Page 10 of No Saint

“That was a mistake,leonessa,a big one.”

6

All of him presses against all of me as he glares down at my face, rage simmering in his eyes. I doubted he was very used to people talking back to him, especially since he, quite literally, kidnapped me. His hand wraps threateningly around my throat, fingers biting but not cutting off my air supply.

My chest squeezes, heart battering against my ribcage so hard I was sure he would feel my pulse thumping in my neck.

My son was somewhere in this house, with these strangers. Who was watching him? One of his brutes that he employed? I had to figure out a way of getting to him, of getting us out of here.

I knew Lincoln’s father was a Saint. I knew it and still slept with him. It was one night and after so long of not getting something I wanted, I decided to take it. He was warm to me, kind even, despite his reputation and the blood on his hands. He didn’t force anything or take anything I wasn’t willing to give. Then we parted ways and I never saw him again.

I was three months pregnant when I found out I was carrying his child. I told no one. When people ask about Linc’s father I tell them it was a one night hook up and we never exchanged details. The sordid looks were better than telling them who he really was.

There was a reason the Saints were the rulers of Redhill, and they didn’t get to their position using the kindness of their hearts. They killed and stole and manipulated their way to their thrones, corrupting everyone in their path.

I didn’t want to be a part of that life, and I didn’t want my son having it either. So, I never told him. Not that I ever had a chance to, I never saw him again after that one night of sex.

How these people know about Lincoln and me, I don’t know. I’d underestimated them and seeing Gabriel last night, even if I didn’t recognize the infamous youngest Saint right away, I knew having him there was far worse than my stepfather or any one of his cronies.

I had never anticipated the Saints finding out about Lincoln.

I struggle uselessly beneath Gabriel’s weight, the ropes binding me to the bed cutting further into my skin, my flesh already wet and slippery from the blood that already stains my wrists and ankles, soaking into the bedsheets under them.

I didn’t want to die, I didn’t want my son being raised without his mother but it was the only way these people were going to stop me from getting to him. I will fight. I will kill if I must. They will not keep me from him.

“You keep fighting me,leonessa,” he growls, tightening his fingers, “do you want to die?”

“You will not keep me from him!” My voice is strained beneath his hand. He could quite easily end me, and my name would just be one of many these hands have wiped out of existence. I was nothing. No one. He wanted my son for the blood he shares with him. “Where is Lucas?” I ask, narrowing my eyes, “Is he the one taking care ofmyson?”

“Do you care for my brother?” He asks instead of answering. He still rests atop me though the weight has shifted slightly, not as heavy as it once was though the reprieve was a contrast to the hand banded around my neck.

“No.”

“Is that why you kept his son from him?”

I scoff, “It isn’t like he would have cared,” I snipe, “but even if I wanted to tell him, I couldn’t, we didn’t exchange details and I never saw him again. I would have been stupid to go looking for him.”

He lets go, releasing me and rising.

“Is that what this is about?” I ask, pulling on the ropes, “he wants me dead because I didn’t tell him about Lincoln?”

“Lucas is dead.”

The breath I was taking gets stuck in my throat.

“What?” I manage to stutter.

“He’s dead and I am claiming what he should have a long time ago. That boy belongs to the Saints, Amelia, you’ve kept him from us for long enough.”

“He is a child, not a possession and you have no right to him!”

“Do you think Lucas didn’t know?” He asks, his mouth twisting harshly. “You think you would have been able to keep him?”

“Then where was he?” I challenge.

“Lucas knew all about Lincoln, had files on you and him, watched you, waited. He would have taken the child eventually, would you have stopped him?”

“I would have killed him,” I lie.

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