Page 103 of The Syndicater (Dark Verse 6)

"By who?"

"The Syndicate of course," she tutted. "You've been a disruptor of our plans since the moment you were taken. First your father bargaining with Maroni, then Maroni giving you to Vitalio, and then you ending up with Caine, digging your nose in places it doesn't belong."

"Is this about Project Ouroboros?" Morana ventured.

The older woman turned suddenly, her eyes widening as she walked closer to her. "What do you know about it?"

Morana stayed silent and the woman backhanded her. A burst of pain flared across her cheek, making her eyes water.

"Stop it!" Luna screamed from her side, her voice shaking with the same anger Morana was feeling.

A phone rang. The woman picked up the call and a man's voice came through the speakers. "Is everything ready?"

Luna whimpered at the voice and Morana turned to see her paling. Whoever this was, the girl clearly knew the voice.

"Who is he?" Morana asked Luna, and the man chuckled, the sound so evil it sent a shiver down her spine.

"Yes, pretty girl," he goaded. "Tell her who I am. Tell her how you blossomed for me."

Vile nausea climbed up her throat, her mind reeling as she realized the kind of trauma this must be inflicting on the poor girl.

"Hey asshole," Morana goaded him back. "If you're such a hotshot, why don't you unchain me and stand here, huh? Or are you too much of a coward?"

The silence was so thick it could be cut with a knife. Morana grit her teeth, her right shoulder pinching, waiting for retaliation. Whatever, she wasn't going to let this dick take her friend to ugly places.

"Begin," the man finally spoke the command.

"Yes, sir," the woman informed the man who was her master. Morana saw nothing but an icon in place of his face but the phone camera pointed at the two hanging girls showed them to him clearly, she assumed. The older women went back in the dark.

And then, to her absolute horror, Chiara pressed a button and a man walked in with Tristan.

Tristan clocked them both immediately, his nostrils flaring as he saw the two women he loved hanging there, his hands tied behind his back. She knew he could get out of a simple hold, but what scared her was the knife in his side, dug deep and held in place in a way that the more he pulled his muscles to try and disarm himself, the deeper it would dig.

"What are you doing?" she whispered to him, her eyes tearing up as they sat him down in the chair.

"Oh, I called him here," Chiara supplied gleefully, running a finger over his shoulder. "Sent him a little photo of you here. Told him to come alone or you die."

Morana was going to break the bitch.

Tristan stared at her, his blue eyes flared with pain but his gaze steady, reassuring her. He had been through worse before and he needed her to stay strong as they got through this. She gave him a little nod. His eyes moved to his sister, such deep agony flaring in them. Morana could feel the despair he felt at his inability to protect her again, feel the failure he felt seeing her strung up like that.

"Now that we're all here." The man's face came on the screen, the phone becoming a projector and his image becoming large.

He wasn't anyone Morana had seen before, but he looked sophisticated. His background was a simple dark wall and his eyes were dark.

Luna began to panic at her side, her eyes losing focus, her whole body shaking so hard it was rattling the chains.

"Look at me," Tristan's calm, composed voice, the same tone he'd used with her whenever she'd panicked, made his sister turn to him. He breathed in deeply, wincing as the knife went a little deeper into him but doing the motion he wanted her to imitate. Thankfully, Luna kept her eyes on him, taking a deep breath in, calming herself down.

The older woman, who had disappeared, showed up again.

Tristan whipped his neck so fast she was surprised. Shock and pain crossed his face, so visible he had forgotten to mask it.

"Mom?" the one word, so innocent, broke her.

The older woman was his mother. Luna's mother.What the actual fuck?

"Not your mom, sweetheart," she stated. "I was given to David to keep when you were a baby. Your mother died in childbirth."

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