Page 132 of Saint

It takes everything in me to swallow the bile rising in my throat.

“Want to watch me fuck your sister, Declan?” Brax shoves his hand in further, grabbing me, and I choke back the desire to vomit as tears start to fall from my eyes. “I hear Kole already let you watch once, but it’ll be much more fun now, knowing what she is to you, don’t you think?”

Brax grips me tighter, and I try to fight against the restraints again, but all it does is tighten them. He leans in, licking the line of my jaw and laughing when I try to scream.

“Good girl.” Brax towers over me. “I want to watch you cry while I fuck you. Scream for your brother. For your boyfriend. For the daddy who didn’t want you. I’m going to rip your cunt open like you deserve for what you did to Liam.”

Pulling his hand away, he grabs the knife again from the table and drags it down my ribs, making another mark on my skin. The blade is cooling, but it doesn’t make it any more bearable as I choke on my spit and clench my teeth around the gag.

Brax holds up the knife in front of my face. “Maybe when I’m done filling you with my cum, I’ll fuck you with this and let your brother watch you bleed out.”

He rests his thumb on the blade.

“Kole is going to fucking kill you for touching her.” Declan fights against the chains, but there’s no use.

Brax turns his attention to Declan. “He can try. But you’re all going to get what’s coming to you for what you did.”

“And what is that?”

Brax leaves me at the table and storms over to Declan, using the blade to lift Declan’s chin. “You destroyed my family.”

Declan doesn’t flinch as the blade digs against his neck. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Liam ran off; he’s missing. That’s not my fault.”

“I’m not talking about Liam going missing.” Brax is right in Declan’s face now. “Especially when we both know he’s six feet under.”

“I don’t—”

“The second trial. You turned on him. You betrayed him to help your fucking father. Her father.” Brax points the knife at me.

Declan’s eyebrows pinch in confusion, and I believe he’s genuinely as lost as I am.

I try to remember what Kole told me about the second trial. How they were locked in a room together. They were starved and tortured. Kole told me he and Declan didn’t turn on each other, but I’m not sure what that has to do with Liam.

“You’re pissed about a trial?” Declan asks, his tone even and calm while Brax stares at him. “Liam signed up for it.Yousigned up for it. That’s how you’re initiated into Sigma House. You know how this works.”

“Except it isn’t.” Brax shakes his head. “They tell us the trials are to test our loyalty. That what’s learned in them dies like the secrets of the house. That whatever we say stays between these walls. But it doesn’t. You and I both know that. At least, not if it can benefitthem. Sigma House is built on the lies of traitors. Your father used my family’s secrets to get his position. To steal what my father had earned. Now you, your sister, and your parents are going to get a taste of your own medicine.”

Declan’s jaw clenches. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

A figure steps out of the darkness into the room. At first, all I see is a knife glinting with the light, but then my eyes blink into focus, and Kole’s eyes land on me.

“I do.”

42

What It Means To Be Loyal

Saint

Control.

There are times to rein it in. Times to put a leash on my demons and a lid on the rage. There are times to hold back. To bite my tongue and wait.

Walking into the room and seeing Violet tied down and gagged—touched by another man, cut open by another man—my control snaps.

Three slash marks are carved into her ribs, painting them in blood.

Her sapphire eyes swim in tears. And even without a word, I hear her. Like I’ve heard her this entire time, screaming at the top of her lungs and wishing someone would listen.

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