Saints of the Syndicate by Natalie Nicole

Chapter 14

Bethani

 

After finishing breakfast in silence, we all move to the living room area. I sit on one end of the massive U shaped couch, when Declan decides he still isn’t done being up my ass. He promptly moves me and settles me against his side, while Giovanni moves to my right side and adjusts me to where I’m leaning against Declan with my legs in Giovanni’s lap. Sinclair sits in the middle section of the couch, but not far away from all of us.

Clingy asses. It doesn’t even make sense, but I’m not going to complain seeing as how Giovanni starts rubbing my feet and Declan is rubbing my back gently, careful of the scratches.

“So...what would you guys like to know?” I finally ask to break the uncomfortable silence.

“Everything,” Sinclair demands, which causes me to roll my eyes. “Watch it, with that eye roll, kitten, before I come over there.”

“Christ Sin, can you chill out for two seconds?” Giovanni asks before turning back to me. “How about telling us about your acceptance here to the school and what it’s been like for you, Tesoro.”

That makes me smile. “Thank you for being so sweet, Giovanni. At least one of you has manners.” He smiles back and continues to rub my feet, which feels heavenly.

“Kiss ass,” Sinclair grumbles, but I ignore him.

“I honestly wasn’t planning on coming here at all. I was saving up and filling out scholarship options for one of the community colleges down in LA. One of the ladies where I lived saw an ad somewhere for this school, and she told me about an essay contest they have for people in situations like myself. I was skeptical about it, but she bribed my ass with her famous tamales and threatened to never make them again for me if I didn’t apply. So I grumbled about it for a few days and finally sent in the essay at the last minute.”

I stop and take a sip of coffee before continuing, “Somehow it was accepted, and I was awarded a full scholarship for tuition, books, a room, and the basic meal plan they have here. Three months later, I showed up for orientation all excited, but quickly realized it wasn’t that great. The nine other winners and I were excluded from the main orientation. We were basically given our maps of campus, told to declare our major and schedule classes, but we were not guaranteed to get them since we were some of the last ones to submit our stuff. Then someone walked us to the building we were staying at and told us that our key opened the door to our dorm area, but our rooms only had an internal lock and they aren’t responsible for our possessions. Basically if you forget to lock your door when you are in there, then sucks to fucking suck. Thankfully, I taught myself how to lock my door and reopen it with my student id, so I’ve been lucky for the most part.”

I have to stop before I go down the rabbit hole of the jackass that thought he was funny and tried to scare the shit out of me. The memory makes me shiver, and Giovanni stops with his massage to give me a questioning look.

“What happened, Tesoro?”

I wave my hand in the air dismissively. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

Declan wraps his arms around me bear hug style. “Tell us, sunshine.”

“I...took care of it. Trust me.” I’m fumbling my words. It’s embarrassing, humiliating even.

“Didn’t say we didn’t trust you, baby B. We just want to know who needs their ass kicked, that’s all.”

“I’ll answer if you can tell me why I’m not ‘allowed’ to go back to my dorm.”

“Simple, kitten. One, that place is a fucking shit hole from hell that’s going to become unusable soon enough. Two, living in mold? Fuck that. Three…” he pauses, mulling over his words. “I guess you could say that we have an... interest in you. One that we would like to see how it evolves. You being here makes that easier, and after the attack, none of us trust that conniving rat and the seedy way he acts. This is the safest place on campus, and you won’t have to be looking over your shoulder constantly.”

Unusable? What the hell does that even mean? “I’ll let the unusable comment pass for now. Only because, yeah, I agree that the mold everywhere sucked. I’ve bleached the place a handful of times, and it doesn’t do anything. Also, I can handle Peter. He is just another spoiled prick that is mad because I wouldn’t sleep with him.”

Declan’s grip around me tightens at the mention of Peter’s name. Giovanni’s and Sinclair’s eyes flash quickly with anger, but they quickly school it before Sinclair replies, “G will explain in a bit as to why we disagree and think fuck face isn’t who he says he is, but back to the question, Bethani. What happened in your dorm? B+ for trying to deflect on the original question, F for thinking it would work.”

