Saints of the Syndicate by Natalie Nicole
Chapter 8
Giovanni
Stunned silence is all you can hear in my room, other than the occasional whirl of one of my computers that’s running a program.Declan, Sinclair, and myself are all standing or sitting with slack jaw expressions at Bethani’s outburst towards us.
Scholarship sob story? Why would she think that about herself when almost a third of campus is here on a scholarships, full or partial, for sports or specific academic majors that are more on a unique side and not offered in most state schools?
I finally gather my thoughts enough to formulate words. “By chance do any of you have an idea what she is talking about with the scholarship stuff?”
Declan shakes his head, running his hands through his hair and letting out a deep breath. “Not at all. Aren’t most of the sports players on a scholarship of some sort? So why would she be any different?”
“I’m...honestly not sure. But something doesn’t add up.” I jump up from the bed quickly and head towards my computer rig. “Go sit over on the chairs and look towards the flat screen.”
“The fuck did you do G?” Sinclair asks, finally finding his voice.
I sigh, knowing for sure one of the three people will be for sure pissed off at me when they find out. “May or may not have slipped one of those tape GPS sticks on her phone under her case last night.” I mutter while launching the app and mirroring everything to the flat screen for us all to see.
“Dude...creepy much?” Declan says.
“I can see why he did it. So should you D.”
That surprises me. Turning to head towards my own chair with the remote, computer mouse, and keyboard, I quirk a surprised brow Sinclair’s way. “Honestly figured you’d be the upset one.” He shrugs looking towards Declan as I flop down on my ‘fancy loveseat’. “I wasn't sure how she would take waking up to all of us. It was a precaution for a worst-case scenario, which obviously happened. But when I was trying to find her dorm to let a roommate know she wouldn’t be home, I found nothing.”
“All students have dorm rooms. What are you talking about?”
“She doesn’t. Her and one other student have a P.O Box in the student center near the back library entrance that no one really uses anymore.” Then I click on the TV, watching the little dot moving quickly through the campus, nowhere near any dorms. “This was the other reason I stuck it on there, and I figured that I’d deal with the repercussions later. I mean she isn’t even heading towards any of the dorms. Where the fuck is she living if she is a registered student here?”
And from there we stayed silent, watching Bethani’s GPS tracker move through campus at a pretty swift pace, given the trauma she faced last night. Finally about 10 minutes later, she reaches a building.
“Why the fuck is she going all the way to the back of campus? That’s like a 20 minute walk, right?”
“Hold on…does that area seem familiar to either of you?” Sin asks.
“To answer your question, Deck, yes. Given her schedule, she walks 20-35 minutes one way depending on which class she has.” I stop as I pull up campus blueprints. “And it should seem familiar. That building is mostly storage for different things departments don’t have room for 24/7. And it's the original catacomb entrance for the Trident members, now the emergency exit if by chance someone infiltrates the main underground entrance. It’s also where every member walks through for their commencement ceremony.”
Realization dawns on Declan’s face as he remembers. “Oh yeah! The long creepy ass hallway lit by torches! Pretty sure I was drunk and stoned. Pissed our fathers off something fierce that day.” He starts laughing, which makes us start cracking up right along with him. “Wait, I did something stupid didn’t I?”
That only makes us laugh even more as Sinclair tries to remind him. “Dude...you went,” he laughs “to the bathroom,” more laughing “then fucking ran back in with only your robes on. You were buck ass naked,” Sinclair struggles through while hysterical laughing, “screaming I’M SUPERMAN BITCH, WATCH ME FLY, and jumped up on the table and ran down it trying to fly.” That does us in as we all double over in laughter. We’re barely able to breathe because we are all laughing so damn hard, and we soon have tears running down our faces.
After a few minutes of hysterical hyena laughing, we are able to bring ourselves somewhat back to normal. Only somewhat, because let’s face it, we are all fucking cynical.
“You pissed our dad’s off so fucking bad that night that our grandfathers took us to Vegas to celebrate, which only pissed them off more. We got stuck dusting the damn school library for it. That took us a month and I wanted to murder you by the end of it.” I snicker as I’m wiping my face off. “Pretty sure I still have the PDF file saved on how I was gonna do it in full detail. Asshole.”
Declan shrugs at my declaration. “Can’t really blame you. I wanted to end my shit after that month of hell. I know king fuck-face beside me here threatened to chop my dick off if I ever did something that stupid again down there. And I like my dick way too much to tempt the fates, because I’m pretty sure that threat still stands.”
