Saints of the Syndicate by Natalie Nicole

Chapter 5

Sinclair

 

"Something’s not right," comes from Declan as he is staring out over the railing.

Standing up to walk up next to him, with Gio following suit, I ask, "What do you mean?"

His expression gives nothing away, except the slight murderous edge to him. "Gio, check the bar cameras. I think he drugged her," he says, his voice showing no emotion. I know Declan’s rage is just at the surface, ready to boil over. "She is almost at the door now."

I finally glance towards her, and see she is desperately trying to hide. My hands grip the metal railing, and I feel my own temper being pushed to its limits.

"Let's go." Gio grits out. Which means Declan was right. That sick fuck drugged her.

Fuck. Fuck. Motherfucker.

Looks like someone may die tonight, I think to myself. My adrenaline starts to skyrocket as we all barrel down the stairs.

When we reach where the crowd starts, I push the button on the wall to kill the music and turn all the lights on. "Bar’s fucking closed. Cash-out your shit and fucking leave," I belt out as I look towards Karl, giving him a signal that means we are not fucking around. He knows that he is on our shit list now, along with the bartenders for not noticing someone fucking drugging another person at their bar. Like Giovanni already said, we pay the morons for the fucking excessive training. And it's expensive as hell to make sure we have the best.

Obviously fucking not.

But of course, Declan speaks what I'm thinking. "Glad all that money spent training paid off."

I grunt in agreement as we reach the door and look for Bethani. We then turn to Roman, willing a little of the rage his way. "I'm only going to ask this once, Roman. Which way did she go, and was there a guy with her?"

As he falters back a half step, most likely because we all look like we are one step away from breaking every bone in his body, he stammers out, "S-she turned left just past me, tripped on that spot there. I went to help and some guy nodded at me and picked her up. They went down to the corner and turned..." Roman doesn't get to finish as we all blow right past him to race towards the side street between our building and Ralph’s Music Emporium.

"I fucking hope one of you has a weapon on you. All I've got is brass knuckles," I say while slipping on my custom-made matte black titanium knuckles.

"All I have is the hidden knife in my belt." Deck grimaces.

With a huff from Gio, as he slows us all down with tactical hand signals, he whispers, “I've got the Glock with me. Thank fuck one of us was smart enough to remember. Now fucking stop so we can hear what's going on. I think I hear them."

We all stop right by the corner, staying dead silent as we listen to what is hopefully Bethani. We are screwed if it's not them.

"I fucking told you. I told you you'd be fucking sorry to leave me. I was willing to look past your bullshit sob story of a life and make you the perfect little wife for me. All you had to do was listen and do what I said. But no-" was all he got out as we rounded the corner finding Bethani pinned to the wall by a death grip around her neck.

Fuck. No.

Red clouded my vision as I stormed towards them with Gio and Deck right on my heels. The prick's face wasn't super visible, but we all knew who he was. The same dick face that had his hand on her in the club.

In quick succession, as he realized we were on the verge of raining complete hellfire his way, he slammed Bethani back into the wall and turned to run.

I quickly dive for Bethani and just barely catch her as her unconscious body crumples from the blow. My shoulder slams into the pavement in the process.

"Fuck!"

"Declan! GO!" Gio shouts. I assume he tossed the gun his way and let our favorite psycho off his leash to play. "You alright man?"

"Not worried about me G. She is knocked out cold. Go get the SUV so we can lay her flat and get her back to our place."

"Keys?"

"Shit...hold on to her so I can get them.”

As Gio palms his hand under her head to cradle it, a violent string of curses falls from his lips. “Her head is bleeding. Get out from under her and give me your coat Sin, then grab the car and call Deck. Need all 3 of us to get her back.”

I hurry up, shrug my coat off and call D while hauling ass towards my matte black murdered-out Mercedes G-Wagon AMG G63. “Get back to Gio NOW.”

“Heading that way now. Fucker got into a vehicle without plates, and I lost him. Shit bag.”

“Heads bleeding. Almost to my vehicle-“

“FUCK!” he yells, cutting me off then ending the call as I reach my G-Wagon. Quick as hell, I unlock the doors, open the back door, and press the button to lay the seats flat so it’s all a giant trunk. I shut the door, hop in the driver’s seat, and turn it on as I high tail it the 2 blocks to the alleyway.

As I whip my vehicle into the alleyway, I press the button to open the back hatch door. Thank fuck it opens like a normal door. I see Declan is already back. His face is absent of emotion, but his eyes are blazing in fear for Bethani, disappointment towards himself, and a flame towards the vengeance we are going to rain down on this sick bastard for what he did.

