The Syndicater: A Dangerous Dark Romance (Dark Verse Book 6)

This was what she’d needed. A day spent with the girls, relaxing, away from all responsibilities.

The four of them had taken one car while another with security tailed them. Morana had refused to drive for some reason, which had been odd given how much she enjoyed being behind the wheel. While she’d said she just wanted to relax, it did strike Amara as odd. However, Luna took her focus. Luna, who looked at the shopping mall like she’d never seen one, who was constantly looking around with an amazed expression on her face, who was shopping so hesitantly like she’d never done the process before. It had taken Morana urging her to pick whatever she liked, reassuring her, telling her not to worry about the cost of things at least a few times before the girl had started to relax and get in the groove of things.

Amara had kept her eye on the girl, analyzing her internally, wondering what her life had been like for her behavior to be this way. In a lot of ways, it was almost childlike, reminding her of the way her daughter looked when she discovered something new for the first time. How did she not know something as simple as buying things, choosing things, or the process of paying for stuff? Luna’s sense of discovery was tinged less with joy and more with sadness, which seemed to be an inherent part of her. Over the last week, Amara realized this girl wasn’t a pawn. She had secrets and certainly had a truckload of trauma, but she wasn’t evil or a threat. Even Dante had softened and warmed to her within a day of watching her closely, her wide eyes constantly looking at things in wonder and caution, as though one wrong step could unravel her. Given what they knew about The Syndicate, it didn’t take a genius to figure out some of what had been done to her. A part of Amara—the traumatized, scarred girl—recognized the same within her even though she didn’t know the specifics.

She also recognized the healing. Like Dante had helped her heal, someone had helped this girl. That was the only reason she was functioning and enjoying the day and not dissolving into a panic at the overstimulation. That kind of healing usually came from three bonds—parental, friendly or romantic. The parental bond was out of the question, and she’d told Tristan she didn’t have friends (yes, Tristan had discussed some of what they’d discussed with Amara to gauge how to talk to her). That only left one bond, romantic. This was all theoretical in Amara’s mind, something she’d not told anyone but her husband, who was her best friend, but she did wonder. The one time she’d offered Luna the space to talk to her in a professional capacity, the girl had sweetly thanked her and told her she was already seeing an older man, a Dr. Manson who was amazing.

Amara had looked up Dr. Mansons in her field, finding a few, most in her own age group, one older lady, and one retired gentleman. The only one who fit had been the retired doctor, and if that was who she was seeing, then that meant he had come out of retirement specifically for her. Why? Did he know her somehow? Or did he know someone who knew her?

Amara was still wondering when Zephyr said she had to pee for the fourth time. Morana gave her company and stuck to the rule of never letting a girl go to the bathroom alone, and Amara didn’t say anything, but she was concerned. While bladder control was one of the worst things about being pregnant, it was too early for Zephyr to be feeling it so strongly. Amara had nothing but her own experience, but she had been much bigger before she’d had to pee four times in as many hours. She would keep an eye on her and if it got worse, she was going to intervene.

‘Poor thing,’ Amara shook her head, browsing the aisle of silk scarves, saying something just to make conversation, and Luna browsed opposite her. ‘Peeing is the worst during this time.’

‘Yeah,’ Luna agreed. ‘It’s so bad.’

Amara’s hand stopped, as did her body. She turned to look at the girl, her eyes narrowing. How did she know? Not to freak her out, Amara relaxed her body and asked casually. ‘You’ve seen pregnancies?’

The girl froze completely, her wide eyes coming to Amara. Something passed between them, and Amara understood. She’d been pregnant once. But what happened to her child? Did she lose it like Amara had lost hers? Was it taken from her? Was it still somewhere? Because if it was, Tristan would want to know.

Luna swallowed. ‘Something like that.’

The girl couldn’t lie for shit.

Before Amara could say anything else, the other two girls joined them.

‘C’mon, we’ll be late for the movie.’ Morana looked down at her phone where she had the tickets and led them all through the mall, a ring of security around them. Amara let it go and followed her friend as they made their way up the elevator and into the empty movie theater.

‘I booked it all out,’ Morana told them sheepishly, her eyes flickering to Luna, letting Amara know that she had noticed the girl’s newness to the whole experience too.

The girl in question looked at the empty seats and the wide screen where the logo was displayed. ‘Wow.’

Worth it.

They all took seats, and after checking that they were safe, one of the guards brought them popcorn and drinks. The movie, a romantic comedy, started.

And Amara felt her heart fill with wonder at having four girls she could call friends now when once she’d had none. Morana, who sat beside her, gripped her hand, exchanging a look with her that told her she was thinking the same thing. They’d met as friendless, lonely people and found a family with each other.

Amara gripped her hand back, grateful for her life and hopeful that nothing would tarnish it.

And then, Zephyr had to pee again.

***

She lay in bed with Dante, drawing circles over his muscular chest, lost in thought.

‘What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?’ he asked her softly, his voice husky with sleep. It was early morning, the light barely filtering into their room. In a few minutes, they’d be up and running through the day, so they were taking a little moment for themselves.

‘I think we need to ask Luna some questions now.’

He brushed his fingers over the scars on her wrist. ‘What brought this on?’

