Ruthless People

by J. J. McAvoy

  “They may bloody well destroy this family.” I pouted as she kissed me.

  “Then let them. We have more than enough independently to leave and never be found if we wish. However, you and I both know they aren’t destroying this family.” She was right, but I didn’t like it.

  “I just wish they would—”

  “No. You promised me you would only get involved if they asked. They haven’t, so stay the fuck out of it. You have done your part. I just want my husband.”

  Staring into her eyes, I nodded before grabbing hold of her shirt and ripping it from her body. Buttons popped off her like bullets.

  “Then have him, because he definitely wants you,” I whispered before ripping her bra off her as well. Her breasts jiggled free, and I smirked to myself before taking them into my mouth.

  She moaned my name, and the last thing on my mind was my children, or their chaos.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  “We don’t murder, we kill . . .

  You don’t murder animals, you kill them.”

  ~ Samuel Fuller

  MELODY

  Flipping on the television, I couldn’t help but grin.

  “Three weeks ago, Commissioner Patterson, you stood before us all and promised to make this city safe! You promised that you would put an end to the blood and corruption, but instead, all you have done is made it worse! For three weeks, it has been raining blood! The death count is up to twenty-seven that we know of. Most of them innocent people who just want to live their lives in peace. People are dying left and right! You did this!” A man yelled out in the crowd.

  “My son was walking home for school. He walked that same path every day and then . . .” A mother sobbed with a photo of her son in her hands.

  “Twenty-seven in the suburbs, fifty-four in the city, two a day in the most poverty stricken parts of the city. Commissioner Patterson, is this the new normal?” a reporter asked.

  Commissioner Patterson looked old, tired, and stressed as he tried to find the words.

  “The Chicago Police Department is . . .”

  “The Chicago Police Department is no safer than we are! How many men and woman have we lost in the last three weeks?”

  “We have lost at total of nineteen men in the line of duty.” Commissioner Patterson sighed. I could feel the defeat coming through the screen.

  “How can you keep us safe, if you can’t even keep your own people safe?”

  “Is the FBI going to get involved?”

  “Nope,” I said aloud and even if they did I had more than a few friends I could call on.

  “Each one of these instances has been at the hands of multiple criminals, leaving them up to the Chicago Police Department to solve. However, they will be consulting on many of the cases involved.” The Commissioner stood firm.

  “Will the Governor call for a state emergency?”

  “Not if he wants to lose his next election.” I’m sure he was a friend of the families, Coraline held a function for him.

  “We are not at that point yet. I understand how frightened you all are, but please don’t lose faith in us. It is what the people who are responsible for this all want.”

  “Do you know who is responsible? Some have speculated this is because of the Irish Mob, others say there was a breakout at the county jail.”

  I wanted to listen to his reply. However, I was distracted by the man kissing my neck from behind. Leaning into him, I allowed myself to relax.

  “Keeping an eye on our city?” he whispered when he came up for air. Wrapping his arms around me, he pulled me closer.

  “The Commissioner seems stressed.” I smirked, reaching up to run my hand through his hair.

  “With all the murders, robberies and bad press, I would be stressed as well.” He snickered. Turning me to him, his eyes went straight to my breasts, but that’s what I got for standing in my underwear as I watched the news.

  “Like what you see?” I whispered to him while pulling on his tie.

  His eyes were coated with lust before he shook his head clear. “Yes, very much so, and as much as I would enjoy making you scream my name until your voice cracked, we have a very important wedding to get to.”

  “You’re turning down sex for a wedding?”

  “It’s not just any wedding love.” He pouted. “It’s Saige and Amory’s wedding, which means . . .”

  “Which means you get to sit and eat their food and drink wine, while our men fuck them across the ocean.”

  “And I don’t want to be late for a moment of it.”

  Stepping closer to him, I retied the bowtie around his neck. “Of course not. Who would like to have sex when they could watch Vance lose control? Who knows when that could happen again. You won’t be having sex with anyone for a while either, but still.”

  I kissed him deeply, biting onto his lip before breaking away. His mouth dropped open as my words sunk in. “Sweetheart . . .”

  “This body is now closed to you, husband.” Stepping away from him, I turned to walk to my closet but he pulled me back.

  “Let’s not do anything rash,” he replied lifting me up and throwing me on the bed, crawling on top of me as he brushed my hair back.

  “We don’t have time.” I smiled as he kissed me.

  “We’re the guests of honor. We can make time,” he whispered kissing from my lips to my cheek and then to my neck.

  Pushing up against him, I was able to flip him onto his back. Sitting on his waist, I stared into his eyes.

  “You made your choice, husband now deal with it.” I smirked as I ground my hips into him before rising, and sure enough his hard-on was clear to the world.

  “Wife.”

  “Husband.” I smiled, and the moment I took off toward my closet, he leapt off the bed after me. Sadly, he was too slow, and I was able to lock myself in my closet.

  “Damn it!” He pounded on the door as I laughed.

  “Calm the fuck down and finish getting dressed,” I called out as I looked for the shoes I wanted to wear.

  “Take off your underwear. You won’t be needing them tonight!”

