Page 51 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

BENNETT

I ’d been stupid to think I was going to get all the way through a three-day weekend hunkered down at the Academy without having to deal with my father.

I’d almost made it. Throwing myself into my homework, rowing in the gym until my legs felt like they were going to fall off, stewing over Jolie, being pissy about Zach’s nightly absences and expending considerable energy convincing myself my anger was for the right reasons—all of these things had made the long weekend fly by.

But it was now late Monday afternoon, and I wore my newest bespoke navy suit as I made my way to Spencer Tower after being summoned there.

I sat in the plush back seat of the town car sent by my father to pick me up, my arm draped lazily across the back of the seat like I wasn’t fuming as I messaged the guys via our secure chat.

Me : Summoned to ST, will check in when I know more

Noah : Got it, keep us updated

Zach : Don’t take his shit

If only it was that easy, Zach .

The silvery-blue glass of Spencer Tower glowed eerily in the waning winter daylight as the car pulled up to the entrance.

I exited quickly and stalked through the opulent lobby to the private elevator that accessed our penthouse.

A swipe of my—newly recoded—key fob across the elevator’s sensor panel, and I was on my way home.

Home. A place I’d hated since my best friend died and took our happy childhood with her.

The elevator doors opened on the sixty-fifth floor, and I strode into the foyer, my dress shoes squeaking on the marble tile that had clearly just been polished by our army of housekeepers.

I headed straight for the stairs, certain my father was in his second-floor office, but the bouncing lights and low murmurs of the TV in the living room caught my attention.

I veered that way, finding my mother curled up on the couch under a cashmere blanket as she watched one of her reality shows on the enormous flat-screen mounted on the wall.

She wore her favorite turquoise silk robe and clutched a mostly empty wineglass in her delicate fingers.

Her freshly highlighted blonde hair hung limp around her shoulders, and the placid look on her face told me she’d taken her pills tonight.

“Everything okay, Mom?” I asked, stopping to place my hands on the back of the plush leather chair next to the couch as I looked her over.

“Oh, hey, honey,” she said, giving me a soft smile. “I didn’t know you were coming home tonight.”

“Father needed to see me.”

She nodded. “Must be important. Everyone’s here.” She tried to roll her eyes like she was kidding, but she didn’t quite pull it off, the frown that tugged at her lips giving the game away.

Goddamn him .

I moved to her side and dropped a kiss on the top of her head, then I whispered, “I’m sorry, Mom.”

“It’s okay, baby. Better go see what he wants.”

I left her to her show and marched upstairs.

At the top of the stairs, I absently swiped my finger across the small divot in the white wall where one of the many bullet holes from the rounds Frankie had fired at Jolie had been repaired.

It had become a habit when I walked these halls, touching the little indentions in the walls and reminding myself how close I’d come to losing her again.

It drove home how important it was to keep her from bringing the entire brutal apparatus of the Families down on her head so I didn’t lose her for good.

I heard a tinkling giggle from the end of the hallway. Resisting the urge to groan and stomp away in the opposite direction, I made my way to the door to Father’s study and walked in without knocking.

As expected, Elise was here, “working” into the evening with my father.

Less expected was finding her perched on his lap behind his desk, her silky blouse unbuttoned even lower than her usual and her long, red-taloned fingers clutching a nearly empty crystal tumbler from the antique bar cart in the corner of the study.

My father appeared to be working, despite the fact that his private secretary was in his fucking lap, engrossed in whatever was on his laptop screen and not bothering to look up at my entrance.

“Father,” I said curtly before looking at Elise, not bothering to hide my revulsion. “Elise, please refrain from fucking my father while my mother is downstairs. We expect Spencer Family employees at your level to exhibit at least some class.”

“Bennett,” Father growled as Elise stood up, smoothing her tight skirt and holding her head high as she made her way around to the front of Father’s desk.

She leaned up against it, crossing her arms and giving me a coy little smile.

“It’s okay, James,” she cooed at him, still staring right at me. “Bennett is just being dramatic—he knows I was only trying to help you look through the contract you just received from Hendrickson.” She winked at me. “Two sets of eyes are better than one, especially this late in the afternoon.”

