Saints of the Syndicate by Natalie Nicole
Chapter 25
Giovanni
A Few Days Later
Somehow, someway I’ll never be sure of, but Sinclair’s broody, controlling self gavethe final layer of acceptance and trust to our group. Bethani randomly paused the movie earlier and proceeded to open up to us about her life in more detail. While some of it was rather difficult to hear, I already have the names saved onto my phone to research later. I’ll either destroy myself or pay one of our associates, but I’ll be damned if any of them live to see another normal day soon.
Bethani held strong as she informed us of how many times she went through days without food, had clothes that never fit right, lived in apartments that rarely had heat or water, and slept on a floor that she sometimes shared with roaches and rats. Then she got to the man Jim, who went through a rough patch himself. Which is why he bought Bethani’s mom drugs in exchange for sex once, but then fell in love with our girl. I personally need to thank that man, because if it wasn’t for him going to check on her, there is a good chance she would be dead.
I shiver again at that story, trying to swallow the bile that keeps rising up and threatening to break free while Bethani is sound asleep with her head in my lap.
“You still thinking about that Jim guy?” Sinclair grimly asks, knowingly in the same ominous mood as Declan and myself as we try to focus on the movie.
Running a hand over my face then pinching the bridge of my nose, I sigh. “Yeah. She said she keeps in contact with him still. I need to get his info and thank him for saving her. I’m not...I’m not even sure how the hell I feel about what all she told us. How she isn’t on drugs herself to deal with the shit is beyond me. Fuck, our lives have been hell, but don’t even feel like they ghost what she has dealt with.”
“Yeah, because we are all spoiled pricks. Our hell has always been a fucking facade of luxury. Fucking disgusting. No wonder she wants to be an investigative journalist and photographer to bring to light all the shit that people of our world frown upon like its some fucking disease,” Declan spits in a menacing tone that lets me know his struggle with her story is worse than we thought. He looks like he could drive up to Seattle and burn the city to the ground in vengeance, then torch the state for fun.
“Man, calm down. I know it’s hard. Trust me, I’m ready to use every resource we have in her name, but she isn’t there anymore. She is here with us. We already agreed a while ago we wouldn’t let shit happen to her anymore. And we’re not. So try to control it, or go down to the gym and demolish a few punching bags.”
“Go destroy a few lives sounds better,” he grumbles, and I roll my eyes along with Sin at his temper tantrum.
I decide to change the subject as a way to refocus his attention. “So her birthday is in a few weeks, and we all know they haven’t been the best. Do we have any ideas, or are we just gonna chill here with her?”
“Restaurant,” comes the boring response from Sinclair.
Declan looks at him in disgust. “Dude, that’s such a typical boring ass response. We need to do something different and meaningful for her.”
“Well what’s your idea then, oh fucking wise one?”
“Easy. We take her to her favorite place.”
“When did you find out her favorite place?” I ask. “She said she has never traveled, other than here and LA.”
Declan just gives us an incredulous look like we are missing the point, which we clearly are. “You guys are idiots. Her favorite place is LA. It’s simple, really. We book a long weekend at a nice hotel, show her how we do LA, but also let her show us her side of LA. We take in and appreciate the limited shit she had that made her life happy at that point. Then we write a fucking check to the shelter she lived at as a thank you to that Ramona lady for all the awesome shit she does.” Deck takes a long pull of his beer, like what just fell out of his mouth wasn’t one of the most grown ass mature things he has ever said.
“Who are you, and what did you do with the dumbass Declan we are used to?” Sinclair asks astounded, giving Deck the same look of disbelief as I am while we sit dumbfounded.
He just gives us a sheepish grin. “While I may act like an idiot, I do pay attention on occasion. Especially when it comes to her.” His gaze turns towards Bethani, and we all look down at the astounding woman that has us all wrapped around her pretty little fingers.
