“Let’s just stop while we are ahead, thank you,” Benelli says, raising and shaking her hand.
When touching his hand again she keeps hold, whispers something to him I can’t make out.
He jerks his hand from hers and grabs me to leave. “What did she say?” I ask.
“Nothing, it was nothing babe, just some mumbo, jumbo voodoo shit.”
Benelli
That witchy woman just told me that evil will come to the one of peace but a bird of darkness will rise up from the ashes and save her. I know exactly who she’s talking about but don’t know what’s going to happen or why. Part of me wants to go back without Elle and find out more but another part of me knows that it’s all going to be in riddles if she does tell me anything. Plus, it’s not like I’m going to be able to stop whatever it is from happening. Right now, I need to focus on Calibar if he really is in New Orleans. I’m hoping this witch is just rambling but way too many things are accurate to not take heed of what she says. I am on high alert.
Hopefully, if we can catch Calibar, then whatever is going to happen to Zen won’t happen. I try to seem relaxed as we walk around, taking in more of the sites, but also scanning the crowds. We stop to get a drink before we head back and I start to relax. Elle is sitting on the stool next to me and turns me so that my back is to her. She starts to massage my neck and shoulders and I feel the tension easing.
“Dang babe, you’re really tight,” she tells me and digs in a little harder.
“That feels amazing! Yeah, let’s just say that woman got me a little tense. Creepy how she knew Reaper, Jon, and everything else, huh?” I ask.
“Yeah, that was a bit intense. On the upside, the adoption is going to go through and we are having a boy if she’s right,” she says.
More tension leaves me at the thought of a son, “What do you think of Oscar?” I ask with a smirk on my face.
“Yeah, Oscar the grouch, that’s not happening, what about Liam?” she asks.
I scrunch my face, “like the actor? Not feeling it. Michael?”
“I like Micah,” she suggests.
“Micah Neroni, it does have a ring to it, what’s the middle name?” I ask.
“I’d like him to have my dad’s name but Micah Jonathon doesn’t sound right,” she says.
“How about Jonathon Micah and just call him Micah?” I suggest.
“I like that, but what if she’s wrong and it’s a girl?” she says.
“Well, since your mom is Michelle, and you’re Elle, something along those lines?” I suggest.
She laughs, “I think that trend should end with me.”
“Okay,” I chuckle, “Is momma ready to grab something to eat?”
“Always,” she replies.
We stop a couple blocks away and fill up on the local cuisine. After I pay the bill we decide to head back to the condo.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Elle
That evening we are walking to our condo and I freeze, I can’t move. Benelli is distracted when his phone rings and he answers, “O’Neal? What have you got?” I hear the words leave his mouth, but it’s like it is in a tunnel where everything is moving in slow motion. I see him hang up and turn back to me. “Elle, we need to go. Elle? Elle!” I feel him shake me and I look at him and slowly come out of the trance I’m in.“It’s him,” I say slowly.
“Yeah, O’Neal’s contacts say he’s here.”
“I know,” and I lift my arm to point. He doesn’t see us and he’s barely recognizable looking clean cut, but I’d know him anywhere. He’s flirting with a girl around my age. Flipping her hair off her shoulder and leaning to whisper in her ear and she smiles.
Benelli flips open his phone and dials him back. We spotted him. He’s on Bourbon Street in front of…” I don’t hear the rest. I just start walking that way. I’m dazed and confused, but my mind is telling me to save that girl. I’m stopped by Benelli grabbing me and pulling me back, “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“I need to save her,” and I try to pull away.
“He has men in the area. They’ll be here any minute.”
“There’s no time, I have to save her.”
“Elle, stop!” he grabs me by both my arms and stares into my eyes, “you are not the one to do it, think of the baby.”
I look down and place protective hands on my stomach. My baby, yes, I must protect the baby. I look up though, and see them start walking away, “Benelli!”
