Diana is a woman of surprises.
The Syndicate Supper is apparently a dinner held towards the beginning of every new year. Diana reviews the previous year with the gang members and discusses her plans for the ones to come. She couldn't postpone it for Seven, despite our plans to rescue him in a mere few hours. But I suppose it's better this way if we're all already together.
I didn't even know this house had such a huge dinning room. It looks like it's meant for a feast. The four round dinner tables and high hanging crystal chandeliers. The way the light skims out in the corners of the room. The edges still bearing darkness around us.
When Romero approaches me, that darkness lingers on him too. He's wearing a black satin shirt that hugs on his tight muscles when he extends them, yet remains fluid enough for the shinning material to dance against his tan skin. He doesn't pull me against his chest, wrap his arms around me in a warm embrace. His eyes consume me before his body can as he takes them slowly over my figure.
I get flustered but don't dare show it in my posture. The small black dress is tight on my waist, held together by feeble strings that look as if they could pop at any minute. It's short, really short, but still has a slit on my thigh. My hair is pulled into a messy ponytail, blonde and brown curls escaping to frame the back of my neck and my forehead. My long eyelashes and glossed lips make the look appear elegant yet effortless. Romero eats it up.
"Damn, mami." He plays around at first, circles around me as I finger the white faux fur shawl around my arms. "Mia, Mia, Mia!"
"What?" I laugh at his antics, almost put my hand on his chest to stop him. But guests are pooling in and I don't want to make more of a scene.
Romero is only half discrete himself. He pulls on the fabric over my butt to make sure it's actually as short as we already know it is, his fingers brush against my skin in the process and I get chills, wrapping the fur tighter around myself.
He leans close to my ear from behind me. Keeps his hand on my ass before kneeding. My knees almost buckle. My panties are too tiny and his hand feels too good on me.
"I miss having you," His voice is so thick it comes out as a growl.
My eyes roll to the back of my head on their own. His breath against my skin is enough to make me explode.
I realize L is watching us, hard eyes and folded arms over his broad chest. Romero notices too as he pulls away with a final pat to my backside.
"Sit," he commands and leads me to a chair at an unclothed table.
Much to my dismay, he sits across from me. L takes a seat beside me. He immediately puts his arm on the back of my chair and I notice the way the dim lighting catches on his eyelids, his lips. Sweet gold. Everything in me wants to continue what Romero started but L is distracting me from even looking his way.
Romero leans back in his seat, long body extended as he taps my ankle with the tip of his shoe. "Open," he says, as L places one hand on my shoulder and the other on my almost fully exposed thigh. The scar there completely unimportant.
"This dress is too short," the older says as he slides his hand down to my knee. "Do as Romero says."
Slowly I separate my legs, immediately wanting to close them as the cool air contrasts the heat between my thighs. My heels scrape uncomfortably against the flooring when two men walk and talk behind me.
"Keep them open for the rest of dinner, or else Daddy's gonna punish you." Romero speaks. His half lidded eyes are focused under the table as his tongue wets his lips.
"She's blushing," L chuckles at the reddish tint over my face. Finger pads on my chin tilt my head up so that Romero can see as well. "She's embarrassed."
"No, I'm not," I lie and snap my head way from them. The table beside us is full of chattering men who have no idea what these two are doing to me.
L hums, rests his hand dangerously close to my breasts before slowly pulling away.
"Is someone sitting here?" Kimori asks me. He's dressed in a suit and bow tie as if this is the most high formal event of his life. It's endearing. So much so that I want to snatch his tie off and undo a few of his buttons. Like the ones on his pants.
"Yeah," Romero answers.
"No they aren't," I roll my eyes. Von and his new girlfriend are headed this way and I'd rather sit next to Kimori than Rosemary. "Please sit."
"Uhh..." Kimori debates for a bit before following L's gesture to hurry up and sit down.
The couple joins our table like it's just the best in the house and I look anywhere else but at them. Von could be wearing a penguin suit and I wouldn't know.
The dinner begins and I catch the attention of several of the bullets as they walk by. If Kimori looked, he didn't make it obvious like a lot of the other men do. I even think I catch Von staring, but he turns around before I can make sure of anything. My eyes linger on the black sweater he wears as opposes to a dress shirt. L is still struggling with my appearance, sneaking glances whenever he can as he digs into roasted duck and citrus salad.
Diana and another bullet join our table before she clinks a spoon against her champagne glass. "The bullets need to compete extra hard this year to impress me. Prove to me you're more than what I thought you were. I need to add another member into the Syndicate and you are the first place I'm looking." She announces.
