My heart hammered in my chest when Bennett appeared on the other side of the wall, his hand in his pocket. He was alone, his right arm still in a sling. He gave me a small smile, but he didn’t move closer to me.
“Hi, gorgeous,” he murmured. I lowered my gun, a bit stunned to see him.
“Bennett…what are you doing here?” I murmured.
“To try to win my wife over,” he said. I squinted in confusion as he took a step closer and stopped again. “I let you leave because I wanted you to choose whether or not you wanted to be with me. The last thing I wanted to do was hold you hostage. I told myself that I was going to break the cycle the mafia has a habit of creating by putting women in these forced relationships. Then you have loveless marriages and bitter children that are the products of these arrangements.” He shook his head. “I didn’t want that for myself, our child, or you. With everything you’d gone through these past few months, I felt I owed you a life better than that.”
“So, what are you saying?” I asked slowly.
“I gave you the choice because I wanted you to be with me because you wanted to, not because you felt you had to. You were right; all this shit—the marriage, the baby, our relationship in general—were all things that happened out of circumstances. Maybe it wasn’t real, and maybe it still isn’t. But the things I feel about you are…which is why I’m here.”
I watched as he crossed the room and came to a stop in front of me. He still hadn’t touched me, his hand never leaving his pocket. “When you left, I felt the same emptiness that I did when I lost Stephanie. I thought it would be better to know that you were alive and living your life, but it just made it even more hard. Made it hard for me to accept that you didn’t choose me, and that you were living your life without me while I could hardly function without you.”
Tears welled up in my eyes as I listened to him speak. I almost wanted to laugh because it was shocking that he was even capable of putting words to the things he felt without it coming out as a psychotic rant of sorts. He looked down at me with his soft brown eyes, reaching out to caress my cheek.
“There hasn’t been a second in the day where I haven’t thought about you and our baby,” he said softly.
A single tear rolled down my cheek as I gave him a small smile. “It’s a boy,” I whispered. His smile lit up his face.
“That’s amazing,” he said and then sighed. “I wanted to come here to show you that I do care about you and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to show you that I’m serious.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck, being mindful of his shoulder as I squeezed him. His good arm tightened around me, and the tension that’d been in his body melted. The Bennett standing before me wasn’t the monster I was so used to seeing. If I were being honest, that monster seemed to weaken each time he killed anyone responsible for murdering the people he loved. Now that we’d defeated the final boss, the only version of him left was the one I’d searched for all along. The one who wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable, who wanted to do whatever it took to make those he loved happy. The one who finally forgave himself and allowed himself to be loved and to be happy.
“I want to go home,” I whispered, burying my face into to neck.
“And we will, gorgeous. We will,” he murmured, pulling back to kiss me on the lips. I wasn’t sure if it was Stockholm syndrome or pregnancy hormones that made me feel as I did, but the only thing I wanted was to go back to the only family I had. It wasn’t conventional or normal, but it was ours and that was completely fine by me.
He finally let go of me. “Do you want to pack anything?” he asked.
“I just need to get some documents from my office and the rest of my money,” I said, wiping my eyes. He leaned down and kissed me again, stroking my cheek.
“No rush. I’m not going anywhere,” he said. I smiled at him before walking away, excited about the future. I wasn’t sure what would happen to us in the long term, but I wanted to at least try. He and I deserved that. Our baby deserved that. I had faith that Bennett was ready to change, and I was excited to see what was in store for us.
7 months later…
“Babe, you’re doing it wrong,” I said with a frown as I watched him. His brows were furrowed as he worked and the more he fiddled with it, the worse it became.
“How is it wrong? It’s only one way to put it on,” he said, cocking his head to the side and looking at it. “Oh.”
“Yeah, ‘oh’ is right,” I said and giggled. “Take it off and try again.”
He sighed deeply, Liam wiggling around on the changing table. “What the hell is the right way on this thing? Where are the directions?”
“It’s a diaper, not a bomb, Bennett,” I said. “There are no directions. But you may want to be a little quicker than that. He’s known for—“
Before I could even finish my sentence, Liam was peeing on Bennett’s shirt. Again. I covered my mouth with my hand to hide my smile, but he only smirked at me. “Can’t believe I traded guns, blood, and violence, for pee, baby bottles, and a shit ton of laundry,” he said with a sigh.
“Technically, you didn’t trade that. You still do all that stuff. But this little monster has Daddy wrapped around his finger,” I said as Liam kicked his legs. Had I not come back to California when I did, I probably would have as soon as I gave birth to Liam. He looked so much like Bennett that it was scary, and I loved him to pieces. I hadn’t expected Bennett to be as active as he was, but he practically did everything except diaper changes when he wasn’t in meetings or having to handle business outside the house. We’d grown in ways that I didn’t think was possible considering how we first started. I was glad that I’d given us a chance.
Bennett used the diaper in his hand to stop the flow. “Jesus, how much breast milk do you feed this kid? He can literally piss a lake.”
I laughed. “Don’t be dramatic,” I said.
Bennett cleaned him up and finally put the diaper on the right way before putting a new onesie on him. “All clean, buddy,” he said and picked him up. I smiled and watched as he cuddled our son close, kissing him on the head a few times before handing him to me.