“Okay, go in here and stay where it’s well lit. Call an Uber or whatever, but go straight to the condo and lock the doors, do you hear me?”
“Yeah,” I nod, “Okay. Benelli, be careful.”
I head inside the building and request an Uber from the app as I lose Benelli from my sight. I get back to the condo and do as I am told, locking the doors, and I check the windows too. I go upstairs and crouch down beside the bed on the floor, grasping my phone. I remember the gun that’s in the nightstand and grab it. Time is ticking so slowly. An hour goes by and there is no Benelli. Just me, my knees tucked up, griping the gun tightly in front of me.
My phone suddenly lights up, Benelli. I lay down the gun to hit answer, “Where are you? Are you okay?”
“I’m okay, Babe. Are you in the condo? I’m coming in the front door now,” he says and the tension in my body eases.
“I’m here, I’m in the bedroom,” I say, still a little nervous to move.
“Okay, I’m coming up,” and he ends the call.
The doorknob slowly turns and swings open gently. As soon as I see his face, I jump from my huddled position and run to him, throwing myself in his arms. “I was so scared.”
“I know baby, it’s okay. He’s been caught,” he tells me and the fear that I’ve lived with, the one that has been having control over me is gone and my body sways. Benelli catches me in his arms and steadies me. He’s always been my rock.
He leads me to the side of the bed so I can sit. I rest my elbows on my knees and cup my face with my hands, “It’s over,” I take a lung filling breath and release, “It’s really, finally over?” I say turning my head to look at him.
He cups my cheek, “It’s finally over. O’Neal is having Calibar turned over to him. Don’t panic at what I have to tell you…”
“What?” my guard rising again.
“The plan is to take him to us. We will deal his punishment after O’Neal questions him. He will say he escaped or come up with a reason he’s dead but he’s ours to do with what we want after,” he says in a calm but scary tone.
“He’s mine. After you are all done with him, he’s mine,” I say with rage, pacing the room, clenching, and unclenching my fists, a power surge coursing through me.
“Babe.”
“Don’t you dare babe me, he took parts of me and the only way I will ever get them back is to hurt him like he hurt me,” I stop and stand so close to Benelli’s face and stare into his eyes, “I’m taking what I lost away from him, he…is…mine!”
Benelli, just as serious as me, nods in agreement. “You take his final breath from him, you have my word, Xena,” and at that I grip his hair hard and pull him to my mouth, I kiss him so fiercely that something changes between us. A powerful force, him, and I, united. We are a force to be reckoned with, like a tsunami of emotions and need filling us both. We go hard and strong, in a way we’ve never done before. I take the force that he’s giving me and revel in it. I give it back in return. He pulls my hair and I moan with ecstasy. I bite his lip and sink my nails into his back, it’s carnal the way we are, like wolves under the moon. He takes me off of him, flipping me over and bending me over and though I haven’t let him do it before, due to the buried vulnerability I’d felt in the past, but I feed off of it now. I take each forceful thrust and lean back into it. Wanting the power, he’s filling me with. My alter ego, Xena, is all in and that’s who I am right now, no longer the resignation that I didn’t know that was buried deep within, I am a warrior, a goddess and a quee
n and I come with the satisfaction of it and he follows right behind, a guttural roar as he does and then lays his forehead against my spine.
Once we have caught our breath, we shower and pack leaving New Orleans behind. The city that gave me back my life, gave me back my power and I am eternally grateful.
We drive through the night and arrive home the next day. O’Neal is already there, and they have Calibar shackled, but he doesn’t know the location and hasn’t seen anyone but O’Neal. He’s arrogant, seeing his captor as nothing but a traitor to his club.
We go straight to where they have him, not even stopping to talk to family or the club. Benelli has gave everyone orders for it to be just us three. O’Neal meets us at the door and ushers us to the other room, “I haven’t got anything useful out of him, he’s not talking.”
