Page 2 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

I stared at him, my tongue gliding across my teeth again as I took a sip of my sambuca. It tasted sour in my mouth tonight, or maybe that was just the thought of a Ricci ever doing that to a child.

Music thumped from my club into my office, and I tried to use the alcohol to relax because I was one moment away from killing this fucker right here. I didn’t have the patience tonight, and he was beginning to become a nuisance.

“You steal my money, are thousands of dollars in gambling debt, and think you can ask to just stop?” I asked, rage boiling inside of me. My jaw tightened. “You have the fucking audacity to ask me to let you go?” My voice was quiet—deathly quiet.

“Please,” Ben said.

I slammed my hand on my desk. “I gave you a choice two months ago. Work for me or get a bullet straight through your head. You chose to work for me, so that’s what you’re going to fucking do.”

Ben shook his head. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t kill people.”

After blowing out a deep breath, I looked him straight in the eyes. “What happens when your fiancée finds out about your little problem? Huh? She doesn’t know what you do, does she?” When he shook his head, I cracked a small smile. “Maybe she should find out why you’ve been out late for so many late nights, how you’re thousands of dollars in debt, that you don’t have a fucking cent to your name, and that you have an addiction you can’t fucking overcome.”

“Don’t tell her, please,” he said, shaking his head.

“I suppose she doesn’t know about all the money you’ve taken from her too.”

“I haven’t taken anything from her.”

Lie.

“You haven’t gambled away your savings yet? What about that ring on her finger? Does she know it’s fake?”

“It’s not fake,” Ben said, but he couldn’t look me in the eye when he said it. After I let him simmer for a few moments, he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if it’s fake or not. She loves me, and I love her.”

I placed my gun on the desk and took another swig of my sambuca, letting it sit in my mouth for a moment as I stared at the man in front of me, who seemed to be spooked.

“Her name is Roxie, isn’t it?” I asked, letting her name roll off my tongue. “She’s very beautiful. It’d be quite terrible if I had to take her from you to pay off your debt.”

“Please, don’t. She’d leave me if she found out. She would fucking leave me.”

“You want out, don’t you?” I asked. “There’s a price.”

He stood and placed his hands on my desk. “Please, boss. Don’t involve her. She doesn’t know anything about where I’ve been going, what I’ve been doing, who I am. It would break her heart.”

“You love her?” I asked, brow arched.

He nodded frantically. “More than anything. I do this all for her. Please, don’t involve her in this. It’s my fuckup.”

I stood too, grabbed my gun, and walked around him. A bead of sweat rolled down that lousy neck of his. I should’ve broken it when I had the chance.

“You don’t do this for her. You do this because you gambled away my money and thought you could get away with it. You don’t love her because if you did, you’d have dropped her the moment you got involved with me.”

“I do love her,” he said, sounding so sure of it.

“You don’t. You’re just selfish.” But so was I.

I had only seen her a handful of times in passing, but I knew she’d be mine one day.

After opening the door for him, I gestured for him to leave. “You’re not out, but you’re going to bring her here tomorrow night. Ten p.m. Don’t be late.”

I had business with another family tomorrow night about more men who’d made bad decisions involving children, but I’d be willing to make room for sweet ol’ Roxie too.

2

roxie

I sipped on my jasmine tea and stared at the dark TV screen, trying to keep my eyes open just enough to stay awake until Ben came home. The neon green light of the clock read 3:04 a.m. It was so late—so freaking late—and I had to be up in four hours.

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