The air in the room went from pensive to violent within seconds. Cosmo stood up, letting the anger contort on his face and he blurted out, “I knew it. I knew you were fucking bad news.”
I kept all emotions off my face, staying cool, calm, and unaffected as I called out to him in warning, “Cosmo.”
His head snapped to mine, eyes wide, face red, and brows furrowed as he pointed at him. “Rayla! You can’t—”
“Sit down, Cosmo.” His arm dropped, but his eyes shifted from anger to a horrified confusion, waiting for me to say more to defend Lex. To explain to him my loyalty toward him, but I didn’t need to give that explanation. Right now, I needed Lex to speak for himself.
I tilted my head up, looking at him with a raised brow and a frown. “Are you saying that you want to condemn him for something without even listening to what he has to say? He’s not fighting us right now, and you forget, he went and returned the bosses all on his own.” I turned to my dad. “You activated the truth spell as soon as you entered the room, right?” When he nodded his head, I looked around the room. “Nothing that is said at this table will be lies, so why would you want to silence him?” Cosmo sat down and crossed his arms before continuing to glare at Lex.
Lex was taking this well, soaking in everyone’s reactions without saying a peep. When I motioned for Lex to talk, he nodded and took a breath but looked at us all without shame. “It’s true what my uncle said. I have been training and helping to build up the Devil clan in secret to eventually take over and obliterate you all here today. Well, I only really wanted to get rid of the bosses, giving the heirs a chance to join us when the time came.”
“And if we didn’t?” Ax’s voice held a deadly tone that said he knew the answer but wanted to hear him say it.
Lex sat back, crossed his arms, and easily said with a twinkle in his eye, “Then I was going to kill you myself.” His eyes traveled to mine, saying,all of them but you. I guess he had learned the workaround for the truth spell. What you said out loud had to be true, but you could keep information to yourself.
“That was the plan until I kidnapped Rayla, and she convinced me that everything I’d been taught, everything that I’d been told about the bosses had been fabricated. Her dedication and loyalty to this group caused me to reconsider. Her passionate plea for me to come here and see for myself that the bosses couldn’t have done what I’ve thought all my life won me over.”
“And what was it that our fathers were to have done to you that was so horrible to want to kill them for revenge?” Avery’s haughty voice snapped out, and Lex turned his attention to him.
“From what I remember as a boy, the night after the funeral, my uncle rushed into my room, panic and rage obvious on his face, as he told me to pack up everything I could as fast as I could. He stuffed me into a car he hotwired, and we took off in the middle of the night as he told me he heard the bosses plan to kill me in order to take over the Devil’s share of the Syndicate.” His gaze went around to each of the bosses. “That it would be easy to get rid of a boy instead of a man later on.”
Everyone took a collective breath. Those accusations were not something we took lightly. While we were a bunch of cutthroat heathens, willing to steal, torture, and murder anyone who got in our way, it was a spoken oath that we would never do that to each other. No matter how bad it got, how much you disagreed, how passionate you felt about something, the only untouchables were those in this room. For them to have said that would be like all of this, the whole Syndicate, was built on a lie.
My dad rose from his seat, eyes only on Lex as he stalked around the room toward him. On his way over, he opened a secret compartment, pulled out a sword, and handed it over to him.
Lex narrowed his eyes on the sword until my dad knelt before him, and my heart clenched. I knew what my dad was doing, I just didn’t know what Lex would do or how deep his hatred of my dad went, and that scared me.
“You were right. I failed you. I horribly and irrevocably failed you. I should’ve spent every waking moment, every scrap of cash, used everybody at my disposal to find you, and I will have to live with that guilt until my last breath. I. Failed. You.” Lex’s eyes widened as his whole body seized up, not moving a muscle as he stared at my dad. “The night of the funeral, and every night after, we”—he looked at the other bosses—“hadnevertalked about killing you, but we did talk about killing your uncle.”
My dad’s teeth clenched, and he looked at the floor like he could burn a hole in it. “We planned to kill your uncle because, before the accident, your mother caught your uncle stealing from the Syndicate. Unna came right to us all and told us. She also informed us that he was creating a small group of loyal followers. She overheard him telling them to only listen to him and Rathe because the Devils were the only true rulers of this organization. Your father was embarrassed, saddened at what his brother was doing, but begged us not to take it a step further. That he would talk to him and straighten him out. That he wanted to be responsible for him.”
