by J. J. McAvoy
“Careful, they may stop seeing you as America’s darling.” He smirked, drinking his coffee in disdain. I knew he would prefer brandy and right now, so would I.
“They can have their fake darling back after we dump Amory and Saige’s bodies in one of the Great Lakes,” I said in Irish.
“Patience, love.”
Gripping the knife in my hands, I felt my nostrils flare. “To hell with patience. It’s been four months since their wedding. Since then, they have burned half our fields in Mexico, killed seven of our men in Italy, and cut off thirty percent of our weed from the east. Which you should know costs us about a hundred million every week. I want their heads on a stake, and I want it fucking yesterday. But somehow, you fucking convinced me to wait. So fuck you and fuck them and fuck this goddamn hat I have to fucking wear!”
I wanted to take off the giant yellow sun hat and throw it at him, but that would bring too much attention to myself. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I tried to breathe. The past four months had been an all-out war. The Valero were coming at us with everything they had. We expected as much. However, with the cops now watching us more than ever, our actions were limited. The Valero were most likely behind that as well, but right now, I was ready to bomb the police station, kill the Valero, and move on. But instead, I was in a stupid five star restaurant, waiting on the motherfucking real housewives of Chicago for some charity shit.
“First, that is a lot of fucks. Second, your hat is nice.” He smirked as I glared. “And we will find an opening soon. However, right now the plan we came up with last night is the one we’re sticking with.”
“I was high off sex and couldn’t think straight,” I snapped, drinking the sorry excuse for tea they offered me.
“But that is where all our master plans are created.”
“Really? Isn’t that where you came up with the plan to pump more heroin into Boston? Now the mayor is involved.”
He leaned back in his chair with no care in the world. “That’s only because his idiot daughter went and overdosed. He’s busy blaming dealers as if we held the needle to her arm. His bad parenting is apparently our fault. Mayor or no mayor, it was a good idea. The demand is growing.”
“Liam.” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. “We keep going like this, we are going to be stretched too thin. We can’t fight Chicago and Boston with Valero still screwing us. The mayor is going to be doubling down his efforts to trace it.”
“Fine,” he hissed, leaning in. “We stay neutral for now. We have a shipment coming in tonight that I will redirect and hold. But the moment the Valero are out of the picture, we are pushing hard.”
“Deal. In the meantime, we can up the weed. The shit is almost legal anyway, and both coasts are addicted.” Weed was as good as gold now. We sold to medical pharmacies where it was legal, and small street gangs where it wasn’t.
“Then it’s settled . . .” He paused causing me to look over at the door where Commissioner Andrew fucking Patterson made his way toward us.
“Who do you call when it’s the police who are stalking you?” I sighed, looking over to Liam, who glared at the man approaching.
“Us.”
Commissioner Andrew fucking Patterson placed two sliver badges on the table, causing Liam and me to share a quick glance.
“Shiny.” Liam snickered, taking a sip of his coffee. “Is there a reason why you are putting that filth on my table?”
Patterson looked like he had aged at least ten years in the last four months. “The officers your men killed today were fresh out of the academy.”
“You should be careful of what you accuse people of Commissioner,” I hissed, looking around the room once more. No one could hear us, but he was being fucking stupid.
“You even had their families killed, didn’t you?” He laughed bitterly, ignoring me completely.
“Commissioner—”
“A six year old girl now has no family, thanks to you! I know you’re the ones behind Pope and Jeffery! You people are sick! You will burn in hell!”
“Commissioner! Have you lost your mind?” Liam yelled, standing up as two guards walked toward us.
“Maybe I have!” the man yelled as the guards held him back. “But you won’t remain untouchable forever! One day, someone is going to make you all pay for your crimes.”
“Get this man out of here, he is upsetting my wife!” Liam screamed as the guards pulled him away.
Upsetting me? Fuck that, this shit was funny as hell but I could play the damsel in distress. I guess.
“Fuckin’ Callahans wouldn’t be in power forever! Just wait, someone is gonna pay you back tenfold, and I will laugh, you monsters!” he said, like the joker was on ʼshrooms.
“Get him out!” Liam roared again, while I placed my hand to my heart like a good damsel in distress.
When he was gone, the manager ran toward us, bowing so low you would think he was trying to kiss Liam’s cock . . . jeez. Since when did we live in Japan?
“I am so sorry, Mr. Callahan, please . . .”
“It’s not a problem. Please, just keep that man away from our family,” Liam said before taking a seat back down. He waited for the room to return to order before staring at me with hard eyes.
“You were the one who ordered it?” he asked me in Irish.
“Yes,” I replied back, unsure about why he looked like I was the one he wanted to kill.
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “You let the girl live.”
Sitting up straighter, I glared back. “She wasn’t home, and I wasn’t going to hunt her down. She is six fucking years old.”
“Then you should have waited until she was home,” he hissed, moving to the edge of his chair. “I don’t care if she was six or twenty-six. She is his family and therefore should be dead—”
“You make it seem like that one girl has any power,” I snapped back at him. He needed to calm the fuck down before I stabbed him here and now.
