Page 25 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

“How many times do I have to fucking tell you that we were never exclusive?” I asked. “We’ve been over for two fucking years. Drop the little act you’ve been putting on with my sister.” I tore the door open and gestured for her to leave. “Out.”

After a humph, she hopped back off the desk and sauntered to the door, drawing her fingers around my collar. “She’s pretty feisty too. Just how you like them,” she said. “She’d better be careful.”

“You think about touching her, I will kill you.”

She let go of my collar and walked down the hall. “I won’t touch her, Cristian. Not yet.”

I watched her disappear and growled to myself. I had to get Roxie a fucking gun. If she was going to be the coldhearted killer that my father had made me, she needed to know how to protect herself, especially from people like Alessa.

17

roxie

Instead of heading straight home like I should have, I walked up to the bar and demanded that they give me the strongest drink they had. When the bartender asked me for my card, I snatched the drink away from him and told him that the owner would be kind enough to pay for me. I wanted to get hammered after today, but didn’t have any money to my name.

I slid onto one of the barstools, glancing up at Marco staring at me from across the bar. I wasn’t killing any man tonight or tomorrow or even the next day. Cristian couldn’t get me to do it even if he threatened me with death. There was absolutely no way that I’d let him control me like he had with Ben.

That was why Marco would do it for me. I’d do anything that I had to do to get him to comply. Flirt with him behind Cristian’s back, sleep with him behind Cristian’s back, blow him behind Cristian’s back. But first, I’d ask nicely.

Because I didn’t want to be on my knees for a man just to get him to do my dirty work.

If he said no, then I’d—

“Cristian isn’t a bad guy,” someone said, taking a seat next to me.

Glancing over, I noticed that same brunette woman from Cristian’s office. Chiara, I thought her name was. She asked the bartender for a glass of sambuca, sipped it, and looked over at me. Between the Chanel handbag, dress, and jewels dripping off her body, everything about her screamed Mafia.

Of course she wouldn’t think that he was a bad guy. She and her boy toy must do the exact same thing—deal drugs, swim in million-dollar pools, not a care in the world, and murder people while they slept.

“You can’t talk,” I snapped at her. “You’re just like him, aren’t you?”

Her eyes widened, as if she was surprised, and then she smiled at me. “Cristian will have his hands full with you. You’re a feisty one. Not many people have big enough balls to talk back to him the way you did back there.”

After taking another gulp of my drink, I shoved the glass to the bartender. “Another one.” When he placed another glass on the counter, I turned to her with my brows drawn together. “He killed my fiancé, kidnapped me, and forced me to lose my job. Why wouldn’t I be pissed at him?”

She smiled and took another sip of her sambuca. “He deserves for you to be pissed at him. He’s a good guy, but he can be a dick. All men in the Mafia are—until they find that one woman who is brave enough to put them in their place.” She pushed the half-empty glass to the edge of the counter and stood. “And I think Cristian has finally found his match.”

I gave an ugly snort of a laugh and turned back to the bar. What a joke. This woman actually thought that I had the hots for the cruelest man in Manhattan, thought that I could change him to be a better person.

“You don’t have to believe me,” Chiara said, grabbing her purse. “You will eventually. And as you’re going to be here quite often, you’re going to need a friend. The family whores will try everything to get with Cristian. I’ve seen it up close.”

My hands balled into tight fists at the mere thought of it. Chiara looked down at my hands and smirked, knowing she had gotten me to expose my true thoughts about all of this. I unclenched them and grimaced at her.

“I’m Roxie,” I said.

“Chiara,” she said, stealing my phone away and putting in her number. “Call me anytime.”

When she walked away, I stared back at her and thrust my phone back into my pocket. “Another drink, please,” I said to the bartender.

He eyed my empty glass and reluctantly gave me another one. I drank it down, not wanting to even feel for the rest of the day.

Cristian walked out of his office and around the bar, whispering something to Marco. He made eye contact with me, and I tore my gaze away and clenched my jaw. I hated the man for making me do what Ben should’ve done before he got murdered.

I couldn’t kill someone. I couldn’t put a bullet through someone’s head. I couldn’t tear families apart the same way that the Ricci family had done to my grandfather. Cristian had to have a good fucking reason for wanting this man dead if he wanted an outsider to kill him.

When Cristian disappeared back into his office, I blinked a few times to reorient myself. All I could feel was the alcohol coursing through my veins, making me woozy. Just how I’d wanted it to. If I could just forget today had ever happened and go back to my job tomorrow morning, that would be amazing.

I’d do fucking anything to have my normal, in-debt life back.

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