Ruthless People

by J. J. McAvoy

  “There has to be another way. This is going to backfire on you both.”

  “There is no other way! He is my brother. I want my brother back, Declan. You have no idea. You both have always been close. I want to be able to sit with him, drink, and joke and laugh like you both do. I want to go on hunting trips, to fighting clubs. I fucking want to be part of the family again. I want a seat at the damn table, because if I don’t get one soon, Liam will cut me out permanently. Do you know what happens to people Liam cuts out?” I snapped, throwing the gun on the table as I took a deep breath.

  “Neal��”

  “He eithers kills them or he leaves them to die, family or no family. The only thing holding him back is our mother, and how much longer do you think that will last? I may one day wake up and find my wife and myself in chains or in hell thanks to him. I cannot let that happen.”

  “Are you doing this because you fear he will one day turn on you or because you truly want his love,” Declan said, as he placed his beer down to clean my gun. “He’s been a crappy brother as well. You messed up, but you were young. We were all young.”

  “You don’t see what I see at night, Declan,” I replied, taking the gun from him. “You don’t understand how disgusted I feel with myself whenever I wake up in the morning.”

  “I’m starting to.”

  “Why, because you’re lusting over Melody?”

  “How—”

  “Because every last man with a working dick is lusting over her. It’s hard not to when she shoots people in a tight dress and heels, and fucking loves it. We all want that from our women, but Liam got it. Always Liam. However, I have enough bad blood to last me a lifetime. Last thing I need is Melody added to the mix.” Plus, that woman scared me almost as much as Olivia did.

  “You’re going to shoot her husband, she’s added to the mix.”

  He had a point.

  “Yeah, well I need to work on Liam.” At the first sign of light, I lifted the clear bullet.

  “What is this?” Declan grabbed hold of one.

  “I call them blanks, I made them for Liam. They will hurt like a bitch and may cause bleeding, but it shouldn't kill him. I got it from paintballs.” It wouldn’t take long at all.

  “When this goes to hell, and it will go to hell, remember to tell Melody I had no idea about this.”

  This couldn’t fail. I would do anything Liam needed for this not to fail. It was crazy but that was who Liam was, ninety-eight percent of everything he did was crazy, but it worked. He gave me his word that he would finally let the past remain in the past. Maybe then I would finally be able breathe again, to sleep again, to be at peace again.

  Declan didn’t understand. Olivia didn’t understand. No one understood what I felt. How deep the guilt had embedded into my soul. Father had told me repeatedly that family was everything. That we lived and died for family, but then Liam happened and I swear Sedric knew what I had done. He looked me dead in the eye and waited for me to confess my sin, but I couldn’t speak. For the last twelve years I couldn’t speak. What is the point of being strong on the outside when you are weak on the inside?

  That was why I needed to do this. Not just for Liam but for myself . . . for Olivia. So I could finally be the man she needed. Instead, she was the woman who held on to me each and every fucking night as I tried to get the image of the little boy in the locker out of my mind.

  She wanted kids, but she wasn’t the problem. I was. Apparently, my own body had begun to betray me. The doctors called it “stress,” stupid motherfuckers. It was my body’s way of telling me I was not ready to be a father, not when I couldn’t even hold my shit together.

  Sighing, I dropped my head against my rifle.

  “May my aim be true in its intent,” I whispered to myself before tucking the cross around my neck into my shirt.

  Walking toward my window, I waited. I would wait all day if I had to. But sure enough he walked out from the trees.

  “Forgive me,” I whispered as I pulled the trigger.

  NINETEEN

  “He who makes a beast of himself

  gets rid of the pain of being a man.”

  ~ Samuel Johnson

  CORALINE

  Day 1

  “Ahh!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as a rush of freezing cold water was poured all over me and my bed. Jumping out of bed I came face-to-face with . . . Adriana I believe? She looked like I was an annoying brat.

  “You’re late.” She stared, placing the bucket on ground.