Kimori shakes beside me and I'm concerned until I realize he's doing a victory dance. Smile on his face, his two front teeth protruding further than the rest in an adorable way, as he tries to keep himself together.
"I hope you get in," I whisper to him. And it's true because the one thing our gang needs right now, when everyone's in and out of ripping each other's heads off, is a positive ray of sunshine like Kimori.
"Really?" He turns towards me, pupils shaking but otherwise never falling from mine. "That means so much coming from you. Please tell Diana."
I scoff at him before taking a sip from my sparkling cider. "Sorry but she doesn't care about what I think."
"Yes she does, you're a Syndicate member. She cares about what you think, she cares about you. You wouldn't be a member if she didn't." Kimori actually loses his smile for a second. "At the very least you care immensely about Von and that has to be important to her."
I want to disagree, to prove him wrong or something. Then I remember how quickly Seven got into the gang and it makes perfect sense considering his love at first sight.
Diana opens the floor for questions and first a bullet's gets answered then she moves on to Von.
"How many more members are you planning on adding? We don't need immature kids turning our gang into a kindergarten class." His eyes land on Kimori but I hope he didn't notice. I don't want anyone to dim his shine especially not Von with this spontaneous grudge he has against him.
Kimori continues cutting his steak into little bite sized pieces and humming quietly, acting like he's not over Diana's announcement enough to notice anything else.
"The last member I added was Mia, per your irresponsibility, and it actually turned out well. She's an unexpected force who gets stronger when things get hard instead of quivering in fear or getting soft." Diana says.
Kimori nods his head and shallowly claps his hands, hyping me up as quietly as he possibly can.
"You just added Rosemary," Von counters.
"I didn't add Rosemary," Diana quickly retorts, dabs at the lipstick at the corner of her mouth as the room grows completely silent. "Rosemary is not a member of the gang. I honestly don't know why she's sitting at this table right now."
Rosemary stalls, her mouth hangs open and for the first time in too long of a time, I find myself feeling sorry for her.
Diana continues over the harsh atmosphere, her laughter not doing anything to appease it. "Did you think I made a mistake? That I regretted it so much I wanted her back now even though she's used and useless? Son, when I crushed her throat that was me showing mercy."
Von can't respond. He glares at his mother and when her words cut too deep his emotions bleed down his entire body. He tenses, clenches his jaw, a fist. Completely unable to retaliate.
"That reminds me, get out," Diana continues. She stares Rosemary down and I feel myself sinking back in fear as well. "This dinner is for gang members only."
Rosemary rises from the table and when Von reaches towards her, when he touches her, I snap my head away. I can't help but wonder what other ways he's touched her. If he's touched her in the ways he's touched me. If he touched her like that first.
He didn't even know you then.
Rosemary's words play over in my head and I still don't give a damn about them. Von is mine, now and then. Romero is mine, Seven is mine, L is married and he's still mine. Yeah I'm spoiled. But I get what I want.
There's a commotion at the table. Diana pointedly holds onto her steak knife.
"If you don't let go in the next five seconds, I'll slit her throat," she says.
Rosemary snatches from Von's grip, a cold expression on her face like that has any effect on Diana. I realize Rosemary's presence barely has any effect on anyone. L acts like they don't have a past. Romero never speaks to her. It's just me who feels bile in my throat when I see her.
She's completely silent as she flutters out of the room, her white dress as light as butterfly wings. She's too delicate.
Von watches her the entire time, still as ever when the door closes behind her as if she were never even here. I watch him. I watch the way his resolve crumbles piece by piece and he just lets it. Like he has no other choice. Like he's just so used to being broken.
I want to tell him to look at me. Please look at me.
Romero nudges my heels, widens the space between my legs and the though of the gang leader almost completely leaves my mind. I try and let Von leave my mind, because I've already left his.
It's taken over by my heartbeat traveling down my body. Romero puts his glass to his lips and drinks, slowly. His Adam's apple bobs with a lazy rhythm as I let my gaze travel to the exposed expanse of him. The black satin casts aurora borealis on his skin. Every inch that I see is more beautiful and riveting than the last.
"What are you looking for in a future Syndicate member?" I hear someone ask.
"Skill is all I'm looking for. The group is already well-rounded if you're not bringing in something new, you can stay where you are."
"When will you be evaluating us?" A black haired woman asks from the table beside us.
"I'm evaluating you right now. Tonight is the night to show me everything you've got whether we come back empty handed or not."
I tune out of the conversation at the fear of losing Seven. But maybe I could have done something to prevent him from getting taken in the first place. I could have talked some sense into Von during the ride, worried about the future instead of the past. I could have let Cleo mark me without fighting back. Maybe that threat would have never left his lips.
