42. What It Means To Be Loyal

42

What It Means To Be Loyal

Saint

Control .

There are times to rein it in. Times to put a leash on my demons and a lid on the rage. There are times to hold back. To bite my tongue and wait.

Walking into the room and seeing Violet tied down and gagged—touched by another man, cut open by another man—my control snaps.

Three slash marks are carved into her ribs, painting them in blood.

Her sapphire eyes swim in tears. And even without a word, I hear her. Like I've heard her this entire time, screaming at the top of her lungs and wishing someone would listen.

She had my attention long before she asked for it, and she'll have it now .

My protection.

My devotion.

I'm here, kitten.

I let go of the leash on my control and step into the room, pausing only when Brax spins his attention back to Violet. He gets behind her, holding the blade to her throat to use her as a shield.

She flinches as it pierces her soft flesh.

The smallest bead of blood drips out.

I'll spill from him in retribution for each one he draws.

Just because I don't believe in damnation doesn't mean I won't offer it to him here on earth. These walls will be his church, and I will cast judgment upon him. I'll slice the repayment of his sins from his bones. Flay them off. Count them down until I'm left with one.

He. Touched. Her.

It took me too long to get here, and my mind is still swimming. Between the concussion and the fact that Brax is using Violet against me, my temples are pounding.

Braxton lured me to his room with a question about Liam. He said he wanted to show me something. I turned my back for a split second, and he used it to his advantage.

I didn't see him coming when he knocked me out cold.

I've been so busy focusing on the doubt my stepdad planted when he mentioned Declan that I didn't suspect what was right in front of me. It wasn't until I woke up, my head pounding as I lay on the floor, that it all became clear. But there wasn't time to process .

I picked up my phone and saw the missed calls and messages from Violet. She needed me, and I was almost too late getting to her.

Brax grins, glancing from Violet to me. "You're a little early, Kole."

Kole.

There is no Kole here.

Only Saint.

And he won't leave until the room is painted in blood.

"Doesn't matter," Brax decides, standing up tall and refusing to relax his hold on Violet. "Once they find out you killed Liam, they aren't going to let you live long. And with two more bodies added, they won't even feel guilty about it."

He grins, looking at the three of us, and it makes sense now. Brax wants to kill them to pin it on me. Let me take the fall for all of them to tidy this up with a pretty little bow. He wants me and Declan out of the way so he can put into motion whatever twisted plan his family concocted when Liam lured Violet and me to the forest.

Brax waits for me to respond, and when I don't, his face turns a deeper shade of red. He wants me to argue, to feed into this scene he's playing out for us. But I'm not here to justify anything. I don't care what pissed him off. The only thing that matters now is sending him to hell, where he belongs. Where he'll burn beside his brother.

Maybe I lied when I told Violet I don't believe in life after death because right now, I'd like to think the two of them will spend purgatory with their flesh being ripped from their bones .

He deserves that and worse for touching her.

If Brax's knife was anywhere but on Violet's artery, I'd have already made my move. But all it would take is one nick in the wrong spot for this to all go downhill. And even if I don't walk out of this room, she will .

"Fine, don't talk." Brax shrugs. "You can stand around and enjoy the show with her brother. It'll make it that much more satisfying anyway."

Brother?

For the first time since walking in, I glance down at Declan, chained and bloody on the floor. His glance confirms what Brax said as all the pieces click into place.

Violet's absent father. Declan's dad fucking around on his mom every chance he gets.

That's why Liam targeted her. It wasn't specifically Violet he was after; it was the Pierce family, and he's insistent on taking down all of them.

The Westwoods were probably planning to air out Ian Pierce's dirty laundry. And they were going to use the video of Liam defiling Violet to do it. A tape like that would be enough to get Ian Pierce to back down and hand over his Senate seat to Oliver Westwood.

A seat Declan's father stole in the first place.

Everything is clear. It's a political pissing contest, and Violet is caught in the center.

My grip tightens on my knife handle, and I look back at Violet. She's struggling against the restraints. Scared.

She doesn't even know why she's caught up in this as tears spill down her cheeks .

"Don't look at him like that," Brax says to Violet when she's been staring at me too long. "He won't save you."

Brax reaches behind her head and undoes the gag, releasing it from her mouth. It's covered in spit, and her lips are red and chapped from where they've been stretched open.

What should be a pretty sight makes me want to fucking gut him.

