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The Syndicate was made up of seven families—the Pride and Envy families had decided to join forces and go into business together. There was the Greed family that she currently worked for. The Wrath and Sloth families had joined forces to bring down her father’s Syndicate when she was just a little girl. The Lust family hadn’t been a part of the Deadly Sin’s Syndicate since her father’s empire fell. The Gluttony family ran the entire Syndicate and usually called all the shots. She knew that Rock wanted to bring down Gluttony more than he wanted anything else, but she also knew that he couldn’t do it on his own. None of the families had enough power to bring down Gluttony on their own and there was no chance in hell that they’d all join forces to make it happen.
That was the mission behind her unsuccessful trip to meet with Pride. Rock believed that if they could get Damion on board, he’d be able to convince Finn Envy to a partnership with the Greeds, giving Rock some spark of hope that he’d be able to bring down the Gluttony family in no time. Having to show back up to the office with no signed agreement was only going to piss her boss off and that was the last thing she needed right now. Although the only thing she wanted from any merger between the Syndicate families was the possibility of rebuilding the Lust portion of it. She wanted to restore her family’s good name and show the entire Syndicate that they might be able to knock a Lust down, but they better be ready for them to get back up and fight like hell afterward.
“Hey girl,” Ella said. “There is only one reason you’d be calling me right now. I’m guessing your meeting with Pride and Envy wasn’t successful.”
“No,” Nix breathed. “Pride is a fucking asshole and Envy was too busy flirting with me to get him to agree to any of Rock’s propositions. I did get Envy to agree to set up another meeting and he promised that he’d make sure to have Pride there.”
“Well, a second meeting is a good thing, right?” Ella asked.
“I guess, but for today, I’ve failed and that’s all that Rock will see. He won’t be as understanding as you just were, that’s for sure,” Nix said.
“Honestly, I don’t know how you put up with him, Nix. I wouldn’t trade places with you for anything—and we both know how I feel about working with Jett.” Nix wasn’t sure if Ella hated working with Jett, or if she hated that Jett paid her no attention. She saw the way Ella looked at Jett, even when she was complaining about everything that the man did, she looked at him like she was a love-sick puppy.
“How about a run?” Nix asked.
“Lunch time?” Ella asked.
“Yep—at our usual place,” Nix said.
“I’ll be there,” Ella agreed.
“And, if Rock asks, I haven’t called in with an update. In fact—pretend that you haven’t heard from me all day. I need time to think and regroup before I face him.” Nix had a feeling that there would be no amount of time to tamper his anger when Rock found out that she had failed at her mission today.
Pride Universal Link
What’s coming up next from KL Ramsey? You won’t want to miss Endless Summer (Summer Lovin’ Series Book 3) Coming in August 2023!
Norah
Norah Waters wasn’t about to go down the crazy romance road just because her two best friends had. They were badgering her to get with the program and ask Colter out on a date, but she didn’t want what they had both found. Telling them that usually ended with them laughing at her. They could see right through her, and honestly, they were right. She was a big, fat liar, but there was no way that she’d admit that to them.
Norah had always been more involved with her career than she ever was with guys. She’d date, here and there, but nothing serious. Hell, she was probably one of the oldest virgins around, but she wasn’t about to have sex with a guy just to check that to-do box off of her list. No, she had time to figure that all out later, but for now, she was going to remain a twenty-five-year-old virgin.
Savannah and Ginger knew her secret and for some strange reason, they seemed to take this summer vacation as a challenge to get her laid, and since Colter was the last single man out of the group, they had chosen him to do the job. If only the poor guy knew what her two best friends were plotting, he’d run all the way back to DC, leaving her and the rest of her crazy friends in his dust.
Her only saving grace was that she had a work trip coming up for the next week that would take her to New York—her favorite place on earth. She had visited there often with her grandmother when growing up. NASA didn’t send her on many trips, so the fact that she actually had to take time out of her summer to go on this one wasn’t a hardship. She was looking forward to it and the reprieve that it gave her from her friend’s prodding into her life.
She was packing her suitcase when Ginger popped her head into the room. “When do you leave?” she asked. Her friend knew exactly when she was leaving since she and Savannah had done everything in their power to stop her from going.
“In about two hours, why?” she asked. Norah was sure that she was going to get the same song and dance about sticking around so that she could get to know Colter better. The gang was all hoping that Norah and Colter would fall in love like the rest of them had paired off, and they could be one big, happy family. But how could she do that to him? Norah wasn’t ready to settle down and trapping Colter into helping her to lose her virginity wasn’t fair to him.
“I thought you might change your mind and stick around. We only have four more weeks here,” Ginger said. “You’re going to be gone for a whole week.”
“I’m aware, but we also agreed that if any of us needed to travel for work or personal reasons, we’d be supportive. When Savannah went home to take care of her father, after he fell, you didn’t try to stop her from going home. In fact, you helped her pack.”
“Are you saying that you need help packing?” Ginger asked.
“No, I’m just saying that you’ve got quite the double standard going on, my friend,” Norah sassed.
“We just thought that you’d find a reason to stick around, you know?” Ginger almost whispered.
“You mean, you all were hoping that I’d fall for Colter and want to never leave his side? Oh, let’s not forget that you were all hoping that I’d find a way to trap him into sleeping with me to take care of my little virginity problem. I won’t do that to him. Colter and I are friends; that’s it. If you guys can’t accept that, then maybe I shouldn’t come back here after my trip is over. I can just go back home.”
“No,” Ginger shouted. “You can’t just give up on our girl’s trip. The summer isn’t over.”
“Right, and if you haven’t noticed, this isn’t really a girl’s trip anymore, is it? You guys have all paired off and while I’m happy that you and Savannah have found your happily-ever-after, you two need to realize that mine might not look the same as yours. I’m happy with my career and I’m not looking for a man to fulfill me. I’m already enough on my own.”
“Oh, you’re enough all right,” Ginger grumbled.
