Rules of Bennett: The Complete Collection

by Ember Michaels

  “I don’t know,” I admitted.

  Bruce nodded. “Well, forcing her to stay wouldn’t lead to anything geniune. I think if you start working on her now since she’s a ‘clean slate’ as you say, if you give her the choice, she may choose to stay after the war is over with.”

  I released a deep sigh. It wasn’t as simple as wooing her or doing things to make her fall in love with me. She may be broken, but she wasn’t stupid. The things I’ve done to her weren’t things that could be easily forgotten. But if I wanted her to stay, I at least had to try. Perhaps I could figure out what I felt when it came to her, as I couldn’t figure out if I genuinely felt something or if it was just because she reminded me so much of Stephanie.

  “Well, I have time to figure it out.” I looked around the yard again, still not seeing her. “Hopefully she’s not up to any fuckery. I haven’t seen her since I left her in the dining room.”

  “Well, the alarms haven’t gone off, so that’s promising,” Bruce said with a grin.

  Any time someone with a chip reached a certain part of the property—usually when trying to escape—it triggered alarms that went off everywhere. The girls didn’t know that until they tried to run, and they never lived to be able to tell the others about it. Aurora was aware though, and also knew what happened to those who tried to run. She may have been crazy, but she definitely wasn’t stupid enough to try it.

  “You’re right,” I said with a sigh. “I told myself I’d try this out, so I need to give her the benefit of the doubt to not do anything stupid. I can’t keep her locked up forever if I plan to make something work with her.”

  “You’re definitely right about that,” he agreed.

  I smirked at him. “Now that you’ve bought your girl, are you happy with your purchase?” I asked.

  “Things are a bit…interesting right now,” he said.

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that she’s readjusting to not being abused. I mean she has nightmares all the time and she’s really jumpy when someone gets close to her.” He was quiet for a moment. “She also seems like a flight risk.”

  “Oh, you don’t say?” I said sarcastically. “That’s exactly why she’s not in your townhouse right now. You may want to get some security measures in place before you take her there.”

  “Already on it,” he said and looked toward the house. “I don’t know what she and Aurora talked about, but she’s been upset ever since.”

  “There’s no telling when it comes to that woman,” I said with a sigh.

  We stopped next to Saint, who was trying to comfort his crying daughter. I squatted down in front of her and chucked her under the chin.

  “There’s no crying on Fun Day,” I said with a smile. “What’s wrong?”

  She pointed at the dunk tank. “I want to play that game but Daddy says I can’t because no one is there for me to play,” she said as more fat tears rolled down her little cheeks. I looked at Bruce, who quickly shook his head.

  “Not on your life,” he said. Saint also shook his head, which did nothing but make Giselle wail even louder.

  I took my phone and wallet out of my pocket and handed it to Bruce. “The things I do for these kids,” I mumbled under my breath as I kicked my shoes off and peeled off my socks.

  Giselle’s tears immediately stopped when she saw me moving toward the tank. “Yay!” she exclaimed, bouncing up and down in excitement.

  Once I was situated in the tank, I took a deep breath. The water was cold as fuck, but seeing that smile on that little girl’s face made it worth it.

  “You ready?” I asked her.

  “Yeah!” she exclaimed. Saint gave her a baseball and took a step back. I grinned in amusement as Giselle squinted with one eyes, cocking her arm all the way back and throwing it as hard as she could. She frowned in disappointment when it won’t went a couple feet from her, nowhere near the button it needed to hit in order to send me into the tank.

  “Wait! I gotta try again!” she said, rushing to get the baseball and going back to her starting point. She tried again and again, but got the same results each time. Tears welled up in her eyes again when she still couldn’t hit the target.

  “Baby, you might be too little for this game,” Saint said, but it didn’t make the situation any better.

  “Giselle, let’s try one more time,” I said. “Close your eyes and throw it as hard as you can, okay.” She nodded, her eyes watery as she picked the baseball back up. I looked to Bruce, who stood next to the tank. “When she throws the ball, just hit the button.”

