Page 3 of Coercion

“Daddy,” I whisper, as if that alone might just wake him up.

He doesn’t respond. But of course he doesn’t.

“He’s dead.” Uncle Levi states, like I don’t already know it. Like he clearly isn’t the reason why.

Someone else storms into the room. Levi turns as he mutters something I can’t work out and then they drag Abraham, my father’s right hand man, in.

His eyes find my father first, then they settle on me and I see that same look of horror reflected back at me.

“Levi.” He says looking across at the man responsible.

Levi smirks. “Come on, like I wasn’t going to do this eventually. Like I wasn’t going to take what’s mine.”

“It was never yours. Issac built this empire from…” Abraham begins.

“And now I’ve taken it.” Levi says cutting across him with a smirk.

“Diana will fight you…”

Levi throws his head back and laughs. “Let the bitch try. My men have seized all the warehouses, all the mines, she has nothing to fight with.”

“And Ruby?” Abraham says, glancing at me then back again. “What about her?”

Levi tilts his head, stepping over the body of his brother to haul me back up. I shut my eyes, hating the fact that I’m defenceless, that I can’t even fight him.

He strokes my hair back from my face, studying it. “You’ve grown since last I saw you. You look so much like your mother now…” He says in a way that makes my skin crawl.

I spit at him. It’s the most I can do and, instead of reacting with anger, or even surprise he just laughs.

“I see you have her temperament too.” He states before twisting my arm around, forcing my wrist into a position I know it can’t make. I scream as the bone snaps, as it gives way under the horrific pressure. “Don’t worry, Ruby, I’ll beat that side out of you.” He mutters. “I’ll make sure you learn your place.”

“Levi,” Abraham snarls.

Levi drops me, letting me fall into a heap as I cradle my now useless limb while the tears stream down my face. I’m so scared to make a noise now, too scared to even cry out. All I can do is make weird whimpering sounds like I’m some sort of broken animal.

“Let the girl go.” Abraham says. “You’ve said it yourself, you have everything, all your brother’s mines, the girl is nothing to you...”

“The girl is of my blood.” Levi snaps. “My family’s blood. That makes her valuable enough in our world.”

“Please…” I whisper, not even understanding what it is I’m begging for. Jett is dead, my father is dead too. What do I have to live for now?

Levi ignores me, pulling out a gun, and points it at Abraham who instantly stiffens more.

“Tell me Abs, with all your professed loyalty to Issac, why should I trust you to be loyal to me?”

“I’ll never be loyal to you.” Abraham spits back.

“As I thought.” Levi muses before pulling the trigger and Abraham slumps back onto the marble, his eyes staring right at me, with an awful hole right between them.

He used to look out for me, used to take me to dance class when I was little, used to shield me when my mother was having one of her moments. In a way he was as much a parent to me as they were.

And now he’s dead. Just like they are.

I cry then. I scream out and someone slaps me to shut me up.

No one is going to stop this. No one is coming to save me.

The realisation hits me like a ton of bricks and I sink down further onto the blood stained floor. I don’t understand how this is happening. I don’t understand why my uncle is suddenly betraying us like this. It’s not like he and my father were ever close but still, we’re family. He’s his brother.