I looked over at him, seeing that he was slouched in the chair with his eyes closed.
“Um, Bennett?” I started, my voice shaking. He opened his eyes and frowned at me but didn’t say anything. “I…um, well…I had this dream and—”
“Yeah, I’m trying to have my own dream,” he mumbled and closed his eyes.
“But it’s important,” I said. When he didn’t open his eyes again, I took a deep breath and released it, saying the only thing I knew would get his attention. “Stephanie wanted you to know something.”
His eyes snapped open, glaring at me as he sat up. “What’d you say?” he asked.
I swallowed hard, the words sticking to my throat as his eyes nearly burned a hole through me. “I…I’ve been having nightmares about Stephanie,” I forced myself to say.
“Yeah, join the fucking club,” he muttered.
“I…had a nightmare about her murder,” I said quietly.
Something dangerous passed through Bennett’s gaze as he slowly stood.
“You don’t know anything about her murder,” he said, his voice dark and low as he stalked toward me. “Is that what you and Carrie were talking about that got her all upset? Did she tell you about Stephanie?”
“No,” I said, growing nervous as Bennett got closer. “She…she was upset because I told her about my nightmare, and it scared her because it was exactly what happened.”
“No one was there to know exactly what happened,” he snapped.
“Carrie was. She was in the closet, and she left before you entered the house,” I said in one breath. He stopped moving, only staring at me. “She told me she wanted you to know what happened.”
“She who?”
I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. The look in his eyes was dangerous, as if the tiniest thing would set him off. I predicted he’d get upset, but his expression was enough to give me pause.
“She who?” he repeated, his voice tight with impatience. “Carrie?”
“Stephanie,” I said quietly.
He cocked his head and stared at me for a long moment before he chuckled. He shook his finger at me. “That’s a good one. You’re fucking with me right now, right? There’s no way you can be fucking serious right now.”
“You…you found her in your bedroom…shot in the stomach and torso…and in the head,” I forced myself to say.
He stopped chuckling, stopped moving, and narrowed his eyes at me. Now I’d gotten his attention.
He rolled his shoulders, his posture intimidating. “You shouldn’t talk about something you don’t know about,” he whispered, his hands clenching into fists.
Tears burned my eyes. “You begged her to wake up as you picked her up and placed her on the floor, but she was already gone,” I continued.
Bennett crossed the room faster than I could blink and grabbed me by the throat, pressing me against the headboard.
“Shut. Up,” he gritted out, his eyes glistening.
“You’d called her only moments before and told her you loved her,” I gasped as his grip tightened. “And she told you to hurry home.”
Fury blazed in his eyes, but so did something else. Recognition. Sadness. Grief. His lips trembled in anger, a couple of tears sliding down his cheek.
“How do you fucking know that?” he ground out.
I scratched at his hands to get him to loosen his grip. “She told me,” I squeaked out.
“Don’t you say another word about her,” he ground out, another tear slipping down his cheek. “Do you understand?” He loosened his grip just enough for me to speak. “DO YOU UNDERSTAND?” He shook with rage, hot angry tears springing to his eyes.
“Yes,” I whispered.
He roughly pushed me away from him and quickly wiped his face. After glaring at me for a brief moment, he stormed out of the room, slamming and locking the door behind him.
I sat up and wiped the tears from my own eyes, rubbing at my neck. It was one thing to see him angry—I was used to that at this point—but the kind of anger he displayed just then wasn’t something I’d ever seen from him. It was the kind of anger you had when you were hurt but didn’t want to show that you were vulnerable.
While he tried to keep anger at the forefront, his eyes told me everything. His tears told me what he wouldn’t speak, further confirming that I wasn’t crazy. I didn’t know what this would mean in the future when he was no longer angry, but I was pretty sure I’d just opened Pandora’s box.
Stephanie, what in the hell are you getting me into, I mused, looking at the faint scar on my hand.
Bennett wouldn’t listen to anything I had to tell him if he was stuck in his own head about her. My only hope was Carrie, praying that she came through with some kind of information that gave me clarity in my situation.
BENNETT
There was no fucking way she could’ve known that.
I paced back and forth in the spare bedroom, fuming. My mind wanted to rationalize what she’d said, telling myself that maybe Carrie might’ve told her something that I’d told her from that night, but there were things that I didn’t tell Carrie that Aurora knew.
I never told Carrie about the phone call I’d made when I was on my way home. I never told Carrie anything I actually said to Stephanie. Hearing those words come out of Aurora’s mouth sent memories of that night rocketing through my mind, taking me back to that very moment.
Counting the bullet holes she had.
The heavy scent of her blood in the room.
Her blank, beautiful blue eyes staring at nothing.
“I love you, too, Bennett. Hurry up and get home already.” That was one of the last things she said to me. It was so routine between us that I didn’t even notice the slight panic in her voice. There was no other way Aurora could’ve known that.
Had Stephanie really come to her in a dream?
Gripping my hair tight, I pulled until the pain grounded me again. I shouldn’t have allowed Aurora to take me to that vulnerable place. My only weakness was on full display, and she probably ate it up at my expense.
