A Sinner’s Saint (De Bellis Crime Family #4)

Chapter 31

Chapter Thirty-One

C ammi. She’s here. Right fucking in front of me. Ten steps and I could be close enough to touch her. I don’t dare move. Afraid if I do, she’ll disappear. I knew there was a chance I’d see her on campus. I didn’t expect to run into her so soon, though.

She’s staring back at me, her hand rubbing at her chest. Her breaths laboured, heavy. Something is wrong… What the fuck is wrong with her?

My feet start moving towards her, and when I see her fall, I run. Catching her just before she and her friend both hit the ground.

“Cammi?” Her body is limp in my arms, her lips turning blue. I carefully lay her down flat, in case she needs CPR, before looking up at Elena. “What the fuck is happening? She’s not breathing!” I yell out.

Fear. I’ve known it, lived within its embrace for more years than I care to remember. But nothing prepared me for this kind of full-on terror. I search for a pulse. There isn’t one.

“Fuck! Call a fucking ambulance,” I tell Elena.

“Already on it,” Dash says.

I drop my palms to her chest and start compressions. “Cammi, do not fucking do this,” I curse under my breath as I pump while counting to thirty in my head. My mouth closes over hers and I breathe air into her lungs twice. Checking for her pulse again. It’s still not there, so I go back to compressions. “Where are they?” I yell at Dash, who has dropped to his knees on the other side of Cammi.

“I don’t know, man. Let me help,” he says.

“Don’t fucking touch her,” I growl as I keep pumping. My mouth closes over hers again. I thought I knew what it was to be stuck in a nightmare. Those were fucking picnics compared to this. “Please, please,” I whisper as I check for a pulse for a third time, cursing in relief when I finally feel one. “Fuck!” Placing my fingers under her nose, I test her air flow and can feel a light wind as she exhales on her own. “She’s okay. She’s okay,” I repeat over and over to myself.

I can hear the sirens. And then everything happens so fast. The paramedics come. I vaguely hear Elena explain what happened. I’m in a daze until I hear her mention that it’s not the first time.

My head spins in her direction. “What do you mean it’s not the first time? What the fuck is wrong with her?”

“Like you care what happens to her,” Elena hisses at me.

“We can take one person on the ambulance,” the paramedic says as they lift Cammi onto a stretcher.

“I’m coming.” I glare at Elena, daring her to challenge me. Thankfully, the girl’s not dumb. She backs down.

“I’ll follow you. Come on, Elena, I’ll give you a ride,” Dash says.

I follow the paramedics in the back of the ambulance, my eyes glued to Cammi. She hasn’t woken up. She’s got all sorts of shit connected to her body. “What’s wrong with her?” I ask the paramedic as soon as we start moving.

“She’s stable. We’ll know more once they run some tests at the hospital,” he says. “I need some information. Her full name?”

“Camile Taylor,” I tell him, then add, “De Bellis.” If I have to lie to make sure she gets the best fucking treatment possible, I will.

“De Bellis?” the guy parrots, looking up from his paperwork to stare at me.

“That’s what I fucking said,” I grunt. “Make sure only the top fucking doctors are treating her.” I pull my phone from my pocket and call my brother. I can’t deal with this. I don’t know what to fucking do.

“Vin?” Gio answers.

“I need you to meet me at the hospital,” I tell him.

“Which one and what happened?” he asks. I can hear him moving already.

“It’s Cammi. She… I don’t know what is fucking happening, Gio.” My free hand is running through my hair without me even realising I’m doing it.

“I’m on my way. Which hospital?” he asks again.

“The Royal Melbourne, Mr De Bellis,” the paramedic says into the speaker.

“I’ll be right there.” Gio cuts the call.

Fuck…

When I look back down at Cammi’s face, her eyes are open and she’s staring right back at me. “Am I dead?” she asks, her brows turned down.

“No,” I answer her.

Cammi turns towards the paramedic and then back to me again. “Why are you here?”

“Cammi, your heart just fucking stopped. I had to perform CPR on you. Where else would I be?”

“Anywhere but with me. I’m sorry you had to do that.”

I don’t know what to say to her. She’s sorry? She’s fucking sorry I wasn’t going to sit by and let her die? What the fuck is happening?

“What’s happening, Cammi?” I repeat aloud. “Elena mentioned something about this happening before?”

“It’s nothing,” Cammi says, her eyes looking everywhere but at me.

“Miss De Bellis, if you could provide us with any background information on your condition or past conditions that would be helpful for us to know how to treat you,” the paramedic tells her.

“It’s Taylor. My name is Cammi Taylor. Not De Bellis. And I’m fine. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me before and they won’t now. Did my heart stop?” she asks.

My head is spinning. This has happened before, and I had no idea. She could have died, and I wasn’t there.

“When was the last incident?” the paramedic questions her.

“Seven months ago,” she tells him before turning back to me. “Where’s Elena?”

“She’s following us to the hospital,” I say, “with Dash.”

“I don’t need a hospital. I’m fine. It was a momentary weakness. That’s all,” Cammi says.

“Miss De… Taylor, you’ve experienced some sort of arrythmia. We can’t release you until a doctor has run some tests,” the paramedic explains.

Thank fuck. Like I’m going to let her walk out of the hospital without finding out what is going on with her and how to fix it.

I follow the hospital attendees as they wheel Cammi into a private room in the ER. The paramedics relay all the info they have collected to a doctor before disappearing through the door.