“Great idea, Declan. I’ll start looking up hotels and get it all booked. Giovanni, make sure we can miss class and can pull it off without our fathers finding out. I think that is one of the few weekends we have off before all the events begin.”
“Sure,” I mumble as I catch a note of an oddly familiar tune Bethani is humming in her sleep. “Turn that shit off,” I say, waving at the TV, and one of them does. I motion them closer to see if they hear the same thing I’m hearing, or if I’ve lost my fucking mind.
As we sit there and listen to her mumbling, our eyes go wide as familiar words we’ve sung so many times filter through her mouth while she sleeps
“With thine blood,We unite as one
With thine blood,Our enemies shall fall
Ante Mortem Infidelitatis”
“Holy. Fuck,” we all whisper as she falls back into a deep sleep, and her mumbling ceases.
“How does she know that fucking song?” Sinclair demands as he moves back away from her, almost in shock and pure rage. “Is she some sort of fucking spy or something? What the fuck?”
“Hold on. Just slow down, Sinclair. We have fucking proof she is from Washington. We also have proof that she was in LA and has never come into contact with any known associates of ours,” I counter in an attempt to calm his crazy ass down before all hell breaks loose.
His arms cross over his chest as he pins me with a quizzical, yet still pissed off look. “Oh really? We do? When were you going to enlighten us with that tidbit of information?”
Sighing, because I know they are both going to be pissed regardless, I choose the truth. “After she got better, I broke through her records at Washington State Children Services just to verify. I’ve known for a few weeks, but didn’t think it was anything worth bringing up because I only looked to make sure she was who she said she was. I didn’t have it in me to open the 40+ different folders that had pictures and shit detailing what she told us tonight. Then I verified her whereabouts at the shelter in LA. The woman Ramona still works there. I just played it off that we were the school and were processing her for a room upgrade, but we had to make sure she wasn’t lying. Bethani is who she says she is.”
If looks could kill, I’d be fucking dead right now. I’m also thankful as fuck Bethani sleeps like a bear in hibernation, because she’d be just as pissed as these two currently are with me.
“We will be discussing this later, Giovanni. But first, how the fuck does she know that song?”
All of us are silent. Because God's honest truth? We don’t have a single fucking clue as to how she would know something that only 100 living men and maybe another 250 dead ones know.
Et InfidelitatisConsciusNatus, otherwise known as The Disloyalty Song, is the song the founding members made up as a joining force to our secrecy, and loyalties of the Trident as a whole. The song is long and tedious as fuck to learn, but it is a shared requirement that every member must know and retain.
“Wait a minute. G, do we have any current or deceased members of the Syndicate located up there?” Declan asks with a look crossing his face that I can’t quite decipher.
I ponder for a moment while stroking Bethani’s hair to calm the nervous energy rolling through. Sinclair is pacing and Declan looks like a cracked out child with whatever theory he has ready to burst out of him.
“Dude, chill the fuck out before you wake her up,” I say.
He sits back down on the opposite side of the couch so he can keep up with his knee knocking. “Off the top of my head, no, I don’t believe there are any living members up there currently. Deceased, possibly, but those records are located in the catacomb private sector that we do not have access to yet. The only ones with clearance for that are our fathers and grandfathers. All members would be in their private library in the original Trident book. It's that super old journal that came from Mother Russia with your 5th or 6th great grandparents Sinclair. To gain access to it, we’d have to break in or see if we can convince our fathers to let us have access. What is your theory with this, Declan?”
He jumps up quickly to start pacing, and rapid fire whisper yells so he doesn’t wake up Bethani. “Ok so she doesn’t know her dad, right? Well what if her dad or a paternal male or whatever was a member and sang the song to her as a baby? Like we all know her mom is a piece of shit, but what if Bethani was part of the elite society like us? What if her mom couldn’t handle the pressure and just dipped out and changed her name so he couldn’t find them? But she obviously doesn’t remember the shit because she was so little. It’s just one of those things she does unconsciously or whatever.”
“You mean subconsciously.”
