Page 79 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

JOLIE

M y whole body seized. If James Spencer was here, it was going to make escape that much harder. Anders seemed slightly more reluctant to kill me than he apparently had been when I was eleven years old , but James Spencer would blow my head off just for annoying him at this point.

But then Bennett stepped into the dim light next to my chair.

His face was cold—ruthless, even—and I wondered where he’d come from and how much of that total fucking tragedy he’d overheard.

He didn’t acknowledge me where I sat, still strapped to a chair, bleeding from the head, and reeling from what I’d just learned.

Instead, he calmly reached into his suit jacket, and in the blink of an eye, he’d pulled his Glock and put a bullet in the head of Anders’s lone remaining bodyguard.

“What are you doing?” Anders shrieked, taking an alarmed step backward as his Enforcer dropped to the ground like a rag doll. “I'm about to get everything your father has wanted for these last seven and a half years!”

Bennett advanced on him. “You and my father and the others murdered the Knights for money ?” he said, his voice low and deceptively calm. “You sold out your own sister so you could pretend to be a king of the City? So Elise Proctor would fuck you?”

“Bennett, I-I…,” Anders stammered, still scampering ba ckwards.

“You all took Jolie away from me—from us —just so you could steal something that didn’t belong to you?” Bennett continued matter-of-factly.

“You don’t understand the amount of money we’re talking about here, son. The Families would rule the world with what Knight tried to keep for itself.”

Bennett just nodded, like he was taking it all in.

“See? I knew you’d get it?—”

And those were the last words Anders ever mumbled.

With a savage roar, Bennett flew at him, taking him to the ground in one swift move, and I could only sit there and watch—tied up as I was—with deep, burning satisfaction as Bennett took out every ounce of anger, hurt, and frustration he’d felt over these past seven years on Anders’s face.

He slammed his fists into him again and again, the crack of his skull and the crunch of his bones echoing in the empty basement room.

Anders’s screams ended quickly, but Bennett went on forever, his breathing becoming labored and his shoulders sagging as he fought to pound Anders into an unrecognizable pile of flesh.

“Bennett,” I said in a low voice after a few minutes. “That’s enough. He’s gone.”

He kept on.

“Bennett!” I shouted. “It’s over. Come untie me, please. I… I need you.”

That finally broke through his haze. He stood up, kicking Anders’s bloody body with his shiny dress shoe, then he rushed to my side like he’d only just remembered I was here.

“Fuck, I’m sorry,” he whispered. He shucked his now blood-spattered navy suit jacket and tossed it aside before he crouched behind me. I heard the snick of a pocketknife flipping open, then the zip ties binding my wrists snapped free.

I stood on wobbly legs, shaking out my arms. My head was clear and had been since I came to, but I needed to get the blood flowing to my limbs again. I sucked in a deep breath, and I felt my adrenaline finally began to ebb as Bennett stepped in front me.

I stared up into his handsome face, needing him to be my anchor before the reality of what I’d learned tonight crushed me completely. He’d wiped the blood and sweat from his body as best he could, and now he stared down at me with nothing but utter devastation in his eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Jolie,” he whispered. “I’m so, so sorry.”

I wasn’t even sure what he was apologizing for. His refusal to let go of his loyalty to the Families? The appalling, empty reason for my parents’ death? The time we’d lost together?

My lip trembled.

“I will spend every waking minute for the rest of my life making them pay,” he went on, the violence threaded through that harsh whisper feeding my damaged soul.

A lone tear leaked from my eye.

“Bennett,” I croaked as my body shook.

He reached for me, pulling me into his arms and lifting me high so that I could wrap my legs around his waist. He held me so tight, and I knew I was safe.

I buried my face in the crook of his neck. “Bennett,” I cried, feeling the tears flowing freely now. “They killed them.”

“I know, Angel,” he whispered, his voice hitching. “I know.”

“They just shot them. And I was right there. I was so scared.”

“You were so brave, baby. So fucking brave.”

I sobbed into his shoulder. I let it all go. All seven fucking years of it, and his hold on me never faltered. I felt him lower us into the chair, keeping me wrapped tightly around him as he sat.

“They murdered my parents for money, Bennett. They took my mom and dad from me. And they took you and Zach and Noah too. For money . To get even richer than they already were!”

