Bennett Mafia
Chapter 20 - BENNETT MAFIA

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Kai and I went down in the same elevator as before, only it was just us this time. When the doors opened, four guards were waiting. Two turned to walk ahead of us, and as we stepped out, the other two fell in line behind us.

We went to a white van with a plumbing company sticker on the side, and as the back door opened, Kai took my arm. He climbed in, pulling me with him, and walked us to the front where we knelt behind the driver and the passenger's seat. Six guards already lined both sides of the van, sitting on the floor like we were.

Two of the guards who had walked with us hopped inside, and the other two shut the back doors. A guard hit the locks from the inside, and the other two walked around to get in the front.

The van started forward, and we drove out of the hotel's underground parking lot in total silence.

The men weren't looking at me. No one made eye contact.

I gauged the distance, and after we'd gone three blocks, all the guards took out their guns, checked them, and put them back in their holsters. Two added silencers and held them on their laps, pointed down.

I glanced over at Kai, but he stared ahead. He didn't seem tense. His breathing was even. He wasn't sleepy, but he seemed calm. Then again, why wouldn't he be? This was probably something he did once a month. Or more.

We traveled one more block, then turned in to another underground parking garage.

As we stopped, the doors opened, and all the guards jumped out. I started to follow, but Kai took my arm again. He held me back, shaking his head.

I stayed. So did the two guards in the front.

The doors were shut again, and we drove back out onto the street.

We went into another parking lot and got out this time.

The entire lot was empty, except for our van. I thought both guards would come with us, but only the one in the passenger seat got out. As we started forward, the van peeled out, hurrying to the street and turning left, back toward where we'd just come from.

Kai let go of my arm and stepped behind me.

The guard went forward to push a button on the elevator. It was already there. We stepped in, and the guard pushed the button for the sixteenth floor. This was another building that had thirty floors, but it wasn't a hotel. I could tell that much. There were no sounds as we went up, and we went straight to our floor. As the elevator doors opened, I realized it was an office building. We walked through a glass-walled lobby into the larger main room. Floor-to-ceiling windows made up the walls here too, and we walked all the way to the one at the north end.

The guard took out a pair of binoculars.

Kai took my arm and maneuvered us so he was standing in front of me, his back to where his guard stood. My back was to the elevators now.

I stared up at him, feeling his hand tighten on my arm before letting me go. "What?"

"I know you've had training for your job. I know you can fight and handle yourself." He stepped closer, his gaze boring down into mine. His eyes were heated, smoldering with promise. "I am better than you."

I almost laughed. "Are you serious? You want to do a whole game of I'm better than you..."

My voice trailed off as he closed the distance. His hand held my elbow, and he pressed me against him. He was rock solid, every inch of him tense.

He was serious, deadly serious.

I swallowed over a lump. "Okay."

"I travel with fewer guards than my brothers because I am as good as my men, better than most of them." His hand tightened on my elbow, sliding up to the back of my arm. His fingers pressed in. "I am allowing you leeway by only bringing one of my men. The rest need to be on the ground. My man is here because of you, not me. I'm telling you this as a warning. Do not run, or you will get hurt. It's not just one guard you have to calculate taking down. It'll be me as well." He pulled me all the way against him. I could feel his breath on me, warming me. A few inches separated our lips.

His eyes moved there, lingering before looking back up.

"Do not get foolish and make a mistake, thinking you can escape me here," he said flatly. "You can't."

His hand slid up, over my shoulder and around my neck to cup the back of my head. He closed the distance, his mouth almost touching mine.

"I do not want to hurt you," he whispered, his lips brushing against mine. "But I will if it means losing my sister. Remember that."

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't move.

I didn't dare.

I didn't know if I wanted to, so I kept still, my eyes holding his, and when he didn't move away or kiss me, I knew he was waiting.

I nodded, my lips brushing back against his. I whispered, "Okay."

That was it.

He released me, stepping back, and I felt deprived of...something.

Something wrenched out of me as his body moved away. I wanted to pull him back. I wanted to feel him against me, but I gritted my teeth. I pushed that desire down.

I was fucked up-that was the only reason I could find for my attraction to him.