She claimed that was what her nightmare was, but why would she have dreams about someone she never met? She insisted it was Stephanie who wanted me to know what happened as if I didn’t see the aftermath. As if I wasn’t the one who had to clean up her blood. As if I wasn’t the one who found her body.
“She has to be fucking with me,” I muttered. “I’m losing my fucking mind.”
I looked at myself in the mirror, noticing a few stray tears rolling down my cheek. Fucking pull it together, Bennett. I scolded myself. Now wasn’t a time to relive the past. Stephanie was dead; there was nothing I could do about that.
My body vibrated with rage, wanting to unleash on something, anything, but there was nothing around me but my own reflection.
With each breath I took, my anger grew. Angry at all I’d lost, the chaos that was now my life, and everything I’d have to lose in order to win. Angry that I’d turned a blind eye to my father’s bullshit for so long. The world he’d built on the back of his lies and betrayal was on shaky ground, the foundation crumbling beneath us all. I would get the answers I sought, and everyone responsible for my pain and suffering would pay with their lives, including my father.
A solid knock on the door broke my moment. I quickly dried my face, transitioning back into my neutral state. Aurora may have caught me off guard once, but I wouldn’t let her do it again.
“What?” I called out.
The door opened, and KC stuck his head in. “Hey, you got a minute?” he asked.
I waved for him to come in and he did, closing the door behind him.
“Is this about Kyler?” I asked, leaning against the dresser with my arms folded across my chest.
KC ran his hands through his dreads before shaking his head. “No, though I do have information on him that you may want to call a meeting for. But right now, this is actually about something Carrie requested of me.”
“Carrie?” I cocke
d my head to the side. “What did she want?”
“She asked me to look into Aurora’s contract and to look into where Stephanie came from,” he replied.
I rolled my eyes. I didn’t know what the fuck those two were up to, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with either of their bullshit.
“Did she say why?” I asked with a sigh.
He shook his head. “She just said she had a hunch about something and asked if I could find something. She did say something about your father unrightfully taking Aurora though.”
“Aurora’s father signed her over to save his own ass. I told her that, and he admitted to it before I killed him. Why would my father go out of his way to get her if she wasn’t owed to him?”
KC sighed with a shrug. “At this point, man, there’s nothing your father isn’t capable of. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s lied or stolen something that didn’t belong to him,” he replied.
He definitely wasn’t wrong about that.
“Oh, and another thing,” he continued. “Carrie also thinks that uh…Aurora and Stephanie are related somehow. Sisters or something.”
I scoffed. “Next time I call the doctor, remind me to ask him if he gave Aurora something other pain medicine,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “I’m starting to think he gave her some kind of psychedelic drugs instead. She’s been saying a lot of off-the-wall shit lately.”
“I’m just telling you what she brought to my attention,” KC said. “I mean it wouldn’t hurt to look into, would it?”
“The only thing I want you looking into right now is figuring out who the fuck Kyler is and what the fuck he’s up to,” I snapped.
We didn’t have time to follow wild goose chases based on some insane ass dreams Aurora had. I didn’t know if it was a way for her brain to process the trauma that she’d gone through since being here, but she’d better snap out of it pretty fucking quick.
“You got it,” KC said. “I just wanted to bring that to your attention because I didn’t know if that was something the two of you agreed on, or if it was something she’d wanted to do on her own.”
“I don’t know what Aurora said to her to make her want to dig into something else, but don’t worry about that right now. We have other—more important—matters to deal with. Carrie can find someone else to do that for her if it’s really that important,” I mumbled. “Tell Bruce, Saint, and Nyxin to get up here and bring me whatever you found on Kyler.”
“I’ll be right back then,” he said and walked back out of the room.
I rubbed my temples, my anger setting me up for a headache from hell.
“Can this night get any worse?” I mumbled to myself.
I paced the room, trying to keep my mind busy, but all I could think about was my conversation with Aurora and fucking memories of Stephanie. I almost breathed a sigh of relief when the guys filed into the room, Saint and Nyxin sitting on the bed, Bruce remaining by the door, and KC sitting on the bench at the foot of the bed.
“What’s the meeting for?” Nyxin asked, tossing a handful of peanuts into his mouth.
“I found something on Kyler that I thought you guys might want to know about,” he said and opened his computer. “I didn’t print it only because I don’t know where he is, and I didn’t need anyone else to intercept it before I had a chance to tell Bennett.”
“So, what is it?” I asked.
He turned his computer around, revealing a murder-for-hire contract.
A murder-for-hire contract for me.
Bounty Name: Bennett Jeremiah Moreno
Bounty Amount: $24,000,000
Reason For Bounty: Disloyal; Threat to the organization
Bounty Hunter: Kyler Thomas
“That doesn’t make sense though,” I said, more so to myself. “Now I’m starting to wonder if he put Kyler here specifically for that reason.”
“I wouldn’t put it past the fucker,” Saint growled. “I say we blow his fucking head off before he has a chance to execute this contract.”
“I wonder why he didn’t kill me when we were at the safehouse if that’s the case,” I mused.