  He grinned and nodded. “I was going to do it anyway since you’re already in there,” he joked, laughing when I frowned. “But since you asked, it’s probably safer that way.”

  “Ha ha, very funny,” I drawled and turned my attention to Giselle. “You ready?”

  “Yes!” she exclaimed, her earlier excitement starting to come back.

  “Okay, close your eyes and then throw the ball as hard as you can,” I instructed.

  She squeezed her eyes shut and threw the ball as hard as she could, which didn’t get further than her previous attempts. Bruce elbowed the button and sent me into the tank with a splash. I could hear squealing and cheering when I emerged from the water.

  “I did it! I did it! I made Uncle Benny go in the water!” she shrieked, jumping up and down. I chuckled, wiping water from my face as I pulled myself from the water tank.

  “Man, you’re getting too strong, Giselle. I might have to watch out!” I said. Bruce snickered as I climbed out and stepped onto the grass. She ran over to me and hugged my leg.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  I smiled down at her. “You’re welcome, baby doll. Now Uncle Benny has to go change his clothes because he’s all wet,” I said.

  She ran back over to Saint while I retrieved my phone and wallet from Bruce. “I’ll be back in a second,” I said, and he nodded.

  I was made my way across the yard, many things ran through my mind. If I didn’t want to take over the entire family business, what was stopping me from letting go of all of this? Though this business didn’t do me any favors, I’d made more than enough money to last me and the generation after me for a lifetime. There were other ways to make money, ways that didn’t trigger the darkness within me. In order to have Aurora, she’d have to be willing to rule Hell alongside me. Killing a couple of people didn’t make her dark and after seeing what the darkness had done to me, I wasn’t too sure if I wanted it for her.

  My gaze swept around me as I entered the house, looking out for Aurora but seeing her nowhere. Anxiety slowly crept over me at the thought of not knowing where she was, but I took a deep breath and let it go. I had to loosen the reins on her. You can’t build a relationship with someone if you can’t give them your trust, I reminded myself as I walked up the stairs and entered my bedroom.

  As I peeled my wet clothes off, I moved over to the window, pausing when I looked to Stephanie’s grave. Aurora was sitting on the ground, her head bowed. After Stephanie was buried, I’d been so angry. Angry at myself, at what being apart of this organization did to her. Her favorite flower was a rose. She used to say she was like one, beautiful but a little rough around the edges. She once told me about everything she’d gone through before she came here and I remembered being in awe of her. She’d been abused since she was a child and yet, she found reasons to smile. She found reasons to live. I used to envy that, the ability to see the good in everything. There was nothing good about losing her though, no matter how optimistic I tried to be. There was nothing good about the guilt I still carried even after knowing the truth.

  I sighed and continued to strip. I didn’t know where my future lied when it came to this business, but I didn’t have time to figure it out now. I still had to deal with Wilson and find the man responsible for Stephanie’s death. I tucked the doubts and negative thoughts in the back of mind. I’d deal with those later.

  I quickly redressed and towel dried my hair b
efore exiting the bedroom and heading back down the stairs. Bruce’s words regarding Aurora bounced around in my mind. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to start wooing her now to set my trap for the future. Hopefully if we spent more time together that didn’t involve discipline of some sort, she could see that there were different parts to me just like there was more to her.

  “Here’s to hoping she agrees,” I murmured to myself as I walked toward the rose bushes.

  AURORA

  I looked down the hallway, checking for either my parents or my nanny before I stepped out of my room. The new girl had been put in the bedroom next to mine. I only knew that because I could hear her crying last night. My father’s low voice resonated up the stairs as he spoke on the phone downstairs, so the coast was clear for now. I quickly walked a couple of steps to the door of her room, cracking it open slightly.

