Benson Siblings Series: A Dark Romance Boxset

by Sarah Bailey

  “Watch what you fucking say about her.”

  He smirked and it irked me. I wouldn’t allow him to insult her any further.

  “Touchy, are we? Yes, well I can see you’re very overprotective of that girl, not that she deserves it. Always too stubborn and headstrong, unlike her sister who lives to please everyone.”

  I stood up abruptly, not wanting to hear him talk shit about his daughters any longer.

  “If there’s nothing else,” I ground out.

  “Careful, Brent, anyone might think you want to hit me. Don’t you know that’s not allowed in here? The guards aren’t just here to protect you from me.”

  I rolled my eyes, absolutely done with his bullshit now I’d gotten the information I needed from him.

  “I don’t need protecting. You think you have reach far beyond these walls, but all you’ve got is ashes and dust. I might have given you a photograph of Logan, but that’s all you’ll ever have. Your grandson will never have to see your face and he’ll be better off for it. Everyone is better off without you in their lives. I’m sure one day you’ll realise just how alone you really are in this world and it’s all your own doing. You’re never going walk out into the world as a free man and quite frankly, that is me and your family having the last laugh. Goodbye Zach.”

  I turned and walked away, not caring what he thought about what I’d said. He could damn well live with it. He wasn’t worth my time any longer. He might have helped me save his family, but that didn’t redeem him in the slightest. The reasons he had were purely selfish. He just wanted his oldest friend to burn.

  When I was done getting all the information I needed out of Marcus, I was never setting foot inside the four walls of a prison visitation room again.

  Chapter Twenty Five

  Jennifer

  Everyone was here. And instead of being brave, I was hiding in my room with Brent. This wasn’t like me at all. Normally I took life by the balls and dived headlong into everything. Telling my family I was pregnant and engaged? Yeah, apparently that had me in knots.

  “I don’t know if I want to tell them about the baby.”

  “Jen, you agreed we needed to get everything out in the open.”

  He rubbed my arm. I couldn’t look at him. I loved this man, but honestly, right then, I was feeling out of sorts. Today had brought on the worst case of nausea I’d ever had in my life. If this was a sign of things to come, I wouldn’t be too keen on this being pregnant business. My hand went to my stomach instinctively. A life was growing inside me. I still hadn’t quite wrapped my head around it all.

  “James and Ellie don’t even know we’re together and now they’re about to find out we’re not only engaged, we’re also having a baby.”

  “And? Do you think your brother won’t be happy for us?”

  I shook my head. James probably would say he called it. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he placed bets with Ellie about it.

  “Then what is it?”

  I reached out, entwining our fingers together. My beautiful engagement ring twinkled in the light. What the hell was I so worried about? Perhaps the fact that both my brother and sister were in relationships which hadn’t moved this fast. Then again, this was me and Brent. We shared history. My mind was in overdrive and I couldn’t stop the freefall.

  “I’m scared,” I whispered.

  He squeezed my hand and dropped a kiss on my forehead.

  “I’ll be right here with you.”

  “You know I don’t want to get married yet, right?”

  I’d told him when I’d got home earlier. Whilst I did want us to be a family when the baby came, it didn’t feel right to rush. It’s not even like I wanted some kind of big grand affair either. I’d never been one to dream of princess dresses, flowers and being the centre of attention. For me, the perfect wedding would be simple with us surrounded by our families.

  “Yes, and I said it’s fine. Honesty, I’m just happy we’re together. Now, are you going to continue procrastinating and being a scaredy cat or are you going to be the Jen I know and love who never backs down from a fight?”

  I looked up at him then. His smile set my world alight.

  “I am not a scaredy cat.”

  “Then stop acting like one.”

  “Ugh, you really are the most annoying man in the entire universe.”

  “That’s a slight exaggeration, but I’ll take it.”

  I shoved his chest with my free hand. He didn’t know I actually found him winding me up hot and endearing all at the same time. Yeah, Brent and I were never going to be lovey dovey cutesy with each other, but it didn’t matter. We were fire and passion. We’d also become friends in the process. He was my confidant outside of Fi and Jensen. He knew my fears and secrets. I’d been vulnerable with him and he never mocked me for any of it. He loved me for exactly who I was.

  “Come on then, before I change my mind.”

  He rolled his eyes but followed me out of my room. I’d already told him there was no way I was moving down to the basement flat until I’d had it redecorated. He just had to put up with staying with me in the meantime. I don’t think he was too put out by it in all honesty. What man would be when they had sex on tap and got to sleep next to the woman they loved? And Brent most definitely had sex on tap with me. We couldn’t get enough of each other.

  I kept a tight hold of his hand as we went into the living room. Everyone’s heads turned at the sound of our approach. As soon as James noticed we were holding hands, he turned to Ellie and put out his hand.

  “I called it. You so owe me.”

  Before she had a chance to reply, I practically dragged Brent along behind me in my effort to get to my brother before cuffing him around the back of the head. He rubbed the back of it and scowled up at me.

  “Hey!”

  “That’s for placing bets on my love life. And this…” I twisted his ear. “…is for dragging your girlfriend into your idiotic games.”