My father was a monster, so I was attracted to a monster.

That's why I felt this lust.

Disgust flared up in me, so much I could taste it, and I forced myself to step around him.

"I won't run," I told him. Then I went to see what his guard was watching.

I'd been expecting to be at the meet with Blade.

I'd been expecting he would step out of his vehicle with Brooke. Kai would have me. We'd meet in the middle, and whatever happened after that happened. Whether I'd stay and fight for Brooke, or if Brooke would actually go with her brother, I didn't know. I hadn't fully thought it out, mostly because I couldn't. I wasn't in the driver's seat for this one, Kai was.

But what I didn't expect was to not be involved at all.

At the glass wall, I looked down and saw two vehicles in the lot. Neither was the van we'd ridden in. They were SUVs. Kai gave me a pair of binoculars, and as I put them up to my eyes, I saw the doors open. Tanner got out. So did I.

Not me, obviously, but someone who looked like my twin.

I was stunned.

She was wearing the scrubs I'd been taken in. Her hair was down, swept to one side. She was hunched over, purposefully hiding her face, and goddamn, she even walked like me. The bitch had studied me somehow. Her/my hand came up and brushed some of my hair back, like I do.

Like I did just now I caught myself, and cursing, I tightened my hold on the binoculars again.

She tugged at the bottom of her scrub top, just like I would.

She stopped, hesitating, and her shoulders rolled back, just like I do.

There, across the lot, was Blade. He was too far away to see it wasn't really me as he got out of the Chevy truck. I was impressed that sucker had even made it the whole way, and it told me he was doing this off the books. 411 didn't know about it. If they had, he would've been in an SUV.

"What are you doing, Blade?"

He paused, holding his arm up to his forehead to shade his eyes. He saw Tanner and her/me, then went to his passenger door. Opening it, a girl got out a girl... She looked like Brooke, but it couldn't have been. He wouldn't have done that. I knew Blade. No matter how much he might want me back, he wouldn't trade in someone who was hiding for her life.

It went against his code as a 411 operative.

Kai leaned forward. I could feel the intensity rolling off of him.

It looked like Brooke.

Same dark hair, same build, same height as the girl I'd seen in Brooke's Instagram pictures. But...no way. It couldn't be.

"That's not her," Kai growled. He snapped a radio to his mouth, pressing the side button. "Abort. It's not her."

Tanner's hand went to his ear, then shot out to the girl beside him. We heard a shout over the radio before both turned and ran back for their vehicle.

I jerked forward, but there was nothing I could do.

Sixteen floors separated us.

I glanced around, but Kai was already in my ear. "Don't fucking think about it."

He motioned, and the guard grabbed my arm and began dragging me away from the window-but not before I saw all the guards who had come with us swarm into the parking lot below. "Grab both of them!" Kai ordered. "Take them to the warehouse."

"No!" I kicked, trying to get free.

The guard wrapped his arms around me. He held me up and dragged me at the same time.

"NO!" I squirmed. Fighting.

I needed to get free. Blade was in trouble. Whoever was with him, she was in trouble too. I had to help, despite what I'd said to Kai.

I had to.

There was no other option.

"Enough! You promised!" Kai was in my face.

I shook my head. "No, no. Not my friend. You broke it. You broke your word. You never said you'd take my friend. You-" God. I was so stupid, but I knew what I was going to do. I was insane.

As he moved closer to me, I closed my eyes, reared my head back-and head-butted him.

"Shit!"

"Argh!"

Except I hit air.

Opening my eyes, I found Kai standing to the side, his eyes wide open and shocked. "Jesus Christ, get her in check!"

The motion had upended the guard's hold on me, and I broke free of his hands.

I dropped, my body going limp, but as soon as I hit the floor, I rolled to the side.

This was so bad, so bad. I couldn't get away like this, so almost in one motion, I tried pushing up to my feet and running for it.

Except Kai was there.

He wrapped an arm around my waist and tossed his radio to the guard. Yelling over my head, he lifted me like I was a child. "Go ahead of us. Bring the SUV around to the side door. I got her." The guard wavered. "You sure?"

