Bennett Mafia
Chapter 52 - BENNETT MAFIA

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

Kai hadn't been back since he'd stalked out, but exactly eight hours later, Brooke arrived. Didn't take a genius to figure out he'd called in a replacement. Jonah had come too. He gave me a quick assessment and declared it'd be my last one. I was healthy once again.

Brooke and I spent the first hour catching up. She told me how she'd called the guards from the woods, and they'd found her and had her checked by a local doctor. Brooke said the doctor had been "gorgeous beyond words." Though it was only a strained ankle, it was still painful and "so worth it." Her words. Not mine.

Afterward, she said they'd grilled her about my whereabouts for a few minutes, and that was it.

She shook her head. "I swear, they broke speed limits getting me to you. What happened?"

There was a sour taste in my mouth, but I only shrugged. "I'd rather just get drunk than talk about it."

And she didn't push. Jonah either.

As we opened the first bottle of wine, Brooke said Tanner had been sent north again. As we finished the second bottle, she went on to say that since she was here, she wanted to sneak around Kai's properties. She was convinced he still had Levi somewhere and was "bound and determined" to save the love of her life.

I frowned. "Not to second-guess you, but you're awfully flirtatious with Eric and a certain doctor."

"Doctor?" She glanced at Jonah, who was working on his computer next to us.

He didn't look at her. "She's talking about Mr. Gorgeous Local Doc you were raving about earlier."

"Oh!" She laughed, slapping her hand on the table. "That's funny. No, no. Levi is the love of my life. I'm just flirty. That's all." She glanced over her shoulder, but there were no guards on our floor.

I had no doubt they were standing outside the door.

"I like flirting with Eric. He messes up if I really push him. How do you think I get half the information I do?"

Jonah sighed, closing his computer. He pushed his glasses up his nose. "Brooke likes to act as if she's being held hostage by our brother, but that's not the case. We're Bennetts. There's a responsibility that comes with our family surname. All of us hate it, but if we have to step up and bear it, we will. Brooke's constant flirting is her rebelling against those responsibilities."

Brooke glared at her glass of wine.

"I know." I nodded. "Kai told me about the council."

Both of their eyes widened.

"He did?" Brooke asked.

Jonah frowned. "Why would he tell you that?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, but he did. Is that bad?"

They shared a look.

Brooke lifted a shoulder. "I guess, I mean, I hope not. I'm sure it's fine."

But she seemed to be reassuring her brother more than me. Her dark eyes fixed on me, almost accusing. "Aren't you just sleeping with Kai? I mean..." She leaned forward, pushing her wine aside and dropping her elbows on the table. "Kai doesn't spill the beans about anything when it comes to our family. At all. Even to us. We only know half the shit because we're Bennetts. We have to know. You know?"

I nodded. "Mmm-hmmm." A closed smile. "We're just...having fun together."

Jonah snorted, sounding like his sister for the first time ever.

As if reading my mind, Brooke flashed him a smile. "Ha! What was that?!"

Jonah reddened before gathering his computer and making up some excuse to leave us for the night. After sharing another bottle of wine, Brooke took the bed, and I took the couch. Jonah went somewhere else. I didn't know where.

...

In the morning I woke to Kai frowning over me. "Why are you on the couch?"

I yawned and pointed. "Because yoooour sistah clai-ahed the bed."

I finished my yawn, remembered why this was even an issue, and glared at him. "Why do you care? You left."

And I might've been a bit hungover. There was a definite pounding just behind my forehead.

He ground his teeth together, glaring toward the bed while he answered me, "I had work to do. Don't take it personally."

I rolled to my feet, then whoosh. Head rush. I sat back down and waited for it to pass. "You took off at an opportune time, you know."

He was heading to the kitchen, but shot me an annoyed look over his shoulder. "If I'd stayed, we just would've been in bed all day and night. You know it. I couldn't risk that."

Maybe. But the words I'd said to him were still hanging there, uncomfortably.