  “Jen, that fucking hurts.”

  I let go of him and grinned.

  “Tough shit.”

  I caught Brent rolling his eyes out of the corner of my eye. My little brother was a certified pain in the arse and I wouldn’t let him get away with anything. I could see him pouting, but I didn’t care. James deserved it.

  “Can we actually order now?” Dante grunted.

  “No one was stopping you before.”

  “I beg to differ. We all know how picky you are about where we get pizza from.”

  I put a hand on my hip.

  “And? You all appreciate it so don’t be giving me shit.”

  He rolled his eyes as Brent led me over to the free spaces on one of the sofas. We sat down and everyone started talking at once about what they wanted. Ten minutes later, the pizzas were duly ordered, the TV was on and there were multiple conversations going on at once. I looked at Brent who shrugged. Guess it was now or never.

  “Okay, you can all shut up for a minute.”

  All heads turned to me and conversation halted. Now everyone was staring at me, I felt uncomfortable, but fuck it. Better to just get it out there in the open.

  “You know I’m not one to mince words…”

  James scoffed and I scowled at him before he quietened down. Brent squeezed my hand, giving me his reassurance.

  “Brent and I are engaged and we’re having a baby.”

  The room got so silent, I swear you could hear a pin drop. The first person to make a noise was Fi, who literally screeched and jumped up from the sofa, practically barrelling into me. She knew I was pregnant, but I hadn’t yet told her about the engagement.

  “Let me see. Let me see it,” she practically begged me as she pulled away and searched my hands.

  I showed her the ring and she cooed over it, telling me it was beautiful and so me. She gave Brent a hug too.

  “I know you’ll take care of my sister,” she whispered, making him grunt at
her in acknowledgement.

  “Well, I guess we’re going to have another screaming infant in the house,” Dante muttered.

  “Excuse me, did you just call your son a screaming infant?” Liora retorted.

  His lips curved up and for once in his life, his eyes twinkled.

  “Of course not, my heart. I love our son even if he does like to scream the house down.”

  Liora scowled and stroked the top of Logan’s head. He was happily sleeping in her lap despite all the noise.

  “He only does that when he’s hungry.”

  “Or when he’s grumpy for no apparent reason.”

  “Yes, well, he seems to get that from his father.”

  He stared at his wife with an almost amused expression on his face which was so unlike him.

  “You’re just upset that he not only looks like me, he’s inherited my personality too.”

  “Shut up.”

  He leant closer to her and kissed the top of her head before stroking his son’s face.

  “We should give him to Jen for practice so you and I can…” He gave her a wink.

  Liora’s face went bright red and she bit her lip.

  “Dante!”

  “What?”

  “Not in front of your family.”

  He chuckled and I rolled my eyes. Here he was talking pawning his baby off on to me so he could fuck his wife in front of everyone and he’d told me off for having sex with Brent on the conservatory table. We had cleaned it at his request, but if he couldn’t look at it the same way again, it served him right.

  “Yeah, Dante, not in front of everyone,” I said with a grin.

  He gave me a dark look which told me he was still unhappy about what he’d seen. I stuck my tongue out at him.

  “I take it this was not a planned pregnancy,” Liora said, directing our attention away from Dante’s hints about the two of them.

  “No, I’m still getting used to it all, but it is what it is.”

  She gave me a tentative smile and I knew Jensen was right. I needed to sit down with her about it because the whole thing was still a mess inside my head. Speaking of Jensen, he had a raised eyebrow, as if to ask me if I was okay. I shrugged. What could I say? I wanted to marry Brent, which is why I’d said yes, but not yet. I wasn’t ready.

  “Talk about moving along at warp speed,” James said. “Are you two going to drop any more bombshells on us? Like oh, I don’t know, you’re having twins and you’re getting married next week?”

  “Ha-fucking-ha. Not likely.”

  With twins running in our family, it was a possibility, but right now, I didn’t even want to consider it. I mean how fucking ironic would that be? A twin having twins. I could see Fi raising her eyebrow as if she was thinking the exact same thing. Hell to the no. If anyone was going to have a set of twins, it should be her. She’d cope better than me and she had Jensen who was adorable with kids. Honestly, I’d been at theirs when they had his niece and nephew around and the way he doted on them had me and Fi getting all stupidly giddy over it. And I didn’t get giddy over anything. Besides, I knew the man beside me would make an amazing father too. The way he cared for his own nieces and nephews warmed my heart. Not that I’d ever tell him that.

  Thankfully James didn’t make any further annoying comments. In fact, we were duly congratulated and hugged by all before the pizza arrived and then that was all anyone had any time for. I soon found myself sequestered in the corner of the room with Jensen staring down at me with concern.

  “Are you sure about all of this?”

  I fiddled with my engagement ring.

  “Marrying Brent is what I want, but just not now. I told him that and he’s okay with it.”

  “It’s a big commitment to make.”

  “We’re going to have a baby, that kind of already ties us together for life.”

  “I want you to be sure, Jen. It’s a lot to take in at once and after what we spoke about in our last session, I’m concerned about you making rash decisions.”

