“I’m sorry to hear that,” Chase said, shaking his head. “I knew it was only a matter of time. There was a bad war when he was working for Wilson and a lot of his men were dropping like flies. But it’s good to see that his legacy will continue. Much luck to you, young lady.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, guzzling down the rest of my wine.
After what felt like eternity, the waiters reappeared, pushing a cart with plates of food. I watched Bennett as he requested a pancake breakfast platter, telling them everything to put on the plate. Another waiter turned to me and smiled.
“What would you like, ma’am?” he asked.
I looked over the options. “Is that French toast?” I asked, pointing to the fluffy bread lined up on a platter.
“Yes, brioche French toast,” he confirmed.
“I’ll have that, bacon, and fresh strawberries, please,” I said. He nodded and filled my plate before putting it before me.
“Enjoy,” he said and moved on to the next person.
Jacob returned to the table, his face red as Daniella scurried inside the restaurant in the direction of the bathroom.
“I apologize on behalf of my wife,” he said, his tone sharp. “It won’t happen again. I can guarantee that.”
Bennett looked to me but I only shrugged, cutting into my French toast. “It’s your call, babe,” I said.
“I’ll think on it while I eat,” Bennett finally said.
Jacob nodded. “Understandable. Thank you,” he said and relaxed a little. The table filled with small talk around me, but all I wanted was to finish eating and get the hell out of here. The sun was high, and while the pantsuit made a statement, the blazing California sun made it so uncomfortably hot. I’d wanted to take off my jacket, but seeing how the men hadn’t removed theirs, I kept mine on. I just prayed I didn’t die of heatstroke.
Daniella finally returned to the table, her eyes puffy and her makeup a little smeared. She didn’t say another word after she requested her food, keeping her eyes on her plate the whole time. Even though I thought she was a bonafide bitch, I could only imagine what he’d promised would happen to her when they got back home. I knew the monster Bennett could be; I’d be terrified of going home if the shoe were on the other foot and I’d ruined a potential meeting. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, but maybe it was a lesson she’d have to learn, one I’d had to learn time and time again.
“I’d like to align with you, Jacob,” Bennett finally started, “but I’d prefer your wife not be present amongst business.”
“Trust me, she won’t be. She’s proven time and time again that she has no business coming to any meetings,” he stated, cutting his eyes at her. She kept her eyes glued to her plate and didn’t say a word.
“Then I’m willing to give you a try,” Bennett said with a nod.
Jerry nodded. “That settles it,” he said. “My family looks forward to working with you.”
“How does Wilson feel about you moving on without him?” Chase asked as he finished off his wine.
Bennett shrugged. “I don’t care how he feels about anything I do,” he answered.
“Fair enough,” Chase said.
Bennett pulled out a folded stack of papers from his inner jacket pocket along with a pen. “If everyone is in agreement, I’d like for the bosses to sign on a couple of contracts. I don’t need them back today; take time to read them,” he said, smirking at me.
I rolled my eyes and drank the rest of my wine. Bastard, I thought. The men reached for the paper.
“I’ll have this back to you in a couple of days,” Jacob said, folding the contract and putting it in his inner jacket pocket.
“I’ll get back to you as well,” Jerry stated as he did the same, Chase following suit.
Bennett looked at his watch. “Well, if that’s everything, Aurora and I have to get going. We have another appointment to get to,” he said.
I didn’t care where we went to next as long as it wasn’t outside in the heat. We stood from the table, shaking hands with everyone except the women before Bennett ushered me back through the restaurant and out of the exit. He pulled his phone out and sent a text message, putting an arm around my waist.
“Are women not allowed to talk in the meetings? The other women hardly said anything,” I said with a frown.
“No,” he said idly, typing away on his phone. “The only ones allowed to talk are the people conducting business. The wives aren’t usually present, but since it was a brunch, it wasn’t too inappropriate for them to be there.”
“I see,” I said as the car arrived in front of us. The driver got out and opened the door. I quickly slid in and immediately took my jacket off, the air conditioning cooling my heated skin. Bennett got in next to me, eyes still glued to his phone. The driver closed the door and went back around, getting in the car and pulling out into traffic.
“What do you want for dinner tonight?” Bennett asked idly.
I furrowed my brow in confusion. “Bennett, we just ate breakfast. Why the hell would I be thinking about dinner right now?” I asked, my voice flat.
He looked up at me. “Is it a crime to plan something in advance?” he asked, matching my tone.
“Actually, what I want for dinner are some answers,” I said, folding my arms across my chest.
“About?”
“How the hell am I supposed to establish myself as your ‘equal’ and your ‘queen’ when people saw you violate me?” I snapped. “If she’s seen the video, I highly doubt she’s the only one.”
He sighed deeply. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Aurora. I can’t change the past. All you can do is demand respect from any and everyone that you come across.”
“Oh, right, because my husband has already shown the whole underworld how much of a whore I am for him,” I said sarcastically.
