Chapter 5: Hypocrite

Callie barely registered the pain as her nails dug deeper into her forearm. Nothing registered anymore. Not the noise in the club, not the stench of blood, and not Vin’s voice that told her to stop.

As soon as Vin noticed, his hand came lashing out to grab Callie’s to pry her hand away from herself. “Stop doing that,” the mafia boss barked out, but Callie only looked at him through her tear-filled eyes.

It was like Callie was possessed as she struggled in Vin’s hold with nothing but pure adrenaline. Pained screams left her mouth when Vin accidentally gripped her injured wrist too tightly. Suddenly there was a sharp jab against her neck and Callie was out like a light.

Panic filled Vin’s eyes as he watched the life drain out of Callie’s eyes.

“What the fuck?” Vin was surprised, but he managed to catch Callie before she could fall to the floor.

Behind her, Soren stood holding up a syringe muttering, “Sedative.” As if no other explanations were needed.

Vin looked disgusted– offended, even, as he shook his head at his second-in-command. “You just keep that on you?”

To which Soren shrugged as if it weren’t a big deal. “You never know when it would come in handy.” Soren reached forward to help Vin carry Callie to the car.

“Will she wake up?” Vin asked after they’d safely buckled her into the backseat. Even in her sleep, she’s anxious. Vin noted the furrow between Callie’s brows as well as the blood coating her fingernails. Reaching forward, Vin turned Callie’s arm to check her wounds. He wondered how often Callie did that because underneath the red, elevated bumps were old scars that don’t seem to be more than a few weeks old.

“In a few hours or so,” came Soren’s reply.

Vin nodded, accepting the reply, and they spend the drive back to Vin’s place in silence.

When Callie regained consciousness, she was warm, as if being enveloped in an embrace. And she was moving, the motion was reminiscent of an elevator. But how? The last thing Callie remembers was Vin staking his claim on her. After that, it was a blur.

Callie finally opened her eyes and sure enough, she was in an elevator.

“You’re not supposed to be awake.”

Callie’s head has never whipped that fast in her life. When her brain finally registered that Vin was carrying her, Callie’s eyes bugged out of her head, and she ungracefully detaches herself from him.

“Hey! Stop—” Vin tried, but Callie managed to scramble away from him, holding on to the elevator railing for support. Squeezing herself as far away from him as possible, Callie looked at him cautiously. He killed three of his men in a snap, there’s no telling what he could do to Callie.

With labored breathing, Callie tried her best to recall what had happened as she and Vin held each other’s eyes. As if on cue, the elevator dings, and the doors slid open to reveal Soren holding up Callie’s backpack.

And then she remembered. Soren injected her with a sedative or something. Instinctively, Callie’s hand flew up to her neck, gently massaging the little bump left by the needle. The action caused a dark fabric to fall to the floor. That was the only time Callie realized someone must have draped their jacket over her to cover her up.

Slowly, she reached down to get it.

“Oh, you’re awake!” Soren quipped as Vin ushered Callie out of the elevator.

“Exactly,” Vin interjected. “She’s not supposed to be awake. Why are you?”

There’s no denying the suspicion in his tone. He must be a cautious one, Callie guessed. But still, she didn’t feel comfortable sharing to strangers how she would ingest small amounts of sleeping pills and muscle relaxants every day to build a resistance to it. Her clients might have been carefully selected, but a girl must learn to protect herself.

“I…”

“Out with it, Callie. I’m not a patient man.”

Fear made Callie blurt it out. “I’m immune to relaxants.” Both Vin and Soren looked at her as if she’d grown horns. “At least immune to those you can buy over the counter. He—” she looked at Soren, “—must have used a strong sedative to knock me out.”

“Did you train yourself?” Vin asked, his voice still carrying that suspicious tone.

Callie nodded meekly.

Soren let out a sigh and pulled Callie further inside. “Ignore Vin. Come in, Callie.” Outside the club and without thugs surrounding him, Soren looked and sounded like the lawyer he claimed himself to be.

He dropped Callie’s backpack on the couch before turning to go to where Callie assumes is the kitchen.

“You’d think the head of the Baros family would be living in a Batcave or the top of a skyscraper, but no, he chooses to live in a shack.” Soren muttered, but everyone heard what he said. He wasn’t being very subtle about it.

Callie could almost swear he saw Vin roll his eyes. But Callie didn’t agree. The place was anything but a shack. She didn’t understand the layout yet, but from what she could see they weren’t too high up. Maybe three or four stories above ground. Tinted glass windows cover one wall, showcasing a beautiful garden view.

“Doesn’t it look gorgeous?” Soren was suddenly at her side again. “The old man downstairs tends to the garden.”

Before Soren could get another word out, Vin’s deep voice surprised them both.

“Soren, leave us.”

“But—

”Now," Vin added tiredly.

Soren glanced back and forth at Callie and Vin before finally grinning widely in Vin’s direction. He put his hands up in surrender as he backed up to call the elevator. “Alright, but we do have much to talk about, so please be quick about it. If you know what I mean.” He sent them both a wink before getting in the elevator.

It wasn’t until the doors slid closed that Callie registered what Soren had meant. Did Vin intend to have sex with her, right off the bat? She couldn’t handle this. She was still lightheaded from the sedative and thought that she’d have a bit more time to come to terms with her situation before the mafia boss used her. But it seemed her luck had run out.

Vin wasn’t one to waste time. As soon as Soren was out of sight, he reached out to grab the black jacket off of Callie, exposing her again. He eyed the dark patches of blood that splattered on her dress and shook his head in disappointment. His kills earlier were messy.

“Take off your dress,” he ordered and Callie could only look at him unmoving.

“Excuse me?” Callie muttered once she found her voice.

Vin gestured toward her body. “Your dress,” he repeated. “Take it off. I should like to see you naked. Do you have any objections?”

There it was again. It sounded like he was asking for consent, but any way Callie looked at it, it was a form of manipulation. It was a threat disguised as an innocent question. Because, should Callie say ‘no’, she could very well end up in a body bag at the bottom of the ocean.

Callie took off her dress. Left in only her underwear, Vin started to assess her. His eyes roamed her body as if inspecting her for flaws.

“Why did you do that?” Callie asked, unable to stay put with Vin eyeing her that way. “You killed your own men.”

Vin circled Callie before reaching forward to take her hand to inspect it. Then he turned his attention to her legs.

“They disrespected you and tried to rape you. They didn’t deserve to live.”

The coldness in Vin’s voice sent shivers up Callie’s spine. Anger boiled inside her. Who was this man who played God with people’s lives?

The words were out before Callie could stop herself.

“Yet here you are trying to do the very same.”

This brought Vin’s striking blue eyes back to hers. Callie’s stomach flipped with nervousness. Vin terrified her, but she couldn’t respect anyone who didn’t value life. It was unthinkable!

To her surprise, Vin merely smirked, amused at her bravery. “Ah, but alas, you gave me consent, little bird. We have a deal, remember?”

Callie found herself standing a little straighter in a challenge. “You claim to respect women, yet you humiliate me, and strip me of my dignity.”

“I did no such thing,” Vin replied, keeping his cool demeanor in check. “Your uncle owed me millions, and he offered you as collateral, plain and simple,” he added with a shrug.

But Callie wouldn’t accept that. She was either the smartest or the dumbest person to speak to Vin this way, but Callie wasn’t backing down.

“You’re a hypocrite, plain and simple,” she spat out, and Callie watched in horror as Vin’s expression darkened into something more akin to a beast than man.

“Something tells me I’m going to have fun with you, little bird. I can’t wait.”