Pride : Deadly Sins Syndicate Read online

  Pride

  Deadly Sins Syndicate - Book 1

  K.L. Ramsey

  Contents

  Damion

  Nixon

  Damion

  Nixon

  Damion

  Nixon

  Damion

  Nixon

  Damion

  Nixon

  Damion

  Nixon

  Damion

  Nixon

  Damion

  Nixon

  Damion

  Finnegan

  Ella

  Jett

  Altin

  Blake

  About K.L. Ramsey & BE Kelly

  K. L. Ramsey’s Social Media

  BE Kelly’s Social Media

  Works by K. L. Ramsey

  Works by BE Kelly (K.L.’s alter ego…)

  Pride (Deadly Sins Syndicate Book 1)

  Copyright © 2021 by K.L. Ramsey

  Cover Design: Taylor Dawn at Sweet 15 Designs

  Imprint: Independently published

  First Print Edition: March 2021

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  Damion

  Damion Pride wasn’t sure how the hell he was going to fit his next two appointments in as scheduled, but he had no choice. His very bossy business partner, Finnegan Envy, was riding his ass and giving him more shit than he wanted to deal with. His friend usually knew where and when to draw the line but lately, he was a pushy bastard who didn’t know when to quit.

  They knew that starting their own business right out of college could turn into a shit storm, but if he knew that it was going to be this much work, he would have taken his Uncle Rock up on his offer to join his syndicate. Rock Greed was his mother’s brother, and when he made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, Damion foolishly declined. He knew that branching out and starting his own venture was going to take work, but this was above and beyond what he expected. If it wasn’t for Finn, Damion would have quit a long time ago—well, Finn and the money that they were pulling in. For two kids who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, they were doing all right for themselves.

  Damion’s father worked for his Uncle Rock his whole life. He did the dirty grunt work that no one else wanted to do. If Rock had something messy to do and he didn’t want to get his hands dirty, he sent in Dominick Pride. His uncle used to say, “Get Dom—he’ll clean up just about anything for me.” Rock was right, his father would have bent over backward if it meant he could prove his loyalty to his brother-in-law and make a name for himself in the syndicate, but that was easier said than done. The Deadly Sins Syndicate wasn’t an organization that one could just climb their way to the top. No, they had to be born into the syndicate, and having the last name, Pride wasn’t enough to ensure one’s place.

  If Damion would have gone to work for his uncle, he would have ended up just like his old man—a grunt, doing the dirty work that no one else wanted to do. He was better than that, whether Rock accepted that fact or not, he didn’t give a fuck. Damion was determined to make something of himself and prove to the rest of the syndicate that he was worthy of the Pride name. He’d live up to his last name and prove them all wrong, especially his uncle Rock.

  “You’re coming in awfully late this morning. You have a rough night, man?” Finn asked. His best friend looked him over and Damion laughed. Finn was checking to see if he was hungover. There was no possibility of that since the last time Damion had gone out and had any fun was almost a month ago. Their latest project was huge for them and fucking it up by going out and partying wasn’t a luxury that either of them could afford.

  “I know you’re trying to tell if I’m hungover, Finn,” he assessed.

  “Well, are you?” his friend asked.

  Damion barked out his laugh, “God, I wish,” he said. “I could use a night out and a good bottle of vodka. I was up half the night working on the acquisition. This is going to be huge for us and I’d never blow it. I can drink and blow off steam once this project is over.”

  “You don’t have to remind me how important this project is, man. It’s our one chance at building something legit with this company,” Finn reminded. They had started out trying to follow in the syndicate’s footsteps but those proved to be big shoes to fill. Instead, Finn wanted to take their company in a new direction. He wanted to do business the old-fashioned way—on the up and up. They specialized in lending people money, much like his uncle Rock did, but they didn’t go around breaking guy’s kneecaps if they didn’t pay up on time. They weren’t loan sharks and that seemed to work for them. They had people tracking them down, begging to do business with them, even with their steep interest fees and shorter than normal payback terms. Not everyone could walk into a bank and get a loan and that was where their company came into play. They lent money to people who needed it—people who wanted to make something with their lives, just like he and Finn had. It felt good to be helping people and now, if this merger went through, they were going to be doing it on a much larger scale, helping corporations make a fresh start.

  “Your two o’clock meeting is waiting for you in the boardroom,” Finn said. “And she’s a looker, too.”

  “She?” Damion asked. “My meeting is with a Mr. Nixon Ryker.”