Zach’s voice popped into my head, the desire to call her a desperate, social-climbing whore welling within me, but I’d become a master at keeping a cool head around my father. I wouldn’t start slipping now.

“You wanted to see me, Father?” I said, bored and now ignoring Elise.

He finally deigned to look at me, his cold brown eyes taking my measure as usual. He’d taken to issuing demands at me from behind a desk whenever possible, as I now towered over his six-foot height at my six-foot-four. I knew it bothered him.

He was pushing fifty but didn’t look it—his daily regimen with his trainer and his strict diet keeping him fit and youthful.

The graying of his dark-brown hair only made him look distinguished, and to the untrained eye, he radiated that cool confidence of a successful man, one of the masters of the universe that exemplified the American dream.

Except these glimpses behind the curtain I’d been increasingly allowed had given me a view of what he really was—a cruel and merciless man who cared about power, money, and little else.

His voice was hard when he spoke. “I need you to head over to the emergency board meeting that will have just convened at Alastia. All of this nonsense with your little resurrected friend has them scared, and my sources tell me they are about to vote to separate completely from Spencer.” He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms and hitting me with his most serious glare.

“This cannot happen. You’ll be there to ensure that it does not. ”

Fuck. Alastia was one of Spencer’s most profitable partners, and they were involved in all manner of money-making enterprises—both above board and not.

If they cut ties, it would be a huge hit to Spencer, and it would leave them open to being snatched up by other companies suddenly flush with cash and looking to stick it to my father.

“I see,” I replied. “I take it you have a conflict on your calendar that prevents you from going to issue threats to our friends in person?”

He banged his fist on his desk. “You want to start preparing to walk in my shoes, son? You’ll do what I say and step up for this Family without questions or backtalk.”

Elise produced a file folder from somewhere on Father’s desk, leaning forward to hand it to me while giving me an unobstructed view down the front of her blouse. “Here you go, sweetie. Review it on the ride over.”

I grabbed the folder and tucked it under my arm, then I turned my back on both of them, ready to get the fuck out of here and get this over with.

“And Bennett,” Father said, suddenly quiet—his most frightening tone. “If that little bitch gets her hands on Alastia or anything else we value, it will be on you. And if I have to take over dealing with her, I don’t think you’ll like my methods.”

Ice shot through my veins. I paused at the door, taking two deep, calming breaths before turning back to face him.

“I was wondering, Father, if you could shed some light on exactly how Jeffrey Knight betrayed the Families.” I kept the heaviness from my words as best I could manage after he’d threatened Jolie’s life in front of me in a way that said he knew I cared when I shouldn’t have.

“It would help me convince her that her little revenge scheme isn’t as righteous as she thinks it is. ”

He chuckled, Elise joining him, and it made me want to put my fist through the wall.

“That’s confidential information, son. Only Peter, Andrea, and I know, and it would be the same for you if either of your little buddies ever went behind your back like that.

Focus on your duty to Spencer and the institution of the Four Families. Nothing else matters.”

Right.

With a curt nod, I turned away again and marched out the door, slamming it behind me a little harder than necessary.

“Ladies and gentlemen, think about what I said. I suggest you table this vote, or better yet—cancel it altogether.”

I rose from the seat I’d commandeered at the head of the conference table in the glass-walled fishbowl of Alastia’s offices.

The group of ten board members remained seated, now seething over the detailed threats I’d just issued on behalf of Spencer, the gist of which amounted to: go through with this, and we’ll ruin you—personally.

The CEO of Alastia, a balding middle-aged man with beady eyes named George Layne, barked at me through clenched teeth, “You tell your father, boy , that he doesn’t scare us.”

I smoothed my lapels. The look on the board members’ faces told me they were most certainly scared.

“We’ll be in touch,” I said, and I strode from the room, followed by the two Spencer Enforcers who’d accompanied me on this little trip.

We’d just stepped foot in the parking garage when the hair rose on the back of my neck. Something off in the air sent a shot of adrenaline through my body.

“Get down!” I shouted just as a bullet flew straight into the head of one of my bodyguards, dropping him instantly to the dank, cold floor.