Saints of the Syndicate by Natalie Nicole

Chapter 34

Bethani

The Day Before Christmas

 

From: Sender UnknownTo: [email protected]

Subject: Tramp

Nothing more than a worthless tramp taking all the dick to get ahead in life like your tramp mother. Disgusting. Slut. You deserve to rot in filth like your mother. You will never amount to anything more than a low-class hooker. Enjoy hell, harlot.

-----

Sighing, I delete the email and glance at the other fifty plus that are of similar fashion, and just trash the rest of them. I’m so sick to my stomach from the number of harassing emails I’ve received from trolls and, who I assume is Peter,since the night of the gala.

It’s mostly been jealous women who saw us in the tabloids that are pissed about my relationship with the guys. They’re irate women that I know will never mean anything to them, but it still hurts all the same being harassed by random people. I finally gathered up the courage a few days after to leave the penthouse, only to be bombarded by news crews and violent crowds of people throwing drinks and food at me. The guys got an alert from the security guard at the gate to the garage as to where I was, and they found me in the back corner crying from it all. I haven’t left the house since. I know I have my heart checkup the day after Christmas, but I’m dreading it. Hopefully Andre the gate guy can help me out.

A knock on the door has me shutting my laptop as more emails ping through to call me all sorts of names. I know I should ask Giovanni how to make them go away, but I don’t want him seeing the stuff from Peter. Or at least who I am assuming is Peter.

Swinging the door open, I’m greeted by none other than Giovanni himself. His arms wrap around me and tears flood my eyes. “Why do all of those random ass people have to be so mean?”

My cries quickly turn to sobs, finally breaking down from everything. He doesn’t respond, just comforts me. They have received some pretty harsh remarks themselves from the media surrounding the Christmas gala. It’s been chaotic, and we have pretty much stayed to ourselves, minus the visits from his grandparents in an attempt to raise our spirits.

Nonno and NonnaMartinelli, Grandpa and Momo Carter, and Pops and Grandma Blackwell have been absolute saints. They canceled all their events until the day after Christmas, and have been at our beck and call. Their unfiltered anger towards the news about their sons is palpable. They can’t decide how they want to act or handle the indiscretions of their children.

Surprisingly enough, we haven’t heard one word from them. I figured Robert, Lorenzo, and Arthur would be firing back at us for the outburst. It was eye-opening to see the destruction that has caused so much pain for them. Once we got back that night, the grandparents asked a million questions. All about what has really been going on with everything since they retired.

Reluctantly, the guys opened up about years of abuse and other horrific things;arranged marriages, constantly being threatened to be cut off, and the shit that happened at home with their mothers. It was disgusting to hear, and my heart broke for them. The whole thing was eye-opening, and if I wasn’t already so over the moon in love with them, I definitely would have been after that night.

My perspective of them has changed completely. I thought they were nothing but silver-spooned stuck-up snobs originally. While my thoughts have obviously changed as walls were broken down, realizing the trauma they have gone through behind closed doors was a pure chaos that no one deserves to endure. Their lives aren’t that much different than mine, other than their social status. It completely makes sense why they act the way they do and are so closed off to the world except for each other.

“Come on, Tesoro, we have a surprise for you.” Glancing up, Giovanni’s gorgeous ocean eyes swirl with what I can now see as well guarded pain. We are all suffering from how the world is turning against us.

“A surprise?” I ask with wonder.

“Yes, Tesoro. A surprise. Now come on.” He quickly spins me around to head towards the main living area but covers my eyes.

“Oh, come on.”

He doesn’t respond. He just walks with me in front of him as we hobble our way towards the living room. We stop, and he moves his hands from my eyes.

“Open up, kitten.”

When my eyes open, I’m in shock. The whole living room looks like a festive winter wonderland complete with a 10-foot decorated tree.

“H-how did you guys do this?” I stutter, still surprised by it all.

They have giant smiles plastered on their faces as they all shrug. “Our grandparents came to help this morning. They will be here in about 30 minutes with food. Do you want to open up some presents, sunshine?”

Shaking my head. “Presents? But I didn’t get anything for you guys!” I’m frantic and feeling utterly terrible that with all the drama going on, I haven’t been able to leave the penthouse to go shop for anything.

They are all surrounding me in an instant. “Kitten, it’s not a big deal. We don’t need anything, and if we do, we just go buy it ourselves.”