“Damnit,” I mutter before finally speaking. “A guy snuck into my room and attempted to get handsy with me. I kneed him in the balls. He walked out of my room, but before I could lock my door, he came back in with some brass knuckles. Thankfully I had my Taser at that point, so I used it on him. He cracked a couple ribs. I hit him with 1.7 million volts, then broke his nose. Like I said, I took care of it. He left school a week later when he tried to talk to me, and I threatened to post flyers everywhere that he is a sick freak.”

All three of them are just staring at me, faces blank. I’m not sure if they are surprised that I’m not a damsel in distress or at what Alessandro tried. As someone who witnessed her mother’s demise with drugs, as well as the things men forced on her so she could get her fixes, I refused to be like that. While I don’t know much about self-defense, I taught myself the basics to give myself a fighting chance if it were to happen to me. It’s happened twice so far. The first one, I obviously prevailed. This most recent one, not so much. But the bitch drugged me, so it wasn’t exactly a fair fight.

Giovanni pulls his phone out. “What was his name sweetheart?” he asks while doing something on his phone, not looking up.

“Why?”

“Just answer him, sunshine. Trust me.” Declan whispers in my ear.

“Alessandro something. I honestly don’t remember.”

“This him?” Giovanni asks, then he shows me his phone so I can see the student ID.

I look and see it is indeed him, and I just nod my head yes. He goes back to doing something on his phone for a minute.

“Currently serving 35 years in a California prison for rape of a minor, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, and three parole violations.”

“How did you find all that out so quickly?”

He just glances at me, flashing me a smile in the process, but says nothing.

“Self-taught hacker and computer genius, kitten. That’s how we found you yesterday.”

Declan also chimes in behind me, “He doesn’t broadcast his skills, sunshine. Most nerds keep their skillsets well hidden, because they get all pissy if someone takes their idea and makes it better.”

Giovanni just flips him the middle finger while continuing to search on his phone. “Just don’t want everyone and their damn mother asking for my help, like you two useless shit bags. I’m busy enough trying to meet your demands as is.”

I laugh at that, then realize something. “Hold up. What all do you already know about me, then?” I ask, getting slightly defensive.

He just gives me a sheepish look, like a child being told they can’t have candy. “Not much, Tesoro. That’s why we are asking you. I figured I’d ask you before I started hacking the Washington state databases.”

I still at the mention of my home state. I have nothing against Seattle, but it’s not filled with many happy memories. I’m usually great at suppressing the memories and just ignoring that whole chunk of my life. I’m already mentally preparing for the questions about to be asked, but then I say screw it and start talking before they can inquire about something I physically can’t answer without losing my shit.

“Before you even ask, I’ll give you a basic run down but I can’t go into details. You are just going to have to accept what I give you for now and let the rest go.” They all nod, choosing not to speak and respecting my limited truth.

“I’ve never met my father. At least I don’t think I’ve met him. My mother was a drug addict, so it was moving from shithole place to shithole place, while there was a random string of men that flowed through our door. I was never able to get a straight answer from her. Hell, I doubt she even remembered the truth when I was old enough to ask. It was either he left before I was born, or I was super young and she left him because he was abusive, or he is dead. Maybe it was a combination of the three?”

I shrug but continue, “Anyways, I became a ward of the state at 10 when she got busted one too many times with a needle in her arm and while I was  sitting beside her, begging her to wake up when one of her ‘flings’ came in. He had been there before and finally got sick of it, so he kept calling and coming back until the state finally came in and took me away. I stayed a ward until I filed to be considered a legal adult at 17. The state obviously didn’t care. They approved me, and I took what little cash I had and made it to LA. I lived in the homeless shelter until I came here. Made a few friends in LA, and I still keep in contact with my one friend here, Stella. Other than that, I keep to myself, minus my lack of brain cells that caused me to spend the last two months of the last school year with Peter. I stayed in the dorm over the summer since I didn’t have anywhere else to stay. I also found a little coffee house down the street I could walk to, and I worked there until classes started back up. So yeah. That’s my life.”

And I still do not understand how I have even remotely crossed these guys’ radar, because they are their own damn universe compared to me. But that’s a thought I keep to myself.

They just stare at me, not speaking. But the inquisitive looks on their faces tell the same story. They want more. More questions. More answers. More gritty details of my life that I’m not sure if I’m willing to delve into.