His eyebrows pulled together. “You asked me that last night, and I don’t understand why you keep asking me that. Doing what?”
“This.” I motioned around the suite before looking back at him. “The hotel. Security. Coming when I called. All of this… coming to make sure I’m okay. Why are you doing this? Like, what am I supposed to give you in return?”
He laughed, shaking his head like I couldn’t be serious. The amusement faded almost as quickly as it came.
“You think I’m doing all this for some pussy?”
My eyes widened. “What? I didn’t say that.”
“Yeah, but it sound like you’re insinuating it.”
“Well, I’m not.” I shifted in my seat. “I just know everything comes with a price.”
The room got quiet. He didn’t rush to answer, and for some reason, I found myself holding my breath, waiting to hear what he’d say. When he finally spoke, his voice was calm.
“You tried to save my cousin.”
I wasn’t expecting that.
For a second, I just stared at him, unsure what to say. “I was doing my job.”
“You weren’t on the clock when all that happened.”
My mouth opened, but nothing came out. Technically, he was right.
I could’ve heard those gunshots and kept walking. I could’ve waited until security or somebody else got there. Instead, I ran toward a man I’d never met because leaving him out there bleeding wasn’t even an option in my mind.
Vice gave a slow nod, my silence telling him everything he needed to know.
“Exactly. You could’ve kept going. You could’ve waited for somebody else to help him, but you didn’t.”
“He was hurt.”
“And you helped him.”
“Anybody would’ve done the same thing.”
He shook his head.
“No, they wouldn’t.”
Something about the way he said it made me believe he wasn’t just saying it to make me feel good. It sounded like experience. Like he’d seen enough people walk away to know better.
Vice leaned forward, resting his forearms on his thighs as he looked me dead in the eyes.
“Sam was my family. Whatever he got caught up in, you ain’t have shit to do with it. You went to work that night, ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time, and now somebody got you looking over your shoulder because of something involving him.”
I swallowed the knot that had formed in my throat.
“You know this isn’t your fault, right?” I let him know. I could see on his face and hear in his voice that he blamed himself.
“Didn’t say it was.”
“Then why are you acting like it is?”
He held my gaze for a long while before answering. “Because whether it’s my fault or not, you’re in this shit because of my family.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
