Page 176 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

Especially with that comment yesterday about my wife.

Did he want her? Was he planning to try to overthrow me? Maybe he wanted to turn me into the FBI. I didn’t know what the fuck he was up to, but he would never take what was mine from me. Ever.

“What should I do?” she asked. “All my stuff is back in the city.”

“I’ll have somebody bring you your tablet, so you can do some art.”

She widened her eyes, painting a smile on her face. “Okay,” she whispered. “And if you see Laila, can you please tell her to make the right decision? I don’t want to see either of you hurt because of me.”

“None of this is because of you,” I said.

I doubted that she would ever believe it, but it was true. This little problem that we had with Bethany had been going on for far longer than just a few weeks. Having Sage with us had really set Bethany over the edge and turned her into a monster.

“Do you understand that?”

After she nodded, I walked to my car and left for work, driving down the back roads until I merged onto the main highway to head back to New York City. I navigated the busy streets in nearly standstill traffic, then drove into the garage underneath the club.

Not wanting to chat with anyone, I walked straight to my office and sat at my desk. I had peace and quiet for ten minutes. Ten fucking minutes before my door swung open without a knock and Laila walked into the room.

“Where is she?” she asked, hurrying into my office.

I stared at her for a few moments, my chest tightening. It had been a whole night that I had spent without her. Just one fucking night, and it’d felt like a fucking eternity. I didn’t want to go home without her again.

But I hadn’t heard anything about Bethany yet. From anyone.

“Have you done it?” I asked calmly.

I didn’t want her to know how badly this was affecting me. I didn’t want anyone to know. I was out in public, around my guys, my men, my family. If they thought I was weak, Pietro might try to start shit again.

“Please, Constantino, tell me,” Laila pleaded. “Is she okay?”

“Laila, you’re not getting off that easily. Did you do it?” I asked again, more sternly this time so she knew I was serious. I stood up, hands on the table and my dark eyes on her. “No excuses.”

“It’s not that simple,” she said.

“I do it fucking daily,” I said. “All you do is stick a gun to her head and pull the trigger.”

“It’s easy for you because you do it every single day!” she repeated, balling her hands into fists by her sides and glaring at me. “I’ve never killed someone in my entire life. And I don’t wanna start now.”

“So, you haven’t done it yet,” I said.

I had known she hadn’t done it the moment she walked into my office. If she had, her hands would have been covered in blood; she would’ve been shaking and scared and fucking terrified, like I had been my first time.

“You chose her,” I said blankly.

“I didn’t choose her,” she said back, tears in her eyes. “I already told you, I choose you. I choose you and Sage. A family.”

We stared at each other for a long time, and I didn’t know what the fuck to say. I had always been able to find the right words around her, but today, I was lost for them. I didn’t want to hurt her, but she was killing me on the inside.

“You haven’t done it yet.”

“Why didn’t you do it?” she asked, crossing her arms. “You had every opportunity to when you were beating the fuck out of her. Why didn’t you just kill her then? I can’t get my head around it. Do you wanna torture me? Is that what this is for?”

“I want you to understand that your actions have consequences, consequences that I’ve been enduring since we’ve been married. I’ve been trying to keep this family away from the police, away from the FBI. But people keep on fucking with me. I can’t protect anyone if we have rats in our family.”

“Bethany isn’t a rat,” Laila said, standing up for her again. “She’s just a bitch.”

I paused for a moment because that had never come out of her mouth. She had always thought that Bethany was some sort of saint, some sort of goddess that she could look up to, that she could imitate.

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