“I’ll change his tune,” I say and walk in with Benelli following. Calibar’s eyes bulge when he sees the two of us. “Didn’t think you’d see me again, did you?” I look down at the table of devices and delicately brush my hand across each and look up at him, “What shall it be, hmmm?” He spits in my direction but he’s too far to reach, I click my tongue in a “tsk, tsk, tsk,” and Benelli punches him, his body starting to swing.
"I understand you aren't being very helpful there, Cal. Now, what should we do to change that?" I say, my fingers touching my chin, pondering, walking over to a table, carefully examining each and every item for pain imaginable. My hand stops on a nail gun, "Oh, this looks like fun." There is a small amount of worry now on his face but he remains silent. Standing directly in front of him, I take aim and grip the trigger. A round of nails embedding into various parts of his body, nothing deadly, just enough to get his attention.
His breath hitches as each one hits his body. "We're needing some info there, Cal. Are you ready to talk?"
"Fuck you, cunt. Oh wait, I did," is his reply.
"Owww, that hurts," I say sarcastically. There was a slight punch to my gut at his words but there is no way I'm letting him know that. "You know, that might have hurt me 6 months ago, but I'm a new woman. It seems you have forgotten who's in power today. Let me introduce myself, I'm Xena, wife of the president of the Unfortunate Souls." His eyes bulge in the new knowledge.
The three of us step out of the room to talk. “O’Neal, don’t you guys have some sort of truth serum or something, or is that just in the movies?”
“I’m afraid your out of luck. The only truth serum we have around here is getting him drunk and hoping his tongue loosens up,” he says. “Something that loosens his inhibitions or puts him in a state between wake and sleep.”
“What about alcohol and a sleeping pill? People get chatty when they’re drunk, right? Benelli, you’ve seen me on Ambien and awake doing things. What if we combine the two and keep him awake? If it doesn’t work, we aren’t any worse off than we are now,” I say.
“I say we bring in Remington and the others and get this over with,” Benelli states.
“Babe, let’s try this. If it doesn’t work, we will just end him,” I plead.
“Fine, you go get the stuff, we will stay here with him,” he says.
I leave and head to our room at the clubhouse, grab the bottle of sleeping pills and head towards the bar. Going behind the counter, I grab the strongest bottle I can find. Remington grabs my arm as I’m about to leave. “I want in on this,” he says.
“It’s my fight, Rem, doing it my way,” I reply. “I can think of 100 ways to do this gruesome, and who knows, I may end him that way, but that won’t get us the info to save the other girls.”
“Alright, but at least let me watch,” he says and I agree to it. We walk back to the place that we have him held. He’s slightly worse off than when I last saw him but he’s still conscious.
“Let the party begin boys, I’m here,” Remington states loudly and Calibar is noticeably freaking out.
I am in on him using fear to try and get him to talk and we have a plan. “No, we are going to do this my way, or I’m gone,” I say, winking at Benelli where Calibar can’t see.
“Get him down and chain him to the table and chair in the other room, him and I are going to have a private chat,” I demand.
The men do as I say, and he is secured in a chair and I walk in, shutting the door. I set down two solo cups and the bottle, “You want a drink?”
He nods and looks at me quizzically. I pour the drinks and slide him one of the cups, he shoots it down. I get a bottle out of my pocket and pretend to take one of the pills, “anxiety,” I shrug and slightly laugh.
“Well, I could use one of those,” he states, and I push one across the table and refill his cup.
“You know, I’m the only chance you have of getting out of here alive,” I say.
“Like that’s going to happen. I’m a dead man, you and I both know it,” he says.
I talk to him slowly, carefully, calmly, all while making sure he’s taking shot after shot of the alcohol. I think that I’m starting to gain his trust. I excuse myself, telling him that I’m tired of all the death and ensuring that if he talks, he walks.
“I’m going to give him a bit for the alcohol and pill to take effect,” I say, and we stand and watch him for about 15 minutes. He’s starting to get groggy, so I go back in.