While we may all dabble in criminal activity of different levels – from hacking into random shit for the fun of it, to the blood we’ve all had to spill as a requirement, no, demand from our fathers if we wanted to stay alive ourselves – there is one thing we have all been blatantly clear on. Women and children are off. Fucking. Limits.

The back hatch closes, bringing me out of my daze, and I punch the gas to get back to our penthouse on campus.

I hear Gio start bitching at me, “Jesus Christ, Sin! Are you trying to fucking give her a worse concussion than she already has? The hell!"

I ignore his attitude, I know it'll only make everything worse. "One of you call the doc?"

"Yeah. Just texted me that he is waiting at the elevator for us. Don't fucking kill us before we get there," Deck retorts. Smartass. "Still can't believe I let that bitch get away" he mutters to himself, obviously still pissed at himself. For being the tallest of us, he has trained himself ruthlessly to be the fastest. It's one of the things he is super proud about, and I know in this situation, especially with these chaotic feelings coursing through our bodies towards Bethani, his ego is taking a massive hit.

"Pretty sure we all were shocked by the scene that we walked into, not including the fact that he bashed her head against that wall. We all tried to keep her from any further injury than God only knows what he did before we got there. Not your fault man."

"Whatever," he grumbles.

As my hands grip the steering wheel in a white-knuckled rage, I'm completely unaware of the world around me as I attempt to gather some control on my temper. Hearing Giovanni's precise voice as he speaks to our private doctor that we hired breaks me out of my ruthless trance.

 

"Yeah. Two minutes out, tops," he pauses. "Mini lacerations all over her back and arms. Severe strangulation abrasion around her neck from his hand and..." pause again, "two gashes in the back of her head. Both between 1-3 inches long. Plus whatever he drugged her alcohol with. Eyes blown, can't stop the bleeding. Pulling in now. Be. Ready."

Holy hell. How I didn’t kill us driving back here is beyond me. It’s a small grace I’m thankful for as I quickly pull into the parking garage under our campus penthouse.

I slam the SUV into park, earning threatening glares from the guys and an eye roll from Doc Coves. I get out of the vehicle and slam the door as Doc opens the back for Declan and Giovanni. Declan is out first as I reach the back, and we both tug on G's legs while he has a precious hold on Bethani. When we finally get him out into the light of the underground parking lot, we all gasp at the state of her.

Pretty sure my heart stops too in the process. Holy shit.

Her long hair is wrecked and matted all over the place.From the hits to the wall, being moved around, and what looks like an insane amount of blood flowing freely all into her hair and Giovanni's clothes. Her body looks like a limp noodle, and her face is so sickly pale that I could almost throw up from it. But the giant handprint around her neck, which is already turning black, purple, and blue, brings my focus and my temper back into the forefront of my head.

This sick and demonic individual is going to pay.

"Sinclair, I need you and Declan to open the elevator and help grab my bags over there. I’ll help Giovanni get her into the elevator as carefully as possible," Doc says, kicking us all quickly into gear.

As we make our way up the elevator, the doc gives us strict orders once we get her into the mini sterile room we have for ourselves. (Sick I know, yes, but we are not going to a hospital for some damn stitches we can do ourselves. Sue us.) We are to go get showers and keep ourselves busy while he gets her taken care of. He doesn't need us to tell him how to do his job and hover like little shits. He gets resounding grunts and glares from all of us.

Like the seasoned hardass he is when dealing with our attitudes, he pins us right back with glares. "Not kidding guys. You do as I say, or I'll go back down that elevator and you can find another doctor in this area that’s not under your daddies’ payrolls."

"Fucking fine," I mutter.

"I'm sitting outside the door after I'm done," G mocks back.

Deck's staring at the ground while mumbling, "I’ll be in the gym G."

"Same. I need to punch shit before I explode."

Without looking at us, G says, "Just answer the damn phone if I text you."

The elevator door dings open to our penthouse, abruptly ending our conversation. We head to the sterile room, lay Bethani down on the small twin bed we have with a protector on it, then probably all say a prayer of some sort. With nothing more that we can do, we all head to our personal showers to attempt to decompress.

As I'm standing my rainfall shower with the water turned up just past boiling my skin off, I work to temper all the feelings coursing their way through my body. I drop to my knees and do something I haven't done in years. Not since my father made it clear that there was never going to be a God to save my worthless fucked up soul.

With my elbows on my knees, face in my palms, I send God a prayer that Bethani pulls through all this.

Please whoever is up there. I haven't even heard what I can only assume is her melodic voice yet. Haven't got to see how her eyes shine when she is happy and laughing. Haven't got to experience anything yet with her. Please let her be ok. Fuck let her be ok.

I can already feel it settling through my body as I stand back up to wash off before going to our gym.

She is going to be the heaven to our hells. Our complete and absolute hopeless destruction.