“I have to go meet with the McIntyres for this new gun deal. Shouldn’t be too long. Saint should be bringing Giselle over; he said she won’t stop talking about the baby,” he said.
“Alright. Well, be safe and call me when you’re on route back here,” I said. He nodded and leaned down to kiss me.
“I love you,” he said and smiled.
Even though he’d been telling me that for months at this point, it always gave me butterflies. “I love you, too, babe,” I said softly. He kissed Liam on top of the head and stroked and chubby cheek.
“See you in a bit, buddy,” he said.
After Bennett went into the bedroom to change shirts, we both made our way downstairs where the guys all waited for him. “There he is!” Saint exclaimed when we came into view.
“You act like you haven’t just spoke to me,” Bennett said. Saint scoffed.
“Not you, fool. The baby,” he said and moved over to me. “Hey there, little man.”
“I wanna see Liam, too!” Giselle whined. Saint picked her up and she looked at him in awe, stroking his soft dark hair with her hand. “Can I hold him?”
“You have to sit on the couch, okay?” I said. She nodded and took off running when Saint put her down. The guys all cooed at him and I almost laughed. It was amazing that all it took was a small baby to bring all these tough guys to their knees, especially their ringleader.
“Okay, okay, I know I’ve made a fine specimen of a son here, but we gotta get going or we’re gonna be late,” Bennett said, snapping his fingers.
“You didn’t make it alone, you know,” I said and smirked at him. He grinned.
“Of course I didn’t.” He gave me a quick peck. “I’ll be back.”
I moved over to the couch as they headed out the door and settled next to Giselle, who was so excited she couldn’t sit
still. “Okay, hold your arms out,” I said.
She held her arms around and I carefully put Liam in them, securing her arms around him. “He’s so tiny,” she whispered. Liam looked up at her, which seemed to tickle her so much. “He’s looking at me! Hi, Liam! I’m Giselle.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I watched them. For the longest time, I couldn’t understand why life could allow me to go through the things I’d gone through since being here. While I suffered greatly, I’d gained so much more. I’d been broken and had hit the lowest point of my life, almost to the point to where I tried to take my own life. But as I look at my son and think about the life that I now share with Bennett, maybe Savannah was on to something. It sucked getting to this point of happiness, but I would do it all over again if it brought me back to the bliss I currently felt.
“Aurora, are you gonna wear a marriage dress soon? Daddy said you were gonna wear it,” Giselle said suddenly.
“I am,” I said and smiled at her. Now that things were going so well and I’d finally had the baby, I’d talked Bennett into having an actual wedding ceremony. He wasn’t very keen on big social gatherings, but said he’d wanted to do whatever made me happy. He’d definitely adopted the “happy wife, happy life,” motto and pretty much agreed to anything and everything I could ask him for. I definitely wouldn’t complain.
“Can I wear a marriage dress, too?” she asked.
“You’re going to wear a flower girl dress. That’s a very important job,” I said.
She smiled. “Can I help pick it?”
“Of course,” I said, just as Carrie entered the living room.
“Did someone say wedding?” she started and then put her hand over her heart when she saw Liam. “Oh, my sweet nephew! I haven’t seen my little angel all week!”
Giselle pouted when Carrie took Liam from her arms. I picked Giselle up and put her on my lap, giving her a big hug until she giggled.
“No sad faces. We have to pick our dresses,” I said and picked the dress catalog up from the coffee table.
And as we flipped through pages to see what we liked, I couldn’t help but release a sigh of relief. My entire life was spent either being in the dark or being on the run. I didn’t know who I was for so long, grasping at some kind of identity to feel normal. After going through hell, I finally rose from the ashes and was reborn into someone so much stronger than I ever thought I was capable of. I was more than aware of who I was now and knew what I was capable of.
I was Aurora Moreno.
Wife of the devil.
Queen of La Fedeltà.
And finally free.
Thanks for reading You Will Obey! Be sure to sign up for my newsletter to be the first to know when the boxed set will be releasing! I’ll let you in on a little secret too: I’ll be adding a novella for Bennett and Aurora that’ll feature more parent life and their wedding! Moreno Forever will be at the end of the boxed set, so subscribe to my newsletter for more updates on that and all of my future projects!
Newsletter
Forever is only the beginning.
Stephanie Meyer
BENNETT
“Question,” I stated as I sat in the passenger seat, folding and unfolding the pocket knife in my hand while I scanned the moving people on the street. Saint glanced over at me.
“What’s up, Boss?”
“Is there a stamp on my forehead that says ‘fool’ that I don’t fucking know about?” I asked.
Saint chuckled and shook his head. “Of course not.”
“I thought so.”
Saint, Nyxin, and I sat parked in an SUV in the seedy part of downtown Los Angeles, watching as Garrett and Caleb stood across the street surrounded by a gang of whores. The longer I watched them, the higher my anger mounted. With the creation of a new mafia family, that required having to hire new help. Not everyone supported my decision of killing my father, deciding to leave when the Moreno Family fell apart after his death. That left me having to start completely from scratch. New family, new men, new rules and regulations to build a new empire. My gut told me these two fucks were shady, but I wasn’t in a position to turn down people who were hungry to work. I figured I’d put up with them now and replace them when I had better options, but all that did was create another fucking headache for me to deal with.