My dad took a breath, and the other bosses stared at the table in thought. “We told him we would let it slide this one time, for him, but that was it. After the funeral, I caught him doing some underhanded deals in the name of the Syndicate, and I just had it. I lost my wife, my best friend and his wife... I had so much rage inside of me, and I told him that he needed to say his goodbyes to you. That I was going to bring you to live with us, per the pact we all agreed on.”
My breath stopped as an old memory of my dad holding my hands in the car after the ceremony, telling me we would bring Lex home with us, popped into my head. That’s right. It was such a small moment, just a sentence in passing as we were in the height of our grief, I didn’t even remember that. Had Lex come home with us, would my dad have...?
Cosmo stared off to the side with his shoulders slumped and jaw clenched. He looked so dejected, alone. I needed to do something, but we were kind of in the middle of something... Then I thought of something. I dug deep inside for that golden thread that led to Cosmo, like opening a door, I shoved all the appreciation and love I could through the bond, hoping he felt it.
His brows furrowed for a second before he looked up with a small bit of hope in his eyes. I winked at him as I smiled, letting him know how I felt for him wouldn’t change. His eyes cleared from the sadness, and he sat up straighter as his lips barely parted to mouth,thank you. There was no use for any of us to think about the what-ifs, the past was the past, and with how it had all turned out, I couldn’t complain.
“As you know, that never happened. An oath had not been met, a promise unintendedly broken, but the fault lies with me.” My dad bowed his head as he said, “So I offer you my life in payment.” I took in a breath of air, trying my hardest not to let my panic show and slow the pounding of my heart.
Lex stammered, “W-what? What are you talking about?”
My dad lifted his head, face relaxed and calm as his voice was stern and unyielding. “I am offering up my life in penance for breaking my oath to your father and the promise to you. We in the Syndicate do not take things like oath-breaking and betrayals lightly. As you didn’t know about the conversation I had with your uncle, I don’t think your betrayal was valid.” He looked around at all of us, making it known this was the final word on the matter. “Now that you know the truth, I would hope you would still join us, but if you don’t, you’re free to make any choices you want. My sins don’t get washed away just because I’m a boss.”
My heart dropped, and my body went numb, but I kept my chin high, not showing any weakness. That would be disrespectful of my dad’s choices for his own life. That meant I had to sit here and accept it. I kept my face forward, not looking at either of them, just waiting for the decision.
My dad’s stern voice rang out, “You don’t need to look at Rayla for permission. My daughter knows the deal, how this is run. She will not hold a grudge against you, as this is my penance. My cross to bear and make right. If you choose to take my life, she will be the leader of the Desmond clan and will accept this punishment as agood leader should.” Even as he was saying this to Lex, I felt like he was saying it to me, reminding me. I steeled my gaze as I turned, Lex and my dad paying attention as I gave a small tight nod and turned away, unable to watch what Lex would choose to do.
“Fucking hell.” A chair scraped along the floor as Syris got up and made his way over next to Ternin and knelt next to him. “If you’re going to punish Ternin, you might as well punish me, too. Rathe was my friend, too, I failed him in the throes of my grief and selfishness, which resulted in his son being raised by an idiot. I have shit to make up for.”
Two more chairs sounded as Manic and Easton got up and knelt by Syris and Ternin. “Father,” Ax called out, but Manic gave him a stern, cutting look, and Ax closed his mouth.
“You be quiet and take Rayla’s lead. This is what it means to be part of the Syndicate, kids. These rules are serious, this pact is forever. Dead or alive, it is to be upheld, or everything we went through, everything we’ve done, will have been for nothing. We all would be nothing. The Devils are Syndicate but have been given the raw end of this deal, and it’s about time we made up for it.”
Easton’s calm voice came out just above a whisper, “You all are capable, smart, and strong. You’ll be fine bosses. I can leave this world knowing that you’ll have this handled.” Then he turned to Lex and bowed his head.
There was a pause in the air, all of us heirs not able to watch what would happen next, even as it tore me up inside, but they were right. This was what it meant to be Syndicate, it was the Syndicate way.