Brooke sat up in bed. "Hey, big brother." She smiled wide, scratching her head, messing her hair further. "Man, wine sleep is the best sleep. I only need a few hours, but those hours are efficient, you know? It's like." She snapped her fingers. "Get to sleep. Sleep. Sleep. And bam, wake up. And here we are." She held her arms out toward Kai, whose back was to her. "Big badass brother is here to order us all around some more."

She gazed around, frowning. "Where's Jonah?"

Kai answered, his back still turned to her, "He's at a hotel."

"A hotel?! Can I go there too?"

"No." He finished getting the coffee ready and hit the button, before sending his sister that same annoyed look. "I wanted to give you a chance at saving the love of your life. He's in Milwaukee, you know."

She gasped, scrambling to her knees over the blankets. "Really? You'll let me see him?"

"I said save him, not see him." He raised an eyebrow, mocking her. "Isn't that your mission in life? Save the traitor to both our families?"

Her head moved back and her mouth closed. "Why are you being mean?"

"Being mean?" His eyes grew chilled. "How am I being mean? Maybe I'm annoyed that you keep professing your love to a guy who was turning evidence on his family."

Her cheeks grew red. "They're barely illegal," she mumbled.

"Doesn't matter," he countered. "That makes it worse. Have you asked yourself why he was doing that? He's not in line for any power in the Barnes family. He's not affected by anything they do. He's far removed, and yet he weaseled his way in just to get dirt on them. Why don't you ask yourself that question: why would he do that?"

"Stop it, Kai." She picked at her shirt.

"Brooke," he said firmly.

And as if feeling the same beckoning I did when he spoke, she raised her eyes. They were filled with pain now.

"I can only think of two reasons why he'd go out of his way to do what he did. Either he's hoping to open up some positions where he can step in and take over or he's being blackmailed. Which do you think is the realistic answer?" She looked down. Her bottom lip trembled. "You're being mean."

"Well, I'm also pissed off that you convinced Riley she needed to run from me to come down here." His jaw clenched again. "You know that's not the truth."

She looked up at him, eyes blazing. "It's not so clear cut, and you know it. You're not letting me see Levi-"

"Because he's turning evidence against his family, and I don't want you to get pulled into that! What do you think they would do? It's really easy for his deal to go from just his family to being about ours too. Turn in the mafia princess—or better yet, give us dirt on her so we can blackmail her. You were doing something stupid, and you know it."

"I never would've. You have to know that."

He scoffed. "And I never thought you'd defy your family for a rat either. How can you not look at him and see what he's doing to his family?"

It was like the bad mood from yesterday had spread so he could torment his sister, but I had to admit he was asking good questions. Hard questions, but ones that needed answering. I also began to realize why he was pushing Brooke. Because she didn't want to face it.

She had the wool over her eyes-she'd put it there herself and she was fine with that.

Even I knew how dangerous that was.

"Because she's in love with him," I offered.

"Riley, don't-" He lowered his voice, though.

"Love is blind. It's a cliché for a reason. She doesn't want to see what he's doing." I turned toward the bed. "But Brooke, you have to answer him. You have to hear what he's saying."

Her eyes went to mine, hurt. "Don't team up with him."

I rose from the couch. "But if these things are true, don't you want to know who it is you're loving? If he's like this now, what could he do to you?" I met Kai's gaze for a moment. "You love him. What then? You get married? You bring him into the family? You run the risk of him turning on you too?"

I hated what I was saying. It was hurting Brooke, but this wasn't about Levi himself. She had to see that. It was his betrayal. Once a cheater, always a cheater. It could just as easily be once a betrayer, always a betrayer.

"Kai's trying to protect you from yourself, just so you know. You should appreciate having that in a brother." I turned and locked eyes with him. "I would."

An emotion flickered in his depths before he pressed his lips together.

Brooke made a gurgling sound. "God, Riley. You're sleeping with him; that doesn't mean you should take his side. I'm your friend."

A friend who lied to me, but then again, Kai wanted to murder my father. And so did I.

"I'm on your side. Kai is too. But you're right." I turned back to look at her. "Maybe I'll go hang out with Jonah today."

I'd headed for the bathroom when Kai called after me. "If you leave, let the guards go with you."

I paused, turning to walk backward.