  “The fuck I will! You aren’t getting shit from me,” I replied even though I couldn’t stop grinning.

  “Fine then, I will rip the bloody things off you.” His voice was fading, and I rolled my eyes at him.

  Hearing the door close, I smiled to myself. In the last three weeks, my relationship with Liam had changed drastically. We no longer fought with one about personal matters. Instead, most of our issues were with the job, and even those were few and far between. Sometimes our plan of attack didn’t mesh well, and the only way we could settle it was to “fuck it out.” Neither of us complained about that though, and I was sure he disagreed with me sometimes just so we could have sex afterward, the little prick. Yet, I found myself smiling more often because of him. I was happy, and that just seemed odd to me.

  He insisted we have our “dates” at least once a week. The first week was awkward because I hated the word date and neither of us did anything really but work. The second week he brought me a snitch, a lower-level pawn who had been in the process of speaking with the police to get out of jail time. Too bad for him, we wire tapped all our men’s phones. To make an example of him, I gave him embalming fluid to drink and when he died, we made sure to ship his tongue to the Commissioner.

  After that, Liam and I didn’t come out of our room for two days. The date we had this week consisted of Liam and I both naked on our bed watching the local news. We had scheduled a hit on three officers and their families.

  “Ma’am, it’s Adriana. I have your dress.” Adriana knocked. Opening the door, I pulled the dress from the bag.

  “Perfect.” I smiled, touching the satin of the dress.

  LIAM

  Stepping out of our bedroom, I tried to wipe the grin off my face. However, it was damn near impossible. I hadn’t known before that I would have no other choice than to say I was in love with Melody Nicci Callahan. I loved ho
w she broke people’s noses, how she smiled whenever we killed someone. I loved the way she moaned my name while we made love, only to slap me afterward. She was ruthless in everything she did, and yet she could still manage to be open with me. We had both changed. I felt like I had known her for a lifetime and not just a few weeks.

  “So I’m guessing by your smile that all is well in your bloody wonderland?” Sedric asked me as I reached the study.

  He was decked to the nines like myself and seemed just as excited as I was, despite the fact that he didn’t know any of our plans.

  “Yes, father,” I said stepping into the study. “All is well in our bloody wonderland. In fact, the adventure is just beginning.”

  He sighed, taking a seat in front of the desk. “Must you torture me boy, or will you tell me what is going on? Half the city is covered in blood and the other half is afraid of its shadow. Both you and Melody insisted that we attend this mockery of a wedding. However, neither Neal nor Declan are going to be in attendance.”

  “You always said I was impatient. If so, I see where I get it from,” I replied pouring myself a glass of wine.

  “I’m guessing you and Melody are no longer shooting at each other.”

  “For now. My wife’s opinion of me changes more often than the tide. She may shoot me tomorrow if I tell her I dislike her gun collection.”

  “But at this moment—”

  “Are you asking as my father or as a Ceann na Conairte?” I cut him off leaning into my chair because it was my chair and not his. Kicking my feet onto the desk I watched as his eyes narrowed at my shoes. He used to hate it when I placed my feet on his desk as a teen, but he couldn’t say anything now.

  “I’m asking as a father. Son, are you happy with your wife?”

  “Yes, father, everything is bloody and well in fucking wonderland.” I drank some more. “She is . . . she is Bloody Melody and perfect. God created her and then shattered the mold afterward, for the world could not handle two of her.”

  “Look who has become a poet.”

  “Hardly, it was a simple fact.” My wife was a ruthless animal, and it only made her sexier.

  “So then I could expect something to go terribly wrong at this wedding.” He really wanted to know. It was almost sad.

  “I hope when I have a child, I’m not in the predicament you are in.” I laughed at him.

  “Knowing you, I doubt you will allow your son or daughter to take the throne as easily as I did.” He was joking. He had to be joking.

  “Bullshit. The amount of hell you put me through—”

  “I put you through hell so you could sit in that seat and call hell to you. In three weeks, you have brought this city to its knees.” He almost sounded jealous, but I could also hear the pride.

  “We, Melody and I, brought it to its knees. However, it’s not bowing yet. The police commissioner is still holding out for hope to overcome the mess. A judge gave him the okay to place wiretaps on the house and our phones.” I snickered. That was only after the first week.

  “When was this?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” I grinned drinking again. “We had jammers and frequency scramblers placed throughout the house, and then updated all the phones. Melody insisted that we make an example out of the judge.”

  I waited for it to click in, after all it had been all over the news that week. He shook his head as the realization hit him.

  “Judge Randal. They found him hanging from the bridge. I figured, but I didn’t understand why.”

  “I don’t believe the commissioner has had any help with the courts since then.” Because they were fucking smart.

  “And you both don’t want to end him?” Oh, how the tide had turned.

  “And let another wannabe hero take his place? He is about to break, and when he does, his moral compass will either force him to take his life or he will just drink himself to death. Either way I don’t give a flying two fucks.” He picked a fight, and now he was going to lose.

  “Bloody wonderland,” he said again with a smile. There was a knock at the door, before I could reply.

