Page 9 of The Fall of Sin (The Sins of Saint 2)

Raphael stepped up to him. “She’s not going anywhere with—”

Saint pulled out a gun and aimed it at Raphael’s head. My breath got caught in my throat as I gasped. “Saint, no!” But he didn’t even glance my way as he glared at Raphael.

“I won’t think twice about pulling this trigger,” he warned.

“You’re not taking my sister.”

Saint straightened his arm, the muzzle of his gun biting into Raphael’s forehead. “And who is going to stop me? You?”

I rushed toward them and almost tripped over my own two feet. “Don’t hurt him.”

“And if I really, really want to?” Saint’s jaw ticked, the hatred in his eyes almost as deadly as the weapon in his hand.

“Saint, please.”

James entered the suite carrying a man over his shoulders. It was only when he dropped the man on the tiled floor that I realized he was dead, throat slit and blood oozing from the cut.

“Jesus Christ.” My palm hit my mouth as I gasped, nausea forcing bile up my throat. “What the fuck?” I looked at Saint and noticed a streak of blood on his hand holding the gun. “Who is that?”

Saint snarled. “A security measure my father put in place in case you decided to run.”

“What?”

“James, please escort Mrs. Russo to the car. I’d like to have a very brief and private conversation with Mr. Torres.”

“Saint, no!” I pleaded, knowing all too well what he was capable of. The memory of Brad’s dead body and the sight of another lifeless man bleeding on the tiles reminded me exactly how cruel and callous Saint really was. There was no doubt in my mind that he would kill Raphael without even blinking.

“Saint,” I slowly approached him, “I’ll go with you, but please don’t hurt my brother.”

“Brother?” Saint mocked and leaned his head to the side as he glared at Raphael. “You had her for two hours, and already you brainwashed her into thinking you cared?”

“I do care,” Raphael bit out.

“Bullshit. All you care about is money and ass.”

“Fuck you!”

Saint pressed the gun harder against Raphael’s head, and a scream got lodged in my throat as flashes of blood and dead bodies bombarded my thoughts. I cringed, expecting the sound of a gunshot to crack through the air at any moment, but Saint’s finger merely rested on the trigger.

“Be careful, boy,” he snarled. “I’ve killed people for far less than uttering a few curse words at me.”

My heart was on the verge of exploding, and I couldn’t feel my legs through the panic. The look on Saint’s hardened face was that of sheer determination, and I knew the only way for me to keep him from killing Raphael was to do what he said.

“Please. I’ll go with you. You don’t have to kill anyone else.”

Saint’s top lip curled up as he stared at Raphael with nothing but disdain and contempt. “If you ever take her away from me again, I will kill you. And I don’t care how much she begs for me to spare your life, I won’t.” Saint dropped his arm and secured the gun behind his back.

I let out a breath, and I could hardly stand up straight. In that moment, I was back at the penthouse in New York, watching my friend bleed out on the carpet. I relived it as it replayed over and over inside my head. It brought tears to my eyes together with the bone-chilling terror of Saint killing my brother in front of me. I wanted to sag to the ground and let the fear swallow me whole.

Saint wrapped his fingers around my elbow, his touch scorching my skin. “Consider this a gesture of goodwill, Raphael. The fact that you’re still breathing. You should remember to thank your sister for that one day.”

He pulled me toward the door, and I balked. “My shoes. Let me just grab—”

“Leave them.”

Saint dragged me out of the hotel room, and I didn’t fight him. I was too afraid he might change his mind and go back to kill Raphael.

Thankfully, Raphael didn’t follow us. It seemed he knew Saint as well as I did, knowing the man had no trouble spilling blood and taking lives. It was naïve and stupid of me to think I could run from Saint. After everything he did to get to me in the first place, and knowing what he wanted from me, how could I have thought it was possible to get away from him?

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