Rules of Bennett: The Complete Collection

by Ember Michaels

  The ride home was silent aside from Liam's babbling as he gnawed on his teething ring and hit it on the side of his car seat. Bennett was already standing in the garage by the time we got home—unsurprisingly—waiting for us when we pulled in. He hadn't even given me much time to get settled in the house before he kissed Liam and I and disappeared into the bunker, leaving me standing in the middle of the kitchen as frustration mounted within me.

  Welcome back to my fucked up life.

  BENNETT

  "Uh, does Aurora know we're working right now?" Saint asked me as we all gathered in the conference room.

  I nodded. "I told her that I had to get back to work. I have to get on top of this situation ASAP. The longer I sit, the more confident Alec is going to become. She'll understand."

  "I don't know, man. I think Alec can wait a couple more days," Bruce said, shaking her head. "If you promised Aurora four days, I think you should give her that."

  I ground my teeth in frustration. I knew they were right. It was bad enough that I asked her to come back home when she'd expressed wanting me to be away from the house. Being down in the bunker immediately upon coming home did nothing but prove her right, which was a bad thing to do. This would be the perfect time to delegate tasks to people so that I could keep my promise to my wife while also getting work done. Besides, it was a small task. Maybe if I allowed them to do something that wasn't too hard, I'd be a little more confident to hand over the bigger work.

  "Okay, fine. You're right. The last thing I want is another fight with her after all the fuckery that happened last night. So how about this: KC, I need you to both work on that hard drive for Hilcrest and also see if you can get into the cameras of the restaurant Carrie and Aurora were in. I want to see if I can get an ID on the guy that approached her."

  "You got it," KC said as he opened his laptop.

  I flopped down in the seat at the head of the table. "And the rest of you can help me on this new little project that I want to do for Aurora."

  "What kind of project?" Saint asked as he leaned back in his seat.

  "So, you know she wants this wedding, but with things heating up, I don't think I want to do one here," I started. "My biggest fear is that someone rolls up on us and turns something beautiful into a tragedy. This shit seems to be pretty important for her, so I won't want anything to ruin that."

  "That's a logical concern to have," Bruce said, nodding. "Uh...how about a destination wedding or some shit? And only invite people you trust. That way, if someone truly wants to ruin what you have going on, they'd really have to make an effort to do so."

  "Hmm."

  I drummed my fingers against my knee as I thought. That was actually the first thing Aurora had suggested, wanting something beautiful and exotic. Back then, I didn't want to do that because it would require too much time away from the business, which I didn't have to spare. With everything going on right now, time was the least of my worries. The last thing I wanted was to have a convenient wedding locally and end up putting the whole wedding party in danger.

  "Yeah, I think she'll like that a lot. I'll mention that to her tonight," I said.

  "Since we're not talking about the Russians, is this meeting mandatory?" Nyxin cut in.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. "Do you have somewhere better to be?"

  "I'm just saying, man. This conversation isn't my expertise," he said shaking his head.

  Bruce scoffed. "Have you never been in a relationship?"

  "Have you heard the way he talks to women?" Saint asked and laughed. "I'm surprised a woman hasn't killed his ass by now."

  "Relationships aren't my thing. Commitment makes my dick itch."

  "Commitment could actually keep your dick from itching, you walking STD," KC joked from behind his laptop screen.

  Nyxin glared at him. "Fuck you, nerd. Maybe if you stopped touching your keyboard long enough, you could actually touch pussy every once in a while," he fired back.

  "Okay, okay, knock it off before someone pulls a gun," I said with a sigh.

  Everyone was silent for a moment before Saint tipped his chair back and grinned. "You gotta admit that was kinda funny," he said and chuckled.

  "Yeah, I didn't think KC had it in him," Bruce said with a grin, shaking his head.