“Fucking right it does bastard. You make me have to dust a fucking library again, and I’ll start with ripping your dick piercing off before moving on,” Sin threatens.
That makes me cringe in pain. “Grumpy ruthless bastard you are.”
“Buzzkill,” Deck retorts while crossing his arms and pouting.
“Anyways, you guys got any ideas for why she is still there?” I say while pointing at the TV. “The dot went inside the building and hasn’t moved for almost 15 minutes now.”
I sure as fuck hope one of them have an idea as to why she would be on that side of campus where no one ever goes, except for the occasional outdoor party since campus security is too lazy patrol out there. Or where we go on occasion to bring any and all sorts of torture, usually death to a person that crosses the Trident. We have a well-constructed, underground bunker just past the open field in the woods that’s hidden exceptionally well. I know I’ve personally been there 3 times since I was inducted into the Trident, twice to assist an elder member with ‘worthless scum’ that have tried to fuck them over for one reason or another.
But the last time I was there was actually for a personal vendetta against one of the servants at my father’s house that admitted to supplying my mother with a constant supply of alcohol at the height of her depression. He told her he loved her and would do anything for her, she believed it. She got all the alcohol her body could handleand he got a comatose fuck buddy that was too drunk to function but wanted to feel loved. Not even the love from her only child, me, at nine years old could fill the void enough to make a difference. Then she died a year and a half later from passing out drunk in the bathtub. I was eleven and I was the one to find her lifeless body floating in the tub. That day a big part of my soul died, and I vowed to find the fucker supplying her and end their worthless fucking existence.
I finally found him two years ago and ended his life seven months ago after slowly and methodically destroying his life to nothing. Watching the life drain from his eyes was the day I finally found a semblance of peace over my mother’s tragic death.
“GIO!” they both yell, pulling me from my thoughts.
“Christ, where the fuck did you zone out to?”
I shrug as a response to Sinclair’s bossy attitude. “Nowhere. What were you guys saying?”
Sin just keeps his hardened gaze at me, clearly unimpressed and no longer speaking while Declan starts talking, “We were saying how she called herself a sob story. Is there any way to hack the admissions and see if there is a program or something like that going on for the underprivileged that isn’t talked about normally? Because nothing else makes sense. None of the other scholarship students live that way. They are either in dorms or the off-campus houses.”
“Yeah. I can do that. Give me a little bit. But what are we going to do about it if she actually lives…” I wave my hand to the TV screen. “In the storage area for the school?”
Sinclair shrugs “Probably just an area she wants to chill at until her roommate is asleep or at a party. Less questions to deal with until she can shower and hide everything.”
Jesus. He really is dense sometimes.
“Whatever. Both of you get the hell out so I can work. Maybe one of you can cook some food or something since, you know, you two are pretty much useless when it comes to this shit.” I smirk, knowing they are going to be displeased with my knock on their intelligence. Fucking sue me, it’s funny as shit giving them hell.
“Way ahead of you, G. I’m going to send a few of the plebs on some ridiculous food runs. Chinese, Italian, and tacos sound good?” D asks, a wicked glint in his eyes and an equally devilish smile plastered on his face.
As I get up to head to my hub station, I shrug. “Don’t give a shit. Have fun torturing the children, just make one of them get food here quickly. The others, go wild with the fucked up tasks you two are thinking up.” I sit down and start powering up all my shit. “Also, do not let them order our shit. Place the fucking orders on the god damn apps so it’s not fucked up. I’ll murder someone if they fuck our food up like last time.” I shiver. General Tso’s chicken mixed into seafood soup is fucking horrendous and burns dirty ball sacks coming back up.
“We promised not to talk about that shit, ever again.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I wave my hand around while throwing my headphones on. “Take your shit and get out. Text me when my food is here.”
They say something, but I’ve already queued up music to ignore them. I start my work to hack our school systems. The quicker I can get in, the sooner I can solve one mystery to the compounding list of curious shit that is starting to pile up aroundBethani.
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“FUCK!” I shout as I’m chucking my Bose A20 Aviation headset towards my door just as the guys open the door to my room. They barely duck as the headset hits the marble flooring and shatters along the hallway. Third set this month alone, you dumb ass, I think to myself as I scrub my hands along my face. I’m frustrated and getting more and more irritated by the second as I sit here. “If you guys are coming here for a damn update, I don’t fucking have one. And no, I obviously don’t know why either.” I groan. “Where in the bullshit system this crap is hidden is beyond me.”
