Page 29 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

“Did you bring me what I’d asked for?” I asked Chiara.

She opened her oversize purse and showed me the gun inside of it. “Personalized for Roxie. I even got her initials etched on the grip, just like mine. Do you think she’ll like it?” Chiara asked, overly excited about Roxie.

But I didn’t blame her. She didn’t really have any other females in her family she could trust. The majority of her family had left the business after she killed her father for taking part in the child trafficking ring.

“She’ll like it,” I lied.

She hated guns.

“When you get back from Boston after dealing with some of your family, tell Roxie that we’re going out shopping and having a girls’ day. I won’t take no for an answer because that girl needs friends.”

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

Piero: Marco is at the house.

“I have to go,” I said, stuffing my phone into my pocket and opening my car door.

“Tell Roxie I said hi!” Chiara said, shutting the door.

As soon as the door closed, I stepped on the gas and sped toward the house. I had been waiting to see Marco all fucking day.

When I made it to the house, I walked down the steps to the dungeon. Charlie groaned from the X-styled cross I had tied him to as I walked past him, but I ignored his ass and continued until I came face-to-face with Marco in the other room.

“Charlie acting up again?” Marco asked.

“I told you to guard her, not to fucking touch her.”

Marco widened his eyes. “This is about Roxie?” He scoffed. “Are you ser—”

I slammed my fist into the side of Marco’s face and relished in how quickly his skin turned black and blue. “Don’t fucking test me, Marco. You fucking know better than that.”

Marco stumbled down, stared up at me, and shook his head. “You told me to fuck her. I thought she was another one of the family who—”

Before he finished, I hit him again. “She’s not one of the family whores.”

“I didn’t fucking know she actually meant something to you.”

“You knew. You just didn’t fucking care.”

Marco spat some blood on the concrete floor of the dungeon. “What the fuck do you want me to say to you? I didn’t fucking know. If you had wanted to keep her to yourself, you should’ve.”

“Or I shouldn’t trust fuckheads like you.” I kneeled down to his level and grasped his jaw. “You see anyone else who fucked her the other night try to touch her again? Huh?” I slapped him across the face. “Did anyone else decide to walk into her apartment and touch her?”

“She fell,” he said through clenched teeth.

“You didn’t answer my fucking question.”

“No.”

“Right. Nobody touched her, except you.” I pushed him away and stepped back before I lost it and killed him right here and now. “Let this be a fucking warning, Marco. Touch her again, and I’ll kill you.”

21

roxie

Instead of an alarm blaring in my ear, I woke up to sunlight warming my face. As I blinked my eyes open, I turned onto my side and stared out of my floor-to-ceiling bedroom windows. Not having work was almost a relief. Maybe I could get away with not having to kill that man at all.

If I could wake up like this every day, I’d be set.

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