"You okay?" Kimori looks down at me with every shiny object in this room catching in his eyes.
I nod my head before jumping at the hand L places on my thigh.
"What did we tell you to do?" He asks. He's not even sitting that close to me but I feel entirely overwhelmed by his presence. When he runs his thumb along my inner thigh it feels like he's threatening to take something from me.
Romero nudges my legs to stay open with his foot again. I pray Kimori doesn't notice.
"What's wrong, Mia?" Romero calls through the small chatter that has erupted in the dinning room. Diana has moved to another table to discuss the plan for tonight with those who still need it. Romero's sitting between Rosemary's empty seat and a slender faced thirty something who stops to stare at me. "You're blushing again."
I look down at my lap, furiously shake my head, and regret the way it stretches the stitches on my neck. I know he's trying to distract me. Picking up on every shift in my expression and transforming my sadness into anything else. Even humiliation.
"She is!" Kimori laughs along, hardy realizing the extent of their words.
"I love when you blush like that," I read it from Romero's lips when he doesn't speak loud enough. "It reminds me of the first time I was inside of you."
Kimori chokes on his drink. L gets up to help his gasping and sputtering, more than ready to perform the Heimlich maneuver.
"I'm fine," Kimori says whether he is or not as he cleans himself up.
"Mia," Romero drags out, not letting my attention leave him for more than a second. He bumps the heel of my shoe again and by now Kimori is looking down at the space between my legs too.
I'm practically straddling the seat. I place both of my hands there and press hard into the cushion to relieve an ounce of my embarrassment.
"Tell him what we do to you."
"Shut up," I snap at Romero. Not caring if he can see how red my face is. Kimori is fumbling beside me like he's never even heard of the birds and bees.
"You wanna be a member of the Syndicate you gotta be able to handle this kind of stuff, bunny boy." Romero sneers.
The younger plays with the two rings in his cartilage. "I can handle it," It's spoken absentmindedly. He can't even look at me anymore.
I can feel the eyes of everyone else at the table including Von's. But I refuse to raise my head again.
Romero chuckles but there's nothing but malice behind it. "You're fidgeting around. If I put a gun in your hand you'd shoot yourself in the the foot. Mia likes fucking around in front of the gang members. You'll have to get used to it."
Kimori looks down now too and seeing him like this, stirs the oddest feeling within me. He's so innocent I want to corrupt him. In the same way I want to be mean to Rosemary when she's nice. He bites on his thick bottom lip and I unconsciously do the same.
I raise my head and stare right at Romero as I lean forward in my seat.
He takes it as a challenge. Smirks at me because I don't know how mean he can get. "You look like a whore. Sitting at a table full of men with your legs wide open."
"That's enough." Von interjects.
"I think Mia wants more, right Mia? This isn't enough for you, you need more attention." Romero says. So that's what this is about. He thinks I want more than what he's giving me. He's jealous. He's leaning in, dimples showing as he takes his bottom lip between his teeth in a knowing smirk. "Why don't you turn around and show everyone what kind of panties you're wearing under that little thing."
Von slams a tattooed hand down on the table. Black ink threatening to bleed into the table cloth. To bleed into us and make us as dark and solemn as him.
"I'm gonna go get some water," Kimori shoots up out of his seat as if he just couldn't wait to do so.
"I'll go with you," I say.
"No you won't." it's Von's voice I hear next. When I look at him, when our eyes meet, his light up in a violent blue flame.
I get up from my seat at once. He can boss Rosemary around, not me. I don't even speak to him as I prepare to leave.
Before I can, Romero gets up. He balls up his towel into his fist before throwing it onto the table. It's a small gesture but there's so much force behind it.
I walk right beside Kimori as if I don't see him. As if Romero's eyes weren't darker, as if his hair wasn't messier. As if he didn't look absolutely feral.
I know he's behind me. I feel him before he touches me. Yet my heart flips at his skin against mine. He grabs my wrist and leads me off just as the dinner concludes. Kimori doesn't say a thing, just looks like he wants to as the door closes with us on different sides.
"Where are we going?" I ask with a weak attempt at pulling away.
Romero doesn't look back at me, doesn't loosen his grip. The black satin tighter on his arms. "You were thirsty right?"
I let him lead me to a part of the house I've never been to before. The long hallway gives way to another bedroom but he doesn't take me there. He takes me to a closet.
L catches the door before we can close it and I hadn't even realized he was following us.
"What? Tell Diana-" Romero groans.
"I don't want you... to hurt yourself," L pants. "Or her."
Romero smirks at that, pulls both of us into the closet.