I glanced at him, then looked again. The guard had blood all over his face. Did I do that? But then I was back to fighting to get free.

Kai held me in the air and wrapped one of his arms around both of mine, securing them to my sides, and he put his other arm around my legs. I could only try to get free the way I had with the guard, but Kai was ready for it. He braced himself, and as the guard held the door open for us, he ran for it, carrying me. He went sideways so I didn't get hit, but I was still a battling mess.

"Woman. Stop."

"Never!"

I couldn't even turn around and bite him, though my desperation levels were nearing that point. I wanted to rip a piece out of him, in a whole new way than I had ten minutes ago.

The elevator door slid open, and Kai carried me in while the guard remained on the floor. He dropped me to my feet, wrapping his arms around me and hooking one leg around mine so I felt like I was stuck between resting against him or falling on my face.

"Get it done!" he commanded as the doors shut.

The guard nodded, lifting the radio to his mouth.

"Goddamn you! Goddamn you, asshole!" I screamed.

He hit the button and a litany of curses left him. He moved before I could comprehend it and swung me up so my back hit the wall. He stepped in close, using his body to hold me up.

I felt even more helpless in this position.

His groin was right there, pressing into mine, and a whole different heat spread through me.

I clasped my eyes shut. No. NO!

I would not let my body go there.

He had Blade. He had the woman who'd helped him.

But, fuck-I felt him hardening against me, pushing against me.

"You fucking asshole," I whispered, broken.

He sucked in some air, resting his forehead near the base of my neck, his mouth lingering over my artery. I felt his lips there, brushing over my skin, before he spoke.

"You and me both," he whispered. "You and me both, Riley."

Shit. I didn't want this, but the fight still left me. I became dead weight in his arms.

He took my friend, my friend.

I couldn't let him hurt Blade. I just couldn't.

"Please don't hurt Blade."

He lifted his head, and his eyes softened as he took in my face.

"He's my family. My only family left."

His eyes darted from my tears, to my eyes, to my lips, and stayed.

He nodded. "I won't hurt him."

I strained against him, my arms still pinned. "You promise? You have to promise."

His eyes jumped to mine, and he raised an eyebrow.

I cursed. "You never said a word about kidnapping my friends. Never. You just said not to run."

"Which you did."

"Because you ordered them to take my friends!"

"Friends? I thought it was only him you cared about."

I didn't know who the woman was. She didn't look like Carol. She was taller, had a bigger bone structure than Carol's.

"I don't know who she is," I admitted. "But if she helped Blade, she's someone I'm indebted to. So yes, friends. Both of them."

Kai's eyebrows pulled together. When I licked my lips, his eyes moved there, his eyebrows lifting.

My neck felt warm. The heat was spreading, moving up my face until I knew my cheeks were red.

"I didn't mean to do that."

He grunted again. "Right. If you stop fighting me, I will not hurt your friends today."

"Today?!" I nearly levitated my entire body off of the elevator wall, my groin grinding up on him as I did. His hand dropped down to catch underneath one of my legs.

I had a hand free, and I used it.

I balled it up and swung.

He dodged me, then let go of my leg as he caught my hand and slammed me back all at the same time.

He was rock solid. If our clothes were gone, he would've been inside of me, but as it was, he just held me-face to face, every inch of our bodies pressed against each other. He moved his legs out, positioning my legs wider so I couldn't kick. "Stop. Fucking. Fighting!" he yelled in my face.

"Stop. Hurting. My. Friends!" I spat back.

His eyes bulged.

Sexual desire pulsated through us. It was heavy in the elevator, and it was alarming, dangerous, but there was more. There was real anger, because if I'd had a choice between fucking him or slicing that knife in his throat, I would've taken the knife in a heartbeat.

But I also wanted to fuck him.

My God, I was twisted.

Tasting my own disgust once again, I turned my head away and closed my eyes. I willed that animal lust out of me, but it wasn't going away. It was hot and heavy and pulsing, and I bit back a moan.

Just then, the elevator stopped and the doors opened. I opened my eyes.

Standing in the entryway, with four guards around him and guns pointed at him, Blade stared back at us.