Page 56 of Benedict’s Rejuvenation (Dark Patriots #5)

Tonight wasn’t going as I had pictured it.

I didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing.

Having Kensy start the whole thing was a big surprise.

And the way she crushed Xandros’ windpipe told me that she wasn’t about to let any of them hide anything.

While I preferred her not to do anything or, even better, be far away, I found it somewhat exciting to see her that way.

Kensy had a hidden warrior woman like her sister.

And I believed her captivity had honed it. She never wanted to be a victim again.

She settled next to me after it was over.

I wanted to ask her if she was alright and comfort her, but her body language told me she wanted to appear strong, and that would undermine her.

I stepped closer to the remaining six. Their faces told me they hadn’t seen that coming, and it had shaken them.

As I scanned them, I saw them pulling themselves together.

Ahh, they planned to brazen this out. They had no idea.

“The whole lot of you are nuts. And if you harm me or these other men, you’ll rain hell down on yourselves and everyone you love. Xandros’s family is part of a crime family, similar to the Mafia in Hungary. They will not rest until his death is avenged,” Abram said.

Without warning, I back-handed him. I had on gloves to protect my hands, which made me put more power behind it. My hand made his head fly ninety degrees to the left. The crack was loud. Immediately, a red mark appeared on his cheek. It would leave a bruise.

“Was I speaking to you? I asked Joshua to do it. However, since you’re so eager to talk and seem to know so much, we’ll go with you next.”

I was interrupted by the return of the two who had gone out to deal with the unconscious ones.

They gave us a short nod, which meant they’d taken out the guards permanently.

The loss of life here would be huge, but it was nothing less than they deserved.

As I glanced at my team, I noted Undertaker was gone.

I raised my brow to Sloan. She mouthed, You’ll see .

Turning back to Abram, I continued. I asked him not only about the location of the dungeon, but to tell me what other leaders or organizations were involved. I was impressed he took the beating rather well and didn’t tell me anything useful. More threats were all he muttered.

“You don’t want us to find the dungeon before you do. If that happens, you lose one of your goodwill markers. Remember, the more you cooperate, the less abuse and pain you have to endure before we end your miserable lives,” Beau reminded them.

“Fuck you, we won’t tell you anything, bastard,” Hendrix spat toward Beau.

I signaled the others. We needed to move this shit along. They split up until there was one of us before each of Wynne’s buddies and him. We were raining punches and yelling questions at them heavily when Undertaker came walking into the room. We paused at the light in his eyes.

“They lost their marker. I found the entrance to the dungeon. It’s not that complicated once you know what to look for. The mechanism is cleverly hidden, but I’ve seen similar designs before. Who wants to go with me? We need to check it out.”

Kensy cast a pleading look at me. I knew she was dying to know. And honestly, so was I. “How about me, Kensy, and you. Then we can decide from there what we’ll do based on what we find.” I shifted my gaze to Wynne. He was pale and scared.

“No, you don’t understand. You have to let me explain,” he pleaded.

Not wanting to hear his pleas or pathetic excuses, I left Abram and went with Undertaker.

Kensy fell into step with me. We followed Undertaker to the wall, which was the underside of the double staircase.

It appeared to be a wall composed of rich, shiny wood.

It matched the wood accent and the stairs.

But when Undertaker ran his fingers along the edge of what appeared to be a panel seam, there was the faintest click, and the wall moved,

“Guns at the ready. We don’t know what we’ll find. Kensy, stay behind your man,” Undertaker ordered.

Kensy nodded in agreement. Slowly, he opened it and stepped inside the pitch-black entry.

Suddenly, lights flared to life. They must be on sensors.

It was good since it lit our path, but if someone were down there, they would know someone was coming.

Tension ran through me. Maybe I should’ve left Kensy behind until we knew what we were facing.

We found a set of steps not far into the opening.

We took them stealthily. More lights came on.

At the base, we had to turn right to go around the corner.

We found ourselves in a short hallway and then walked into a huge room.

My heart sank when I saw how it was equipped.

The cells and walls of implements reminded me of Vadzim’s basement.

A swift look at Kensy told me she was remembering it.

