. What if our kid turns out to be the Anti-Christ or something?” he joked.
I couldn’t stop the giggle that left my lips as I wiped a tear from my eye. He and I made so many plans. We thought we had so much time, but we didn’t. I closed my eyes and continued to rock, allowing the occasional sounds of crickets to lull me to relaxation as the night winds cradled me to calmness and slumber.
BENNETT
“Sorry for the interruption,” I said when I returned to the living room with the rest of my men.
I hadn’t expected anything less from Aurora. It was almost as if she was hell-bent on defying anything I told her. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think she actually liked her punishments because nothing made her get her shit together and fall in line. Things were too dangerous right now to go back and forth with her, so the only option I had left was to lock her in the bedroom until she learned some common sense.
“What’s the plan now?” Saint asked, resting his elbows on his knees and leaning forward.
“I know I’m not the only one who saw the Moreno emblem on some of those bastards shooting at us,” Bruce growled out as he carefully shrugged out of his leather jacket.
“I saw that too,” I said with a sigh. “It means my father has officially declared war on us.”
“We can’t stay here forever though. He’s going to attack the main house if he hasn’t already,” Kyler said as he sat on the ottoman across from me with a sigh.
I nodded. To hide out here for too long while waiting for that fucker to attack us would be cowardly. The people back at the main house didn’t even know what the hell was going on, which meant they wouldn’t be prepared for a surprise attack. I pulled my phone from my pocket and shot a quick text to my security detail still at the main house.
Bennett: I need all of you in the bunker’s conference room. I’ll be calling with an important update in five minutes.
“I still don’t even understand what happened. Did all this happen over that girl?” Kyler asked, nearly spitting venom when he’d said "girl."
I raised an eyebrow at him. “It happened because people don’t understand the words ‘not for sale,’ and they still tried to disrespect me despite what they were told.”
“Then why bring her?” he countered. “If you didn’t want anyone to touch her, common sense should’ve told you to bring a girl they could touch. Wilson is right; you’re way too attached to you new whore.”
I leaned forward and narrowed my eyes at him. “My business dealings and Aurora aren’t any of your business. You’re security—not my fucking business partner.”
“I’d think it would be my business if your decisions put us all in danger,” Kyler fired back.
Saint shook his head. “Bro, you really don’t want the problems you’re creating for yourself,” he said.
“But seriously though. Is no one else concerned about having a target on our backs for a decision we didn’t make?” Kyler asked, looking around the room. No one said anything as they looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.
I smirked. “When these guys signed up to be my security detail, they understood what that may entail. I wonder if my father knows how much of a pussy you are. If he did, I doubt he would’ve sent you to me.” I leaned back in my seat. “I’m almost wondering if you belong in the bunker with the rest of the sluts so you can be fucked like the pussy you are.” The muscle in Kyler’s jaw tensed at my words, his eyes blazing with anger, but he said nothing else. I smirked. “That’s what I thought.”
“Either way, we’re going to have to figure out something. Not only is your father coming after us, the Russian mafia probably is, too,” Bruce said, breaking the growing tension between Kyler and I.
“Once I’ve gotten the guys back at the house up to speed, we’ll be able to plan what to do for the time being,” I said. They all waited as I dialed the number to the conference room phone, waiting for someone to pick up.
“We’re all here, boss,” someone said upon answering.
“Who am I speaking to?” I asked, putting the phone on speaker.
“Josh, but everyone’s here and listening. What’s going on?”
I gave them a quick rundown of what happened at the meeting and the result so they would fully know what we were up against. There were the occasional “what the fuck” and “holy shit” comments in his background when the severity of our situation sunk in with the other men.
“So, I want everyone to know that my father isn’t to be allowed on my property. That also goes for anyone wearing a Moreno emblem who don’t already work at the house,” I said. “As a matter of fact, I want everyone to remove their emblems. Now that we’re at war with my father, I don’t want to see a soul with his fucking emblem on.”
“You got it. I assume you’re safe where you are? Do you need mo
re men?” Josh asked.
“Yes and no. I have men here already. I just need you guys to secure the house. I’m sure that’s the first place he’ll attack. Don’t play nice with any intruders. Shoot to kill.”
