No Saint

by Ria Wilde

There was no judgement in his face, nothing there to suggest he didn’t like what he saw. He reaches for a scar on my stomach, a small one, brushing his thumb softly over it. I didn’t look at myself often, I didn’t like what I saw but Gabriel, he looks at me as if he’ll drop to his knees and worship me right here.

Her panic, the terror I saw in her earlier and how she had a literal nightmare right in front of me, all because of what that fucker did to her. He drowned her.

“She still suffers because of you,” The sole of my shoe presses harder, squashing his face into the carpet. “You were supposed to protect her, instead you damaged her. You broke her!” I roar.

“She liked it,” he continues, “Liked it when my men paid more to fuck her. Liked it when I cut up that pretty skin of hers.” I wanted to explode. I really fucking wanted to. But I didn’t.

“Sadly, my brother lost his life some time ago now, but she became family the moment she became pregnant. And now she is my wife. My. Wife. Let that sink in for a moment.”

“Mondo mia?” he says, pressing a kiss to my spine, “It means ‘my world’.”

“For you, Amelia,” he whispers, “I will do it all for you.”

“Nine years ago, you received a distressed call from a girl. They claimed they were being abused. You sent officers who clearly state signs and evidence, but the case was dismissed. Another call was made only months later of a girl screaming but the call was disconnected and never reengaged. One year later a woman called and tried to explain her abuse only for her call to be terminated. Again.”

“Miss Doyles – Mrs Saint’s,” He corrects, “Her guardian claimed ties with the Saints. That everything they did was approved by you.”

“I’ll make you a promise, leonessa, one I need you to remember.”

“No man will ever touch you again.”

“You should smile more,” I chuckle, patting the man on the arm, “Makes you less scary.” The smile drops instantly, turning to stone, and that only serves to make me laugh harder.

“You fucking can, and you fucking will. You’ll give me another like the good girl I know you are.”

Mondo mia. My world. Moglie mia. My Wife. Amore mia. My Love.

“This is the rarest diamond in the world,” I say to her, “I couldn’t find anything better fitting to match you, Amelia.”

“As much as I prefer my hand as your necklace, Amelia, I knew it couldn’t be there forever so this was the next

Enzo grunts. Jesus Christ, he heard it all, didn’t he? I press my fingers to the bridge of my nose, my cheeks heating. How had I forgotten we weren’t alone.

It was a lock that could be unlocked with a tool on the other side, but I can see it turning. Slowly. As if whoever was trying to unlock it was struggling to do so. “It’s busy!” I yell, panicking, “Someone’s in here!” “Fuck.” Comes a muffled grunt. And then silence.

“And it was fucking beautiful. You’ll be doing it again. A lot.” “You’re gonna kill me.”

“I love you.” Something rumbles inside his chest as his arms tighten, “And you own my heart, amore mia, I am in love with you.”

look to the guy, watching as he weakly dips his finger in his blood and then spells out a word on part of the clean tile next to him. R…U…N… And then his eyes roll back and he goes limp.

I check but there was no key and then I see a circular bit of metal on the tiles at my feet. It was the head of the key, and when I slide my eyes to the lock on the door, I see the rest of the key, snapped off and jammed into the lock.

The second man that Gabriel had left to watch me this morning was standing on the other side. He grins cruelly when he sees me, lifts his hand and waves with his fingers. “I can’t get out the back door,” I tell Gabriel. “The other man, he’s the one who killed him. He’s blocking the door.”

“Oh my god,” I breathe out. “Hello Amelia.”

“I guess we’re about to find out,” Devon says somberly as I swerve through the streets in the city. Atlas was on my tail, Enzo long gone.

It was clicking together. How the men in the basement had stared at his face. How Amelia had acted when she was in the hospital, and he arrived. They knew his face. It was him conspiring against me. It was fucking him!

Asher roughly pulls me to a stop using my hair and then yanks my head back. I cry out at the bite of pain on my scalp. He forces me to look at him, at his twisted face.

