Page 125 of No Saint

“This city of course,” he says, “You Saint’s never deserved it. I took it all from you. Your business, your properties. I burned it all and you had no idea. You were too busy, playing with things not important. I knew what needed to be done, I did it. But you Gabriel, you honestly believe you’re better. Walking all over us like you believed yourselves gods. I’m here to show just how fucking mortal you are.”

“And what, you think you’re better suited!?”

“I am!” He bellows, standing abruptly and storming towards me. “I am the better one here. The smarter one. I deserve this city!”

“Asher please!” Amelia cries out, “Please stop! Gabriel will let you go! It doesn’t have to be like this!”

His attention moves back to her. No. No. No.

It doesn’t matter how often I scream his name, he goes to her anyway and takes out a knife.

“Asher!”

Picking up the hem of her dress, he slices it through the material and then uses it as a gag. “Women should be seen and not heard, that’s what I was always taught!”

“Those are archaic rules long since abolished in the family!”

“Perhaps we should bring some back, hm? Like the one which states that should thetrue,” he spits the word, “heir no longer be fit to rule, the next generation will be sworn in to take over.”

“You cannot have this city, Asher.”

“It’s already mine.” He shrugs, “I have plans in motion to get rid of Enzo and Devon because I’m not foolish enough to believe they’d work for me but once they’re out the way, it’s all mine. There’s no one to stop me.”

Amelia thrashes, trying to dislodge her gag.

“You showed your weakness, Gabriel. I’ve studied you since we were boys, I never saw one. Not in the many years I was forced to live under your roof, underourfathers’ rules, and I never saw you break. Until her. You pushed the city to the side for what? A used bit of pussy.”

“This is all because you’d never get it, not unless everyone died.”

“Yes, because I fucking deserve it! You don’t. Not when you put a bitch on a pedestal and treat me and my brother like we’re some half breed mongrels. I earned this by putting up with your bullshit. It was handed to you, but you don’t deserve it.”

“You tried to kill her, that day in the pool. And Lincoln.”

“I wanted her dead. Lincoln dead. No more Saint’s, only me and Atlas.”

“Atlas agrees with this?”

“He will.”

“Let her go,” I plead, “She doesn’t belong here.”

“You’re right,” he nods, running the tip of the knife along her thigh, “But you brought her in. This is on you.”

“Asher!”

“You and your family took everything from me, from Atlas. Took us from our real family, forced us to live in a home where no one wanted us and made us watch while you ruled and gave us scraps. I will take everything from you for what we had to suffer.”

“You want the city, fine, it’s yours, let her go.”

“I don’t think I will,” he smiles cruelly, looking to me. He pushes her dress up, exposing her crotch.

“Do not fucking touch her, Asher!” The chains rattle, my shoulders feel like they might pop from the sockets, but I have to get out, I have to get to her.

“She was good enough for both brothers,” he muses, “First Lucas fucked her, got her pregnant and then you, couldn’t resist fucking your brothers baby momma.”

Amelia tries and fails to move away from Asher’s hand, kicks one leg, but the other isn’t moving.

She cries, tears streaming down her face as she frantically shakes her head. I hear the muffled no behind the gag, hear her pleas.

---