  “It’s six in the morning!” I yelled at her, shivering horribly. Why in the world couldn’t she just shake me like a normal person?

  “Training starts an hour before sunrise. The sun is up, which means you’re late.” She walked to my closet and pulled out two random items of clothing that didn’t even match, then threw them at me.

  “I didn’t”

  “Strip.”

  “What?” She wanted me to change in front of her?

  She rolled her eyes and pointed to my pajamas. “Take off your clothes and get changed, so you can start the training you begged the Boss for.”

  “Okay let me just go to the bathroom.”

  “Why? Do you have special lady parts that I don’t have?” She glared at me.

  “I don’t remember you being this mouthy to Mel.”

  “What was that?’ she asked, making me jump.

  “Nothing, these clothes don’t match,” I replied walking over to my closet.

  Adriana followed of course. “Does it matter what clothes you bleed in?”

  “Bleed in?”

  “There is a reason why people say they worked through blood, sweat, and tears.” She rolled her eyes making me feel like an idiot, and I wasn’t doing this to feel even worse about myself.

  “Look I’m new at this whole—”

  “Being strong? Being confident? Being a fucking Callahan? Yeah, I’m getting that. Which is why I’m annoyed, because this isn’t you. Or at least is shouldn’t be you. Aren’t black women supposed to be strong?”

  “You don’t know me, you racist bitch!” I yelled at her. Yes, I was supposed to be the “typical” black woman, the one who takes no shit and is ready to fight at every moment. God forbid there be a black woman who was shy, who hated confrontation, who didn’t fit the stereotype.

  She smirked, pushing her glasses up her small nose. “Nope, I don’t know you, but do you know you? Is this meek, small woman in front of me the real Coraline or is it the face you put on because you’re scared to deal with your shit?”

  I wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

  “Think about why you asked to do this. You could have chosen any other way to remake yourself—to better yourself. You could have gone back to school, lost five pounds, wrote a self-help book. But instead, you wanted to learn how to fight. People who choose that option are born differently than the rest of the world.” She stepped right up to my face, and I felt the need to back away.

  “There is a drive, a hunger within you Coraline. You’re trying to break out of your shell but are scared to do so. You’re scared because all you know how to do is hide behind sick children and big fat checks. You hide behind everything, even your clothes. It’s why you can’t take them off in front of others. Let me get guess, you and Declan have sex in the dark? You hide and wait under the covers—”

  “Shut the fuck up!” I yelled, my fist flying at her fast, however, she caught it easily and smiled.

  “There’s the real Coraline breaking out. Maybe you aren’t hopeless. We will try again tomorrow, and you better not be late.” She glared before walking away from me.

  When she left, I felt myself fall and I just lay down in my closet. Who was the real Coraline Wilson Callahan? I wasn’t sure. My whole life was unsure, with the exception of Declan. He was the silver lining in my life. Neither of my parents really wanted anything to do with me, seeing as how they weren’t really my parents. They were my very bitter aunt and uncle. After my
real parents died, they took me in, hoping they could get the money that was left to me.

  They didn’t care about me, and they were pissed when they found out only I could withdraw anything and not until my sixteenth birthday. They never said a kind word to me as a child, and then on my sixteenth birthday, they were taking me on shopping trips—more like I was taking them. But they were happy and they treated me better, so I kept buying. Now here I was at twenty-two, still trying to buy affection. But it didn’t work so well when everyone around you had just as much money, if not more.

  I didn’t know who the real me was. But I knew I wanted to kill this Coraline. Not all of her, just most of her. I wanted to be who I was when I first met Declan, free, alive, happy. I wasn’t sure when I lost it. I think it was just a few months after we got married. I saw a darker side of him, and I got nervous, I became afraid and walled myself off from him.