  Nyxin rolled his eyes. "Well, fuck the lot of you. I just know that my dick wasn't made for just one woman for the rest of my life. Bennett, Bruce, your women have you by the dicks—"

  "Whoa, no," I interrupted, holding my hand up. "Aurora doesn't have me by the dick. I simply respect her enough as my wife to care about how she feels and what she wants. It's what you're supposed to do in a marriage. And because I love her, I strive to make sure that she's happy. That's an act of love, not her having me by the dick."

  "Pfft, if that's what love looks like, I want no part of it," Nyxin said, shaking his head.

  "There's someone out there for everyone, Nyx. One day you're gonna come across a woman who's gonna knock you off your ass and make you fall in love," Bruce teased.

  "The day I fall in love is the day I want you guys to put a bullet between my eyes," he mumbled.

  I chuckled. "Could you be any more dramatic? Damn. Besides, it's easy to feel that way if you've never been in love. But once you have it, you're not going to want to let it go."

  "I found the guy that followed Aurora to the bathroom," KC said.

  "Damn, that was fast," Saint mumbled under his breath as he put his chair down on all four legs.

  "Who is he?" I asked, my fingertips tingling to squeeze the man's throat until his body was empty of life.

  KC turned his computer around for everyone to see. "Mikhail Kozlov, a lower-level member of the Korolevstvo Bratva," he read.

  I scoffed. "Of course he'd get a lower level to do his dirty work because he knows I'm going to kill him," I growled, tightening my jaw. "Get me information on him. If Alec wants the contacts, he can get them from his dead associate."

  "Now this is my kind of conversation," Nyxin said, rubbing his hands together.

  "What are we going to do about the gaps?" Saint asked.

  "I talked to Hilcrest about that. He offered to help set me up with new ones and suggested I give the Russians the ones they wanted in order to keep Aurora and Liam safe. But I won't let him think he can get away with threatening my wife and son just to get back at me," I ground out. "Trust me, we'll be fine. We always are."

  "We trust that you know that you're doing," Bruce reassured me.

  “Good.” I sighed. “Look, one thing I’m going to have to start doing is giving you guys more responsibilities around here. I’ve been taking on a lot of shit that could’ve been easily delegated to one of you and my marriage is suffering for it. And let’s be honest, things haven’t been all that great with me trying to micromanage everything either.”

  “You have to realize you’re only one man, bro. You have a group of guys in here who have you back and will do whatever you need us to do. Use us as you see fit and spend time with your family,” Saint said, tipping back in his chair again. “Believe me, you should definitely spend more time with your baby. They’re only babies for so long.”

  I nodded. Liam was growing every day, learning different things, and I’d been away with work shit and missed special moments with him. I didn’t want to watch his life behind videos or pictures. I wanted to be alongside my wife to experience parenthood with her, not just hear about the highlights when I got home at night. If she and I were planning on having another baby, I knew I’d have to get this shit under control ASAP, as I didn’t want to miss a single important thing in my family’s life.

  “Once we have the new contacts and I get those things set up, we’ll talk about how things should be split,” I said, just as Aurora appeared in the doorway with a frown. “What’s wrong?”

  “What’s wrong is that we’ve only been home for about thirty minutes and you’re already down here working,” she said, her voice flat.

  I stood u
p and walked over to her, taking her into my arms. “We’re just talking, babe. In fact, we were just finishing up, right guys?”

  “Yep, finishing up,” Nyxin said as he jumped to his feet. “And I’m glad because if these bastards tried to plead their case about being in love for another minute, I would’ve been forced to shoot myself.”

  Aurora held her hand up to stop Nyxin from leaving, confusion shining in her eyes as she continued to look at me. “Love doesn’t sound like work,” she mused.

  “Because we were just talking, not working.”

  “But I overheard you talking about contacts and all that again,” she stated, frowning again.

  “Because I was telling them I needed to give them more responsibilities so that I can spend more time with you and Liam,” I said, chucking her under the chin.

  Her frown dissolved into a smile as she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Really? You’d actually do that?”