The video wasn’t new to me; I’d known he was sending it when he filmed it. Anger rolled off me in waves as I thought back to that day. After he’d dangled me out of the moving plane, beat me with a belt, shocked me over and over, and forced me to give him a blow job, he humiliated me in front of the whole world with no remorse. He had to have known that the video would eventually come up. Who in the hell would take me seriously or respect me when Bennett proved just how much he didn’t respect me?
I wiped away a stray tear that I hadn’t even realized had fallen. The more I settled into this role, the more I realized I was in way over my head.
BENNETT
Aurora stormed into the house without another word to me. I didn’t blame her for being upset. I hadn’t thought about how my previous actions would come back to haunt me and the relationship I was trying to build with her. It didn’t make it any better that the video I’d made of her was brought up at the table. I was sure if the others hadn’t seen it, they’d go looking for it.
Instead of going after her, I strolled through the house looking for KC. He was in the library where he usually was, his noise canceling headphones making him oblivious to my presence. I walked over to him, stopping in front of him with my hands in my pocket. He cut his eyes up to me, pressing a button on his keyboard before looking up at me.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“I need you to find and remove something for me,” I said with a sigh.
“Like?”
“A video.”
“What kind of video and where is it?” he asked, typing on his keyboard.
I sighed. “The video of Aurora that I had you upload to the dark web,” I said.
KC shook his head. “Oh yeah,” he drawled. “That one. Did she know you—”
“She knows now,” I ground out. “Jacob’s fucking big mouth wife told the whole fucking table about it and Aurora’s rightfully pissed.”
“I want to tell you that not a lot of people saw it to give her peace of mind, but…it’s been viewed over a million times,” he said, shaking his head.
“Just take it down and find any other traces of it. I
want it gone as best as you can get it,” I ground out.
“You got it,” he said and got to work. My phone vibrated in my pocket.
“Let me know when you’re done,” I said and left him to his work, pulling my phone from my pocket. Looking at my phone, I raised my brow at the private number that showed up. I answered the call but didn’t speak, only putting it to my ear.
“Congratulations,” he said, his familiar, deep voice pissing me off.
The muscle in my jaw tightened with annoyance. “What do you want?” I asked. I knew it was only a matter of time before Wilson called me. I had enough shit on my plate and didn’t have time for any mind games he wanted to play.
“Can I not call my son to congratulate him on his marriage? I’m not surprised you chose her.”
“And you better not fucking touch her,” I growled. His chuckle did nothing but make me even more upset.
“We could’ve worked things out, Bennett,” he said. “I didn’t want a useless slut to get in between us, but now you’ve gone too far.”
“No, this isn’t on me. You went too far when you put hits out on my mother, on Stephanie, Carrie, and then me. You started this war; I’m just finishing it,” I ground out.
“We’ll see about that. Don’t look to the Moreno Family to protect you,” he taunted.
Now it was my turn to chuckle. “I’m sure you didn’t miss the announcement. I’m no longer a part of your bullshit. I don’t need a single Moreno man for a goddamn thing.”
“You say that now. Well, I’m sure you have plenty of work to do.” He chuckled again. “Keep an eye on that pretty wife of yours. Wouldn’t want her to stray too far now, would you?”
“I swear to fucking god if you—”
But he hung up before I could finish my statement. My father may have been terrible at being loyal, but he was never one to dish out empty threats. It was a subtle, veiled threat, hinting at what he wanted to do to Aurora. What he’d done to Stephanie. I’d planned on loosening the reins on her a bit and giving her a bit more freedom, but I couldn’t do that now that my father had a target on her back as well as mine.
I opened my tracking app and saw that she was still in the house, a little relieved that she hadn’t run off. A part of me wanted to tell her about the phone call with Wilson, but I didn’t want to give her anymore reason to be upset. Every time I thought I was making some kind of progress with her, something always happened that forced me to start over. I thought I’d made some kind of progress between last night and our interaction in the car, but it went to hell in a hand basket when Jacob’s bimbo wife ran her fucking mouth about the video.
“What the hell did I get myself into?” I murmured. I’d have to work on one thing at a time. As my wife, I had to be honest with her and hope that she took the truth well.
Walking back through the house, I stopped Bruce as I passed him. “Have you seen Aurora?” I asked.
He gestured toward the stairs and took a huge bite out of an apple. “I think she went in the bedroom if the door she slammed was any indication,” he said.
I frowned. “Thanks,” I said. He nodded and walked off while I headed up the stairs.
The shower in the bathroom was running by the time I got upstairs, her discarded clothing leading to the bathroom. Her naked silhouette tempted me through the foggy glass, her hands running along her body. I was sure she wanted to be alone and away from me, but if I wanted a chance to be vulnerable, this was the time to do it. The only time I really allowed myself to truly feel was when I was hidden away in the shower. I didn’t have to worry about anyone walking in on me during my moment of weakness and I could hide my emotions under the steam and running water. The idea of opening up and being vulnerable to someone I’d hurt in more ways than one was fucking terrifying, but I had to take a chance if I wanted to win in the end.
I slipped out of my clothes and opened the shower door. She frowned, narrowing her eyes at me.
“I don’t need a babysitter in the shower,” she snapped. I closed the door behind me and stepped under the spray with her.