It was a different feeling, this freedom with a leash, but I understood. I'd just been advocating a form of this to Brooke, so I nodded. Kai and I needed to talk, but right now, I felt like heading out. With an entourage.

So that's how Jonah and I came to be sitting in the back of an SUV, heading toward the Lakeshore Wharf.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"The Wharf. It's been so long since I've been there. I want to see what's all still around."

He tugged at his shirt collar, watching the businesses go by as we whipped down the back streets. "We don't really do touristy stuff. This is weird."

"Come on." I patted his leg, looking out my window. This had been my home once upon a time. It felt good seeing it again. I'd missed it. "Think of it this way, Kai was laying into Brooke about why she loves Levi. I'm getting you out of an uncomfortable family drama."

"Well..." He sat back. "When you put it that way, you're completely wasting your time."

"What do you mean?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Brooke and Kai don't talk, really at all. Kai barely talks to anyone. If he does, it's just to bark orders. And we realize he's the head of our family. There's a shared respect we all feel for him and what he's done for us, but you need to understand, there's no confrontation with Kai. He tells you how it is, and you can either accept it or not."

"And if you don't?"

"Then he'll bring it up later." He rolled his head from side to side, moving back to watch out his window. "Mostly until his point is proven right."

Well, there was that.

After a few more turns, we pulled up to the front of the wharf.

Jonah made a sound. Everything was bustling with activity. "I can't even remember a time we did something so normal like this."

"Normal like being a tourist?" I couldn't hold back my grin.

Forget Kai for the day. Forget Brooke. Forget everything. A part of me wished it'd been a different brother beside me, but I was still happy to experience a little piece of my old home again.

Jonah's eyes clouded over. "You know we're not going to blend in."

I lifted a shoulder, tapping on the door, and the guard opened it from outside. When I'd learned to do that was beyond me. But it felt natural.

I got out and began noticing everyone noticing us, and that part didn't feel so natural, but falling in step as two guards started ahead of us was second nature now.

They did attempt to blend in with the crowd, but it was an awkward fit. If someone broke through their circle around us, one of them stepped forward and steered the person-or a child, one time-away. Still, I wasn't going to let it stop us, or stop me.

We picked up some breakfast first, but we didn't sit down. Eat. Grab. Go. Let's keep it moving. The guards nabbed some food too. They tried to sneak their eating, but when one saw me watching him, he just smiled and finished up his breakfast sandwich. These guys moved almost as one being. They had their ways, and an hour later, after hitting some shops and the Ferris wheel, I saw more guards coming and switching out. So that was how they did it.

One ride on the Ferris wheel wasn't enough, not for me. For Jonah, yes. But he was trying to be a polite companion after I caught him wincing as I steered him toward the wave swinger. I heard a mumbled "Oh, God," but he climbed on next to me and rode like a trooper.

I took pity on him after that.

We did the carousel next, though I selected one of the benches in the middle.

"Thank God." He sighed.

I laughed, tipping my head back.

He smiled. "Sorry. This is just not what we do."

"That's what you said." I shifted slightly to face him. "It's not what I do either, to tell you the truth."

"Yeah. I can see that." He eyed me. "Is it weird for you? To go from a life where you were a professional Hider to this?" He waved to the guards around us, one going up and down on a pink tiger.

I bit back a laugh. "Yes. But right now, I'm only focused on the next step."

He nodded, not asking what that was, and I was grateful because I didn't want to lie to him.

"Can I ask you a question?"

His eyebrows rose. "Sure."

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

His eyebrows went higher.

"I'm not asking for me." My grin was easy. "I'm just wondering how that part of your life fits with everything else."

"Oh." He settled back against our bench, mulling it over. "It doesn't. I mean, there are questions, but we learn to lie. Every Bennett is born an amazing liar. We've had to become that just to function sometimes. As far as a girlfriend..." He paused, his cheeks becoming pink.

I sat up. I'd thought I was fishing in an empty barrel here.

"There is a girl."

"A girl?"

"She's another resident."

"Resident?"

"Ah." He laughed shortly. "A doctor. She's in my year. We work at the same hospital."