He sniffed. “I should’ve looked harder for you. I should’ve asked more questions. I should have fucking done something more.”

I finally peeled my snotty, wet face from his shoulder so I could look him in his haunting green eyes. He stared back at me like I was the only thing in the world that mattered, and I cupped his handsome face as I ran my thumbs across his cheeks, wiping away his tears.

“Don’t cry, Bennett,” I whispered. “I’m here now. We won’t let them win.”

“I’m so sorry, Angel,” he said again. “Fuck, I missed you so much.”

I managed a watery smile. “I missed you too. I’m glad you don’t hate me.”

He frowned. “Hate you? Are you out of your mind? I love you.”

Another sob escaped me. “What?”

“You heard me. I love you, Jolie Knight. More than anything in the whole fucking world. I’m finished making excuses for why I can’t have you.”

“Bennett,” I breathed. His declaration was a balm on my soul that had been shredded so brutally tonight. And I was exhausted—too exhausted to fight against what I knew was in my heart and had been since I was a child. “I love you too. I’ve always needed you. You’re a part of me.”

“You have me, Angel.”

With one last sob, I pressed my lips to his. Kissing Bennett was everything I’d ever dreamed of—even in this dank, cold basement in the presence of two dead bodies. He took control right away, consuming me, moving my head where he wanted it so he could devour me just right.

I busied my hands with the buttons of his dress shirt. I wasn’t about to get either of us naked down here, but I wanted to feel his skin.

He growled, nipping at my lip as I finally got his shirt open, and my greedy hands immediately found their way to his sculpted chest.

“Wait, what is this?” I said, stilling as I took in the skin under my hands.

“It’s you, Angel.”

Bennett had a beautiful, giant tattoo spanning his entire chest. Intricately detailed feathers, their silvery color sparkling even in the basement’s dim light, covered his skin and created two glorious angel wings that spread from either side of his sternum.

“You got this for me?” I whispered, running my fingertips reverently over the gorgeous art.

“I did. After we lost you, we coped by thinking of you as our angel, happy and safe in heaven with your parents. You were always going to be my angel, even when we outgrew those childish fantasies and became the cynical bastards we are now. I wanted to keep you with me always, so when I turned eighteen, I had this done. I actually finished it last year.”

“I…,” I began, tears running down my face again. “I’m so sorry I didn’t try harder to tell you I was alive. I can’t believe I worked so hard to forget you when you kept me with you all th is time.”

He shook his head, wiping my tears away with gentle fingers. “I understand why, Jolie. I have you now, and that’s all that matters.”

“Yes,” I whispered, diving back in again to take his mouth. He’d hardened under me a while ago, and now I was on a mission.

I was going to have Bennett, undesirable location and dead bodies be damned. I wouldn’t let fucking Anders stand in the way of anything that belonged to me ever again, and Bennett fucking belonged to me.

As he cradled my face and kissed me like he needed me to breathe, I worked his zipper open.

“Fuck, Angel,” he bit out as I wrapped my hand around his—Jesus, massive —cock. “You make me crazy. I want you so fucking bad, but I’m not sure this is the place.”

“Shut up and fuck me, Bennett,” I growled against his lips.

His hand snapped to my throat, his grip firm as bossy, intense Bennett came back online. “Fine. But I want time with you alone, in a bed, as soon as we leave this place, so I can show you what I can really do to your body. Your other boyfriends are not invited.”

“Fine,” I snapped back at him, which quickly turned into a gasp as he used the strong fingers of his other hand to tear my leggings at the seam of the crotch. “Oh fuck.”

Those deft fingers swiped my soaking panties out of the way and buried themselves inside me. “Fuck, there it is,” he rasped up against my ear. “Just like I remembered. Tight, hot, wet—perfect for my cock.”

“Give it to me, Bennett,” I demanded, moaning as he pumped his fingers just right.

“Take it, then, Angel.”

Gladly . I swatted his hand away before I pulled his thick, hard dick from his pants. I shifted my hips forward and lined him up with my entrance, then I sank down onto him in one slow, painstaking movement.

We groaned in unison. Bennett stretched me to my limit, but the pain quickly gave way to pleasure. I knew as soon as I gave a tentative rock of my hips that I was going to come way too quickly.