At first, it started with them coming up just a little short or having fake bills. They claimed they were new to this, not knowing what to look for or not knowing if someone was scamming them. But then it started happening too many times to ignore. I lost count of the number of times I’d heard the excuse, “I couldn’t remember what a fake bill felt like,” or “I could’ve sworn I counted it right. I didn’t realize they shorted me.” They always had a bullshit reason for why the lack of drugs they had didn’t match with the amount of money they brought to me, lying to my face like I was a fucking idiot who didn’t know what was going on. A mistake here and there wasn’t unusual, but every single time was an enormous red flag that forced me to have to take matters into my own hands.
“I knew those guys were full of shit when they first showed up, but of course, no one ever listens to me,” Nyxin tsked from the backseat.
Saint glanced at him in the rearview mirror. “Because your assumption was solely based on the fact that homeboy still sports a bowl cut.”
“Yeah, which is fuckery all on its own,” Nyxin argued. “What grown man still has a bowl cut? I’m pretty sure they get paid enough to see an actual barber.”
“Either way, it was a bad judgement call on my end,” I said as I shifted in my seat, slipping the pocket knife into my pocket. “What’s the report on them?”
Nyxin shuffled papers behind me before clearing his throat. “O’Shea and Mason said the same thing, that the two fucks admitted to stealing product and skimming money off the top by replacing it with fake bills. Mason specifically said that Garrett and Caleb’s plan was to try to find another connect and they were gonna start their own shit.”
“Interesting,” I answered as I continued to watch them. They passed small baggies of white powder to the women that rubbed against them promising them a good time, and all I could think about was cutting those fucking smiles off of their faces.
I didn’t take too kindly to assholes who stole from me. For them to think I was too fucking stupid to notice was downright disrespectful.
And we all knew how I felt about disrespect.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, pulling my gaze from the window. I idly retrieved it, glancing briefly at the screen to see a picture of Aurora and Liam.
“Yeah, babe?” I said upon answering.
“Ah, Mr. Moreno. How lucky am I to be graced with your voice?” she teased.
I grinned. “Did you call me to be an asshole?” I asked.
“No, I just had a little question for you.”
“What’s that?”
“Well,” she started. “There’s a chilled bottle of merlot here, a delicious dinner on the table, and a horny wife waiting for you at home. Any particular reason why you’re not here right now when you promised you would be?”
Shit. I had every intention of making sure I got back home in time for dinner after Aurora complained about the lack of time we spent together. After breaking dates and promises for weeks, I swore to her that she’d have me tonight to do whatever she wanted. But when I got the report from my guys about Garrett and Caleb, I knew I couldn’t let them live past tonight. I refused to let those dickheads think that they outsmarted me again, and I damn sure wouldn’t continue losing money because of them either.
I glanced back out of the window just in time to see Garrett and Caleb strolling toward the dark alley a few feet away from them with a few of the streetwalkers. “Something came up that I have to handle. I’m gonna be pretty late tonight.”
She sighed. “Fuck, again? Bennett, you promised,” she exclaimed, disappointment and frustration lacing her voice.
“I know, babe, and I’m sorry. But I fina
lly got the information that I—”
“And it wasn’t something the guys could handle on their own? You’ve been blowing me off for weeks now because of business shit and I can already tell you that masturbating is getting pretty fucking old. Maybe I should go buy a guy to fuck me since my own husband won’t.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be fucking ridiculous. You know I wouldn’t allow that.”
“It’s not like you’d know if I did or not. You’re hardly even home,” she snapped.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. I had to admit that I’d had a shit ton more work on my plate now that I’d branched off and created my own mafia family. Managing all aspects of what used to be Moreno businesses instead of just the human trafficking sector was a lot more than I’d anticipated. I had to give my father credit. How he managed to run everything on his own without completely losing his head was impressive. Every single day that I had to clean up bullshit problems like this current one made me even more homicidal. At the rate I was going, my entire mafia family would be dead if shit didn’t change around here.
“It’s not intentional, babe. You know why I’m hardly home.”
“I wish you’d find something else to say. It’s ‘not intentional’ when you break promises. When you miss meetings with the wedding planner. When you don’t have five fucking minutes to have a conversation with your wife or hold your son,” she snapped.
I ground my teeth. Even though having this same conversation over and over for weeks was frustrating the shit out of me, I couldn’t be upset. She had every right to feel the way she did. I hadn’t been the most attentive husband and father. Work had kept me so busy that I barely even had time to sleep, a new problem seeming to pop up out of nowhere. She and Liam were usually always asleep by the time I got home, only for the cycle to repeat the next day. We were supposed to be planning an actual wedding to make our marriage feel “more real”—her words; damn sure not mine—and she wanted to experience having the beautiful dress and the other unnecessary shit that came with a wedding. Because it made her happy, I went along with it, but my absence during this process did nothing but land me in the doghouse most nights.
Rules of Bennett: The Complete Collection Page 63