He turns and points at me. “Yeah! That! I mean it’s a wild theory, but it could be one right?”
Scratching my head, I look to Sinclair for advice on this. “What do you think man? I mean it sounds a little far-fetched to me. Why would someone want to leave a comfortable lifestyle for what she went through?”
Declan visibly deflates at my thoughts, but Sinclair saves it. “Deck, G isn’t saying your theory is bad. It's just a little out there. The only way we can know for sure, is by asking her if she wants to find out about her paternal heritage. Those tests take up to two months depending on how legit they are. That would give us time to figure out how to get the records of all members and at least do thorough backgrounds on them to see if there are any potential possibilities. It’s a long shot Deck, I will say that, but it’s the only fucking theory I can even come up with that doesn’t sound completely fucking stupid either. So good job man.” Sin gives Declan a reassuring slap on the back before turning back to me with a look that fills my stomach with utter dread and disgust. “G, I fucking hate this, but we need all those files and shit. You have them on the computer where we can look over it all?”
“Yeah, I copied everything just in case. I figured electronically breaking in twice was a bad idea, so I made sure to get it all.”
His nod is solemn as he verbalizes the same thing I’m thinking, “We gotta go over it. Every sick and twisted detail of her life. I don’t want to see the shit either, because I know when it’s all said and done, if any of those bastards that made her life hell are still alive, I’ll be making a trip to Seattle to personally end their worthless fucking lives myself.”
“Hear, hear,” Deck interrupts, agreeing that people will die.
“Hear, hear,” I mutter in agreement.
“Let’s take a day or two to prepare. We’ll talk to her first about the DNA testing, then get everything planned before we start going over shit.”
“What if she doesn’t agree to the testing?” Declan asks, bringing up a solid point.
“What if we just wait until she agrees before we delve into the black abyss that is what we are about to do?” I pipe in. “I mean, it’s all somewhat moot if she won’t do it. And I’m not doing it without her consent. That could open up a whole can of shit we don’t need to open with her, especially now that she trusts us. Plus that gives us more time to come up with about 10 different ideas and back up plans for how to get access to the records. I have zero issues with death, but I’d rather postpone it for as long as possible since we are basically talking about committing treason within the walls of our lives.”
Sinclair and Declan both roll what I’m saying around in their heads for a few minutes before agreeing that the more conservative approach is the better option.
“Fair point, genius boy.”
I chuckle. “Fuck you, Sin. For being the controlling fucker you are, you sure do enjoy going into a situation full fucking tilt. My non apologies for preferring to have a multitude of options for us to have and be prepared for any and all possibilities.”
“Boy scout,” snickers Declan, and I pick up the remote and toss it, hitting him in the shoulder.
“My boy scout ways have kept you happy and satisfied plenty of times, dick.”
“Oh fucking hell. I’m out. Not listening to you fucks and your sword fighting stories,” Sinclair mumbles while storming to his room, while Declan and I snicker at his slight aversion with our now blatant talk of our sexuality. By no means is he against us being bisexual, but you can tell he is still adjusting to us freely talking about it when we hid everything for so long. That’s on us too for not saying shit, but at least now he knows and accepts. So we can cut him a little slack.
Leaning further into the couch, I glance down at Bethani. “Tesoro, this would all be a lot fucking easier if you knew who your father was.”
“Think her life will be in danger if my theory proves true?” Declan asks cautiously.
“Honestly, she has been attacked once. For all we know, she could already be in danger and none of us realize it. There could be someone ten fucking steps ahead of us and just waiting to strike. We won’t know until we get what we need. All we can do right now is protect her the best we can and stay alert of any situation that has the potential for disaster.”
“True. You got her, or do you want me to take her to her room.”
“Go to sleep, Deck. I got her.”
He walks to his room, and I just sit there for a while, contemplating the shit storm heading our way. I adjust myself to fall asleep with Bethani on the couch when my eyes get too heavy to stay awake any longer.