  “Of course. Anything that keeps me home a little more than I’ve been lately,” I murmured and kissed her.

  “Well, it’s good that you say that because I actually came down here to talk to you,” she said and let go of me, facing the other men. “All of you, actually.”

  “Oh hell,” Nyxin mumbled, grunting when Aurora elbowed him in the stomach as she passed him.

  Saint snickered and shook his head. "You and your mouth, man," he said to Nyxin. Nyxin grumbled something under his breath as he flopped down in the seat next to Saint. Aurora pulled me over to the head of the table and motioned for me to sit down before she took a seat on my lap. It didn't go unnoticed when she ground against me, sending a bolt of pleasure along my dick.

  "Careful," I growled, and she giggled in response.

  "So, I was going to talk to Bennett about this later, but I feel like it's something that I should just tell you all since you're all here," she started. "I'm sure you all know that I want Bennett home more often. While I heard him saying he wanted to wait until he got new contacts before he assigned roles, I think we need to do that now."

  "What, already in a rush to have another baby?" I teased, squeezing her hip.

  A look passed over her face that I'd have to ask her about later, but she quickly composed herself and skipped over my comment. "First, I'm going to announce that I'm not going to continue taking a backseat to the family. Apparently, the only way I can see my husband regularly is to be involved in something that's consuming most of his time," she said.

  I sighed deeply and ran my hand over my face. That wasn't something I could agree with. I felt a lot better knowing she was safe at home with our son instead of being out handling business, putting herself at risk as she moved around town.

  "Aurora, we need to talk about that," I said, but she shook his head.

  "No, Bennett. This isn't a decision for you to make. I mean I am a member of La Fedeltá after all," she reminded me.

  "I know, but we talked about this. You agreed to take a step back and focus on Liam or whatever else you wanted to do. I told you it would make my job easier if I didn't have to worry about you being in hairy situations—"

  "So, do you think it's a good idea to undermine me in front of your men then?" she asked, looking to me with a frown. I held my hands up to surrender. She was right; this wasn't a conversation to talk about in front of the guys. She was still a member of La Fedeltá, so I wasn't going to make her appear weak in front of my highest-ranking men. Sure, she was more than capable of handling business and taking care of herself, but that fear of losing her made it hard for me to allow her to be an active member. Just hearing about what she experienced this morning made me want to hide her and my son away, but I already knew she wouldn't allow me to do that.

  "I apologize. Go ahead," I said.

  She rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the guys. "As I was saying, I've been thinking about some things that I wanted to bring to your attention. Since we're starting from scratch, I think we need to do some things differently because let's be honest; we're still operating like the Moreno Family but under a new name."

  The men raised an eyebrow and looked to me, and I was sure I mirrored their expression. When Aurora said she had something to talk about, she didn't tell me it would've been her criticizing how I've been doing things. She was putting me in a tight spot. She didn't want me to undermine her in front of the guys, but I had no fucking idea how she thought what she was doing was okay.

  "Aurora, considering how you haven't been involved in the business lately, I think that's not an accurate observation of what we're doing," I said, trying to keep my annoyance out of my voice.

  "You seem to be so hell bent on keeping Moreno contacts and property, even to the point of endangering your family and putting the organization at risk of a war because you want to be stubborn."

  "Oh boy," Bruce said under his breath with a sigh.

  "Can you guys give us a minute?" I said to them, though I kept my eyes on Aurora. They all stood and left the room, KC closing the door behind him. She jumped off my lap and glared at me.

  "Why are you getting in your feelings because I'm telling you what I think?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest.

  "What the fuck is your problem?"

  "What the fuck is your problem?" she repeated.

  I ground my teeth. "You can't just come in here and criticize the way I'm running shit in front of other members. You haven't even had this conversation with me. Why the fuck did you think this was something to discuss with everybody?"

