Bennett Mafia
Chapter 59 - BENNETT MAFIA

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

After the executions concluded and both rooms had been cleaned, Kai faced the council.

"There will be an opening at Bruce Bello's company. I would like to insert his daughter as CEO. She can be acting or the real deal. We will use Bello's trucks and his distribution line for the rest of our businesses, and we can expand farther south

at a later time."

Four members were gone from that council.

Tanner hadn't sat down. He remained in the back, but his eyes were blazing.

"If he has a board?" Cora asked. "If there's pushback for some reason?" "Then we push back." Kai scanned the rest of the members. "All in favor?" One man chuckled. "As if we're going to refuse you anything right now, Kai."

Kai didn't smile back. "All in favor?"

Four right hands raised.

"I have another proposition, and it's one you will not like." He glanced in my direction, though his eyes didn't quite meet mine. "There is tighter legislation forming against sex trafficking. I would like the council to pull out completely from that trade."

Cora's forehead tightened. "It's good money, Kai. We're in the business of making money."

"It's stupid money. It won't be worth the risk in the future."

"But" She started to argue again.

"We'll open more casinos. We'll have added revenue coming in from the Bello line, and that company will give us a foothold in Milwaukee. We can use that, spread out, gain more traction. The ring in Ohio is too strong. I've looked into it. I don't want to go against them, not right away." "Kai-"

"We'll lose," he spoke over another protesting member. "We lost four members tonight. That's four families gone and out of business. We will cover the Bello base, move farther south into the States, but each of you can pick up the revenue left behind by those families."

"Except the Guaranno family. Besides the gun business, their approved trade was sex trafficking. Who's going to miss out on that money?"

"Whoever that is can be brought in as a new partner with my next business venture. It's in the future, but I think it will be competitive. I can only extend that offer as a way to make it up to that other family."

They seemed to mull it over, and then prepared to vote. This time to get out of the world I had asked Kai to help with, and to make the changes he'd proposed.

The vote would go through.

I stopped listening and could only stare at him.

He'd done that for me. There was no new legislation. Sex trafficking was one of the easiest crimes to commit with good money, and he knew that. He'd lied through his teeth. For me.

It wasn't long before the council members left, looking relieved to be able to do that, but the feed didn't end. Tanner remained in the room, and so did Kai. He sat at the head of the table, glaring at his brother. "How long did you know?"

Kai didn't waste time. "After I killed our father. He had encrypted notes that I deciphered. I figured it out then."

"You are a fucking piece of shit."

Kai didn't respond.

Tanner rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Randall Cordell Ritzo. That's his full name. Cord. Did she was Cord-" He exhaled sharply. "You know what I'm fucking asking."

"Yes, he was Cord's father. Mom had a diary. She talked about her affairs in there."

"Jesus Christ." He pushed back in his chair, his arms folding over his chest. "How'd you get that?"

"That's a story for another day, but Tanner..." Kai's voice dropped, almost comforting. "She was unhappy with our dad."

"But her first kid? I'm surprised he didn't kill her immediately." His tone grew hoarse. "Are you his kid? Me? Brooke?" A bitter laugh. "We know Jonah isn't, but how many others?" Kai didn't respond.

"Kai." Short and curt.

"Brooke and I look like him, but you have a rounder face, so I don't know. Is that something you care about?"

Tanner stood slowly. "You ever keep me in the dark again, and I will kill you. I don't give a shit what that means for the rest of us. You got that? I don't get left in the dark. Ever."

Kai inclined his head. His eyes cast my way. "If you want in, you have to be in." He looked back to Tanner, heat forming in his eyes. Finally. After all of that, he let the real Kai shine forth. "You don't want to be treated with kid gloves, you start acting like a fucking adult. You want in? You take over the Bello Company for Riley."

Tanner looked for me, and so did Kai.

I stepped forward, crossing the room till I could be seen on the screen.

Tanner's nostrils flared. "Is that okay with you?"

"Yes," I breathed out. I didn't want to be involved, or as minimally involved as possible. "I will announce that I'm alive, and with whatever happens, I'll take over, then you can step in. You can do what you want with it." I didn't want anything of my father's.

"Okay." He rolled his shoulders back. "Then I'll do it."

"Good." Kai touched the back of my elbow lightly. "I'll see you when you get down here."

He glanced to the side of the room, and just like that, the image was gone. The call was done, and in a few seconds, the remaining guards had exited the room. It was only Kai and me.

"Are you sure that signal couldn't get hacked or watched by the government?"

"Yes." He stepped in cautiously. "We're safe. I make sure of it."

He was making sure I was okay with his touch too.

I grabbed his hands and stepped into him. My arms slid around him, and I rested my head to his chest.

He'd fulfilled his promise. In one afternoon, he'd done more than I ever could in an entire lifetime as a Hider.

He'd helped. Even though he was in the mafia, he'd still done well today.

"Thank you," I murmured, feeling his hands sweep through my hair.

His arms tightened around me, and I felt his lips on my shoulder. A deep, shuddering breath left him. "You don't hate me?"

I pulled back to see him. "Is that why you brought me in here? To loathe you?"

"No." He bent back down, nuzzling me. "To tell you the truth, I don't know why I brought you in here. I wanted you here. I wanted you to understand this world better. I wanted you to see that you don't have to regret hating your father, in case you did."

I felt his tension and reached up, my hand cradling the back of his head. My fingers began running in small circles, comforting him.

"Is that what you do? Regret hating your father?"

His body tightened, then relaxed. "No, but you're better than me. I can see you feeling that. I wanted to line everything up for you and let you deal with your father, but I can't bring myself to let you go or haul him in here."

I laughed softly, "So let's not. Let's handle him another time."" I tipped my head back to grin up into his eyes.

He lifted his head, his eyes darkening, dipping to my lips. "That sounds perfect."

I framed his face with my hands and nodded my head, feeling his arms tighten around me, knowing he wouldn't let me fall.

His body was riddled with tension and knots. What he'd done just now, pulling all of that off, I could only imagine how much energy it had taken.

"Let's go upstairs."

His lips were on mine almost before I finished speaking, and he swept me up in his heat, the tingles already spreading through me, his arms holding me fast. He carried me out of the room, to an elevator, and we rode it to the next floor.