  “Enter,” I called out and in walked my mother dressed in a beautiful long-sleeved, green dress. “You look beautiful mother,” I said, standing up to greet her.

  She kissed my cheek. “Thank you, son. I came to tell you that there are two officers at our door. They’re asking to speak with you. I thought I would let you know personally. This is the third time, Liam. I’m not pleased.”

  Rule Sixteen: Never displease your mother.

  “Call my wife.”

  “No need.” Melody stepped inside, making me want to drop to my knees and kiss her feet. She was an absolute vision in the long, strapless white dress she wore. She looked like a goddess or an angel, and I felt lucky to even stand before her.

  “Father, Mother, thank you. However, my wife and I have some business to attend to. We shall meet you at the wedding.”

  “Please send the officers in,” my Mel replied as she walked, more like glided, toward me.

  Taking her hand, I kissed it once my parents were gone. “You look beyond beautiful.”

  “Save your flattery and tell me we are going to kill these sons of bitches for returning here.” She glared as she fixed my hair.

  There was another knock at the door, and I smirked at her.

  “Let’s find out.” I grinned, walking to my desk. “Enter.” Sadly it wasn’t the commissioner, but his Smokey the Bear sidekick along with another broad-shouldered man with orange hair.

  “No commissioner? I’m insulted.” I turned to Mel who only glared at them.

  “The city is a bit too chaotic for him to make it,” Smokey said. “As you know I—”

  “We don’t care. What do you want?” Mel asked, looking at the younger man next to Smokey.

  “We’re here to wave the white flag,” the orange-haired man declared.

  I felt my brow rise and a smirk curl my lip. When I looked over to Mel, she frowned. Of course she would, white flags weren’t her forte.

  Stepping toward the man, I looked him over. “You’re Irish.”

  “Yes, Mr. Callahan.”

  “Who the fuck forgot to recruit you?” I snickered. Most of all the Irish-born natives in the damn state worked for me in some form.

  He glared at me. “I wanted to be the first of my family to do right by the law.”

  “Well then, as you can see, we are on our way out.”

  Mel replied stepping toward me. “We will speak to the commissioner at a later time. You both found your way in, I believe you know the way out. Please give Officer Pope and his family my regards.”

  They couldn’t speak and that may have been due to the fact that she looked sinfully beautiful in white, or because Officer Pope and his family were no longer alive. They nodded with rage building in their eyes. The door slammed once they exited.

  She turned to me and frowned, straightening my tie again. “You know they were lying right?”

  “Yes, and what do we do with liars?” I asked my hands on her hips. She smiled as well, reaching into my tuxedo jacket to pull out my phone.

  “Monte, two officers should be leaving the premises. Please make sure to escort them back to the station. You and I both know how tricky those high bridges can be.” I watched her mouth as she spoke, and I wanted nothing more than to kiss the breath from her lips.

  She noticed once she hung up and placed her finger on them.

  “Candy store is still closed.” She glared. “After all, you want to see Vance’s face instead.”

  “Lov—” She didn’t even allow me to finish speaking before she walked away. Damn it all to hell. Vance better fucking cry and piss in his fucking pants.

  MELODY

  “Shoot me, please.” I groaned as I watched Amory and Saige kiss. It was like they were trying to suck the skin off each other’s faces.

  “Not before you shoot me,” Liam whispered back. His eyebrows wouldn’t stop twitching, and had
it only been us, I would have laughed over it. However, it wasn’t just us. We were surrounded by at least three hundred of Vance’s closest “family and friends.” The wedding was so boring that Liam and I spent most of our time texting Declan and Neal for updates.

  But it was game time now. Taking our seat at table five, with the rest of the Callahans, we waited for the text message signaling it was done. However, the true fireworks didn’t start until Vance got the call. I was tempted to tell them myself. However, Vance still thought I was some little lamb unaware of the world around me. He was a fucking idiot. From Saige’s letters, he must have known I was the child who was spared on the plane. However, he still didn’t see me as a threat.

  “Black, Red, and White just doesn’t seem right for this time of year.” Coraline frowned as she looked around the wedding hall.

  “Yes,” I replied, looking Olivia up and down. “Adding red to the color scheme was a bad choice.”

  Olivia’s blue eyes narrowed on me. “So is wearing white to another woman’s wedding.”

  “There are very few people I consider to be ‘women.’ Saige is a snake,” I said drinking water. “Don’t ask what I consider you to be.”

  Evelyn sighed while Liam snickered. Sedric was too busy checking his watch. He was dying to see what was going to happen as well.

  “There is no hope for you two is there?” Evelyn asked Olivia and me.

  “Not if she keeps harming my husband and then forcing him on assignments when he should be by my side,” Olivia said.

  “Olivia, snap at me again and you won’t have a husband. In fact, I would just as soon kill you and move on. You’re not worth anything anyway, so do us all a favor and sit in the corner like a good little trophy.” I rolled my eyes at her as Liam’s phone went off.

  Tilting it to me, I watched as a very expensive looking house, along with one too many cars went up in flames. The cameras caught every angle of the house, including two women banging on the door trying to free themselves.