  I sighed. We’d had another session on Wednesday and had a further discussion about forgiveness. Whilst I had forgiven Brent and myself for everything which happened between us, there was still the issue I had with my dad.

  “I don’t want to tell Brent about this.”

  “About what?”

  “I want to go see my dad and I want you to come with me.”

  He raised an eyebrow. Brent hadn’t told me much about his conversations with my dad when he visited the prison, but it made me realise I couldn’t live in fear any longer. I needed to be strong and I needed to do this for my own sake.

  “What do you think seeing him will achieve?”

  “We talked about forgiveness. I don’t think I’ll ever truly be able to forgive myself if I don’t tell him all the things I’ve been keeping locked up in here.” I pressed a hand to my chest. “All the things we’ve talked about. I know it’s stupid, but he needs to know how much he hurt me. He needs to understand the consequences of his actions even if he’ll never feel remorse for them. I need this. For me. So I can move on.”

  He let out a long breath.

  “I can understand that. If you feel it’s best, then you should go. And of course, I’ll come with you if you need me there, but you also need to tell Brent about it. You told me you can talk to him about anything, so why not this?”

  I looked over at Brent who was sitting with Dante and they seemed to be deep in conversation. Likely about me and the baby.

  “He won’t be happy about it.”

  “Is that a reason to keep it from him?”

  “No, but I can’t, Jensen. This isn’t about him. It’s about me.”

  “Jen..”

  “Look, I get it, but it’s my choice. I need to see my dad and you can’t make me tell Brent.”

  He was silent for a long moment.

  “Are you going to tell Fi?”

  I nodded. Fi would understand. More than anyone else. I could understand now why James had gone to talk to him. He seemed so much lighter afterwards. I needed it too. To end things once and for all so I could move on.

  “She might even come with me.”

  “I think she will, and it might be good for the both of you.”

  I gave him a smile. Jensen understood far more than anyone else about how much this meant to me. He had my back and there was no doubt in my mind, this was the right way forward. I’d just have to contend with telling Brent after the fact. And that was the part I was dreading more than actually seeing my dad.

  ***

  Things had been quiet in the office. Too quiet. It felt like the calm before the storm and I had no idea why I had such a bad feeling. Perhaps it had everything to do with the fact that Max hadn’t contacted me since we’d had dinner together and that was three weeks ago. So yeah, I was on edge, wondering what the hell he’d do next. He hadn’t pulled the funding from Bensons or anything. If anything, that side of things was operating smoothly. However, it was being managed by his company and not Max directly now we’d signed all the contracts.

  Brent was visiting one of Dad’s friends in prison today, which made me nervous, but he said it was necessary to make sure we had a handle on the Max situation. Apparently, Marcus was responsible for telling Max about the blood debt. I hoped Brent was right and he’d be able to get us out of this mess after he spoke to Marcus.

  I rubbed my temples, feeling a little nauseated. This being pregnant business was already pissing me off. It didn’t help that every time I saw Brent, I wanted to jump his bones. Not that he was complaining about my increased sex drive. No, he was reaping all the rewards, but I still had to suffer the morning sickness which sucked balls.

  Thinking about Brent gave me a tingling sensation in my nether regions and I groaned. No way in hell I was going to be able to deal with that with me being at work and him at the prison.

  “For fuck’s sake,” I muttered.


  Pulling out my phone, I decided I couldn’t wait until I got home so I send Brent a text which I hoped he’d get after he was done with Marcus.

  ME: I need you. I’m horny as fuck. Can’t think straight. Please come save me from myself when you’re done at the prison!

  I wondered if he’d be smiling when he got it. Smug bastard probably would be grinning from ear to ear and rushing over to see me. Lucky I had a lock on my office door and blinds. I shifted in my seat, imagining him under my desk pleasuring me in the way only he knew how. And no doubt, Brent loved going down on me. He told me I tasted like magic and he’d never get enough. I couldn’t complain since his addiction to me was most definitely to my benefit.

  My office door opened and in walked in the person I didn’t want to see again.

  “Hello Jennifer.”

  I sat up straighter, all thoughts of Brent’s tongue between my legs flying out of my head.

  “What are you doing here, Max?”

  He came further into the room, not shutting the door behind him.

  “Did you miss me?”

  “No.”

  His ice blue eyes flashed as he cocked his head to the side and dug his hands into his chino pockets.

  “Did you think I’d forgotten about our little deal?”

  “You think I’m stupid or something?”

  A smug grin graced his lips. God I really wanted to punch that smile right off his face.

  “Why, no. I’ve merely been busy and had no need to make any appearances with you by my side.”

  My skin crawled at the thought of being anywhere near him again. We really needed to end this shit with him. Especially when I was pregnant and would no doubt be showing in a couple of months.

  “And what, now you do? You could’ve called.”

  “Then I wouldn’t get to see your face.”

  I rolled my eyes, sickness coiling in my stomach.

  “What do you want?”

  He walked around my desk and leant against it. I rolled my chair back to put some space between us.

  “What I’ve always wanted, Jennifer. You.”