Why I’m suddenly irate, I’ll never know. “But that isn’t fair! I had plans to go get you guys stuff, but of course, I can’t leave the damn place without being bombarded!”

They step back at my sudden outburst.

“Wait, you were going to get us presents, Tesoro?”

“Of course I was. Why wouldn’t I?” I’m being defensive.

As usual, Sinclair picks up on my attitude and has me thrown over his shoulder before I can protest. My sweatpants are pulled down just enough to expose my ass, and his hand quickly spanks my right ass cheek.

Ow!”

He ignores me and repeats the process on my left cheek. Then he proceeds to do it a few more times. By the time he stops, the sting has turned into arousal, and I’m begging for more.

“You going to tell us why you are acting like a brat? Or do I need to continue with some more punishment?”

Dropping my head into his back in defeat, I admit why I’m so upset, “I’ve never had a real Christmas.”

“What does that even mean, sunshine?”

“It means I’ve never celebrated it before. I’ve never had a reason to until I met you guys, and I wanted to get you guys at least something small in honor of that.”

Sinclair pulls my sweats back up and carefully sets me down. Suddenly the floor looks very entertaining as I refuse to look at them. With a finger, Sinclair slowly tilts my head up until my eyes meet his.

“This is your first real Christmas?” Reluctantly, I just nod. “Why didn’t you say anything before, kitten?”

I just shrug. “Wasn’t really a point. It didn’t seem necessary to make a giant fuss of it.”

His eyes burn with fire at my nonchalance. “Kitten. We have told you before that if it’s important to you, it’s important to us. We would have found a way to get you to a damn store or even would have given you a card to order the shit.”

I realize he is correct, but I’m not quite ready to budge. “What would have been the point though? You would have followed me the whole time, so how would I have been able to purchase anything? And you track every purchase like a blood hound. You also have every package scanned before it comes to the penthouse, so you would have seen what they were. Am I wrong?”

His look says I’m pushing a fine line, but I don’t even care.

“Dude. She isn’t wrong. No offense but everything is reported to you in emails.”

“Thank you, Declan,” I smile at my little win.

“Kitten…”

Rolling my eyes, I spin and head towards my room. “Be ready in twenty.”

-----

I’ve finally calmed down a bit after taking a quick shower and getting ready, so I guess I need to hurry and find the guys to apologize for being a giant bitch. As I open the door, the guys are all standing there.

“Oh hey. I was just coming to find you all. To, you know, apologize for being anuber bitch.”

“Tesoro, you don’t need to apologize. We do.”

I’m stunned. “Wait. What? Why would you guys need to do that? You and your grandparents went through all this trouble making everything amazing for me, and I acted like an ungrateful bitch. No. Absolutely not. I’m just irritated over all this drama and took it out on you guys. It wasn’t right, and I’m sorry for being a bitch.”

Not giving them a chance to respond, I step up and wrap my arms around Giovanni and pull him down for a heated kiss before moving along to Declan, then Sinclair. Putting a smile on my face, I say, “Come on. Let’s start this Christmas shindig!”

-----

Four hours later, I’m completely stuffed from an ungodly amount of food.

“Good lord. If Nonna tried to feed me another bite of food… ugh.”

We are all stretched out on the massive couch like stuffed pigs. None of us can move. The living room is wrecked with wrapping paper, and the kitchen looks like a food bomb went off with all the leftovers we have to put up. But currently, none of us are in a position to move.

With a groan, Giovanni adjusts his position. “Try growing up with the woman. We were constantly working out in high school to make up for the massive amounts of food she fed us. Our coaches constantly threatened to cut us from the team. Then one weekend, Nonna invited the whole team over. Coach stopped bitching at us after he realized what we dealt with.”

“Ha. Between her feeding us, Momo teaching us how to curse, and Grandma teaching us how to drink, it’s a fucking wonder we have accomplished anything in life,” Declan says, and we all start laughing.

“Shit! We have one more surprise for you, kitten,” Sinclair grumbles as he struggles to get off the couch.

Glaring at him, I say, “Does it involve moving?”

He just scoffs. “Of course. Now get your sweet ass up.”

“Help, please!” I ask as I raise an arm in the air. Unwillingly, Sinclair comes over to help my sorry ass before leading me towards his room with the others following. “If it’s something sex related, you can use your hand. I am not in any form for sex right now.”

