Carnage by Sarah Bailey

Twenty Four

Francis

Dealing with West yesterday evening was an absolute fucking nightmare. He’d left work early after he’d gone ahead and fucked Scarlett. Then he’d arrived home high as a kite on something he’d clearly taken whilst he was out. He proceeded to tell us all about how wet Scarlett had been for him. Prescott had been in his element. The sick fuck wanted all the details, but West had been strangely cagey about the rest. He, Prescott and Drake had started making a plan for Friday. And that had got out of hand. I’d left them to it, not wanting to deal with their shit even though it’d been me who suggested tag-teaming Scarlett in the first place.

My conflicted feelings regarding Scarlett were getting in my way. Every time I looked at her, I was reminded of the girl she’d been. The one who had been reckless and free. Who’d walked into the fire alongside us. The girl had kept us grounded. We’d been lost without her. They didn’t want to see it, but I did. I fucking well saw the carnage we’d left in our wake. Whilst I didn’t feel remorse over the shit we’d done in the past, I understood actions came with consequences.

Luring Scarlett here when we were aware of the reasons why her family wanted her to come after us was the biggest risk we’d ever taken. And whilst having her back was worth every fucking minute, the fact she had no idea who we were was clearly taking a toll on the four of us. Especially when we couldn’t say a damn thing about it. Couldn’t remind her who we’d all been to each other. Five best friends who’d spent their formative years together. We didn’t function right without our fifth. I knew that. They knew that. But she didn’t. She had no fucking clue. And it killed me.

I sighed, running my hand through my hair as I wandered out of my office. I had a meeting to get to. It was a miracle we’d managed to set this up but securing the Bykov account had opened doors for us. I had to give it to Prescott. He knew how to lure clients to us like moths to a flame. We had to tread carefully with this lot. There had been a lot of gossip circulating about them after the now infamous massacre at Instinct Investments.

When I reached Prescott’s office, our guests were already seated. A man with dark hair and dark eyes. Next to him sat a petite woman with long blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. To say they made a striking couple would be an understatement. However, rumour had it the five owners of the Syndicate were in a polyamorous relationship with each other.

Prescott stood up and waved me over.

“This is Mr Beaufort, our finance manager. Francis, this is Mr Knox and Miss Bykov.”

I approached the sofas and shook both their hands.

“It’s nice to meet you, but please call me Ash,” the woman said. “I’m still getting used to the change in my last name.”

I gave her a smile, whilst the man, one Mr Quinn Knox, gave her a sharp look. She merely rolled her eyes when he looked away as if she dealt with his seemingly severe demeanour all the time. I was used to men like him. Didn’t worry me too much.

“Of course. Did Prescott offer you refreshments?”

“Yes,” Prescott said. “Scarlett’s making them right now.”

I almost faltered midway into sitting down in one of the vacant armchairs. He’d not asked Tonya who usually took care of that stuff for us. I gave him a curious look as I made myself comfortable. Prescott merely shrugged in response. I suspected Drake had told him to use whatever was in our arsenal to bring them onboard as clients.

I turned to our guests, giving them a smile.

“So, do you have any questions before we begin with our proposal?”

I always liked to check in with potential clients to make sure I caught any concerns they had so we could deal with them immediately. Thankfully, neither of them had any. Prescott and I dived straight in, showing them what we wanted to do with their current portfolio if they were to join us. We only presented to high profile clients ourselves. We had a whole team who managed clients and acquisitions for us. When you wanted someone’s business with a reputation like the owners of the Syndicate, it was always better to give them the personal touch.

The moment Scarlett walked in, my skin prickled with awareness. Prescott glanced at me, a smirk appearing on his face as if he’d had the exact same reaction. The anticipation of what we’d do to Scarlett on Friday was high.

She carried a tray over to the coffee table and set it down. Then she handed out the drinks she’d made, including one for me. I eyed it, biting my lip as I tried not to smile. It reminded me of our conversation in the kitchen when she started a couple of weeks ago. How I refused to tell her how I took my coffee.

She picked up the tray after responding to our guests thanking her, but she didn’t leave immediately. Scarlett stopped next to me, rested her hand on the arm of the chair and leant closer. Our guests were occupied by Prescott, so I wasn’t too worried about them.

“Did I get it right?” she murmured.

I leant forward and picked up my mug. After taking a sip, I ran my tongue along my bottom lip. Oh, she definitely had.

“Perhaps,” I responded in an equally hushed voice.

“I think I did.”

“Did Pres tell you?”

She shook her head and gave me a sly smile.

“Dare I ask how you worked it out?”

“I’m good at my job, Mr Beaufort, that’s all.”

She straightened, intending to leave but I caught her by the wrist. Her eyes fell on my hand, her skin flushing at the direct contact.

