Jim, on the other hand, had the glassy, hollow eyes of someone who’d been in a bad car accident. Clearly, he’d had some bad news recently, and yet his voice was still strong and level as he nodded to the one on the left first.

“This is Adrian. And Eddie. They’re our kind of friends, if you know what I mean.”

Thank fuck, Vin thought.

“Your timing couldn’t be better,” he said, shaking the guys’ hands. “You wouldn’t believe who just left.”

“Oh, I bet we would,” Jim muttered.

“So I got some questions for you,” the one with the piercings said. “We know your girlfriend. Very well, unfortunately.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Well, she’s not out of your life yet, unfortunately. But we’re going to try to take care of that. Our boy Jim here says that when you were seventeen, you performed some kind of ritual. Can you describe it?”

“It was supposed to get rid of what’s inside of me.”

Naturally, Marie-Terese opened the guest room door at that moment. Dressed in her jeans and fleece, she had pulled back her hair and tucked her hands into the front pockets of her pullover.

“What’s inside of you?” she asked.

Vin rubbed his face and glanced back at the men. Before he could figure out how to shade the truth appropriately, Marie-Terese cut off his mental gymnastics. “I want to know everything, Vin. The whole deal. And I deserve to know now that I’ve seen her up close—because frankly, I’m not sure what I saw just now.”

Shit. As much as he wanted to keep her out of things, he was hard-pressed to deny her reasoning. But man, he wished like hell he didn’t have to have this conversation.

“Gentlemen, will you give us a minute alone?” he said without looking away from her eyes.

“You got any beer around here?” Adrian asked.

“Fridge by the wet bar in the living room. Jim knows the way.”

“Good call. Because he’s the one who needs it. You two come down when you’re ready—and don’t worry, we’ll make sure Devina doesn’t get back in here. I’m assuming you have salt in your kitchen?”

“Ah, yeah.” He glanced over with a frown. “But why do you need—”

“Where do you keep it?”

After he shrugged and told the guy to go to the dry-goods cupboard, the men hit the stairs again, and Vin ushered Marie-Terese over to the bed. He couldn’t stay put, though, and took up pacing around.

Going over to the view, he wondered why life had brought him to this point. Wondered why he’d started where he had. Wondered…how it was all going to end for him.