“That’s it, baby. Take what you need from me,” he said, wrapping his big hands around my hips as he helped me move in his lap. He held my eyes with his, those mossy orbs now hooded and glazed with lust. “I’m yours. ”

“I’m yours too, Bennett,” I said on a moan, picking up the pace. “Fuck, your dick is huge.”

“And you’re taking me so well, Angel,” he crooned, now dragging his lips down the column of my neck as I rode him. “You were made for me. I want you to remember how my cock makes you feel. How much you love being stuffed full of me. Remember that you’re mine.”

All my boyfriends had such dirty fucking mouths, and I loved it.

I continued to move, pushing myself higher and higher. “Bennett,” I whimpered. “I’m so close.”

“Fuck yes. Come for me, Angel.”

He rocked my hips in a fast rhythm as he thrust up into me, and I detonated in his lap, my scream echoing through the cavernous room.

I felt my muscles grip him, pleasure overtaking me until black dots danced across my vision.

Bennett groaned as he found his own release, burying his face in my chest as he came.

I sagged into his arms, and he shifted instantly back into holding me like a precious treasure. I sank into the feeling, safe and secure and loved in Bennett’s embrace, and I let the events of the night finally settle in my mind.

Anders had died the death he deserved for betraying his own flesh and blood for a taste of wealth and power. Now Peter, Andrea, and James fucking Spencer would pay. The dancing around the corporate board rooms was over. The Shadows would come out to play, and it was going to be a fucking war .

Bennett must have been having the same thoughts. “I love you, Angel,” he murmured in my ear. “I’m going to destroy my father for what he’s done to you.”

“I love you too. Let me have Elise.”

“With pleasure.”

We began to right our clothes, and I was thankful my sweatshirt fell to mid-thigh and would hide the hole Bennett had made in the crotch of my pants.

Bennett used his crumpled suit jacket to clean us up before zipping himself back into his pants and buttoning his shirt.

Still, we lingered, Bennett holding me in that godforsaken metal chair while both of us ignored the world that was about to fall apart around us.

Finally, our peaceful bubble was shattered as the door to the basement was kicked open, and three hulking bodies dressed for battle streamed in.

I recognized them instantly.

“Oh, well isn’t this cozy?” Max said, pulling to a stop and dropping his weapon to his side. He pulled his balaclava down to expose his face. “Did you two finally kiss and make up?”

“Yes,” I muttered, not bothering to lift my head from Bennett’s warm chest.

Noah ran in behind Max, making a beeline for me. He knelt next to our chair, running a gloved hand over my cheek and examining me closely, a worried look on his face. “Are you hurt, sweetheart?”

“I’m fine,” I whispered. “Though my pussy is gonna be sore. Bennett’s fucking huge.”

Noah’s face split into a wide grin. “So he’s said.” He looked at Bennett, who still refused to release me. “Finally, man.”

He just grunted, snuggling me tighter.

A low whistle sounded. “Shit,” Dom said from where he stood over the bloody pulp that had once been Anders. “Is that who I think it is? Anyone want to enlighten me?”

“Later,” Bennett decreed like he was in charge here. “Jolie needs to go home. She may need stitches in her head.”

Dom sighed, exasperated. “Again, honey?”

“Sorry, Dom,” I called before I asked Max, “How’d you guys know where to find us?”

“Big Man sent the SOS to Niall over here, and he had Silver get in touch with Zepp, who called us. Got here as fast as we could, though your boy seemed to think he had it in hand.”

I felt Bennett shrug. “I did.”

“He did,” I agreed.

Noah pulled his phone from his pocket. “I’ll get Zach’s cleanup crew down here. He’ll be sorry he missed the fun, but he wasn’t on campus when Bennett texted us, so I left without him.”

I finally coaxed Bennett into letting me stand up, seeing as how we would both need to walk out of here sooner rather than later. He got to his feet with a groan, and he wrapped his arm around my shoulders while I clung to Noah’s arm .

Noah’s phone buzzed in his hand, and his eyebrows jumped to his hairline as he saw who was calling. “Hello? Frankie?”

I stilled. It was obvious Frankie didn’t normally place calls to Noah’s phone.

Noah’s face paled as he listened, and I felt the panic set in again.

He hung up, then he looked at Bennett and me.

“Zach’s missing.”

To be continued…