“Always,” he said.
“Good. I also need someone to gather clothes and food for myself, Nyxin, Bruce, Saint, KC, and Kyler for a couple of days. I’ll send someone to meet them halfway to pick up everything so you don’t have to come all the way here.”
“It’ll take a couple of hours to gather everything, but we’ll give you a call when they’re ready to leave.”
“Good, good. When they’re ready, I’ll send them the coordinates to get here.”
“You got it, boss. We’ll keep you updated on the home front and will check in again when we’ve got your supplies gathered,” he said and hung up.
I looked back to my men, ignoring Kyler as he continued to pout on the ottoman. “For now, we’ll stay here for a couple of days before going back to the main house. The first order of business is trying to track my father. If we can stay two steps ahead of him, we’ll be fine. For tonight, we’ll lay low and try to decompress. Tonight was pretty hectic, so we’ll start fresh in the morning.”
“Who’s going to meet the guys to retrieve the supplies?” Nyxin asked. “I’m fucking starving.”
“That makes the two of us,” KC said from the opposite end of the sectional.
I looked at Kyler. “How about you meet our guys to get the supplies?”
“Why? So, I can be ambushed by Wilson’s men?” he grumbled.
I shrugged. “I figured that’s what you’d want. I mean, since you were defending my father earlier, I figured you’d want to go ahead and suck his dick, too, if you ran into him,” I mentioned.
The muscle in his jaw ticked again as he glared at me. “I don’t take to disrespect too well,” he growled.
“You want to do something about it? I still have more pent-up anger from tonight I could get rid of if that’s what you want,” I challenged.
He only glared at me for a few moments before standing up. “I need some air,” he grumbled before he stormed out of the house, slamming the front door behind him.
“You might be pushing the envelope there, boss,” Saint said with a chuckle.
I continued staring at the front door Kyler had stormed out of. Something about him didn’t sit right with me. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was, but something in my gut didn’t want to trust him.
“I don’t know if I can trust him,” I finally said. “I feel like he might have a separate agenda, but I can’t figure out what it is.”
Nyxin shook his head as he stood up. “I think you’re being paranoid after everything that’s happened tonight.” He looked around the living room. “If there’s no food, is there at least alcohol?”
“Should be in the kitchen,” I said idly and looked at Bruce. “How’s your arm? Are you sure you don’t want me to call the doctor here?”
He waved me off. “It was just a graze. I’ll live,” he said.
“Might need some pain medicine when the adrenaline wears off though,” I said with a smirk.
“I can handle it,” he said and smirked back at me.
I shook my head and chuckled. No matter how chaotic my life became, I could always count on Bruce, Saint, Nyxin, and KC to have my back through it, no matter. I couldn’t read Kyler too well to figure out what side of the fence he was on, but he needed to shake his loyalty to my father. The Russian Mafia wasn’t the only one who wanted us dead right now. My father said it out of his own mouth.
I rested my head against the back of the sectional and closed my eyes. My father had said he thought I was losing my head, but was that the case? Was I losing my head, or did he only think that was the case because I had finally lifted the veil he’d put over my eyes for so long?
For years, I’d blindly followed any order he’d given me, but standing my own ground was enough to warrant me being dead to him. Was that all it took? When I finally saw his bullshit for what it was, did that mean I deserved for him to put me on his shit list?
After tonight, I couldn’t help but think the shit Carrie said she’d found on him was true. If he could tell his only son that he was dead to him and send his men to try to take him out, what would’ve stopped him from killing one of his own men? What about his own wife, daughter, and the only woman I’d ever truly experienced love with?
I pushed the thoughts from my mind. Being in his house was hard enough, and nearly everything around me flooded my mind with memories of Stephanie. When she was alive, this wasn’t a safe house. It was a house I’d had built for her.
Any time she wanted to escape the chaos for a weekend or a couple of weeks, we’d come out here to get away. When we weren’t having sex all over the house, we lazily lounged on the couch and watched television or sat out on the porch and just looked at the massive stretch of green land as we rocked in the rocking chair, surrounded by nothing but love and silence. That was her dream, a dream she eventually convinced me to want as well.