She told him about her suspicion that she’d been pregnant, about how she didn’t want to tell Tristan until her doubts were confirmed. Dante listened to her theories quietly. This was something they’d done since as far back as she could remember, just laid in bed and discussed the things on their mind, sharing things with each other they would never tell anyone else. Before her husband and her lover, Dante had been her best friend, her first crush, and she was so glad that it was still just as true. Being married to the man she loved, the man who had been her friend through the worst time of her life and become more, the man who had been her first crush, her first kiss, her first love, it made her feel all gooey inside.

Tempest began to whimper from the crackle of the walkie-talkie, and Amara kissed Dante softly. ‘I’ll feed the beast.’

He grinned, nipping at her lower lip.

She walked into the adjacent room, the one they’d made into a nursery, and picked up the light of her life. Tempest stopped whining when she saw Amara, pouting instead at being kept waiting.

‘Apologies, your highness,’ Amara cooed, picking her up and placing her on her hip, the weight super familiar now. She sat down on the rocking chair, pulling the strap of her gown down and exposing her nipple. Her daughter lurched towards it, and Amara winced as she clamped down, suckling hard and drawing out the milk as it let down for her. They were slowly weaning her and switching to the bottle during the day, but she got very fussy in the morning if she didn’t get her meal straight from the source.

A movement made her look up to see her gorgeous shirtless husband leaning against the doorway, arms folded over his chest, watching both his girls with a supremely satisfied look on his face. She switched breasts expertly, moving Tempest around to the other side, leaving one wet and exposed. Dante strode in, leaned down, and slashed his mouth over hers, ravaging her lips while pinching her freed nipple, making her gasp.

He straightened, licking a drop of milk from his thumb, staring into her eyes. ‘Fucking sexy.’

Swoon.

Turning, he left to go and get ready for the day, the massive dragon tattoo breathing fire across his back rippling with the motion of his hips, and sighed with contentment. He was the one fucking sexy.

When she was done feeding Tempest, she quickly got ready for the day and left out her scarf. She’d started leaving it out of her attire more and more, letting her scars out, a lot more confident in her skin than she had ever been. Maybe it was becoming a mother. Maybe it was the love of a good man. Maybe it was being Dr. Maroni. She didn’t know, but as she got ready and headed out, her mother coming in to take Tempest for the morning, she went straight to the tree.

Her little Serenity was growing strong right next to the gazebo. She touched the leaves once and said the words she did every morning.

‘Mama loves you.’ Somehow, speaking the words and caring for the tree herself had begun to scab the wound of her loss. Though it would never heal fully, this was hers and Dante’s way of filling it up with gold.

Amara lingered, getting her mind ready for the day, before returning inside the mansion.

As she moved toward the driveway, the door to the study caught her eye. She stopped in her tracks. Dante either went to his studio or to work out in the mornings first. Since Alpha was there, her bets were on the two men fighting like boys. His study only opened when he came down after taking his shower. So the fact that the door was slightly ajar sent an alarm going through her.

On quiet feet, which was slightly absurd with her heels, she padded over to the door and peeked inside, looking to see if anyone was there.

It was empty. Pushing the door open wider, she entered the room that had once intimidated her, now looking like a daycare office, and ran her eyes through everything. Nothing looked out of place. Had Dante forgotten to lock it? She doubted that, but nothing else explained it. Satisfied that nothing was amiss, she turned to leave when something on the desk caught her eye. Tilting her head to the side, she walked over to it, picking up what looked like a polaroid.

The moment the image registered, the photo fell from her hand.

Shaking, she bent down and picked it up, staring at it again. Xavier—her biological father and perpetrator—lay dead on a table in a pool of his own blood. It was a gory picture, one she couldn’t imagine Dante just leaving out in the open for anyone to find. No. Someone had broken it and left it there for them. A threat? Information? She didn’t know, but she turned on her heels and power-walked to the outside building where the men trained with each other.

Seeing her walk out like that, with a mission and heels on the grass, some of the men outside called for Dante.

Her husband ran out immediately, skin glistening with sweat and brows lowered with concern.

‘What happened?’ he asked, jogging over to where she was, meeting her halfway.

Amara thrust the photograph at him. ‘I found this on the desk. Someone broke in, Dante.’

His jaw tightened as he called for one of the main security guys. ‘I want every fucking surveillance camera from last night. Now!’

The men scattered, running to complete the task. A break-in was a big breach in security, something none of them took lightly.

Alpha came up behind her husband, taking the photograph. Dante explained who it was, and she saw his single eye train on her. It wasn’t that she was sad. She had zero affection for the asshole. But she was concerned, both for their security and for her old friend, Vin, since Xavier had been the one to take him and place him undercover.

‘What do you think has happened to him?’ Amara mused out loud as they stood there.

Dante’s face was grim. ‘I think we should prepare for the worst, Amara.’

A shaky breath left her, and her eyes shuddered close. She didn’t want to imagine the worst. She wanted to believe that her Vinnie was doing intense work undercover and not underground somewhere without any of them knowing. He had always been such a good friend to her. She needed him to come back safely.

Dante wrapped his arm around her, tugging her close to his side as she wondered when they would finally find some answers.