“None of us are after a Nonna meal, sunshine. Trust me.”

Reaching his room, Sinclair opens the door and motions for me to go in. Hesitantly I enter.

“What exactly am I looking for?”

They all just brush past me and jump on what I am now realizing is a giant ass bed.

“Holy shit that thing is huge!”

“Custom made and delivered late last night for us, kitten.”

“For us?” I ask, confused as all get out.

Giving me a taste of my own medicine, Sinclair rolls his eyes in a dramatic fashion. Fucking diva. “Yes. For all of us. We are sick of you either falling asleep in your bed or one of ours. So we came up with a solution.”

“And this solution would be one bed?”

“Yup,” Declan responds. “I mean it makes sense. Why would we all fuck like crazy only to have to go back to separate rooms? This makes perfect sense.”

While I’ll give them an A for reasoning, they are definitely in the C or D range for method of delivery.

“Can I ask why we haven’t discussed this? And what if we are upset with each other? Does it really make sense to all sleep together if we are pissed and not in the mood to be near each other?”

They pause momentarily before looking to the usual voice of reason in all of our disagreements, Giovanni.

“We actually have talked about that, Tesoro, and it’s simple. Sure, there are going to be nights where one of us wants space. That’s why we will still keep most of our shit in our rooms for that reason. If for any reason you decide you want to sleep alone, we will all sleep in our own rooms. If Declan or I want to sleep alone, we go to our rooms, and everyone else can sleep here. If Sinclair gets one of his burrs up his ass, then we can all sleep in one of our rooms together.”

My eyes turn to slits. “And the reason we haven’t discussed this as a whole?” I’m losing footing with Giovanni’s damn good explanation.

He looks at me with exasperation before continuing, “Well Sinclair ordered the bed the week after your birthday. We didn’t find out until last week. But he made good points and we don’t disagree with them.”

“Sunshine, we are dating. Most couples our age are already sleeping together on a consistent basis at this point. While our relationship may be a little unusual, it works for all of us. Besides…”

“We are all selfish bastards, Bethani. We want you with us every night. Be it a night of wild sex or all just binge watching a show that took us two damn hours to decide on. Doesn’t matter. You’re ours and we’re yours. Why the fuck wouldn’t we want to sleep next to you every night?”

Damn. Double damn. Triple damn.

I’m completely out of excuses and I know it. Hell, by the sly looks on their faces, they know it too. Slowly making my way towards the bed, I say, “Sometimes it’s not fair when your three boyfriends gang up on you. You do realize that?”

I’m met with three snarky smirks.

“Of course, sunshine. But you fucking love it when we gang up on you.”

I swat Declan’s arm as I climb up on the bed. “Smartass.”

He traps me in his arms and I squeal.

“I’d much rather be a smartass than a dumbass. So thank you for the compliment.”

We make our way to the top of the bed. I’m in between Sinclair and Declan with Giovanni on the other side of Declan, but reaching over to touch me. Warmth envelops me as their body heat radiates off of them. A deep yawn falls from me as the minutes pass.

“Alright, maybe this isn’t so bad.”

They all just chuckle and get comfortable. Just before I fall asleep, a thought crosses my mind “I don’t have to attend any of your family stuff tomorrow. Do I?”

The thought of seeing any of their fathers makes my stomach plummet to my feet. I could feel their ugly curiosity weeping off their pores when I caught their glances that night. The one that unsettled me the most was Sinclair’s father, Arthur. As we were leaving, a sick glint flashed across his eyes, like I was a twisted prize for the taking. It was a look I was used to as a child from the pimps or whoever my mom had at our housing arrangements when they bribed her over and over to have me. It has left an eerie lingering dread in me that I haven’t been able to shake since.

“No worries, sunshine. We won’t subject you to the shit we have to deal with again. But it’s not tomorrow. Our fathers have standing plans on Christmas, so we get to deal with them the day after,” he mumbles into my neck.

I sigh in relief that I don’t have to see them. But I say, “I’m sorry you guys have to see them.”

Us too, kitten. Us too.”

Soon after, we all fall asleep on the bed, and for the first time since the gala, I sleep the whole night without waking up from a nightmare.

Surrounded by the men I love, I know we can get through anything the world throws at us.

If only we knew how quickly everything would be tried and tested.