Page 1 of Wrath

Bowie

Bowie Wrath had lived in his older sister, Darcy’s shadow his whole life. She was just two years older than he was, and when she married Rock Greed, she was supposed to take over their family’s syndicate. The Wrath family should belong to her, but Bowie had struck a deal with the devil himself—their father and took her place.

Their father, Deacon Wrath, made their syndicate what it was today—strong, feared by the other families, and one of the only alliances the Gluttony family still had in place, but Bowie planned on changing all of that. It wasn’t going to be easy, but nothing worthwhile ever was. His mother had taught him that before she passed away when he was just a kid.

His sister had fought her father for control of the Wrath family and had lost. Deacon was old school and a sticker for the rules, so when Darcy wasn’t married, he refused to hand over the head of household title to her. But then, she went and hatched a plan to ally with one of the other seven families in the Deadly Sins Syndicate, and that’s when she convinced Rock Greed to marry her. She just never planned on falling in love with him or getting pregnant with his baby. She had chosen to raise her daughter and relinquish her title as head of household, leaving Bowie as the only other person still left in line. He reluctantly agreed to take the burden from Darcy so that she could have a life. Bowie had to agree never to talk to his sister again and she had to do the same, giving up all claims to the Wrath family. She became a ghost and that sucked because he could use his sister right now. He didn’t have anyone, and he certainly didn’t want a family. He wouldn’t want to bring a kid into the Wrath syndicate knowing that he or she would have to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders when they assumed their place as head of household.

Bowie knew that sooner or later; his old man would finally step down and leave everything to him. He was almost ready to take the reins, he just had one more thing to do before that happened—take a much-needed vacation.

He was headed to an island—someplace tropical and out of the way. He had the syndicate’s yacht chartered and ready to go. Bowie told the captain that he didn’t care where he took him, as long as he could sit on a beach and drink, he’d be fine. Leaving his last fun vacation up to fate before he took over the syndicate seemed like the right thing to do. His entire life felt like that lately. He didn’t feel in control of anything around him, so why should his vacation be any different? All he had left to do was to let his father know that he’d be gone for the next two weeks, and that was going to be a shitshow. His father liked to have complete control of Bowie’s every move, and he was sure that his impromptu trip wasn’t going to go over well with Deacon, but he didn’t give a fuck. He was being asked to give up his entire life for the family—even his contact with his only sister. The least the Wrath syndicate could do for him was let him have one last hurrah.

* * *

Bowie had an hour before they were supposed to shove off and he had to admit, he was pretty damn excited. His bags were packed and in the trunk of his car, all he had to do was tell his father that he was leaving. Of course, he had left that until the very last minute, so that they wouldn’t have days to argue about it. Bowie would simply walk into his father’s office, let him know about the trip, and head out. It was that easy, or at least, he hoped it would be.

He stopped at his dad’s receptionist’s desk and flashed his best smile. Helen had been with his father since before Bowie was born. She was probably the longest relationship that his father ever had with another person and that thought always made him laugh. “He’s in,” she said. “But I have to warn you, Bowie, he’s in quite a mood today. Are you planning on making it worse?”

The fair thing to do would be to warn Helen in return, but he honestly couldn’t do that to the poor woman. “I just have to give him one quick update and then, I’ll be out of your hair,” he assured. That much was at least the truth.

“You didn’t really answer my question, did you?” she asked.

“Nope, but I think that’s for the best, Helen,” he said. “I promise to be quick, but I can’t promise not to piss him off. Hell, me just breathing seems to do that lately.”

“Oh, Bowie,” Helen soothed, “he’s just under a lot of stress lately. I’m sure that you’re not the cause of it.” He knew for a fact that he was the cause of his father’s stress. He wasn’t learning the ropes as fast as his father had hoped, and that was primarily because he didn’t want the head of household title in the first place. His father pushed and pushed and when Bowie shoved back a little, it usually didn’t end well.

“Thanks for saying that, Helen,” he said, “even if it’s not really true.” He didn’t wait for her to respond. She was such a kind woman; he knew that she’d tried to make him feel better and the only thing that would do that was stepping onto the yacht and sailing off into the sunset for two full weeks.

He didn’t bother to knock on his father’s office door. “Bowie,” his dad said, looking up from his laptop. “How are you?” he asked.

“I’m good Dad, you?” These were the formalities that they exchanged at every meeting, and Bowie hated it. He wanted his father to actually take an interest in his life and not ask questions like how he was doing.

“What brings you in?” his father asked. He wanted to point out that he had an office right down the hall and that he was always in the building when his father was. It was one of his father’s damn rules, but he didn’t want to start on a sour note by starting a fight. His dad was already going to hate what he was about to say.

“I’m going on a little trip, and I just wanted to let you know,” Bowie said.

“A trip? Now—when you’re learning the ropes around here.” He wanted to tell his father that he had already learned the ropes and that he had been doing so for over a year now. That’s how long it had been since Darcy walked away from their family. He knew because she sent him an updated picture of his niece and an announcement that she had turned one. It was all he got from her—no invitation, nothing more, just a picture saying that she had turned one. He knew that his sister was only following her father’s rules, but it sucked. He couldn’t ask Darcy for more though, because if he did, she’d be dragged back into the Wrath family business and he knew that would only put her and his niece in danger, and Bowie wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he did that to them.

“Yes,” Bowie said. “I’m going on vacation. I have two weeks off, and I plan on using them to relax before I officially start my role in the Wrath Syndicate.”

“Son, I don’t think that you understand. People in our position don’t take vacations and we don’t relax,” his father insisted. It was almost comical to hear his father say that to him. He knew for a fact that his father never relaxed one single day in his adult life. But Bowie wanted to do things differently than his dad. He wanted to make his mark, and taking vacations was going to be part of all of that.

“You said that I can do things my way, Dad,” Bowie reminded. “Going on vacation is my way. I’ll belong to the Wrath family for the other fifty weeks of the year, but for two weeks, I’m going to have some fun and relax. I’m not you, Dad,” Bowie said. “I don’t thrive under constant pressure, if I don’t have a little bit of fun, I’ll explode.”

His father sighed and sat back in his big, black leather chair. “You’ll have your cell phone on you at all times?” he asked.

Bowie wanted to tell him that he probably wouldn’t, but he just needed to get this over with so that he could get to the docks. “Sure,” he lied. “I’ll have it on me all the time. If you need me, all you have to do is call or text—preferably text.” His father hated texting, but he always asked him to reach out to him that way, knowing that he’d probably just call.

“Where are you going?” his father asked. This was one of the reasons why Bowie didn’t plan his trip personally. He liked surprises and he didn’t want to have to hand over his itinerary to his father. He didn’t need his father stalking his every move.

“Don’t know,” he admitted. “I’m taking the yacht, and told the captain to plan for somewhere tropical, but I didn’t want to have to plan it.” Bowie noted the way his father’s nostrils flared. It was a sure tell that he was pissed but holding back. That worked for Bowie because he was basically finished with this whole conversation. “I’ll be in touch, Dad,” he promised, and yeah, that was probably another lie.

His father stood and he knew that if he didn’t high tail it out of there, he would be asked about a million other questions. Helen peeked her head into the office and smiled at Bowie. “Mr. Wrath, you have a call on line one. It’s Bruno Gluttony.”

“Which Mr. Wrath?” Deacon asked.

“Um, you, sir,” Helen said. Bowie let out a breath he didn’t know that he was holding. The last thing he needed was to field a phone call from the Gluttony family—especially Bruno.

He slipped out of the office and pulled Helen into a quick hug. “Well, what’s that for?” she asked.

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