“And the great computer hacker Giovanni Martinelli comments on us being useless with computers. Right.” Sinclair snickers, causing me to stand and get straight up in his face, completely ready to use his face as my personal punching bag.
“Motherfucker. You sit your ass here for the next three hours and see if you come up with anything!” He squares up against me, not ready to back down. Well,me either, fuck face. Bring it. “I’ve searched our school’s database four damn times already trying to find anything to figure out what her scholarship is and how she goes here. I’ve cross referenced her info across multiple databases in California and Washington state. I’m also trying to find shit on the prick that assaulted her last night, if you haven’t fucking forgot that minor detail. I am a one man, mother fucking show here. So unless you want to get your lazy ass in here and do this work, I suggest you back the fuck off, before I knock your ass out,” I grit out through clenched teeth.
As we both stand there, toe to toe, eye to eye, fists ready to fly, Declan finally steps up and shoves us both back, putting the much needed space between each other. “Damnit Sinclair, knock it the fuck off. You know neither of us give a fuck about this shit like he does, or are good enough to hack it like him. Give him a fucking break.” Then he turns my way. “And you know princess here,” pointing a finger towards Sin, “who is an impatient brat that just wants answers. We all want answers. But being arrogant cock-munchers isn’t going to accomplish anything.”
“Cock-muncher,” I snicker, then proceed to a full out laughing fit, like a dumbass 16-year-old chick, which causes the other idiots to do the same.
“Sorry man,” Sin says through his laughing. “I know this shit can’t be easy, and I sure as fuck have no patience for it. So it’s all you bud.”
“Yeah, yeah. All good.”
“Juveniles.”
“Fuck off, Deck. You are the biggest juvenile of us three, and you fucking know it, asshole.”
He shrugs and smirks. “Well one of us has to be insanely good looking and funny, unlike you two sticks in the mud.”
“Fuck off,” we both say in unison.
With another grin from his big ass as he turns towards the door. “Throw some shoes on. We’re going on a little mission.”
Yet again in unison, Sinclair and I ask, “Where?”
“Well one of us isn’t a total fruitcake when it comes to computers. I hacked your tracking app. Bethani’s phone still hasn’t moved from the storage building. So, throw on some dark sweats and let's check out why her phone hasn’t moved for…” he looks at his phone, “4 hours and 22 minutes.” Then he is gone, the door to his room opening and shutting, leaving Sinclair and myself stunned.
“When the fuck do you pay attention to shit, asshole?” Sinclair yells at Declan which is quickly followed by my own booming voice. “Wait….You hacked my program from your phone? The fuck?!”
Declan’s laughter from afaris the only response to our questions.
“Son of a bitch,” Sin mutters before heading towards his room to change, leaving me to do the same.
After finding my black Nike sweats and shoes, I look through my drawer for a Blackwell cutoff. I throw it on, grab my phone, wallet, and keys, and head towards the elevator where the other two are waiting. As we all step in to head to ground level, our phones all ding simultaneously, causing glares and groans from us all.
Pulling out my phone to open the message, I already know what’s coming.
Unknown: You have until the clock striking midnight to be where we converge.
“Jesus Christ. It’s like every damn time we have shit to do, they fucking summon us.”
I sigh. “Yeah. But at least we have time to see her and figure out this shit before we have to get back.”
“How much do you want to bet this has something to do with our arranged marriages those bastards are trying to force on us?” Sin forces out, then slams his head against the elevator wall.
Deck mutters, “Probably everything.”
“Doesn’t matter. We still got seven hours to figure this shit out, get back, and get dressed for our arrival to the gates of hell and the three-demon spawns,” I stress. “So let's just get to the storage building, then deal with dumb fucks after that.”
They nodded in agreement, and we remained quiet as the elevator finished its descent from our penthouse dorm to the main floor. We then snuck around the campus towards the storage building. Most students didn’t fuck with us out of fear due to our given name sakes, our towering statures and our constant ‘mean mugs/resting bitch faces’ as some like to call it. Others didn’t associate or acknowledge us due to the fact that they were fellow Trident members, though just underlings. We don’t generally group together in public settings, unless they are sanctioned by the elders. A big group of us ‘just hanging’ out could cause suspicion.
If someone pissed us off by trying to be friendly, we just hazed the shit out of them. Our reputation for being ruthless and sometimes sadistic bastards was pretty staunch, but wasn’t far from actual truth. Still, the occasional dope tried their hand at ‘making nice’ with us.So here we are, sneaking around like we were 14 again and trying to get off our parents gated properties to hang out with the more normal kids than we dealt with on a daily basis. Thankfully, we were already three quarters of the way there. Our hoodies were up and our sunglasses were covering our eyes, giving us the typical hung-over idiot on a Saturday afternoon look.
