Page 16 of The Syndicater (Dark Verse 6)

Chapter 6

Dante, Tenebrae City

The loud, happy babygiggle was the only light in their lives these days.

Dante blew a raspberry on the soft tummy of his little princess, and Tempest rewarded him with a giggle worthy enough to befall kingdoms. If happiness could be weaponized, this precious bundle of joy in their lives would have conquered everything and ruled with a toothless smile and a grubby fist.

"There hasn't been any news, boss."

The words coming from the phone speaker pulled him back out of the happy space and into the fucked up reality they were living in, where countless babies like his own were shoved into a life of pain every single day, and he couldn't do a damn thing about it, not with limited capacity and limited information. And the main source of his information was nowhere to be found for the last five weeks. That was the longest Vin had ever gone without contact, and he had to believe that was because he was deep undercover and not deep under the ground.

"That'll be all," he dismissed his man, his mind spinning in circles. So far, they'd not been able to uncover anything substantial enough for them to do any damage to the organization.

The fucking Syndicate.

Hell, they didn't even know enough about its operations to find a grip to uproot anything. Dante had been in this shady underbelly of the world long enough to contemplate that maybe, as much as he'd hate it, they might not be able to uproot a system like that. The more they discovered about The Syndicate, the more he realized that it was a lot more complex than they'd ever thought, like the underground root network of a giant tree, spread far and wide and deep under the surface, hidden from the world, mingled so tightly that uprooting the entire system seemed impossible, the roots strong enough and symbiotic enough that even if someone cut the tree down, a new one would grow in its place over time.

The others, in their optimism, somehow believed that they would be able to chop it off, even a logical bastard like Tristan. But he was more emotional than he let on, and when it came to the organization responsible for his sister's disappearance, he operated on pure emotion. Dante had been with the man long enough to witness that. But Dante, as emotional as he was, operated on pure logic when it came to The Syndicate. He didn't have the emotional baggage, even though the organization had been indirectly responsible for many things in his life. No, he thought as a businessman, as a mafia kingpin, and from his contemplation, it looked grim. It wasn't a thought he necessarily shared with the others; there was no need at the moment. It was better to have optimism and hope. He knew the ways it could motivate a man to wait patiently for things to unfold. The living proof of that patience kicked her chubby feet in the air, grinning up at him.

Dante grinned back, wondering how she would grow up in this ugly, ugly world. Though he would protect her as much as he could, so would the others she would call family; it worried him. When the air itself became poisoned, no barrier could prevent it from seeping under the cracks, toxic fumes making their way into the very lungs that needed it to breathe. He could only keep her in a vacuum for so long before she rebelled, and knowing the kind of father he had had, he never, never wanted to be like that to her. He wanted to be a good father and a good friend to her, a guide she could turn to and the ground she could grow on. He didn't know how she would do it, but as Amara liked to remind him, with all the love she got from everyone around her, she would figure it out.

The ringing of the phone broke through his worrisome thoughts of the future.

He pressed the speaker again as Tempest turned on her stomach and began to crawl away from him. Since she'd come into their lives, his office had started looking more like a daycare and less like a lion's den.

"Dante." He heard Morana's voice over the speakers, and a genuine smile came over his face. He'd never thought Morana would ever integrate into his life and become such an intrinsic part of his family. Even knowing Tristan's obsession with her through the years had never led him to imagine she'd fill up his heart like a sibling. Seeing Morana shot and heal from it had just made him realize even more how important she was to his family.

"How's my favorite hacker doing?" Dante asked, watching as Tempest crawled over to where Lulu was peacefully napping. The fucking cat had a bed and still chose to sleep anywhere but on it. With Amara away to check on the kids at the rehabilitation center they'd been working on for over a year, both theirdaughter and their cat were left under his care. Not that he minded the company.

"Such a charmer." He could hear Morana's eyes rolling in her tone before she got quiet

It was the silence that made Dante focus. Morana talked, and she was comfortable enough in his company to talk quite a bit. So the silence was… unusual. Anything unusual had his attention these days.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly, keeping his eyes on his crawling baby girl but his attention on the call.

Morana hesitated. "I… there's something I wanted to talk to you about, something I don't know how to say."

His heart suddenly dropped. "Is it about Amara?"

"No, no, no!" Morana rushed to reassure him. "Nothing about her. She's great, fantastic even. I spoke to her yesterday, and she's excited about planning my goddaughter's first birthday."

He relaxed, his muscles easing. As long as his wife was good, he'd be good. Hiswife.It felt so good to him to call her that, even in his head, after waiting so long for it.

"I can't believe it's already been a year." A year of the happiest he'd been, marred with scars of their world and their loss. Every time he remembered his precious angel, the one who didn't make it, it made his heart ache. Amara had planted a magnolia tree in her name next to the gazebo out back, and though it was just a small plant at the moment, the idea of nurturing it did feel good to him. That tree was Serenity, his angel baby, and she would grow roots in their home, just in a different way.

He shook off the thoughts and focused on Morana. "So, what is this about?" He watched as Tempest crawled over the sleeping feline. Lulu, used to the antics now, simply raised her head and went back to napping, unperturbed by the tiny human, the same size as she, grabbing her ears. It was amusing, to say the least.

He heard Morana take a deep breath, and his shoulders tensed as she inhaled. She uttered the one name that had been a mystery around them since they had learned of The Syndicate.

"The Shadow Man."

Of course, it was him. Mysterious fucker. They had discussed the enigma many times, so Dante didn't understand why Morana was suddenly so anxious about him. "What about him?"

"He sent me a message last night," she started. "A message with location details that I'm tracking as we speak. He's never sent them so easily, and I'm convinced he wants me to trace it."

That piqued his curiosity. What kind of game was the bastard playing? From the little they knew about the Shadow Man, his motives for doing anything were as mysterious as he was. Why he'd helped Morana, led them to the house where they found Xander, why he'd been there hunting the man who had kidnapped Zephyr and murdered his sister—only he knew his reasons. The closest anyone had come to finding anything had been his half-brother Alpha since he had met the infamous man, but only because the Shadow Man had wanted to talk. There was nothing substantial though they had an inkling it was something to do with The Syndicate, Dante hated not knowing more. It was like playing blind chess, unable to see all the pieces on the board except his own, with no idea of his opponent's next moves. It wasfrustrating.

"There were also some images attached to the message."

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