"How do you do that, by the way? What with the constantly leaving for family things."

He rubbed at his eyebrow. "To be honest, Kai rarely calls on me. This whole thing with Brooke threw all of us for a loop. We were scrambling. Then he brought you in, and I knew what Brooke had done wasn't the normal little tirade she sometimes throws. It was more serious."

"You didn't answer the first question, though."

"Oh. Yes. Uh, I'm in trouble, to be honest." He bobbed his head forward in an easy, smooth motion. "But having my last name as Bennett helps. Kai will just step in, grease some wheels, and I should be fine."

Why wasn't I surprised? "That's how it's done? He bribes your way through medical school?"

He frowned. "Yeah. It's part of our world. If I want to have some semblance of a normal life, I have to accept that." His frown deepened. "I'm just grateful to have this time to become a doctor. This never would've happened if my father were still alive." "What do you mean?"

"He sent Brooke away. He killed Cord. He would've killed Kai too. Who knows what he would've let Tanner and me do, or get away with. He didn't even let me live with the family." "What?" My heart twisted.

"I was sent to live with an aunt. He didn't want me around the rest of them. I got to see them on holidays or if Cord or Kai insisted they visit me."

The pain in my chest doubled.

He shrugged and swallowed tightly. "It is what it is. I look different. He treated me differently."

"I'm sorry."

He coughed, shifting in his seat. "Kai changed everything. He brought Brooke and me back...but yeah, to answer your initial question, we compartmentalize." He coughed again, blinking rapidly. He flicked a hand to the corner of his eye. "Brooke falls in love every two months. Tanner doesn't. I don't know what he does. He rarely talks about women. And I..." He quieted, flashing me an uneasy smile.

I grinned back. "You have a girlfriend."

"That I lie to every day." His laugh was uneven, forced. "But that's how it is. We lose our footing with the council, and we'll all be wiped out."

"What?!"

"You didn't know? I thought Kai would've explained..." He trailed off again, frowning. "Sorry. I thought you knew."

"No," I gasped. "What do you mean you'll be wiped out?"

"Um..." He hesitated.

"Tell me, Jonah."

"We're only at the top because they fear us. They fear Kai. If someone moves against us, they'll have to kill us. All of us. It's literally all for one, one for all with us."

My head swam. I had no idea.

No wonder Kai was so concerned about who Brooke fell in love with.

"Thank you for telling me. I didn't know."

"About that..." He bit his bottom lip. "Can you not tell Kai you found out from me?"

I barked out a laugh, a little louder than I meant. "Yes. Of course. Yes."

And then, because we hadn't covered it, I asked, "What about Kai and his love life?"

The ride was coming to an end. Jonah reached for the top of the bench in front of us. "Kai has women in every city for his needs." Then he stood and glanced at me. "I mean, that was before you. I think?" His grin turned lopsided, and he hopped off like his life depended on it.

I sat rooted to that bench.

Kai had a woman in every city? But of course. I cursed myself. How stupid was I? To think I was special? I'd been brought in because of his sister's actions, not his.

It hadn't been his choice. Though maybe that didn't matter.

I stood on wooden legs and moved to where Jonah was waiting for me. The guards moved in behind me, and we were tourists for the rest of the day. But my spirit wasn't in it anymore. The thought of Kai's other women plagued me, sitting heavy on my shoulders. I only did one silly face in the photo booth.

I really threw myself into the movie at the theatre. And by throwing myself, I mean I sat in the darkness and pretended I was into it. Silently. Soullessly. Just imagining all those women at Kai's beck and call.

Of course he had them.

He was powerful and gorgeous.

I was foolish not to have thought about that earlier.

It was dark when we emerged, and if someone had asked me what movie we saw, I would've had no idea. A guy was in it. That's all I remembered.

"Where to now?" Jonah asked.

We had switched places at some point after the carousel. Jonah had begun to enjoy himself, and I was the one not really here. I could hear his reluctance to go home. Hell, I didn't want to go there either.

I moved behind him. "I think there's a beer garden here."

He brightened. "That's a great idea. We should call Brooke and Kai."