“Who said anything about a babysitter?” I said. Frustration harbored in her eyes as she glared at me, frustration that I’d put there. I swallowed the lump forming in my throat, unable to look her in the eyes. “I’m sorry.”
She scoffed and turned her attention back to lathering up. “It’s too late to be sorry, Bennett. It’s already out there and people have already seen it.” She whipped around and faced me. “After everything you’ve done to me, why would you even want me to be your wife? Why would your guys even respect me when they’ve seen your disrespect firsthand damn near every day since I’ve been here?”
“Because you aren’t my pet; you’re my wife,” I ground out. The concept was simple enough to understand, but it slightly frustrated me that she was still stuck on everything I’d done in the past. Sure, marrying her wasn’t going to erase everything I did, but the people who worked for me weren’t stupid. To disrespect my woman would be to disrespect me, and they wouldn’t do that. I wanted to be patient with her, but patience wasn’t my best trait. I couldn’t take back any of the shit I did, nor could I reverse the damage it caused. I was at a loss of what to do. It wasn’t this hard with Stephanie, but I also didn’t do a quarter of the shit I’d done to Aurora to Stephanie either.
“You make it sound like it’s so easy,” she said, shaking her head. “There’s—”
“KC is working on removing the video from wherever he can find it,” I interrupted. “I can’t fix what’s happened; all I can do is make sure things are better for the future.”
“Are you even capable of that?” she asked, her tone sarcastic. “At wanting to be better?”
I wasn’t completely sure, but I knew I wanted to try for her. “I guess we can both find out,” I answered truthfully.
She stared at me for a long moment. “Then I guess we’ll see,” she murmured. She turned away from me and continued showering, the soap suds running down her body making my cock twitch.
“I want to propose something,” I suddenly said.
She looked at me over her shoulder. “So, you trick me into marrying you and now you want to propose something? That’s rich,” she drawled.
I couldn’t help the smirk that pulled at my lips. “You and I both know that’s not how it happened, but I digress,” I said. “But no, I think you and I need to go away for a weekend. Just the two of us.”
“For what? Some kind of weird honeymoon?”
“Not necessarily. We can do whatever you want. If you want to have some kind of lame ass heart-to-heart all weekend, we can. If you want to ignore me all weekend, you can do that, too. If you want to have hate sex all over the hotel suite, we can definitely do that,” I said and smiled.
She playfully rolled her eyes. “Do I have a choice?”
“Always. I’m not going to force you to go on a vacation. I figured you’d want to take one before the real work starts, because it may be a while before we’re able to go on one again.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Where would we go for a weekend?”
“The closest places I think would probably be either Mexico or Hawaii,” I said. A flash of sadness hinted in her eyes.
“Well, since I don’t have a passport anymore, it’ll have to be Hawaii,” she said.
“We’ll get you a new one as soon as we get back,” I promised her. She gave me a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Yeah,” she said.
Take the first step, I scolded myself, but my fear of rejection wouldn’t let me. To be vulnerable was to be weak, and I wasn’t ready to show that just yet. The last thing I wanted was for her to think I’d gone soft in an effort to win her heart. Love was a dangerous emotion and the moment she thought I loved her, she could very well destroy me. I swallowed the worry down that tried to bubble up in my throat. Something happening to her would destroy me as well.
“How are you not drowning?” she asked, brushing
my wet hair from my forehead.
I chuckled and shrugged. “Used to it, I guess.” I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to me, reaching up to stroke her wet cheek. “I can’t take away what I’ve done or the pain I’ve caused you. I can only try to be better. I haven’t…” The words stuck to my throat, and I couldn’t get them to come out.
Aurora raised a brow at me. “You haven’t what?” she asked softly.
I sighed deeply. “I haven’t allowed myself to feel things since I lost Stephanie.”
“Bennett—”
“Wait, let me finish,” I interrupted. She pursed her lips together and stared at me, waiting for me to speak. “You’re not wrong to think I’m a monster; that’s the side of me that I presented to you. If you let me, I can show you that I can…I don’t know…not be one all the time.”
She sighed and dropped her gaze. “You know, it’s not just about what you’ve done to me since I’ve been here at the house,” she murmured. “I don’t know what you have up your sleeve, but I don’t know how I can love someone who has done the things you have. You killed my parents, Bennett. You murdered my fiancé in front of me. Raped my best friend in front of me. How do you forgive someone for that?”
I couldn’t answer her question. The acts I’d committed against her were completely unforgivable. Those would be events that would be burned in her memory for the rest of her life. I didn’t even give any of the actions a single thought because those people didn’t mean anything to me, but they were everything to her. It was no different than how I could see Stephanie’s body and all the blood in my head if I thought about her too much.
“I understand that it won’t happen overnight,” I finally started. “I just hope you give me a chance to show you something different.” I took her hand and kissed her ring. “I really do want this to work somehow since you’re here.”
“Then I guess you better figure out something really fucking amazing to make me change my mind about you, because right now, I’m not seeing how,” she said, pulling out of my grasp. “I’m done taking a shower.”
Rules of Bennett: The Complete Collection Page 45