She’d gone pale. Despite being shaken by this, her hands were steady on her gun.

The room was empty. I knew Kensy was doubly saddened that we didn’t find Aimée.

“Hummingbird, you can go back upstairs if you want. There’s nothing for you to see here,” I advised her.

Kensy shook her head. “No, there is. My demons are here. What better way to face them than this? I need to stay, Ben.”

What could I say to that other than to agree? “Okay, but please stay close, and if you start to feel overwhelmed, which is alright, let me know. Don’t force yourself to endure it.”

“I will. I hate that we didn’t find Aimée here. I thought for sure he had her. Do you think he sold her already to someone else, or did he…” Kensy didn’t finish, but I knew what she was about to say. Had Wynne killed the woman, assuming he had her to begin with?

“Let’s go upstairs. I think we need to bring those maggots upstairs down here to use some of these intriguing tools, don’t you, Kensy?” Undertaker asked.

She was opening her mouth to answer when we heard a faint thump. Glancing around, I saw nothing, but there it was again.

“Is someone there? If so, keep thumping,” I called out.

Two more bangs came. As they continued, we homed in on what appeared to be a concrete block wall, which was what the whole dungeon was constructed of.

Undertaker and the two of us ran our hands and fingers all over it, trying to see if it was a false door.

We were about to give up hope when Kensy cried out in surprise, and the wall shifted.

There was enough room for my fingers to fit into the crack, and I pulled.

It swung open easily. Unlike the main area, the lights weren’t on a sensor.

We heard muffled sobbing and movement, but had to feel along the inner walls for a switch.

Undertaker found it. When the lights flared to life, I wanted to shout for joy and roar with fury.

A woman was gagged and tied to a bed. She was struggling against her bonds to break free.

As she wiggled, the headboard hit the wall.

That was the thumping we heard. Without thought, I rushed toward her, only to freeze when she shrank away from me in fear.

It was clear in her eyes. Kensy slipped past me and walked carefully up to her.

Even disheveled and thinner, I recognized the face of Aimée Ferrante from the photos we were shown.

“Aimée, we’re not here to hurt you. We came to set you free. I know you’re scared. And it’s hard to trust anyone. Believe me, I know. I was like you seven months ago. I thought no one would ever find me, and I’d never see my sister again.

“My name is Kensy. This is Ben, he’s my fiancé, and he was one of my rescuers. This is Undertaker. I know he’s big and terrifying, but his wife is with him and he’s a teddy bear underneath all that muscle, scowl, and tats.”

“Hey, don’t ruin my rep, Kensy. I have to uphold my badassedness,” Undertaker warned gruffly, then cracked a tiny smile.

It was the right move. The tension in Aimée eased. Kensy went closer and undid the gag. There was water on the stand next to the bed. Not sure how she was supposed to reach it when she was tied up, but Kensy poured a full glass of water and held it to the woman’s mouth. Aimée greedily gulped.

“Slow down, I know you’re thirsty, but you don’t want to throw it all back up.

I’ll give you more after we get the rest of this off you,” Kensy assured her before putting the glass down.

Undertaker was whispering so that those above knew what we were doing, even though they could guess with the earpiece channel open.

Kensy removed a knife from the band underneath her top and cut through the knotted scarves around Aimée’s wrists and ankles. Tears ran down the poor woman’s face as she chanted over and over, “Thank you, thank you. Please be real.”

“I’m totally real. Feel me,” Kensy said.

The next thing we knew, Aimée had her arms around Kensy, hugging her tightly as she sobbed into her shoulder. My woman rocked her and murmured in her ear. She reached up to turn off her earpiece.

Undertaker was instructing the others to prepare to move Wynne and his clients down here, but not to come until he gave the all-clear.

We studied the room and looked for other hidden rooms while the two women talked and cried.

Kensy was crying too, and it almost killed me not to comfort her.

After about five minutes, Undertaker gave the green light to the group above.

“Ladies, I hate to cut this short, but I promise there will be more time later. We are about to have guests, and many of them aren’t welcome. Aimée, be strong,” Undertaker told her seconds before the sound of voices and footsteps reached us. I moved closer to the two women, as did Undertaker.