Bruce scoffed. “We were all watching him like a hawk after he threw his little tantrum. There was no way he was going to get around us to even think about doing anything out of line.”
“So, what’s going to happen now? Cause the snake is still roaming around on the property, and quite frankly, I don’t feel too comfortable with that,” Nyxin added, the other men murmuring in agreement.
“For now, we’ll carry on as if it’s business as usual. KC, I want you to send that to me on a secured server, and I’ll print it in my office. No one can get in there anyway. I’ll show the rest of the security under the guise of a meeting about the war, and then I’ll deal with him shortly after.”
“I hope you make him fucking suffer,” Saint said and then looked to KC. “Does it say anything about him working with the Russians or something?”
I snapped my fingers. “That reminds me of something. Is there a way to look into his phone records?”
“Do you have a phone number?” he asked.
I scrolled through my contacts and read off Kyler’s number, getting a bit excited. My gut had been right. I knew there was something off about that fucker, and now I finally knew what he was up to. Unfortunately for him, I was always two steps ahead of my opponent. While he thought I was oblivious while he hid in plain sight in high grass, I was ready to behead him like the snake he was.
“Bingo,” KC said after a while. “He placed two different calls to Wilson before the meeting and called him twice when he left the safehouse to go meet Vinnie.”
“Yeah, cause that’s not fucking suspicious at all considering we were at war with that asshole,” Nyxin said, shaking a few more peanuts out of the package he held and popping them into his mouth. “Speaking of which, has there not been any updates on where Vinnie is and whether or not he’s alive?”
“Not yet, but that’s enough proof for me in regard to Kyler. I’m about to put an end to him to make a point to my father,” I said, just as my phone went off with a text message.
I looked at the message preview on my screen, my jaw tightening when I saw my father’s name. “Speak of the fucking devil.”
Boss: Looking for him?
A picture of Vinnie’s head popped up on my screen, my vision going red. I had no doubt in my mind that Kyler set him up, telling my father where he and Vinnie were meeting. I wouldn’t even be surprised if he’d told my father about the safe house, who in turn sent the Russians to us with guns blazing.
“What’d he say?” Bruce asked with a raised brow.
“Well, at least I now know what happened to Vinnie,” I said, holding my phone screen up.
“Fuck!” Saint exclaimed, jumping up to his feet.
“If there wasn’t a war before, there’s one now,” Nyxin growled. “He’s come after one of our own, and that fucker Kyler let him. I’ll put a bullet in him myself!”
A second text message came through, the room going silent again.
Boss: He was the example. Carrie’s next. Give me the girl and I may let her live.
“Fuck, he’s going after Carrie now,” I stated. I quickly found her contact and called her, my heart racing in my chest.
“Bennett?” she asked, her voice shaking.
“Are you okay? Where are you right now?” I asked.
Her breaths came out in quick pants, as if she was rushing around. “I’m at home, and someone’s outside my house. First it was just one guy in a car and now there are several of them outside.”
“How long have they been out there?” I asked.
“I-I went to talk with a guy about some information he said he had about my mother. Not soon after that meeting, a guy in a suit started following me.”
“What did the guy say?” I asked, waiting on bated breath.
“He said he knew the guy hired to kill my mother, that he wasn’t missing,” she rushed out, her breat
hs quickening. “There’s also something you should know about Aurora. She—ah!” Glass shattered on the other end of the phone. “No! Get the fuck off of me!”
“Carrie?” I called out, checking my phone to make sure the call didn’t disconnect. “Carrie!”
Muffled voices sounded as a struggle ensued. Carrie screamed, and in the next second, everything went quiet.
“Carrie!” I called out, but the call disconnected. I immediately called back, but I didn’t receive an answer. “Fuck!”
“What’s going on?” Bruce asked.
“We have to fucking go right now. I think something just happened to Carrie,” I rushed out.
“Shit, I’ll come with you,” he said.
I needed to get to Carrie. If something happened to her, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. She was the only other person I’d considered my family who always had my back, who always had my best interest at heart. Just the thought of her not being in my life made it hard to breath.
I looked at Saint and Nyxin. “Guard Aurora just in case that asshole shows up here. We’ll be back as soon as we can.”
He and Nyxin rushed out of the bedroom and down the hall to stand watch at Aurora’s room.
I kept trying to call Carrie back as Bruce and I ran down the stairs to get to the garage, her phone going straight to voicemail each time.
“Fuck!” I bellowed. Bruce grabbed a set of keys and pressed the button until the lights of an SUV lit up.
“I’ll drive. You just try to get her on the phone,” he said. With the stressed-out state I was in, I was in no position to object.
As we raced down the road, I kept my eyes peeled, constantly calling Carrie over and over. My mind raced with a million thoughts as to what I’d find when I got to Carrie’s, but the only thing I hoped I wouldn’t find was her body.
Please be okay, Carrie, I thought. Please fucking be okay.
The trip seemed longer than usual, my anger and anxiety building as the minutes ticked by. Once we got into town, we were almost stopped by every red light.
Rules of Bennett: The Complete Collection Page 21