  The more blood I saw, the more wounds he came back with, the more I walked away, which was stupid, because he confessed on our third date who he was and what he did. He told me he loved me enough to let me walk away. He said that if he went on one more date he wouldn’t be able to handle it if I left him. I didn’t want to leave him, so I stayed, and then I kicked him in the gut for it later. I accepted this life, and I didn’t want it to rule me. I wanted to walk on the same water Mel and Evelyn did. Evelyn would walk through fire for Sedric, she would kill for him, and I wanted to be that way. I wanted to be a real Callahan woman.

  Day 2

  I walked straight into Adriana’s room to find her placing knives on her bed. She looked up at me then to the time and smiled.

  “Four-thirty in the morning. I’m impressed. Ready for the blood, sweat, and tears?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  TWENTY

  “Maybe this is why so many serial killers work in pairs.

  It’s nice not to feel alone in a world full of victims or enemies.

  It just seems natural. You and me against the world . . .”

  ~ Chuck Palahniuk

  MELODY

  I couldn’t stop shaking, me, motherfucking, Melody Giovanni, now fucking Callahan, the girl who did not blink when she sold her first ounce of coke at sixteen in a back alleyway. I was the girl who murdered a cartel member at seventeen because he stole a pound of weed from us. However, here I was, and I could not stop shaking. I did not shake. I did not bend. I did not fucking flinch at the sight of blood, drugs, or at the sound of a fucking bullet! Yet here I was, watching as one of Cascadia’s doctors looked over Liam, and I was bloody shaking! What the hell was wrong with me?

  I was trying my best not to scream at the fool hovering over Liam, who hadn’t moved in nine hours. If it weren’t for his chest rising and falling, I would have thought he was . . .

  This stupid doctor had five seconds to give me an update or I was going to reach up and pull his tongue out of his ass!

  “Mrs. Callahan—”

  “You’re wasting words,” I hissed. “How is he?”

  “He’s fine. Luckily, the bullet wasn’t lethal. In fact, I’m not sure exactly what it was. He has two bruised ribs, but they will heal. He is on medication for the pain, but other than that he is fine and should get back to moving around in a couple of days,” he replied, stepping back when I moved to the edge of the bed.

  Liam looked so . . . peaceful. There wasn’t a wrinkle or any discomfort in his face. I felt the urge to run my hands through his hair. Part of me wanted to lay with him. A big part of me wanted to lay with to him. It was like my mind knew that was the only way the shaking would stop. However, I couldn’t. Instead, I turned around and walked out the door. Knowing he was okay, knowing he would be fine meant that I could do what I had been itching to do from the moment Fedel came to me.

  I stepped outside, allowing my eyes to roam the yard of men who were all waiting for the same update I had been. My gaze stopped at the fool’s, and it was like the lion was out of the cage.

  “Neal!” I roared, causing every man in his right fucking mind to part like the fucking Red Sea as I walked to him. He didn’t move, he didn’t even look surprised, but in a moment, he was going to look like he was in a hell of a lot of pain.

  But I couldn’t get to him, though, Declan blocked my path and grabbed my arm.

  Who did this motherfucking bitch think he was?

  “Melody—”

  Before he could finish, I punched him straight in the throat, kicked his back legs so they buckled, and brought him to his knees. Grabbing his hair, I yanked it back and pressed my knife to his neck.

  “I will end you Declan Callahan, if you ever stand in my way again.” I pressed the blade even harder against his Adam’s apple.

  “You aren’t thinking clearly—”

  He didn’t seem to get that I wasn’t fucking joking. Pulling the knife from his neck, I stabbed his shoulder. His eyes widened as I backed away, allowing him to fall to his ass before letting out a roar of pain.

  “Have you lost your fucking mind?” Neal yelled at me, rushing toward Declan. However, I stood in front of him.

  “Yes, because if I was fucking sane right now, if I was Melody Giovanni instead of Callahan, I would have fucking killed him for stepping in my way! But I can’t kill Liam’s cousin and his brother in the same day,” I yelled, and he looked me over, unsure of what to do or even say. I would help him find his tongue.

  “Did you shoot Liam?” I knew the answer, but I wanted to hear him say it.

