Syndicate of Sin

Chapter 1

Killing always came easily to me. Loving did not.

I held the muzzle of my gun right between Charlie’s eyes and stared down at the guy, feeling no ounce of sympathy for such a pitiful, filthy man. He had corrupted the Ricci name by taking those children, doing things so sinful to them that he’d be sent straight to f*****g hell. Right where he belonged.

“I trusted you, Charlie,” I said through clenched teeth, taking the safety off. “And you did the one thing you and I both know this family never does.” I pushed the gun further against his forehead, watching the tears fall down his cheeks. “Tell me what you did, so I know you know why I’m about to shoot you f*****g dead.”

neveryou “Please,” he pleaded. “Please, Cristian … I’ve known you since you were a boy.” More tears slid down his cheeks, but he’d had no sympathy when he was touching those f*****g children, so I had no sympathy now. “Don’t do this.”

I grabbed a knife from the pocket of my suit pants, opened it, and slid it right across his cheek, carving a deep gash in the thing he’d spent thousands on. When I had been young and impressionable, I’d thought it was to look good for the women. But now, I knew it was to appear attractive and youthful, trusting even, to young boys.

He grasped his face and screamed. “Cristian. Please …” Blood spewed out of his wound.

“f*****g tell me, Charlie, or I’ll do it again. You don’t deserve an easy f*****g death.”

Nothing.

I slid the knife across his other cheek, then broke his nose just for the f*****g fun of it. “You’re a piece of s**t. If my father were still alive, he’d be f*****g disgusted with himself, knowing that one of his best men did this.”

Charlie grasped his nose and doubled over, spitting up blood. “I won’t do it again. I swear, Cristian. You have to believe me. It was one time. One time! It didn’t even mean anything. I didn’t do anything to the kid.”

My jaw twitched, my finger hovering over the trigger. I didn’t want him to be on this f*****g planet anymore, didn’t care about torturing his ass. He deserved death—cold and final death—more than any of the men I had killed.

“Boss,” one of my guards said. “Ben wants to see you.”

Ben. I pressed my lips together at the sound of his name. Another man I’d have to get rid of soon if he continued to disappoint me. I didn’t have time for his bullshit now though. I had other assholes to deal with.

Ben“I’m busy.”

Someone pushed the door open.

“Please, boss,” Ben said, stepping into the room without f*****g permission.

Couldn’t he f*****g see that I was in the middle of something important?

The guard grabbed him by the shoulder to shove him out, but I stopped him.

“He can stay,” I said, gliding my tongue across the inside of my teeth.

Let him stay, so I can show him what will happen to him if he doesn’t clean up his act.

Let him stay, so I can show him what will happen to him if he doesn’t clean up his act.Ben stared at Charlie, then at the blood on my hands. “I can come back. Sorry for—”

“Sit the f**k down,” I said to Ben. “You wanted to talk to me. You interrupted me. You will wait.”

Ben scrambled to a seat at my desk, and I turned back to Charlie.

“You’re a sorry excuse for a Ricci,” I said. “Take him to the f*****g dungeon and chain him up. I’ll be down to handle him later.”

Two guards looped their arms around his and picked him up. Charlie tried scrambling away, shaking his head back and forth and telling me that I was making the biggest mistake of my life. After they took him out the back door, I stuffed my gun into the waistband of my pants and walked around my desk.

“Did you do as I’d asked?” I asked Ben.

Ben glanced from the back door to me and looked at his lap. “Boss, I can’t do this anymore.” He shook his head. “Please, I can’t.” That fearful expression crossed his face, the same one I’d told him he was going to have after gambling away my money.

I stared at him, my tongue gliding across my teeth again as I took a sip of my sambuca. It tasted sour in my mouth tonight, or maybe that was just the thought of a Ricci ever doing that to a child.

Music thumped from my club into my office, and I tried to use the alcohol to relax because I was one moment away from killing this fucker right here. I didn’t have the patience tonight, and he was beginning to become a nuisance.

“You steal my money, are thousands of dollars in gambling debt, and think you can ask to just stop?” I asked, rage boiling inside of me. My jaw tightened. “You have the f*****g audacity to ask me to let you go?” My voice was quiet—deathly quiet.

my“Please,” Ben said.

I slammed my hand on my desk. “I gave you a choice two months ago. Work for me or get a bullet straight through your head. You chose to work for me, so that’s what you’re going to f*****g do.”

Ben shook his head. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t kill people.”

After blowing out a deep breath, I looked him straight in the eyes. “What happens when your fiancée finds out about your little problem? Huh? She doesn’t know what you do, does she?” When he shook his head, I cracked a small smile. “Maybe she should find out why you’ve been out late for so many late nights, how you’re thousands of dollars in debt, that you don’t have a f*****g cent to your name, and that you have an addiction you can’t f*****g overcome.”

little “Don’t tell her, please,” he said, shaking his head.

“I suppose she doesn’t know about all the money you’ve taken from her too.”

“I haven’t taken anything from her.”

Lie.

Lie.“You haven’t gambled away your savings yet? What about that ring on her finger? Does she know it’s fake?”

“It’s not fake,” Ben said, but he couldn’t look me in the eye when he said it. After I let him simmer for a few moments, he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if it’s fake or not. She loves me, and I love her.”

I placed my gun on the desk and took another swig of my sambuca, letting it sit in my mouth for a moment as I stared at the man in front of me, who seemed to be spooked.

“Her name is Roxie, isn’t it?” I asked, letting her name roll off my tongue. “She’s very beautiful. It’d be quite terrible if I had to take her from you to pay off your debt.”

“Please, don’t. She’d leave me if she found out. She would f*****g leave me.”

“You want out, don’t you?” I asked. “There’s a price.”

He stood and placed his hands on my desk. “Please, boss. Don’t involve her. She doesn’t know anything about where I’ve been going, what I’ve been doing, who I am. It would break her heart.”

my “You love her?” I asked, brow arched.

He nodded frantically. “More than anything. I do this all for her. Please, don’t involve her in this. It’s my fuckup.”

I stood too, grabbed my gun, and walked around him. A bead of sweat rolled down that lousy neck of his. I should’ve broken it when I had the chance.

“You don’t do this for her. You do this because you gambled away my money and thought you could get away with it. You don’t love her because if you did, you’d have dropped her the moment you got involved with me.”

youmy “I do love her,” he said, sounding so sure of it.

“You don’t. You’re just selfish.” But so was I.

I had only seen her a handful of times in passing, but I knew she’d be mine one day.

After opening the door for him, I gestured for him to leave. “You’re not out, but you’re going to bring her here tomorrow night. Ten p.m. Don’t be late.”

I had business with another family tomorrow night about more men who’d made bad decisions involving children, but I’d be willing to make room for sweet ol’ Roxie too.