  “Well, Ms. Nixon Ryker is waiting for you in the conference room and as I said, she’s hot,” Finn teased. His best friend was constantly trying to fix him up with various women. Damion was sure that his need to do so stemmed from not having a love life of his own but things were a little more complicated for Finn. He was bisexual and finding one “right” person was hard enough, but Damion had a feeling that Finn was looking for two. Finn liked to get mixed up in relationships with couples looking for a third. Damion knew his friend was taking the coward’s way out, not getting emotionally involved in a relationship. The couples usually just wanted to play and explore, and that seemed to be fine with his friend. But Damion was looking for something more. He wanted a woman to share his life with, but most couldn’t look past his mafia family’s last name and their involvement with the syndicate that controlled most of the city of New York.

  “Lucky me,” Damion grumbled, as if spending the better part of an afternoon with a sexy woman, locked away in a boardroom, was a problem for him.

  “Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll pop in,” Finn offered his smirk firmly in place.

  “I think I can handle Ms. Ryker,” Damion defended.

  “Suit yourself,” Finn said. He walked back into his office and shut the door.

  Damion took a deep breath and let it back out. “Well, here goes nothing,” he said. He pulled the door open to the conference room and stepped in, finding a striking blond sitting at the far corner, at the table that took up most of the space in the boardroom.

  “Ms. Ryker?” he asked, already knowing who she was. Finn was right—she was hot. Hell, she was his walking wet dream.

  “Yes,” she said, standing and crossing the room. She held out her hand to him and he took it into his own. “But please call me Nix.”

  “Ah—” he breathed. “Short for Nixon?” he asked.

  “Yes. My father was heavily involved in politics and well
, he had a wicked sense of humor. Everyone thinks I’m a man when they just see my name and well, in this business, that works for me. Gets me in the door, at least.” He smiled but didn’t give away that he had believed her to be a man up until about four minutes ago. Looking at her now, he’d feel like a fool for believing that.

  He realized that he was still holding her hand in his own and released it. “Please call me Damion. How about we have a seat and get down to business?” Damion asked.

  “Sure,” she agreed. He pulled out her chair for her and she took her seat. He rounded the table and sat on the opposite side of her, putting some much-needed space between the two of them.

  “What can I do for you, Ms. Ry—” she held up her hand, effectively stopping him mid-sentence.

  “Nix, please,” she corrected.

  “Right, Nix,” he amended.

  “It’s not what you can do for me. It’s what I’m about to do for you. I’m here to warn you about your meeting with Tapping Industries this Friday,” she said. No one knew about the deal that he and Finn had cooked up with Tapping Industries. That was their big project—the merger that could launch their company into the next level.

  “How the hell did you find out about our deal with Tapping?” he questioned.

  “Your Uncle Rock told me,” she breathed. Shit—if Rock knew about their deal, he’d try to stop them any way he could. Sending in a sexy blond was a new low for his uncle, but he wouldn’t put it past him to do much worse.

  “Our meeting is over, Ms. Ryker,” he spat. Damion stood and left the conference room, leaving the sexy blond sitting at the table still, her smile firmly in place. Yeah—she was there to stir some shit up. Mission accomplished.

  Nixon

  Nix wasn’t sure what her next move should be but Rock Greed wasn’t a very pleasant man to work for when he didn’t get what he wanted. And he wanted the deal between Pride Enterprises and Tapping Industries to fall through. Nix’s job wasn’t to question her boss, it was to get the results he wanted. That was why he sent her to talk to Damion Pride. Well, that and Rock said she was, “Just his type.” He told her to use her feminine whiles to get his nephew to agree to listen to her proposal and that pissed her off. She was more than just a pretty face and great body. She worked hard to get where she was in the business. Her father was Jackson Lust and that meant something in the Deadly Sins Syndicate. It gave her a leg up, even if she didn’t use her father’s last name.

  After Nix graduated from college with her Master’s in Business, she decided to legally change her last name, opting to use her mother’s maiden name. The Syndicate was notorious for taking out whole families to shift the balance of power within the organization. Her family was one that they eliminated and she had a pretty good idea which families were responsible for her parent’s deaths, and her exile from the Syndicate. She had no choice but to change her name from Lust to Ryker, not doing so would have ended up with her meeting the same fate as her poor mother and father.

  “This is bullshit,” she whispered to herself after Damion Pride left her sitting in the conference room by herself. She couldn’t leave there without getting him to at least listen to her proposal. Rock had promised her a hefty sum of cash if his nephew agreed to his terms. He wanted to go into business with Pride Enterprises but with the way Damion threw a tantrum and left the room, Nix didn’t see that happening.

  She got up from her seat, deciding not to let Damion Pride get away with his bad behavior. She was going to find him and give him a piece of her mind. Then, she’d find his handsome business partner, Finn Envy, and talk to him. He seemed to be more reasonable and less of a hot head when it came to matters of business.

  Nix wandered out into the hallway and found Finn leaning against the wall with a sexy smirk on his face. “I take it that the meeting didn’t go very well?” he asked.