"There. I'd rather them hear you scream while I fuck you." Brax grins.

He still thinks I'll let it get that far because he underestimates me. I'm quiet; I don't intervene in Sigma House business unless necessary. I toe the line when people are watching.

Braxton Westwood doesn't know my dark side.

Violet whimpers, and that sound has me taking a step forward. I can't help it. I've only got one weakness, and she's tied to a table out of reach. They could take anything else from me and get away with it.

But not her.

"Don't." Brax pushes the blade tighter against her throat.

"You kill her, and you'll be dead before the blade is halfway to her vertebra."

Brax tilts his head. "You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? But you're not invincible, Kole. None of us are."

"Why are you doing this? You're Sigma Sin. We're your brothers." Declan's chest deflates with each word, and it's almost laughable that's where his head is at when all I see is Violet .

But Declan always did care more about the House than anything else.

"Ask your friend." Brax looks back at me. "Kole looks like he's already figured it out. What happened during that second trial?"

That trial is going to haunt us. Alex might have been the only one who outwardly snapped, but none of us survived that room. We were all broken in different ways, whether we confessed our sins or not.

"Trinity," Brax pushes when I'm quiet too long, and my teeth grit at her name.

"Fuck." Declan's shoulders deflate when he realizes what Brax is talking about.

When you pledge Sigma House, you're told the trials are a test of loyalty. That what's learned in these walls will never get out, even if you don't make it as a member. But it's all lies, and the second trial made that clear to us.

The secrets they collect in the trials are used against all of us in one form or another. To blackmail us or control us. To decide what happens when we're here and after we graduate. And sometimes, they use what they learn to advance themselves.

Which is what Ian Pierce did after Liam broke.

Trinity was Liam's girlfriend when he first came to Briar. She was the daughter of a senator and was being groomed as a future Westwood bride. But when Liam snapped during the second trial, he revealed all the dirty secrets about his relationship. How he'd share her with friends, and how he kept a collection of video evidence .

When the Senate race got tight between Ian Pierce and Trinity's father, those exact secrets were somehow leaked to the press.

No one admitted where they came from, and there was no putting a lid on Pandora's box once it was opened. Everyone moved on—or so I thought.

Trinity never recovered.

"You know the rules; what's learned in Sigma House stays here." Brax's gaze cuts to Declan; he's loosened his grip on the blade but not by much. "But your father doesn't play by the rules, does he? He used Liam's secrets to steal Trinity's father's seat in the Senate. He blackmailed them."

"The House plays dirty sometimes, so what?" Declan glares at Braxton. "Your family is resurrecting a two-year-old grudge just because it took you that long to get leverage over my father? What's done is done. There's no going back."

"Trinity hung herself!" Brax yells, and Violet flinches at his comment. "She was pregnant."

Fuck .

Now, the grudge makes a little more sense. If Trinity was pregnant with Liam's baby, it explains why the Westwood family never let it go. If anything comes above politics, it's legacy. Ian Pierce stole more than a seat in the Senate. He stole a piece of the Westwood bloodline.

And now the Westwoods want him to know how it feels.

Declan.

Violet .

They're out for family blood, and Oliver Westwood has brainwashed his sons into doing the dirty work.

"It's okay." Brax calms, and his voice quiets.

He closes his eyes for just a moment like he's at peace. And as someone who has stolen plenty of souls in my time, I know that's not a good thing.

When he finally opens his eyes, his dark gaze lands on me. "You can't stop this, Kole. Pierce blood will spill for what they've done."

Brax drags his free hand down Violet's body. She's trembling as his touch trails her stomach.

"Don't hold back, Vi." Brax slips his hand under the band of her pants. "Scream for your brother and your boyfriend. They won't save you. Kole would rather let me have my way than step in and risk your death."

That's where he's wrong. I won't let either of those two things happen.

Her eyes move to mine as Brax's hand slips into her pants, and I find the edge of the universe in her stare.

He thinks I won't care enough to stop him because members of Sigma House are trained not to care about anything.

And I didn't.

But that was before Violet.

So we stand here with marks carved into our chests to prove our loyalty, but it doesn't matter. We survive more than our scars within these walls. We survive this house. This brotherhood.

And I survive for her.

Only her .

Violet won't die tonight. But I'm going to slice off every part of Braxton that has touched her to teach him what it means to be loyal.