Page 126 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER THIRTY

BENNETT

M y phone vibrated on Zach’s nightstand, pulling me from the deep sleep I’d slipped into after we’d all finally cleaned up and thrown on some semblance of clothing.

I’d roused Jolie, who was drowsy and adorable after I’d fucked her into a coma with a little help from her other boyfriends, and put her into the bathtub.

Zach, Noah, and I had taken a quick shower, then we’d tucked Jolie in for the night and piled in around her like we so often did.

Why was Jolie’s dad calling me ?

“Dom?” I barked into the phone. “What’s wrong?”

“Bennett,” he said, and his grave tone knocked my heart into my throat. “I need you to remain calm.”

Jolie’s hand snaked into mine, and I held on like my life depended on it. “Where’s my mother, Dom?”

He sighed. I could hear him pacing, the background buzzing with activity. “He’s taken her, Bennett.”

“ What? ” I shouted.

Everyone was awake around me now, my brain muddling their hushed, urgent whispers as I struggled to grasp what Dom was saying .

“They ambushed Martinez and your mother a few hours ago when they were walking home together from… an outing.”

A fucking date , he means .

“Did they hurt her?” I croaked.

“Not physically, no. But they shot Martinez.”

I was real fucking pissed at Martinez, but shit, I didn’t want him dead.

Jolie gasped next to me. “Did they kill him?”

Dom heard her. “No, he’s in the hospital. They left him for dead in an alley in Olde Town, but he managed to get a call out to us. Kara and I are here with him.”

Deep breaths. “He’s taken her for ransom,” I said dully.

“Likely,” Dom replied. “I’ve put out an all-call to the Shadows, and Zepp’s woken up your team, but listen to me, son”—my heart lifted momentarily at the sound of the man who saved my Angel and for whom I’d developed a deep, sincere respect calling me son— “Do not go running off to Spencer Tower right now. I don’t think he’ll hurt your mother.

By all accounts, he does care about her. ”

“He thinks she’s his possession and nothing more,” I spat.

“Be that as it may, we need time to plan. Zepp reports that every last remaining member of Spencer’s security has been called back to guard the tower. It’s a fortress now.”

“Fuck,” I muttered, hanging my head in my hand. “I’m going to see what he wants, then I want everyone at Knight Tower first thing in the morning.”

“Already done,” he replied. “Tread lightly with your father, Bennett. This is a desperate move from a desperate man.”

“I know.” I paused, then I said, “And… tell Martinez that I hope he pulls through so I can beat his ass.”

Dom chuckled. “He’s known he’s had that coming for a while, don’t you worry.”

I hung up and dropped my phone onto the bed as the familiar numbness crept into my body. My fucking father was hurting my mother yet again, but this time it was to get at me.

Noah had flicked on the light sometime during my call, and I turned to take in the concerned faces of my brothers and my love.

Jolie took my hand again, her stoic silence a sign that she was descending into the same place I was. Noah appeared concerned; Zach just looked pissed.

“I hate it, but you’re right,” Noah said. “You have to call him.”

I picked my phone up again. No sense in delaying the inevitable.

I wasn’t scared of my fucking father.

He answered the call immediately. “Hello, son.”

“Father.”

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your deigning to speak to me?” He sounded almost giddy, and it was fucking weird.

“You know why I’m calling,” I snapped. “Your megalomania won’t allow you to accept that you’re fucking finished in this City, so you’ve kidnapped Mom to get my attention. You have it now—don’t fucking waste it.”

He tsked . “I don’t like that tone, Bennett. That’s no way to enter a negotiation—I know I’ve taught you better than that. Perhaps I was just missing my wife and wanted her back home where she belongs.”

I scoffed. “You couldn’t have given two shits if Mom was home or not except when you needed her on your arm for appearances.

What’s the matter, Father? Are you missing your simpering fuckbuddy of a private secretary?

