Children of Vice (Children of Vice 1)

“You stated I disappeared. You never asked me where I went.”

I thought back to that conversation and wanted to roll my eyes. “It was an implied question.”

“I don’t answer those,” he stated, pulling up at red light, staring down the street.

“Fine. Are you a gangster, Mr. Callahan?”

The moment I asked, he looked over at me. His eyes cut like knives through me but what really took my breath away was the smile that spread over his lips. He was…so damn beautiful.

“Remind me to get you an updated dictionary,” he replied, pressing down on the gas so hard my body jerked back as he accelerated.

“See, you’re not answering.”

“Yes.” He glanced at me through the corner of his eyes. “But a gangster with sophistication and morals.”

“What kind of morals could you possibly have?”

“A biblical one,” he said as we pulled up to the cathedral, and of course there was a spot dedicated for his family, which he easily parked in. He didn’t move to take off his seat belt, just glanced up at the church before saying, “Appoint as a penalty, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.”

He thought he was so slick, so I reminded him, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.”

“And yet here you sit, a hypocrite.” He snickered. “Where is your forgiveness?”

Al

ways had to have the last word. “I never said I was moral.”

“It was implied,” he said and though he was serious I could feel him tease me.

I shrugged. “Apparently those don’t count.”

“Apparently,” he replied, stepping out of the car and walking over to my side. When he opened it, I saw his eyes shoot down to my legs as I did my best to step out without opening my them. Taking his hand, he helped me out.

We must have come a little late because we were the only ones in the parking lot, and when I said we, I meant him, his shadows, and me. We walked through the doors as they held them open for us. And I realized we weren’t late, but perfectly on time. Mass hadn’t started yet, but everyone was already seated, and when the doors opened they glanced back at us…they were waiting for us. He wasn’t even fazed, walking to the very front where the rest of his family sat. Blessing myself before I entered the pew, Ethan sat on the end, sandwiching me between him and his grandmother, Evelyn, who looked me over and nodded, approvingly. Of what, I wasn’t sure. But I took the book she handed to me.

Not a second after we sat the music played, signaling for all of us to rise and turn back as the priest came in. Instead, on the other side of the church, I saw the brown eyes of Klarissa glaring at me, not just her but a few other women too, and I wondered just how many of them Ethan had actually been with.

“Don’t mind them,” Evelyn whispered as everyone else sang. “Each one of them would sell their souls to sit where you sit. Everyone knows now.”

Would one soul even be enough for this spot? Sitting back down, Ethan leaned into me, softly saying, “Would you like to turn the cheek or your list?”

My eyes widened as I stared at him. He chose now to bring that up? Now?

“Speak now or forever hold your peace.”

He was the devil. Fucking evil. He wanted me to say it, to reconfirm it here, in church, in God’s house.

“My list,” I muttered.

The son of the bitch had the nerve to smirk at me.

“It’s all right,” he whispered, looking forward again. “If we were sinless we wouldn’t come to church.”

TEN

“All my life, I've understood the nature of where I come from, but I never thought it might be wicked until now.”

~ Brenna Yovanoff