Wanting to check the subject, I waved him off. “It’s fine. Well, I guess I’ll go tell the ladies we’re having a BBQ so that they can get things prepped and ready. Let’s celebrate a new beginning,” I said, forcing myself to smile.
Everyone cheered and parted ways, but Saint didn’t move. I sighed deeply, already knowing what we were about to talk about. He put Giselle down, who ran off to watch tv before turning his attention to me.
“How are you? Really?” he asked.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine. You look like shit,” he said and frowned.
“It doesn’t matter, man. I gave her the choice and she made her decision,” I said with a sigh, running a hand down my face. “I just wanted to see if she truly believed we could be something, you know? I wanted her to choose to be here because she saw my potential or saw that I was trying.” I shook my head. “She didn’t even wait a day or two after we dealt with Wilson. By the time I’d finished cleaning everything up, she told me she wanted to leave.”
“But she’s pregnant. Why even give her that choice?”
“It was something I needed to do for my own peace of mind,” I said. “And after everything she said, things are probably better this way. I’m fucked up in ways that can’t be fix or even changed. My father was the same way. At least if I’m not around them, my kid has a chance to have a somewhat normal life without all the bullshit that goes on in this kind of life.”
I walked toward the kitchen with Saint on my heels. “You know that’s bullshit, right?” he continued. “The man that I know wouldn’t just sit around and take this shit lying down. Did you even fight for her?”
“How could I fight when I’m the one who gave her the choice?” I snapped. “If I would’ve fought her, it would’ve looked like I was going back on my word of letting her choose.”
“Okay, so you’ve let her choose. So, are you going to go find her and bring her back home, or are you going to continue moping around? I’ve only been here less than an hour and I refuse to see you like this. You were like this when Stephanie died. I could understand when it was that kind of situation. Aurora isn’t dead, so stop mourning her like she is.”
“Saint, I’m—”
“Bennett, go get your damn wife and kid. Maybe you showing her that you truly want her will get her to see that you care about her more than you care to admit. You wouldn’t still be dragging your knuckles on the floor like a cave man if you didn’t truly care about her somewhere.”
“She’s pregnant,” I said, my voice flat.
“The baby was the icing on the cake. You married her long before you knew she was pregnant. What did you say to us when we asked you why you had to marry her for her to join the new family?”
I ground my teeth. “I said I wanted to plant the seeds of a new chapter, new beginnings,” I said.
“And why did you want to do that?”
“Because I wanted to see where things went with her.”
“Because?”
I sighed. “To see if what I felt was real and to see if we could make something out of what we had that would eventually be genuine.”
“If that’s not budding love, I don’t know what is,” Saint said, shaking his head. “Go get your wife, man. And if she doesn’t come back anyway, only then can you say you’ve truly tried.”
He clasped my good shoulder and gave me a small smile before walking off, leaving me with a decision to make. I didn’t even know where she was to begin with. I hadn’t re-activated her chip when we’d left the beach because I didn’t have time to. We’d come home to chaos and then I ended up in the hospital. It had never even occurred to me to activate it again, even as she packed her things and walked out of my life. The only way I could track her was to follow my gut. There were two places I could try and if she wasn’t there, I wouldn’t know where to look.
Rushing upstairs to my bedroom, I opened the top draw of my dresser and rummaged around until I got to the bottom of it, pulling out the plastic keycard. It was the penthouse keycard I’d gotten from the lobby clerk when I first went to get Aurora. Putting in my pocket, I grabbed my phone and called the small airport where my plane was kept.
“How can I help you, Mr. Moreno?” Paul asked upon answering.
“I need you to get my plane ready to leave immediately,” I said as I went around the room to pack an overnight bag.
“Destination?”
My heart pounded in my chest. This would either be the smartest or dumbest thing I’d ever done in my life, but I was all about taking chances. She was worth it. My kid was worth it. I was worth it.
“Greenville, South Carolina,” I finally said. I was going to get my woman and when I returned home, I hoped she’d be returning with me.
Chapter 15
AURORA
Everything looked exactly how it was left.
Other than the yellow tape to mark off the crime scene, everything was still the same. I looked to the white couch, the blood stain that I’d expected to be there no longer visible. Pictures of my old life were still on the walls, the sight of Heath’s face making me a little sad. It wasn’t the devastating sadness that I’d expected to feel upon coming back home. It was only sadness that he’d lost his life after my past caught up to me. Even as I looked at photos of us together, the love I thought I felt for him was just…flat.
The light from the ceiling caught on my ring, reminding me of Bennett and everything I left behind back there. I sighed. Some queen I was. I’d abandoned all of them, not just Bennett, and I’d felt nothing but an overwhelming sense of guilt inside of me. I didn’t know where I was going to go. A part of me wanted to move abroad and start a completely new life there, but something nagged at me, calling me back to California.