  "Bruce, Saint, Nyxin, and KC are hardly 'everybody,'" she said with a scoff, using air quotations when she said "everybody." "I thought it was important for them to hear it as well if they're going to be taking on more responsibilities around here."

  I narrowed her eyes at me. "Let me make something perfectly clear, Aurora. La Fedeltá is my organization. At the end of the day, I overrule all this shit. If you have a problem with how things are run, you bring that shit to me directly. You can't just come in here trying to change shit when you haven't been doing any footwork to help build this shit—"

  "Because you put me on the fucking sidelines!" she screamed.

  "It wasn't like you fucking objected to it," I reminded her. "In fact, you asked me if it were okay if you took a backseat to the mafia so that you could focus on taking care of our son, so don't make it seem like I forced you to do that shit."

  She turned away from me for a few moments, as if trying to gather her thoughts. “Well, I want an active part in the organization, so I’m here now. There are some things that need to change.”

  I ground my teeth and mirrored her stance, folding my arms across my chest. “And what the fuck would that be?”

  She shifted uncomfortably in front of me, dropping her eyes to the floor. “I think—”

  “No, look at me when you talk to me,” I interrupted. “Since you were bold enough to bring this shit up in front of everyone else, look me in the eye when you’re criticizing me.”

  She released a short breath and met my eyes. “I was just going to say that maybe we should let go of all the Moreno stuff,” she said, the confidence leaving her voice. “I mean if we’re no longer the Moreno—”

  “Pause,” I interrupted again, holding up my hand. “Aurora, Moreno isn’t just some organizational name. It’s my family name. I’m a Moreno, you’re a Moreno, my son is a Moreno. Wilson’s death doesn’t mean that the fucking name goes away. These businesses and contacts belong to the Moreno family in a literal sense, not Moreno the mafia family. So, me keeping the contacts and the businesses is keeping shit that my family spent generations building as a whole. This shit didn’t start with Wilson and it isn’t going to disappear with him either.”

  She only stared at me for a few moments before she sighed and looked away. “Okay, I’m sorry. I just…I thought maybe we could do things a little different to make us stand out and keep a low profile and everything and…”

  Her sentence trailed off but she never
finished it. Tears glossed her eyes before she looked down at the floor. She reassured me that she was fine, but her interaction with the Russians bothered her more than she cared to admit. She was beating herself up for becoming too comfortable with safety, momentarily forgetting that you could never become too lax in this life.

  “Come here,” I murmured, opening my arms. She walked into them and wrapped her arms around me tightly. I held her close to me in silence, allowing her to feel what she needed to. The turmoil the interaction caused within her was the exact reason I was anxious to spill Russian blood. I understood her fear and worry, and I was partially to blame for that. I hadn’t kept her up to speed with the shit going on, giving her a false sense of security that put both her and our son at risk.

  “I just want to feel useful,” she finally whispered, sniffling.

  “You are useful, babe.”

  “No, I’m not. I couldn’t do anything in that situation but pray that this man wasn’t stupid enough to hurt me or our son.” She slightly pulled back and looked at me. “You haven’t experienced that fear in real time, Bennett. I know it’s something you worry about, but it’s so much different when it’s happening right before your eyes.”

  I sighed. “I know. And that’s on me for not making you aware of the situation going on with them. I thought I had that handled, but it seems as if I may have underestimated that. It won’t happen again.”

  She nodded and wiped her eyes. “I know, I just…I can’t stop thinking about it,” she muttered.

  I tilted her face up and kissed her, stroking her cheek. “It’s still pretty fresh, so it may take a little bit to shake off. Just be patient with yourself, with me. Do you need something to help you relax?”

  She shook her head. “I still have a son who needs me. I don’t need to be high out of my mind,” she mumbled. “I just…need something to occupy my time with so that I don’t think about it too much.”

  “Well, I may have something that can help with that,” I said and smirked. She raised her eyebrow as she waited for me to continue. “I think you may be pretty busy planning our destination wedding.”