  “Melody—”

  “Did you fucking shoot my husband, Neal?”

  “Yes.”

  I felt a moment of peace before I found myself lunging at his neck. He saw it coming and grabbed hold of my arms and lifted me as if I was a fucking newborn.

  “Melody, it was an accident!” He yelled, but look at what long legs I have . . . only to strangle him with.

  I wrapped them around his neck like a python, and squeezed until he had to let my arms go to grab hold of my legs. When he did, I flipped off him and kneed him in the crotch. He bent down and the stupid, tall, bear-like motherfucker gasped in pain.

  “You, Neal Callahan, are the accident!” My fist smashed into his face.

  His head jerked, and I felt the pain in my hand, but I didn’t stop. “You, Neal Callahan, are scum. You do not deserve my respect.” Another punch in the fucking nose.

  “You do not deserve your last name.”

  At that, he grabbed my fist, stopping it before spitting the blood from his mouth and rising to his feet. He glared into my eyes, and his own were burning. “Watch yourself, sister, or you may get hurt.”

  He did his best to tower over me as if he was trying to say something with his size.

  “What? Because you chew on steroids for breakfast I should be afraid of you?” I spun into him so quickly he didn’t have time to comprehend what I was doing until it was too late. It was one of the few things I had learned from my failed attempts at dance lessons as a child. Let your partner lead. It was probably why I failed at it. I did the leading. However, it worked for Neal, who was too big to stop me from spinning into him and grabbing his gun before spinning out.

  With my left finger, I pulled the fucking trigger. Sadly, it wasn’t a gun but a Taser. However, it worked, and eighty-thousand volts sent him straight to his ass, shaking like a fish out of water.

  “A Taser? Really? What are you, a mall cop?”

  I sighed, looking down at him. But the big bad wolf couldn’t speak.

  Bending on one knee, I leaned in so he could see my eyes. “If you ever cause harm to Liam again I will cut you in half and stuff you inside a locker.”

  Standing back up, I turned to look over the rest of the men. Mine were all smiling, while the rest looked proud. I guess they didn’t like their boss being shot either.

  “He’s fine, just needs rest. Continue on pretending like you are not trying to kill each other. I’ll see you all later,” I told them, and my eyes met Declan’s. He was being held up by none
other than Eric, who I was starting to dislike. Declan looked pale and in need of a drink. He would be fine. If not, well then boo fucking hoo.

  “I’ll send for the doctor,” I said in a mocking tone, then walked past them and into the cabin.

  The doctor looked at me, unsure of what to do or where to go.

  “Fedel will handle your payment after you look over Neal and Declan,” I told him, taking off my boots. My hand was sore, but I would deal with that later.

  He must have noticed because he stepped forward, but I glared at him. There was only one doctor I trusted, and it wasn’t him. Getting the message, he left quickly, leaving me alone with the handsome, sleeping asshole who was my husband. Once again, I found myself staring at him. He looked beautiful, and I gave in to my need, allowing my good hand to run through his hair. When he let out a small moan, I stopped. Even in his sleep he was a horn dog. He was definitely all right.

  Smiling to myself like an idiot, I stripped down as I walked toward the bathroom, grabbing myself a bottle of brandy as I did.

  Turning on the shower, I waited until the water was hot, which would take a moment. It was one of the downsides with camp. Drinking from the bottle, I allowed myself a second to stare in the mirror. Most people hated to look at themselves. They always found a flaw within the person they looked at.

  However, I never had that problem. I knew I was attractive, and I knew I was smart. I wasn’t looking hard enough, though, not until Liam shoved a metaphorical mirror so close to my face that my nose was touching the glass. It was only then I truly saw that, in many ways, he was right. I was alone, and I was lonely. I had always accepted that, and I made sure never to think about it. It wasn’t until we were in the forest that I actually understood. Losing Orlando hurt underneath everything, even when I saw that coming. Liam though . . . that bullet, I didn’t see it coming, and in a moment, he could have been gone.