“I’m going to kill him too,” he tells me, voice almost calm, “Just like I did his brother.” “You killed Lucas?”

He nods slowly, as if his mind has rolled back to the time it happened. “He fought. I almost didn’t manage it, but you see, the Saint’s have a false sense of power. They think themselves bigger and better, but they underestimated me. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

Asher kicks open a door, and the stench worsens until I’m doubled over, vomiting the contents of my stomach.

Rotten. Half of it has been eaten by rodents and insects alike. The skin was falling away from the bones but it was a mixture of different colors, from grey to green to yellow. The hair was coming away from the skin and he had no eyes.

Oh my god, that was Lucas. That body, it was Gabriel’s brother. Lincoln’s father.

“Did you know I recorded that message myself?” Asher says casually as I wheeze from my chains, “Back at the casino all those weeks ago. I slit a man’s throat and recorded that message and then I brought it to you.”

“And you did nothing Gabriel. I watched you listen and then you walked away like this damn city meant nothing. You brushed off the attacks because you genuinely believe you are un-fucking-touchable and yet here I am proving you wrong. I took your shipments, burned your warehouses and orchestrated all the attacks and still, you did nothing.”

“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.”

My throat is raw with the scream, the pain radiating through me. I felt blood between my legs, warm, felt where the blow had broken my flesh and realize he was wearing rings which would have caused the damage.

But then Atlas raises his gun, forcing Asher’s brows down at his brother in confusion. There’s no warning, no hesitation as a shot echoes in the small space and blood splatters across my face. A warm, wet spray that lands on my lips and cheeks.

For what feels like several seconds nothing happens but then a body falls. Asher’s body, landing across my lap, still…lifeless…dead.

He reaches around me, his face next to my ear as he gently tugs at the knot. His breath comes heavy and rattling, and I can sense he’s barely holding it together. He’d killed his twin brother.

“He killed Asher, Gabriel,” I whisper, “He’s in a lot of pain.” “I know.” He rests his brow on mine, “I know.”

I wiggle a little and suck in a sharp breath, feeling how tender and sore my sex was. He’d hit me. I felt it split.

“You’ve got a broken ankle,” Gabriel swallows, “In two places, and a fractured cheekbone. Your arm needed stitches.” He pulls back, distancing himself as he looks me over, “Bruises, cuts but um…”

“He hit you and the impact, because of the rings he was wearing cut you quite deeply. They’ve repaired the damage and don’t think there will be nerve damage, but you lost a lot of blood.”

“I can’t do that again, Amelia. I can’t watch that happen to you again. This would be the best option.” “You are not leaving me!” I shout through the tears, “You are not!”

“You wanted me, Gabriel. You told me you loved me,” I taste my tears on my lips, “But you’re running. This is your life Gabriel, and it’s not safe but you wanted me and now what? You don’t?”

“No baby, no,” He lunges, grabbing my face, “I can’t bear to live with myself if you were to be hurt again. I listened to you scream, Amelia and I couldn’t do anything.”

“That if I did, it wasn’t so bad. It was horrific and I’m going to need help but no matter what he did, I still loved you. I still had you. And if I died then, there wasn’t a single thing about us I regretted.”

“I love you, dio, I’d burn the fucking world for you!” “Then don’t leave me, Gabriel, please.” His brow drops to mine, and he sighs, “You’re my wife, amore mia,” He tells me, “I couldn’t bear to lose you.” “Then don’t Gabriel.” My fingers curl into the lapels of his suit jacket, “Then don’t.”

It was charged with so much aggression I felt it in every pore. Devon spoke through gritted teeth and barely restrained anger for what had been done to me. I was expected to make a full recovery, that the surgeons, who specialized in reconstructive surgery for intimate areas, were renowned for the levels of success they had with traumas. I was sore and going to the bathroom was uncomfortable, but I’d live.

Talon had found several leaks within my organization, sent me image after image, proof after proof of every single man that stepped against me and my wife. He’d hacked every system he could find, got me every image, document and footage his skills could supply me. And he now had a permanent job in my ranks and consistent money to give his family more.