When I’d learned she was pregnant, I thought about escaping the life and spending the rest of my days with her in this house. She’d asked me so many times if we could live here full-time, that she was happier here, and all the pictures I’d taken of her here showed that.
My chest ached as tears burned behind my eyelids. But no matter how hard I tried to stop thinking about her, I couldn’t get her smiling face out of my head. I couldn’t stop the memories from drowning me in grief.
I jumped up to my feet and quickly wiped at my eyes. “I’ll be back in a second,” I said and walked out of living room.
My feet moved me back to the playroom. I busied myself with cleaning everything I’d used on Aurora, putting them back where they belonged. This room wasn’t intended for punishments. Stephanie insisted that we create such a room when she watched to explore different things with me sexually that took her to higher heights than the usual sex we’d have.
My body warmed at the memory of how she’d blossom for me, the way she’d moan and whimper for me to give her more, to take her higher. That woman could’ve told me to walk off a cliff to prove how much I loved her, and I would’ve done it in a heartbeat.
But a love that strong was the most dangerous weakness a man could have.
A weakness like love was enough to bring any man to their knees, and it was one that was a sure path to death in my line of work.
Sometimes I wished I’d known that back then.
“Everything okay, boss?” Bruce asked from the doorway.
I turned to look at him, words stuck in my throat. He’d been with me since the beginning. He saw the highs I had with Stephanie and the devastating lows I drowned in when she was taken from me. From the concern in his eyes, I imagined he knew how hard it was for me to be in the house.
“I’m good,” I said, my voice low.
“You know you can’t lie to me, right?” he said, leaning against the doorframe.
I gave him a small grin. “Then why’d you ask?”
“Common courtesy,” he said and stepped further into the room. “Would you like me to remove her pictures until—”
“No,” I interrupted, shaking my head. “I’m not going to hide her in her own house.” I sat down on the bench I’d just wiped down, the one Aurora had been strapped to moments before. “Everyone said that time would make it hurt less, but I don’t know if I’ll ever reach a point when I don’t miss her.”
It hurt to admit I was still affected by her death. She’d been gone for three years. That was 1,095 days without her. 26,280 hours without her. I didn’t know where the strength came from that allowed me to continue living even a minute without her. There was no me without her; it was as if I existed solely as a punishment for letting her down.
“The pain of a loss like that doesn’t go away easily,” Bruce said with a sigh. “And not to spark any memories or anything, but I’m sure it doesn’t help tha
t you have your new pet here, too.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, slightly confused. “What does she have to do with anything?” I asked.
“Come on, man. Everybody’s been talking about it. The girl looks so much like Stephanie that I’d bet money they’re related somehow. Either sisters, twins, cousins, something. I don’t think it was a coincidence that your father sent you of all people to retrieve her.”
I rolled my eyes, sick of hearing everyone around me saying something like that. “Doppelgängers exist, Bruce,” I mumbled as I rose from the bench.
He held his hands up as if to surrender. “I’m just saying. It wouldn’t hurt to look into both of their backgrounds. I’m sure KC could pull up Stephanie’s contract to figure out where she came from or how she ended up here in the first place. With everything that’s been going on lately, I don’t know how much your father can be trusted anymore,” he said.
“I hear you,” I said, but his words did give me pause.
He’d given Stephanie to me with no kind of paper trail. I didn’t even know if her name was actually Stephanie, just blindly accepting the information my father had given me. I was young back then, and the only thing I had on my mind when I first met her was being content with having my own toy to bury my dick in every night. I’d never once questioned anything about her. Even after her death, I never thought to find out more about her. But with Aurora in my possession and her being a painful reminder of what I no longer had, I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that a few questions had popped into my mind.
My phone rang in my pocket, snapping me out of my thoughts. I removed it to look at the screen, seeing the main house’s number scrolling across.
“Yeah,” I said upon answering.
“Hey boss, it’s Josh. Just calling to let you know we’ve gathered everything you’ve requested and are loading up a truck now. Vinnie will drop off the load to you, so you can send him the coordinates to the halfway spot,” he said.
Rules of Bennett: The Complete Collection Page 15
