Page 63 of The Fall of Sin (The Sins of Saint 2)

He stepped up to Elena, which made her inch back. “What if I am?”

“Marcello was right about you,” Elena sneered. “You’re nothing but a low-life piece of shit.”

It happened so fast. The sickeningly crack of the blow ripped through the air as Raphael struck Elena with the back of his hand, sending her spiraling to the ground.

“Stop!” My voice echoed, and I rushed to my feet, forgetting about every little ache in my body. “Please stop. Don’t hurt her. Just tell me what you want.”

With unsteady feet and shaky legs, I moved to stand between him and Elena, who had settled with her back against the wall, lip cut and bleeding.

“What do you want, Raphael?”

His eyes narrowed with nothing but malicious intent beaming from black, dilated pupils. “What do I want? What I want is my fucking money.” He stepped toward me. “What I want is my motherfucking deal with that son of bitch, Russo. A deal that was secured and two seconds away from being finalized until you”—he pushed the muzzle of his gun against my chest, causing me to whimper—“stormed in uninvited, ruining fucking everything.”

“I didn’t ask to be a part of this.”

“Yet you didn’t think twice before signing your name on the dotted line, marrying that rich fuck who thinks he owns the goddamn world.”

“I had no choice,” I lashed out at him. “None of this was my fucking choice, Raphael.”

“I don’t care!” he yelled, lifting the gun and aiming it down at my forehead.

“Mila!” Elena cried, and I held up my hand in a bid to calm her as I closed my eyes against the chilling cold of the gun against my skin.

“Raphael, listen to me, okay? If it’s money you want, let me help you. I’m sure Saint would love to take those shares off your hands. We can ask him to offer you the same deal his dad had on the table.”

Silence settled…until his abrupt maniacal laughter cut through it and crashed against the ceiling. “You think I haven’t tried that? I offered him a deal two days after he held a gun to my head. I even lowered my price by fifty fucking percent.”

“What?” Nothing he said made any sense.

Raphael grinned, yet there was no amusement in his eyes. Only darkness. Hate. Rage. “Your husband made it clear he has no interest in doing business with me.”

“That’s because you’re a worthless junkie,” Elena spat out from behind me.

“Shut up, bitch!” He pushed me out of his way, and I slammed shoulder first against the wall.

“Raphael, no!”

There was a glint of silver and a deafening thunderous crack followed by Elena’s ear-piercing screams.

I cried out and watched in horror as blood poured from an open wound in her leg. Within seconds, crimson seeped through the grout between the tiles, a stark contrast of color against the white floor.

Elena sobbed, her eyes wide and body shaking as she went into shock.

I couldn’t breathe as panic dug its nails into my spine, clawing at my skin with terror. But in that moment, I didn’t care about my own life. I didn’t care about the gun in my brother’s hand. All I cared about was Elena, and her wails of gut-wrenching pain, her hands trembling over her leg. I clambered across the floor.

“Elena. Oh, my God.”

“Oh, stop acting like you care, Mila.”

Tears streamed down my face. My heart was beating so fast I was sure it would tear out of my chest at any second.

I grabbed a towel from the nearest rail, my hands shaking so badly I could hardly keep it from slipping through my fingers. “It’s okay, Elena,” I tried to reassure her even though my voice trembled almost as much as my hands. “We just need to stop the bleeding.”

I positioned the towel on her leg to put some pressure on the wound and tried to wipe the trickling tears from my cheek with my shoulder. “Just keep pressure on it.”

Raphael grabbed my shoulder. “Get away from her.”

“Let go of me!” I thrashed and jerked from his hold, which sent him stumbling back and tearing the sleeve of my dress in the process. Desperate to help Elena, I fell to the ground, fingers gripping the towel tight so I could put more pressure on her leg to try and slow the bleeding.

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