“Miss De Bellis, I’m Dr Hart, the attending cardiologist. I hear you’ve experienced a similar cardiac event in the past?” An older guy with a pair of huge black-rimmed glasses introduces himself.

“It’s Miss Taylor. And, yes. Once. But I’m fine, really. They’ve already done all the tests up in Sydney. They couldn’t find anything,” she says. “Can I go home now?”

“Fuck no,” I cut in before turning my glare on the doctor. “Find out what’s wrong with her or I’ll make sure you can’t get a job at as a GP in this town.”

“Vin.” Cammi’s eyes widen as she glances between us. “He doesn’t mean that. I’m sorry.”

“He does mean that,” my brother’s voice booms as he walks into the room. “Giovanni De Bellis.” He holds out his hand to the doctor. “What’s happening with my sister?”

“Mr De Bellis, I’m Dr Hart. I’m going to run a few tests and see if I can find out what’s going on with Camile’s heart.”

“Thank you, Doctor. Money is no object. Run every test and call in all the specialists. Whatever it takes.”

“I’ll be right back. I’m keeping her overnight while we run through a list of possible causes.”

“ She is right here and she gets a say in this,” Cammi says.

I step closer to her bedside before whispering, “Just let them do the tests. Please, Cammi.” I’m not above begging her to stay and let the doctors do what they have to do.

“Fine,” she grits out between her teeth. “But cut out the whole I’m a De Bellis bullshit. We both know I’m not and you don’t want me to be.”

“Thank you,” I say, ignoring that last part, because nothing could be further from the truth. I can’t give her my last name. That doesn’t mean I don’t want her to have it. I turn to Gio. “Thanks for coming.”

“Of course. What happened?” he asks me.

“She just fell over. Had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. I gave her CPR until the paramedics arrived,” I give him the CliffsNotes version.

Gio steps around me to speak to Cammi. “This has happened before?”

She nods her head. “Once. But it’s really not a big deal.”

“Your heart stopping is a big fucking deal, Cammi,” I tell her, my voice louder than I mean it to be.

“Vin.” Gio cuts me a glare, and my mouth snaps shut. When he looks at Cammi again, his eyes are softer than I’m used to seeing them. “Ignore him, sweetheart. He’s a little… distressed right now. When did it happen before? What hospital did you go to?” Gio asks her.

Cammi lists off everything she can remember. My brother thanks her before stepping outside the room, telling us he is going to speak to the staff.

“You don’t have to stay,” she says to me.

“I can’t leave.” I mean that. I physically can’t walk out of this room. What if her heart stops again and I’m not here?

“Sure you can. You’ve done it before. You even made it look easy.”

I see the hurt in her eyes. So much fucking hurt. “You think it was easy?” I laugh. It’s not funny. And the sound is more manic than amused.

“It couldn’t have been too hard.” Cammi looks away from me, staring at the wall on the opposite side of the room.

“You know what’s hard? Waking up and finding yourself, your own hands, choking the life out of the woman you love. That’s fucking hard. Seeing that same woman on the ground without a fucking heartbeat pounding in her chest,” I tell her. “I can live with you hating me, Cammi, but you need to be alive to do that. I can’t live if you’re not.”

“And I can’t do this , Vin,” she says. “I need you to go. I can’t…” She shakes her head while tears drop down her cheeks.

“I can’t leave until I know what’s wrong with your heart and how to fix it,” I explain.

“I know what’s wrong with my heart. You broke it.” Her words send a dagger through my own chest.

“I’m sorry.” I drop my head, leaning it on the edge of the mattress as I sit in the chair next to her bed.

“Me too,” she whispers back.

“Cammi? You doing okay?” Elena’s voice is followed by the sound of her rushed footsteps.

I don’t bother looking up. I can’t face anyone right now. I just need to know that Cammi is going to be okay, that whatever is wrong with her heart can be fixed.

“I’m fine. Everyone is overreacting,” Cammi says.

“Why is he here? This is his fault.”

The implication has my head snapping up and my glare aiming in Elena’s direction.

“Elena, stop,” Cammi hisses from beside me.

“Why? It’s his fault. You were fine until you saw him, Cammi,” Elena argues.

“What is she talking about?” I ask, looking from Cammi to Elena and back again.

“Nothing,” Cammi says. “Elena, I have to stay here tonight. Can you get me some supplies? And where’s my phone? I need to text my mum.”

I pick up Cammi’s bag and dig through the contents until I find her phone and hand it to her. The girls continue to talk and I tune out whatever it is they’re saying, waiting for Elena to leave. When she finally does, I turn to Cammi. “Is it my fault?”

“Is what your fault?” she asks me.

“Your heart stopping?”

“Vin, I know all you De Bellis men think the world revolves around you, but my heart stopping has nothing to do with you. So, no, it’s not your fault.”

I can tell there’s something she’s not saying. I really don’t have a right to continue to question her about it, though. “Why don’t you rest?” I tell her.

“When was the last time you slept?” she asks me. “Not just for an hour here or there, like really slept?”

“France.”

Cammi blinks. I don’t think she was expecting that answer. “Put your head down here. Sleep, Vin.”

“You’re the one in the hospital and you’re worried about me sleeping? Fucking saint,” I tell her. I have no intention of sleeping anywhere near her. I never want to wake up with my hands on her again.

“Just rest your head. Close your eyes with me,” she offers.

“I can’t. I’m scared,” I admit quietly.

“I know,” she says.