  “Um—no,” she said. “Not only did it not go well, but I’ve also discovered that your business partner is an asshole.” Nix wasn’t sure if Finn would consider her bold remark as overstepping her place, but she didn’t give a fuck. Walking out of a meeting, just because you didn’t like what the other person was saying, was an asshole move.

  Finn held up his hands, “I completely agree with you and your assessment of my partner. You just took him off guard. He said that Rock sent you and well, he and Rock have history.”

  “Well, I’d hope so since Rock is his uncle and all. That doesn’t excuse his bad behavior or the way he just got up and left me sitting in that room, alone,” Nix defended.

  “You’re right,” Finn agreed. Sure, he was probably just placating her, but it did help to hear him say the words out loud. “I’d like to set up another meeting and this time, I’ll be sitting in on it. Does that work for you, Ms. Ryker?” he asked.

  “It does. Thank you, Mr. Envy.” She pulled her jacket on and was ready to leave when Damion poked his head out from his office at the other end of the hallway.

  “When you get a minute, Finn, I’d like to speak with you,” he said, completely ignoring her.

  Nix couldn’t help herself, she walked down to where Damion stood, just outside his office, and pointed her finger into his chest. “And if he says something that you don’t like, you’ll just get up and rudely leave the room, right?” she taunted.

  “It wasn’t that I didn’t like what you were saying. That’s not why I got up and left. I will not entertain anything that my uncle has to say, even if he did send a pretty messenger.” Calling her pretty was meant to throw her off her game, but she wouldn’t allow that. No, she had been called pretty, sexy, gorgeous, and every other adjective a man could come up with on the fly. That didn’t make her want to give in and give him what he was asking her for. She wasn’t one to have her head turned by a compliment and she wasn’t about to start now.

  “While I appreciate your compliment, Mr. Pride, I think you’re not giving your uncle’s proposal a chance is a bad move on your part,” she assessed.

  “Oh, how so?” he asked. She could tell that he didn’t care to hear her answer, but she was going to give it to him anyway. “Am I supposed to look past the fact that he treated my father like he was disposable? Have you ever had anyone treat you that way, Ms. Ryker?” he asked. “I won’t work for my uncle, ever.”

  Sure she had felt disposable, many times, but she wasn’t about to share that with him. Damion didn’t deserve to know her in that way. “He doesn’t want you to work for him, Damion. He wants to work with you—as equal partners.”

  “He’d never treat me as an equal,” Damion spat. “I know him too well. Let me give you some advice,” he said, looking her over. “Leave the Greed Syndicate while there’s still time because when I’m finished with my uncle, you’ll find yourself in need of a job.”

  Nix barked out her laugh. He was such an arrogant asshole. “You live up to your name, Mr. Pride,” she hissed. “Just remember the old saying about pride coming before the fall.” She turned and walked back down the hallway, having said everything that she needed to say. Damion just stood by his office door; his mouth gaped open at her as if he couldn’t believe what she had just said to him. Nix guessed that not many people ever talked to Damion Pride like she just had, but then again, she wasn’t most people.

  Nixon thought about heading back to her office but she decided that she needed to blow off some steam first. She pulled her cell phone from her bag and called her best friend, Ella Laxton, to see if she was up for a lunchtime run. Usually, they found time to slip away during their day to have lunch or coffee, helping to break up their overly long days.

  Once in a while, one of them would have a shit day and call the other to work out. Last time, it was Ella who called to complain about her boss—Jett Greed, needing a run at their lunch break. Honestly, Nix felt guilty for introducing her friend to Jett, but his father, Rock, was going crazy over how to get Jett more involved in the Syndicate. Jett had all but stopped showing up to work every day and Rock was at his wit's end. Si
nce Rock was her boss, his crazy mood swings became her problem, and the thought of having to deal with her boss driving her mad until he figured out what to do about Jett, wasn’t ideal for business. That’s why she was in the Syndicate—to become the business woman her father always pushed her to be. She had it in her, she had the family connections, even if she didn’t use them, and she had the drive. Nixon wasn’t planning on staying under Rock’s wing for long. She hoped to one day restore the Lust name and insert herself and her family back into the Syndicate.

  She put her ear to the ground and searched for answers for Rock. There had to be a way to get Jett interested in the family business, and her bright idea was to hire Ella. As soon as she went to Rock and told him her idea, to hire her beautiful best friend to be Jett’s assistant, he seemed to be on board. He told her to, “Make it happen,” and she called Ella to ask her how she felt about working for the Greed Syndicate. Her friend jumped at the idea of working for them—they were one of the most powerful families in the business world and Nix knew that her friend was desperate for work.

  Her plan seemed to work too. Jett was actually showing up to work every day and Rock seemed to be a lot more relaxed, allowing Nix to concentrate on building her career—well, in this case, building Rock’s company. Rock’s company was a part of the Deadly Sins Syndicate, so it was a step in the right direction.

  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.