He’s slurring his words and he is definitely in that state between wake and sleep where your guard is down. I use a seductive voice when I question him, and the answers start flowing out of him like a fountain. “You’re the leader now that Chains is gone. I bet you know where all the other girls are, right? You’re so much smarter than he was, I bet you know where all the records are?” I ask.
“I do. That old fool, he tried to keep that all between him and Frodo. Did you know he was Frodo’s dad? Your men did me a favor. Frodo was next in line to take over after Chains, but I was the smart one. I should have been next to take over. Your club made it easy after killing them two. I came in and took over and took charge. I had respect.”
“You should have been in charge all along. I bet Chains kept horrible records,” I say.
“That fool had them all on paper. Files all over the place. I put them on a flash drive. I’ve got them all. Well, except for the missing files. I heard the news where they found them. That’s why they were stupid. It’s harder to hide a bunch of paper folders. That’s where I’m smart.”
“Yeah, I bet you even hid the flash drive in a safe place. I bet it’s in a place no one would ever think to check,” I say, seeming to be enamored and impressed. “You can tell me,” I lean over the table and whisper.
He looks left and right and leans over the table too, he can’t reach me but honestly, he’s so loopy now, he couldn’t hurt me if he wanted to, “it’s in the collar of my coat.”
I don’t know if the guys were able to hear that, so I repeat but louder, “The flash drive is in the collar of your coat! That is so smart! You just lay your head down and rest sweetie, I’ll be right back.” He does as he’s told and I rush to the other room.
O’Neal goes and grabs the sack of items they took from Calibar, brings it back to us and his coat is in there. He takes a knife and carefully cuts the collar and finds the flash drive. Benelli leads us to another room full of computers and other electronics. The files immediately start uploading and O’Neal stops on the file that includes his sister Liberty. He now knows who she was sold to and where she is located and puts the info into his phone. He takes out the drive and palms it in his fist. “I know you’re not going to let me take him in,” he says.
“You’re right about that, go find your sister. The less you know about the rest, the better,” Benelli states. “Remember, once this is all over, you’re welcome to join the club, no probation,” he tells him with a hand placed on O’Neal’s shoulder. He nods and puts his other hand on Benelli’s and gives him a look of appreciation for not just the offer but that he finally found his sister, with the club’s help. Remington, Benelli and I went back into the room where Calibar
was passed out. Remington handed me a knife and lifted the head of the man who caused me so much pain. I looked at Benelli and then back down at the man, “this is for all of the girls whose lives you ruined, and this is for me,” I say as I sliced the throat of my rapist.
I don’t know what the club had ultimately done with Calibar’s body, didn’t ask. I washed the blood off me and I took the hand of my husband, we left to pick up Brenna. Is it fucked up what I did? Pretending to be into the man that raped me just for information, then ending his life. Yeah, but sometimes vengeance is soothing to the soul. We got to Ruger’s, where mom and our little girl was, mom just looked into my eyes and I simply said, “It’s over,” and she knew what that meant and nodded approval.
The next morning, we got a call saying that the adoption was approved. She was officially going to be ours.
When the day finally arrived for us to go before the judge, we were ecstatic. The room was filled with friends and family that have grown to love Brenna and became a part of her life. When he made the announcement that she was officially adopted and now Brenna Neroni everyone yelled and cheered. The judge overlooked the raucous, happy to see how much better he knew her life would be. He’d had her parents in front of him on way too many occasions.
We left the courthouse and went back to the club for a celebration where she was the star. Now she can officially say we are her mommy and daddy, and my cup runneth over.
Elle
8 months later
We are at the hospital and I’ve been induced. Turns out this little man wants to bake longer and I am more than ready to hold him in my arms. Benelli is a nervous wreck now that the contractions have started and getting stronger. As soon as I’m at a 4 they are going to give me an epidural. Hell to the yeah, I may be a strong woman but I am going to take all the comfort I can.
Benelli's Elle: Unfortunate Souls MC Book One Page 23