We did preserve her head when we sent it over, so you should be able to visit her whenever you’re feeling nostalgic. ”

I could feel his anger bubbling through the phone. “That was beneath you, Bennett—wholly unnecessary and grotesque . Even if that traitorous bitch is probably the reason you were able to pull this neat little trick .”

“No tricks, Father. It’s truly the end of the road for you. Release Mom or I’ll be coming to retrieve her.”

“No!” he shouted, and I heard the distinct sound of glass shattering against the wall.

“You will release the Spencer companies from this bullshit cyberattack. Once you do that, I will offer you a trade.” He paused, and my pulse spiked.

“Jolie Knight for your mother, Bennett. The longer you wait, the less patient I’ll become, and I might start taking my anger out on your mom. ”

I trembled in rage. My father had been a shitty husband and certainly emotionally abusive, but he’d never hit my mother or physically harmed her. “Fuck you,” I bit out. “I will fucking kill you, you son of a bitch.”

“Time’s ticking, son.”

Then he hung up .

I sat there, vibrating, numb, oblivious to my surroundings. It was only when Zach and Noah’s alarmed shouts penetrated my brain that I snapped back into the present.

“No fucking way, Princess.”

“You’ll have to go through us, sweetheart.”

Jolie was in a standoff with Zach and Noah, who were shoulder to shoulder in the doorway of the bedroom. She glared at the two of them, still dressed in just her tiny sleep shorts and silky tank top.

But she did have her knife in her hand.

“Jolie,” I growled. “ No .”

She whirled to face me, and she pointed at me with her knife. “I heard him, Bennett. He’s going to hurt your mom if I don’t go over there! I’ll go, he’ll release her, then you guys can extract me. The Shadows have had these kinds of contingency plans in place since I started this whole thing!”

I gaped at her. “Are you insane? He will kill you. And then Dom will kill me for letting you do it, and I would fucking let him because I will not live without you! ”

I’d bellowed that last part, and I sucked in a big, shaky breath as I tried to tamp down the soul-sucking despair at the thought of my father murdering the love of my life again . She held my pleading gaze, and finally, the panic and anger melted from her face.

She turned to look at Zach and Noah, who were wearing similar somber, desperate looks, and she sighed. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I just… I can’t let Bennett’s mom suffer because of me. This is all because of me.”

“No, sweetheart,” Noah said softly. “This is all because of them . Our parents. Not you.”

I opened my arms in invitation, and she trudged back to the bed and crawled into them.

I held her close as Zach and Noah climbed back in bed with us.

We knew she’d settle easier if we were all there.

“Angel, you’re not doing this alone anymore.

I’m worried for my mom, too, but I agree with Dom that we need to be prepared.

This is my father’s last stand, and I will not let him take you down with him. Or anyone else.”

“Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll feel better when we have a plan.”

I kissed her forehead, and Zach pressed his lips to her shoulder as he curled in behind her. I murmured, “Love you, Angel. ”

As she drifted off to sleep, I glanced over the top of her head to meet Zach’s and Noah’s stares in the low light. They were both wound as tight as I was, but I could feel our collective tension releasing now that we had our girl contained and not running off headfirst into certain death.

“We’ll get through this,” Noah whispered.

“Just like we always do,” added Zach.

We’re the Heirs , I thought reflexively, even though that wasn’t true anymore.

“We ’ re the Family,” I said instead. “The entire City is about to learn once again what happens when you fuck with us.”

“ Max ,” Jolie hissed into her earpiece. “I will march back down there and beat your ass if you don’t hold this crane still.”

I couldn’t help my satisfied smirk, and one glance at Noah and Zach said they were feeling the same.

We’d all grown begrudgingly fond of Max in the annoying little brother kind of way, but it didn’t change the fact that he was a shit, and it was very satisfying for us when Jolie was the one to snap at him.

“I’m just adjusting it, Jojo,” he replied with a chuckle. “We want a straight shot onto that balcony for you guys when it’s go time.”

