Page 9 of The Rise of Saint (The Sins of Saint 1)

Elena accepted his response immediately and let go of my elbow, heading toward the black SUV parked in the front. Saint grabbed my arm, his grip tight as his fingers bit into my flesh. He didn’t care whether he was hurting me, or whether he was causing me to stumble by dragging me to the car. He didn’t give a fuck about anything except getting me out of there as soon as possible.

We reached the car, and he pulled the hat off my head, grabbing the back of my neck, fingers biting my flesh as he forced me into the back seat of the SUV. His touch was merciless and cruel, and if it weren’t for my heart trying to claw its way up my throat, it would probably hurt more.

Saint got in next to me, and the second the passenger door shut, the car moved. I scurried to the other end of the back seat, desperate for distance between us. It was instinct to reach for the door handle, but I was hardly surprised to find it locked.

“You’re not getting away from me, Mila.”

“Why are you doing this?” I leaned against the door, suddenly not brave enough to look at him.

“Because it’s your destiny. It’s our destiny.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Something your tiny little head won’t understand.” He shifted in his seat. “Because it’s been kept from you since the day you were born.”

This time I looked at him. “What?”

With narrowed eyes, he studied me like he knew me. Like he knew more about me than I did.

“Our families go back generations.”

I snorted. “Which one? I’ve had many.”

“I’m not talking about one of your foster families.” His face turned to stone. “I’m talking about your real family.”

My stomach turned inside out, my skin ice-cold. “My real family?”

He nodded, secrets hiding behind the line of his sealed lips.

“You know my real family?”

His lips curved, a look of sheer amusement as if he loved every second of mind-fucking me with words that made no sense. Frozen to the spot, I could only watch as he reached out and placed the back of his cold hand against my cheek. “You, dear Mila, are the world’s best kept secret.” His voice dropped to a low, dark whisper. “And now…you’re my secret.”

5

Saint

The lookon her face was priceless. I could see how her body shuddered, how her eyes screamed with the need to know every dark secret I kept so close to my chest. Secrets I didn’t plan on sharing with her any time soon. But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t use it to torture her…just a little.

I knew her head was drowning in questions, yet she kept her mouth shut. I wasn’t sure whether it was her stubbornness stopping her from asking them, or whether her mind was too fragmented by what I had just revealed. I knew her family. I knew her heritage. I knew her entire goddamn bloodline. But the best part was I knew the answer to every fucking question she ever had about her life, about who she really was.

I sat back in my seat, settling in as we sped through the streets of New York. The three cars split off in different directions when we rounded the first corner away from the hotel. Every security measure had been put in place for this, for me to get her out of New York as soon as possible once she was finally brought to me. I would have gone and pull her out of the slums in Syracuse myself if I thought it could be risked. But I couldn’t risk it in case I was being watched.

The entire way to Teterboro Airport, Mila remained as silent as a mouse. She didn’t even move next to me, keeping her gaze out the window the entire time. It was just past midnight, and the tinted windows allowed her to see nothing but the blur of streetlights. New York was slowly fading away, and I wanted to tell her to take a hard look at it all because it would be a long time before she saw it again, if ever. But I appreciated the silence for what it was. Heavy, suffocating, foreboding with a hint of excitement brought on by me knowing what her future held in store for her. For us both. And the sadistic fuck in me loved the fact that I could torture her so easily by simply withholding all I knew.

Any other man in my position would probably feel a slight twinge of guilt knowing he was about to ruin a woman’s life in order to fulfill a ten-year-old vendetta. But not me. The blood in my veins went cold a long time ago, and I no longer concerned myself with the wellbeing of others. Especially a Torres girl. The girl of a family who thought they could fool us—fool me. Well, they were in for one hell of a surprise when I was ready to reveal all.

The car drove through the gates of Teterboro Airport, the security letting us in without stopping us—as instructed. A lesson I had to teach Mila quickly—money and power were the only things you needed to rule the fucking world.

Lightning cracked across the sky, and for the first time during the entire trip, Mila looked at me. “Why are we here?”

“It’s an airport. What the fuck do you think?”

“Where are we going?”

“Don’t you mean to ask where am I taking you?”

“It’s the same thing.”

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