“There a way for us to even get into that building? I can’t fucking remember,” Sinclair semi whispered, trying to avoid anyone hearing our voices.
A stifled laugh came from Declan. “I’m 6’6” idiot. I can reach windows if needed. But I also brought my lock pick kit just in case.”
“Got my phone with me so that I can scan the locks if they are electronic,” I answered as we hit a small set of trees, big enough to hide our asses and also give us coverage to see if anyone is around. “No cameras around here or in this building.”
With an evil glint to his eye, Declan smirked, and looked around one last time. Then he started skipping his oafish self towards the building. “Come along kids! We have shit to break into,” he said, ending with a maniacal laugh.
“Jesus Christ.”Sinclair mutters.
I snort at Sinclair’s obvious distaste for Declan’s lack of plan and jolly-go-fuck-it-all attitude. Always the methodical masochist.
“Not everyone needs seventy fucking plans for a simple break in, unlike someone we all know,” I say.
“Fuck off,” he huffs out. “Come on, better go make sure he doesn’t start breaking windows or setting something on fire.”
As we make our way towards wherever Deck went, we hear him calling around the opposite side of the building. “Found it! Hurry the fuck up!”
Turning on our heels, we switch directions, heading towards the sound of his voice. As we turn the corner, we catch him moving around some overgrown hedges. As we get closer, the profanities spilling from Declan’s mouth get more and more vulgar, as does the tone. It’s edging closer to pissed off the closer we get.
“The hell are you doing?” I ask, finding him stomping down on bush branches, trying to make the clearing to the door bigger.
“This is where she went in, her tiny ass footprints went straight to the door, stopped, then stepped back as she was opening the door to go inside. Fuck!” he spews, along with other curses as we start helping make the way bigger.
Finally after about 5 minutes of nothing but stomping and swear words reverberating from all of us, we have enough pressed down to make the entrance more feasible.
“Good God, how the hell did she get to this door?” I wonder out loud.
Declan notes the tiny concrete path beside the building leading to the door. “There were enough branches cut or broken off for the average person to get through, just not people our size. Hence my attack on this bullshit fuckery of a devil plant.” He turns back towards the door and gets his picking equipment out. “Now, on to the good stuff.”
As he quickly picks the lock and opens the door, we all retch at the musty odor that assaults our nostrils.
“What in the ever loving nursing home meets moth balls meets cheap grandma perfume is that smell?” I ask while trying to keep my stomach from tossing its shit in revolt to the smell. “How in the fuck is anyone down there?”
“Don’t...” Deck makes a gag noise, “fucking know...” Another gag noise comes from Declan as he attempts to compose himself.
Glancing over at Sinclair, he is faring better than either of us, not by much though. He finally gains the most resolve of us before he steels himself and barks out his usual orders. “Get your ass down the steps, Declan, before I shove your ass in there and barricade the door. You too, G. Get this shit over with so I can light my clothes on fire and bathe in bleach.”
We all make our way, finally, into the building and down the stairs as quietly as possible. When we reach the bottom, the sight we come upon is an utter gut punch. There’s a grungy hallway that we slowly walk down, with a slightly damn carpet that has mold growing up the walls in little patches. Paint that’s some nonsensical off-white-brown you can’t even guess the color of stretches into the common area. Utter garbage mismatched 1970’s fluorescent lighting is scattered about the ceilings.
Furniture, from I’m not even sure what era, sits around broken or half broken. Everything is covered in a layer of dust that looks like they haven’t been touched in ten years. Along the walls, there are 10 different doors with the letters A-J marked on them in a faded stamp, almost like someone was above putting real markers on the doors. The damn and musty grandma smell wasn’t as completely horrendous in here as it was in the hallway or staircase, but it wasn’t much better either. This place looked like a walking disease filled cesspool that was itching to claim its next victim. Glancing for a light switch, covering my hand with my hoodie sleeve.
“Turning the lights off, see if any of the doors have light coming through them,” I order.
I flip the switch, plunging us into temporary darkness as I look to the ground, searching for light behind a door.
“Here” one of them says, and I flip the switch back on as the lights all groan in protest to function.
Sinclair moves over in front of the door marked J while Declan and myself all move up beside him.
“Well…Here goes fucking nothing.” As he starts to pound on the door repeatedly.
Yeah. Here goes fucking something.