Page 59 of A Sinner's Virtue
“I’m on my way. I’ll be right behind you, babe.”
“Okay.” I disconnect the call and drop my phone back into my bag. Then I turn to Eloise, who is watching me with cautious eyes. “I’m sorry,” I tell her. “I just don’t like being trapped in small places.”
“Yeah, me either,” she says.
When we pull up to the De Bellis mansion and the gates shut behind us, with four guards standing at it, all of my hopes of getting out and running vanish. And all of my panic and stress about being trapped starts rising to the surface again.
“Come on, I’ll make coffee or pour us some wine. Whatever you want,” Eloise says when the door opens.
“Thanks.” I offer her a tight smile as I follow her out of the car and into the house. “You have a lovely home,” I say politely, trying to take my mind off the fact that another mafia family lives here. Ivan will be barging inside any moment. If he said he was coming, he will. I know that. I mentally remind myself of the fact that he’s coming. Although one man against the army the De Bellis family has is not going to get me out if they want to keep me in.
Marcel isn’t like that. I know him. He’s not like that. He’s going to come here and he will take me back to my house. I just have to keep repeating that in my head.
I trail behind Eloise until we end up in the kitchen. “Have a seat. I’ll be right back,” she says, clasping her hands together. I don’t miss the way they shake a little. She’s good at putting on a brave face, but she’s not okay.
I don’t call her out on it though. Instead, I sit at the kitchen counter and watch her retreating back. Until the sound of a sliding door opening has me turning around. Vin, the young kid I met out front last time I was here, steps through a second later.
“You came back,” he says.
“Not willingly,” I retort.
He raises his brows before his eyes lower to where my nails are scratching at my forearm. “You okay?” he asks me.
Am I okay? No, I’m not okay. “I’m not a fan of being trapped,” I tell him.
“I heard what happened. At the club. You’re not hurt, are you?”
“No.” I shake my head.
“I have something that can help if you want,” he says.
“Help with what?”
“The anxiety, the fear.” Vin shrugs. “I get it. I don’t like being trapped either.”
“What do you have?”
“Come outside.” He steps back through the door. And I don’t know why, but I follow him out. There’s something about this kid that just calls to me. It’s odd. I don’t know him, but I feel like I do.
Vin pulls a joint from behind his ear and lights it up, taking a couple of puffs before he hands it to me. My eyes widen. I’ve never smoked anything in my life. “This is what you have?”
“Don’t knock it till you try it. Trust me, it’ll help,” he says, waving the blunt in my direction.
I take it from his fingers.
“If Marcel asks, you didn’t get it from me,” Vin says as I bring the rolled end to my mouth and inhale.
My lungs fill with smoke, which is quickly followed by me embarrassingly coughing up those same lungs.
“You haven’t done this before, have you?” Vin laughs.
“No,” I say breathlessly, while trying to recover from my choking fit.
“Shit.” Vin shakes his head. “Well, you can thank me later.” Vin sits down with his back pressed against the wall.
Following his movements, I lower myself down before bringing the joint to my mouth again, inhaling a little bit less this time. I manage to do so without coughing up my entire lung. Just half of it.
Vin snatches the joint from my fingers. “Give that back before you kill yourself and then cause my demise.”
