Page 134 of Saint

That’s why Liam targeted her. It wasn’t specifically Violet he was after; it was the Pierce family, and he’s insistent on taking down all of them.

The Westwoods were probably planning to air out Ian Pierce’s dirty laundry. And they were going to use the video of Liam defiling Violet to do it. A tape like that would be enough to get Ian Pierce to back down and hand over his Senate seat to Oliver Westwood.

A seat Declan’s father stole in the first place.

Everything is clear. It’s a political pissing contest, and Violet is caught in the center.

My grip tightens on my knife handle, and I look back at Violet. She’s struggling against the restraints. Scared.

She doesn’t even know why she’s caught up in this as tears spill down her cheeks.

“Don’t look at him like that,” Brax says to Violet when she’s been staring at me too long. “He won’t save you.”

Brax reaches behind her head and undoes the gag, releasing it from her mouth. It’s covered in spit, and her lips are red and chapped from where they’ve been stretched open.

What should be a pretty sight makes me want to fucking gut him.

“There. I’d rather them hear you scream while I fuck you.” Brax grins.

He still thinks I’ll let it get that far because he underestimates me. I’m quiet; I don’t intervene in Sigma House business unless necessary. I toe the line when people are watching.

Braxton Westwood doesn’t know my dark side.

Violet whimpers, and that sound has me taking a step forward. I can’t help it. I’ve only got one weakness, and she’s tied to a table out of reach. They could take anything else from me and get away with it.

But not her.

“Don’t.” Brax pushes the blade tighter against her throat.

“You kill her, and you’ll be dead before the blade is halfway to her vertebra.”

Brax tilts his head. “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you? But you’re not invincible, Kole. None of us are.”

“Why are you doing this? You’re Sigma Sin. We’re your brothers.” Declan’s chest deflates with each word, and it’s almost laughable that’s where his head is at when all I see is Violet.

But Declan always did care more about the House than anything else.

“Ask your friend.” Brax looks back at me. “Kole looks like he’s already figured it out. What happened during that second trial?”

That trial is going to haunt us. Alex might have been the only one who outwardly snapped, but none of us survived that room. We were all broken in different ways, whether we confessed our sins or not.

“Trinity,” Brax pushes when I’m quiet too long, and my teeth grit at her name.

“Fuck.” Declan’s shoulders deflate when he realizes what Brax is talking about.

When you pledge Sigma House, you’re told the trials are a test of loyalty. That what’s learned in these walls will never get out, even if you don’t make it as a member. But it’s all lies, and the second trial made that clear to us.

The secrets they collect in the trials are used against all of us in one form or another. To blackmail us or control us. To decide what happens when we’re here and after we graduate. And sometimes, they use what they learn to advance themselves.

Which is what Ian Pierce did after Liam broke.

Trinity was Liam’s girlfriend when he first came to Briar. She was the daughter of a senator and was being groomed as a future Westwood bride. But when Liam snapped during the second trial, he revealed all the dirty secrets about his relationship. How he’d share her with friends, and how he kept a collection of video evidence.

When the Senate race got tight between Ian Pierce and Trinity’s father, those exact secrets weresomehowleaked to the press.

No one admitted where they came from, and there was no putting a lid on Pandora’s box once it was opened. Everyone moved on—or so I thought.

Trinity never recovered.

---