  She sat on the bed with her knees pulled up to her chest, her eyes red and puffy from crying. The door creaked when I opened it a little more and her gaze shot up at me. She quickly wiped her eyes when she saw me, dropping her gaze to her lap. I awkwardly stood in the doorway. Today she wore blue overalls with a pink t-shirt, her white socks sporting pink bows on the back of them. Her blonde curly hair was pushed back with a white plastic headband, her beautiful blue eyes sparkling with tears. She looked sad and I couldn’t blame her. I’d probably be sad too if I didn’t have my mom and dad with me.

  “Hi,” I finally said, my fingers fiddling with the dress of the doll I held.

  “Hi,” she murmured. She never looked up when she spoke to me, only keeping her eyes on her lap.

  “I…um…I wanted to ask if you wanted to play with my dollhouse with me,” I stammered. “It might make you not be so sad. You can come to my room and play if you want.” She shook her head no, squeezing her knees tighter to her chest. “Okay. Well, if you change your mind, you can come to my room next door if you want. I won’t care if you play with my dolls and stuff.”

  She didn’t respond, only leaving me there to stand there feeling a bit weird. I slowly backed out of her room.

  “Bye then,” I murmured and closed the door.

  I went back to my room, leaving my door open in case she changed her mind so that she wouldn’t get lost. Even while I played with my dolls, I kept my ears open to be able to hear if she came out of her room. Being an only child was lonely, so it was exciting to have another kid in the house, especially a girl. My father homeschooled me, so I didn’t have much interaction with other kids, sheltered away from whatever dangers my father thought waited for me beyond our home. I was desperate for a playmate, but I didn’t want to be pushy. It was just so hard being patient enough for her to play with me.

  Just when I was about to give up and find something else to do, she appeared next to me on the floor. She gave me a small smile and picked up my doctor Barbie, picking up a small comb and combing the doll’s hair.

  “I’m Aurora,” I said after a few moments of silence. “What’s your name?”

  “Stephanie,” she said.

  I jumped up to my feet. “Do you like music? I have Carrie Spears. My mom got it for me for Christmas.”

  “I like it quiet,” she murmured, putting her doll in a Barbie car. “It was always too loud at my mom’s house.”

  “What’s your mom’s house like?”

  She shook her head, dropping her gaze to the Barbie car. “I don’t want to talk to it,” she said softly.

  I slowly lowered myself back on the floor next to her. Sadness etched itself on her face at the mention of her mom, which made me curious.

  ‘Okay. We can talk about something else,” I said. “How old are you? I just turned eight.”

  “I just turned nine,” she said. Her eyes moved around my large bedroom, pausing on my princess canopy bed. “Your bed is pretty.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “You can sleep on it with me if you want. It can be like a sleepover.”

  She smiled. “I’ve never had a sleepover before.”

  “Me either. It’ll be fun!” I exclaimed.

  We played with dolls for a little while longer before she sniffled, wiping a few tears from her cheeks.

  “What’s wrong?”

  A few more fat tears sprung from her eyes that she quickly wiped away. “I just want my mom,” she said.

  “Where is she? I can tell my daddy to call her if you don’t want to play anymore,” I said, feeling a bit deflated. I thought we were having fun, but she was still sad and wanted to go home. It was nice having company for once, but it didn’t make me feel good to see that she was still upset.

  “She sent me away because I was bad,” she said and sobbed. “I wouldn’t sit on her friends’ laps anymore because it hurt too much and she got mad at me.”

  My brow furrowed in confusion. “It doesn’t hurt when I sit on my daddy’s lap,” I said. She only looked at me and shook her head.

  “It doesn’t matter. She brought me here and I have to wait until my new home is ready.” She sighed. “I’m scared.”

  I couldn’t begin to even process the actual horrors she’d gone through or what she was talking about. I’d been sheltered from so many things by my father, probably for this very reason. Stephanie was always sad and frightened, her blue eyes usually filled with tears that she tried to hide.