“Call me Francis, Scarlett.”

I wasn’t about to mention I wouldn’t mind if she called me Frankie. No one else but Scarlett had ever had the privilege. West, the psychotic fucker, called me Frankie to wind me up. In a lot of ways, I didn’t blame him for wanting to punish me, but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing I understood his reasoning.

Scarlett stared at me for a moment. Then a sly smile crossed her features.

“You sure about that? Don’t want to request that I call you sir, or something?”

I almost choked, immediately dropping my hand from her wrist. The twinkle in her eye had me at a complete loss for words. Where on earth would she get that idea from? I wasn’t the type to need honorifics. That was definitely more Drake’s thing. I doubted he had told her to use one, since I’d heard her call him by his name.

There was a snort from the sofa. My eyes went to Mr Knox who was eying me with a rather knowing look on his face. I had no idea what he was thinking, but it couldn’t be anything good.

“No, Francis is fine.”

“As you wish… Francis.”

Then she sauntered out of the room. My eyes followed her progress, my head turning to keep looking at her. Her hips swayed as if she knew I was watching. It had me wondering if she was doing all of this on purpose. Most likely. We knew she was here to get close to us. Perhaps she’d decided to use her assets to lure us in. Too bad for Scarlett, we already knew who she was.

The fact she’d allowed West to fuck her yesterday started to make sense in my mind. Would it mean she would let what we were planning on Friday happen without complaint? It gave me an idea. A fucked up idea, but one of the other three would be on board with it if I told them.

I turned back to the meeting at hand, knowing I shouldn’t be thinking about her or what we had planned.

The rest of the hour went by in a flash and soon we were saying goodbye to Mr Knox and Miss Bykov. I stood by Prescott’s door, shaking Mr Knox’s hand and thanking him for coming. He let go of my hand and levelled me with a rather intense gaze.

“Perhaps you should consider letting her call you sir.” His eyes flicked to Miss Bykov. “Not every day a woman wants to play those sorts of games with a man.”

Before I had a chance to respond, he gave me a sly smile, grabbed hold of his woman’s hand and walked out. I stared after him, having no fucking clue what the hell to make of what he’d just said.

“Well, they’re clearly into kinky shit,” Prescott chuckled.

I glanced at him. He’d been standing next to me the whole time. He had a huge grin on his face and a damn look in his eyes told me he’d overheard what had been said.

“You think?”

“If they aren’t, I’d be surprised. After all, she’s getting a dicking from four guys, isn’t she?”

“What the fuck, Pres? You don’t know that.”

“Come on, Francis, weren’t you listening? She all but admitted it when we asked about the other owners.”

I must have not been paying attention because I certainly hadn’t heard anything of the sort out of Ash Bykov’s mouth.

“So what if she is? Not our fucking business.”

“More power to her. Reckon a lot of women would love to get dicked down by more than one guy at the same time, they just don’t want to admit it.”

I almost cuffed him around the back of the head. I dug my hands in my pockets instead and thought about my idea for Friday.

“Speaking of dicking down, I take it you heard what Scarlett said.”

“Mmm, she’s a little flirt.”

“Well, she is trying to get us to trust her. But that’s not why I brought it up.”

Prescott raised an eyebrow.

“Oh? Then pray what’s going in that moral brain of yours.”

I rolled my eyes and walked further into his office.

“First of all, we definitely need to tell Drake about the sir business, you know what he’s like about that shit.”

I turned back to find Prescott giving me a wink.

“And I think we should teach Scarlett a lesson for trying to use her sex appeal on us. I mean, fuck, it’s working, but the girl has no idea what she’s letting herself in for.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“We deprive the girl of her senses, then she won’t have a fucking clue what’s coming.”

The maniacal look in Prescott’s eyes told me he was fully on board.

“Oh, you want to blindfold her.”

“To start with… perhaps we don’t talk too, and then she’ll have no idea who is about to give it to her.”

“You’re such a deviant little fuck, Francis. It’s a wonder people think you’re a nice boy. They have no fucking idea.”

I grinned. They called me the moral one, but I wasn’t. If I was being entirely honest, a lot of our ideas for group activities during sex came from me. Maybe I was a deviant little fuck, but I liked it. And perhaps I needed to embrace who I was inside a little more. I would certainly get less shit off Prescott and West if I did.

“No, they don’t. And she won’t either.” I waved a hand at him. “You in then? Should we tell the others?”

“Oh, fuck yeah, I’m in. All the way in.”

“Good.”

I walked out of his office, throwing a wink his way. I’d have words with West and Drake tonight. No doubt there would be no complaints from them either. My misgivings about what we were doing could go fuck themselves right now. All I wanted to focus on was getting exactly what we wanted from Scarlett. And that was her giving in to all of us.