Page 175 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

Tears streamed down my face. All just because I wanted people to like me.

God, it felt so stupid. I felt so stupid. How can I let this happen? Let my husband believe that I don’t choose him before anyone else? That I would gladly support my best friend over him? What the fuck is wrong with me?

“Are you going to push the button?” my guard for the afternoon asked.

I let out another deep breath and hit the lower-level button. Once we made it to the bottom floor, I walked to my car and decided just to drive. I didn’t have a destination in mind. Sage and Constantino were probably back at the house, but they didn’t want me there, so I wasn’t going to go.

I needed to fix this first.

So, I drove, and I drove, and I drove, and somehow, I made it back to The Syndicate myself a couple of hours later. I parked in the back and spotted Pietro’s car in the alleyway. Constantino wasn’t here yet, but he had work soon.

They were supposed to be working on an important shipment this week.

After frowning, I walked in through the back door. Pietro sat at the bar, one hand grasping a glass and the other scrolling through his phone. I glanced around at the few people here for an afternoon and walked toward him.

He had always been so sweet to me. Maybe he knew where his brother was.

“Hey,” I said, sliding onto the chair next to him. “Do you happen to know where your brother is?”

“Constantino? No.”

I glanced over at him and saw that his nose had also been broken, just like Bethany’s. My eyes widened.

“What the hell happened to you?” I asked nervously, my stomach twisting. “Please don’t tell me that my husband did that to you too.”

“What’s gotten into him?” he asked, peering at me. “I don’t understand what’s happening.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Why is he with that girl? And why the fuck are you letting him run around with her?”

I swallowed hard and rubbed my sweaty palms together. I really didn’t wanna tell anyone, but holding it back and keeping this a secret was hurting everyone, especially my husband and Sage.

“Please don’t tell anyone,” I whispered, clutching on to his forearm. “I … asked Constantino if she could spend some time with us. In the bedroom.” My voice was barely a whisper. It was so hard to say that out loud to people who didn’t understand how I felt. I had felt this way about women for so long in secret that …I could barely articulate it. “I wanted to explore.”

“Shit,” he said. “I didn’t think he was telling the truth.”

“Why? Did my husband say something?”

He had promised me that he’d keep it a secret, but things had been getting out of hand so much lately. If he had said something to his brother, I wouldn’t blame him. I knew that Pietro wouldn’t look at me any differently. It was Bethany and my friends that I worried about.

“We got into a little fight yesterday,” he said. “And he might’ve mentioned something.”

“Did you tell anyone else?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “But everyone in the family thinks he’s cheating on you. Why didn’t you just say something?”

“Say something?” I repeated. How can I say anything in this family? I swallowed hard. “Because I’m nervous about what my friends are going to think. Because I … I don’t just like her. I love her,” I whispered. “I love her, and I want to have a family with them.”

This was the first time I had said it out loud to anyone other than Constantino. I hadn’t even told Sage yet that I wanted her in my life forever. Maybe she didn’t feel the same way, especially after what had happened yesterday.

Maybe she didn’t, but I wasn’t going to let either of them go.

Not now.

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“I have to go to work,” I said to Sage, grabbing my wallet and walking to the garage. “No talking to Laila while I’m gone. She needs to fix something before she’s allowed back. And I don’t want her to find out that you’re here.”

We had been cooped up in here all day, and I needed to get back to work. I couldn’t have my brother continue to run things around here or else he’d get us all locked up. I loved him, but he was getting on my fucking nerves.

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