It was sometime in the middle of the chaotic meeting of the top minds within Knight and the Shadows this morning that the idiotic suggestion was made for our main extraction team to enter Spencer Tower via a large balcony off the fortieth floor—and that we access it via the tower crane conveniently parked next-door.

That main extraction team consisted of Jolie, Noah, Zach, and me, and we were now crouched on the narrow walkway of the crane’s horizontal arm while someone had let Max Miller, eighteen-year-old high school senior, man the controls in the cramped glass cab.

“Hold steady, Max,” Dom’s deep voice said into our ears. “The ground team is getting into position.”

Dom was posted up on the roof of the Serpentis Casino one block over with a couple of other members of the Shadows who had sniper experience. They’d wanted Noah, too, but now that his leg wasn’t giving him grief, he refused to be separated from us .

After a few minutes of silence, Jolie asked, “Any word on Martinez?”

“Yeah, he’s awake,” Dom replied, “and… unhappy that Bridgette was taken. He tried to leave the hospital until we sent Julie down there. I think she’s holding a gun on him so he’ll stay in bed.”

Zach chuckled, nudging me with his elbow. “Sounds like you’ve got a new daddy now.”

He received my stoniest glare, the ambient light of the City’s night life giving us just enough visibility that I knew he did not miss it.

Rocky’s voice crackled online. “North Team is in position and ready.”

Kara was next. “South Team is also in position and ready.”

“Extraction Team will be ready to move at the signal,” Jolie announced.

“And we’ve got the roof covered,” Dom finished. “Currently half a dozen Enforcers guarding the roof entrance.”

“We’re looking at another two dozen at the North entrance and about thirty at the South,” Zepp said over the clicking of his computer keys. “We don’t have eyes in the penthouse, as usual, but prepare for Enforcer presence there, Team Jojo.”

“Got it,” Jolie replied, giving me a knowing nod.

We knew my father would put as many “expendable” hired guns between himself and us as he could get his hands on as Spencer flailed. His vast kingdom had disintegrated and was now slipping through his fingers like sand. He’d played his last card.

But all he’d really done was piss me off and then paint himself into a corner. This was only going to end one way, and I was at peace with it because I’d known somewhere deep within me that we’d find ourselves here, one way or another, the moment I’d realized my Angel had come back to me.

“On my signal,” Dom boomed through our ears. “All teams— go !”

The arm of the crane began to move. “Max, slow it down,” Noah barked. He stood at the front of our group, ready to direct us to the balcony. “You’re going to miss.”

“I’ve got it, Nikolai,” he replied smoothly. “Don’t worry your adorable little blond head.”

We held on for dear life then as Max swung the crane arm toward the fortieth floor of Spencer Tower.

The sound of shouting and rapid-fire gunshots echoed into the night air from the ground below us, where our teams had been tasked with distracting and eliminating as much of the tower’s main security force as possible while we would sneak in from the middle.

I was pretty sure they were letting Frankie loose in the tower somewhere, too, but he was never on comms, so who the fuck knew.

“Fuck, I think we’re gonna make it,” Zach said, blowing out a breath as Max settled us just over our target entrance.

“Ye of little faith,” Max retorted in our ears. “Hop off, team, because I need to swing this thing back around so it doesn’t look too suspicious.”

“Thanks, Maxy,” Jojo chirped, and she hustled forward to join Noah at the end of the arm. “Be safe, please.”

“Back at you, Jojo. All of you.”

One by one, we climbed over the end of the crane arm and dropped down onto the balcony. I adjusted my gear, then I did a quick sweep of Jolie’s kit, reassuring myself she was fully armed and her helmet was on tight.

She caught my anxious perusal, and she smiled softly before she pulled me in for a quick kiss. “I’m ready. We’re all ready, Bennett. Let’s go get your mom.”

And let’s go put an end to my father .

Then my Angel would be safe, and I would be free.