Page 57 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

“Alessa,” Cristian scolded, cutting his eyes to her, “I’m busy.”

“But—”

“Why don’t you two chat?” I stood up, arched a brow, and tugged off my shirt in front of everyone, wanting Cristian’s attention on me, no matter who tried to chat with him tonight. “I’m going to take a dip in the pool upstairs. Chiara said that you had one.”

Cristian grabbed my hand, glared down at my scantily covered chest, and yanked me back to him. “What the fuck are you wearing?”

I shimmied out of my skirt to stand in nothing but the tiny little string bikini wrapped around my body. Everyone stared at me, including Marco, and I smiled back at Cristian innocently.

“Just a bikini,” I said, batting my lashes, just as Alessa had. I leaned in closer, as if I were going to kiss him. “I’ll see you later.” Then, I pulled away from him and strutted past Marco.

“Roxie!” Cristian shouted from the rear of the boat, but I didn’t look back.

Alessa could try to tear Cristian away from me, but that possessive man wouldn’t be able to think, knowing that I was wearing a bikini two sizes too small around all of his men. Cristian was mine, no matter what she tried to do and no matter how jealous she tried to make me.

All fucking mine.

46

cristian

Dressed like one of the family sluts, half-naked in a thong bikini and an even smaller top, Roxie walked away from me, swaying her hips from side to side and commanding the attention from even my most loyal men. I balled my hands into fists as Alessa claimed her spot beside me, and I called for Roxie to get back here. I didn’t want her walking around the yacht like that.

Before I could stop her, she smirked back at me and disappeared into a hallway that led to the upper-deck pool.

Alessa wrapped her arms around mine, her nails digging into my bicep. “I need to talk to you about some things,” she purred. “They’re important.”

“Get your fucking hands off me,” I said through clenched teeth.

She pulled her arms away, crossing her legs and leaning against me with her tits pressed against my arm instead. I clenched my jaw and glared down at her, watching my sister walk toward me from the corner of my eye.

“If you weren’t Aida’s best friend, I would’ve killed you by now.”

“But you won’t,” she said with a smirk, tongue sneaking out like a fucking snake. “You already took your father away from her. You don’t have the balls to kill her best friend too. You know she’d hate you for that. Now, I want to talk.”

Not wanting her to tell my business to everyone, I grasped her by the elbow and pulled her up the stairs onto the upper deck, where I could both keep an eye on Roxie at the pool and talk to Alessa in private. Because that bitch would tell my business to everyone if she got the chance.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” I said to Alessa. “I didn’t kill my parents.”

Alessa crossed her arms. “Oh, no? You didn’t? Well, Aida thinks you did.”

“Because you fed that fucking lie to her,” I said through gritted teeth.

“I told her nothing but the truth.” She smiled. “Anyway, when are you going to drop the whore? She doesn’t get along with anyone in the family and has all your men all over her all the time, especially Marco. It’s about time you marry a woman who will kill for you, like you’ve always wanted.”

I flared my nostrils. “That woman was never you.”

She drew her manicured fingers up my abdomen. “Believe what you want, Cristian. But when Roxie breaks your heart and cheats on you with one of your men, like your mom cheated on your father … you’ll be running back to me.”

Glancing over at Roxie, I caught her glaring hard at Alessa, brown eyes blazing with fury, hands balled into fists, jaw clenched hard. I moved closer to Alessa, wanting to see how Roxie would react to me and her, only to see her get even angrier.

I might’ve been going about this the wrong way for far too long. I didn’t need Roxie to watch me kill and torture man after man after man. All I needed was to bring Alessa a bit closer, get Roxie jealous, and make Roxie kill Alessa herself. Then, she’d be what I had set out to make her for years—Manhattan’s most heartless killer.

And when Alessa was dead and Roxie needed me to hide the pathetic, whorish body for her, she’d be forever indebted to me—a debt that could only be forgiven through marriage.

But I wouldn’t go out of my way to be with Alessa. Roxie and I were in a good place, and I wasn’t going to willingly ruin it in hopes of making her mine for the rest of our lives. But … she couldn’t be soft Roxie forever, especially not in this family.

Sooner or later, Roxie would kill, whether it was out of jealousy or self-defense.

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