Bennett stayed true to his word. He let me leave and he hadn’t bothered me in the two months that I’d been gone. I was a bit relieved, but another part of me was angry. Angry that he’d let me go so easily. The day that I left, I was having second thoughts. I was sure had he asked me to reconsider, I probably would have. I didn’t know what was going to happen to me once I was on the other side of those gates without him, and that thought was a bit terrifying. He wouldn’t even talk to me before I left and when I waved to him, he only turned away from the window. But I saw him again as the car pulled down the driveway and I hadn’t been able to get that look of defeat and sadness he’d had on his face out of my mind ever since.
“Mrs…Moreno now, is it?” the police officer asked, breaking into my thoughts. I looked up to see him pacing the living room, his eyes trained on me.
“Yes,” I said with a sigh, putting down the picture of Heath and me. “You said you had more questions that I hadn’t already answered at the station.”
“Yes.” He clasped his hands behind his back. “I just don’t understand why you married the man that was reported as the man who supposedly kidnapped you.”
I could have told them everything. I could have given them information on every single member of that organization. But I knew those guys. I knew they had families. I knew they all risked their lives to protect me and everyone else in that house. My best friend was still there trying to get some kind of normal life and a happily ever after. I could only hope Saint made it through and was spending time with Giselle. And then there was Bennett. My husband. The father of my child. A man I couldn’t seem to stay away from even though I hated his guts and probably cared for him at the same time.
When I swore my life to La Fedeltà, I pledged my full loyalty to them. I wouldn’t ever turn my back on them. Leaving them was hard enough; I could never bring myself to betray them.
“He saved my life,” I finally said. “It was Wilson Moreno who kidnapped me. Bennett is his son.”
“So, you married your kidnapper’s son?”
“Are you deaf?” I asked with a raised brow. “Yes, for the millionth time. Bennett is the reason I’m here anyway. He gave me a choice to leave; he never kept me ca
ptive.”
“And this Wilson character was in the mafia, you say?”
“Yes,” I stated again, and went through the whole history of Wilson. Again.
When I finally finished, he nodded. “Do you know where we can find this Wilson?”
“If we could find him, you would no longer have a murder suspect; you’d have another homicide case,” I stated flatly. “Bennett and I have been looking for him for a few months now. The last time we saw him, a truce meeting between the two of them went wrong that ended up with me being shot in the arm and my husband shot in the shoulder. So, for Wilson’s sake, he better hope the police finds him before we do.”
Maybe I was doing a little too much, but the officer seemed to buy it for now. The police finding Wilson was the least of my worries. From what I’d heard, once they’d burned his body to ashes and ground any remaining bones to dust. I wasn’t sure what they did with the ashes and I didn’t bother asking. The only thing I cared about was that he was finally gone and out of my life.
“Was it Wilson or Bennett Moreno that murdered Heath Grady?” he asked. Heath’s murderer had been the million-dollar question on everyone’s lips the moment word got out that I was back in town. The police wasted no time swarming my place, as if they had it bugged in the event that I came back. Everything they asked me, I pinned it on Wilson. Whenever they’d ask me about my bruises, I blamed it on Wilson. When they asked me who took me, I blamed it on Wilson. When they asked about my parents’ murder that they believed was connected to my kidnapping, I pointed the finger at Wilson. Technically, I wasn’t lying. Wilson was the match that lit the volatile, unstable fuse that was my life for the last ten months. I rubbed my growing belly. It was just a shame that things couldn’t have been different with Bennett. From the parts I’d seen of him, he had the potential to be good. I knew he would’ve been a great father; I could see that from how he interacted with the kids. It would’ve probably taken some time before he fully came around and allowed himself to be vulnerable, but he could’ve done it.
“It’s getting a bit late,” I finally said, patting my belly. “It’s been a long day and I’d really like to get some rest.”
He nodded. “I think that was all the questions I had for you, Mrs. Moreno,” the officer said and held out his business card. “I’ll be in touch. Please let me know if you hear from Wilson or receive any more threats.”
I nodded and watched him step onto the elevator, breathing a sigh of relief when the doors finally closed. Tiny flutters filled my belly and I smiled. They were becoming more frequent lately at twenty weeks, and it made me a little sad that I had no one to share that excitement with. I didn’t have my mom or dad. I didn’t have my friends. I didn’t have Bennett or Brittany. As I sat on the couch and looked around, I finally realized the magnitude of how alone I truly was. It almost made it pointless for me to leave Bennett. What the hell was I in such a rush to get back to? I’d hardly left my house since being back, which would be no different than how things would be if I were still at Bennett’s house.
With a sigh, I stretched out across the couch and tried to sort out all the conflicting thoughts in my head, wondering if I’d made a mistake by leaving.
My eyes snapped awake when the elevator door dinged. It was still dark outside, which told me it was still late. I’d dozed off on the couch, completely disoriented as to where I was for a second. Once the sleep fog lifted, I realized someone had access to my floor that shouldn’t have. I felt around underneath the couch. Since returning, I’d bought five pistols to plant around the house in the event that someone followed me or tried to ambush me. I reached for the one strapped under the couch and took it into my hand, slowly rising to my feet as the elevator doors slid open. I could hear the clicking of someone’s shoes and I raised my gun, ready to kill anyone who was here to hurt me.
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 and 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 his 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 with 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.
You Will Obey (Rules of Bennett Book 4) Page 23