  There was so much back then that I didn’t understand but they were crystal clear today. Her mom had been selling her to different men, probably since her life was already signed away by my father. Everything started to make sense now. My father kept me on a tight lease when I was younger. I didn’t go many places and if I did, we always moved around as if it were a secret. My father used to call it a game, telling me to pretend that I was a secret spy trying to outsmart the bad guys. He’d had me homeschooled, and not many people were allowed in our house. We didn’t have large family dinners, birthday parties, or anything that normal families did. I used to just think that we didn’t have other family to visit or invite over. What he really did that whole time was keep me off of Wilson’s radar, which reminded me of the day that Stephanie finally left our house.

  “Honey, I need you to stay in your room until I come and get you okay?” my father said as he escorted me to my bedroom.

  I turned and frowned at him. “Are we having company again?” I asked. People had been back and forth to our house for days, but I wasn’t sure what for. My father said they were important meetings for his job that little girls wouldn’t be safe at. He kept me occupied with snacks, my favorite movies, and toys, but it didn’t distract me from the fact that I couldn’t see Stephanie. I could hear other people in her room and could hear her crying, but I never saw her until it was in the middle of the night and she’d crawl into bed with me. She never talked about why she’d been crying earlier, only that she just wanted to sleep with me because it was safer.

  “I promise it won’t be long,” he said and kissed me on top of the forehead, closing my door and locking it from the outside. I sighed and flopped down on my beanbag chair. I hated being locked away every time someone came to our house. It was like my father didn’t want me to meet anyone, only wanting to keep me for himself and Mom.

  “I have ice cream and Mulan!” my nanny, Leona, exclaimed when she entered my room. As soon as she opened the door to bring the snacks in, Stephanie walked past my room. My heart dropped when I saw her pulling her suitcase behind her. She was going to leave without saying goodbye.

  I knew I only had a few seconds before Leona closed and locked the door again. Stephanie was already going down the stairs and if I didn’t act fast, she’d be gone and I’d never see her again.

  “Wait!” I exclaimed, rushing past Leona as she tried to grab me without dropping the bowls of ice cream in her arms. “Stephanie, wait!”

  I bound down the stairs, my father looking back at me with wide eyes. I skid to a stop next to them, wrapping my arms around Stephanie.

  “Daddy, I don’t want her to go,” I said, tears filling my eyes. Hav
ing her here made this big house less lonely. It was fun to have someone to play with, to dance with, to share secrets with. She was like the sister I never had and I didn’t want to give that up soon.

  “Daddy?” someone repeated. I looked up to see a man dress in a black suit, his dark hair combed back. The way he looked at me was scary, his smile making him look like a wolf that would tear me apart. “I didn’t know there were two.”

  “You only have a contract for one,” my father ground out, pulling me away from Stephanie to move me behind him. Stephanie grabbed my hand and squeezed it tight, the look in her eyes one of fear as they filled with tears.

  The man held his hands up, his smile never faltering. “Right you are. That’s why I’m here,” he said and looked to Stephanie. “Come on, my darling. It’s time to go to your new home.”

  Stephanie didn’t let go of my hand, her body trembling next to me. I held her tighter, not wanting her to be scared. Not wanting her to go for bad people to hurt her again. She told me the secrets she kept, about how her mom let bad men do things that hurt her and how she was scared to go to a new house because everyone hurt her. I didn’t want her to hurt anymore. I tried to keep her safe in my bed, but I couldn’t do that if she left.

  “Please don’t make me go,” she cried, her voice barely audible.

  The man cleared his throat and looked at the shiny watch on his wrist. “We have a long trip, Stephanie. Let’s go now,” he said, his tone sharp.

  “Please let her stay, Daddy,” I begged, crying for good measure. He usually gave me whatever I wanted if I cried, saying that I knew how to pull at his heartstrings. But it didn’t work this time. He only looked at me with sad eyes, stroking my hair and Stephanie’s hair.

  “I’m sorry, love. I don’t have control over this. Stephanie has to go to her new family now,” he said, his voice laced with sadness.

  “Get the girl,” the man mumbled. A large man dressed in all black stepped forward, pulling Stephanie away from me.