He stared at me as if I had lost my mind. “She is the daughter of a cop, a blue blood. She isn’t a threat now, but what about in twenty years when she is out of the academy? She will be like a bloodhound looking for revenge. Children grow up, and unless you know something I don’t, we are going to be around in twenty years. I will not have the past bite us in the ass. After all, look at you. You were six once, and what happened to you then changed your life forever. You are the last person I thought I would ever have to explain who we are or what we do.”
He stood up and kissed me on the side of the check harshly for those who might still be watching, before whispering in Irish, “Stay here, my mother has arrived. I will take care of it.”
He fucking sounded disappointed in me. Who does this motherfucking bitch think he is? Did he just sit me? I was the fucking Boss, and I sure as hell didn’t take orders. Coraline, Olivia, and Evelyn walked in with a whole group of other charity woman before I could beat his head in. Each one of them smiled and laughed as though they were breathing a different sort of air.
“Ladies, isn’t my youngest, handsome?” Evelyn said, giving Liam a big hug.
Liam laughed but it was his fake laugh, the one he did for crowds. “The most handsome, some say.”
They all laughed at him while I eyed his skin, wondering where would be the best place to impale him.
“The cockiest as well.” Evelyn grinned.
“I shall take that compliment.” He winked at a few of the older ladies, forcing me to act like an embarrassed wife and smack him in the chest. I was not in the mood to play this stupid game.
“We’ve had our breakfast. Honey, don’t you have business to take care off?” I dug my nails into his skin but the bitch didn’t even flinch.
“You all had breakfast already?” Coraline asked us, looking to our table as waiters cleared it and added a new table to make room.
“Sorry, ladies, only God knows when I would see her again after she disappears with you all. I had to at least start my morning with her.�
� Liam charmed is way into the cougars’ arms. They eyed him like he was a god himself. Both their facial expressions and his words made me want to puke.
“Young love.” Olivia laughed, causing me to glare at her.
“Goodbye, Liam.”
“It’s already begun.” Liam laughed, kissing my hand. “I know when I’m not wanted.”
The women aww-ed as he left, and I tried my best to actually look flattered, but my face just wouldn’t have it. Evelyn, Olivia, and Coraline all seemed to notice. Smiling at them, I took a seat as the other women all took theirs.
“Ladies, welcome to the Seventeenth Annual W.E.W.—Women Empowering Women,” a peppy blonde announced once the ladies were seated. “I would like to thank Mrs. Coraline Callahan for once again hosting us all here. Thank you so much for everything you do.”
I glanced at her, but she didn’t meet my gaze. Two steps forward, six steps back, for Cora.
“How often do they hold these meetings?” I whispered to Evelyn as everyone clapped.
“First Saturday of every month. You’ve missed quite a few,” Olivia replied before Evelyn could speak, and right on cue the peppy blonde turned to me.
“Please give a W.E.W. welcome to the newest member, Mrs. Melody Callahan. We all know how that first year of marriage is.” They turned to me, and I forced myself to smile and blush at the plastic army in front of me.
“Be happy you missed so many,” Evelyn whispered, causing Olivia and Coraline to snicker.
It took a while, but finally, all the women were so caught up in their conversations that I no longer had to force myself pay attention. They had to be the saddest and most desperate women I had ever met. None of them cared about the charity. They only cared about upstaging each other in who had more money to give, just to prove how rich they are. None of them could hold a candle to any wife of a Callahan. However, they all wanted to come in second place. So if they had to feed the starving villages to be thought highly of, they would do it.
Coraline shifted for the nineteenth time since she sat down, causing me to look her over quickly. I could tell a lot had changed in her. Her arms and legs were more toned, and she seemed much more alert and capable now. She had even cut her hair down some more, but despite all that, she still looked beautiful, almost had a movie star kind of beauty.
“Are you ready to be working with me next, Coraline?” I asked her softly. Her eyes went wide and grinned.
“Are you serious?” she asked, because she obviously didn’t know who I was. I didn’t joke around with things like that. I rarely joked at all, in fact.
“Adriana said you are getting too used to her. So, yes, I am serious.”
“Yeah, first I would have to talk to Declan—”
“What?”
“Declan,” she said again with a frown. “When I told him, he kind of laughed it off, and we haven’t talked about it much. But I think that’s because he doesn’t see Adriana as anything to worry about. You, on the other hand—”
“I’m something to worry about,” I added, placing Declan on my Callahan ass-kicking list. “Have you tried making him listen?”
She looked at me like I was crazy.
“You do know you are a woman, correct?” I smirked. “Grab handcuffs, make him hard, tell him what you want to tell him, and then leave him there to think about it.”
“I could never do that, Declan would be so—”
“Horny, which you can use to your advantage. You are a motherfucking Callahan woman. You do what you want. If you want to train with me, you train with me, and if Declan doesn’t like it, remind him of the days when all he had was his hand.” I was dead serious, even though Olivia was laughing beside me. For all the improvement Coraline was enjoying, I was shocked she was still hiding behind this shell.
“Mel, I’m not like you—”
“No one is like me, but that’s not the point,” I interrupted, and I would keep interrupting until she found the balls to stop me.
“It’s just that I don’t know how to be this strong person. Declan means the world to me, and I don’t want to hurt him or lose him,” she whispered, and I was tempted to drown myself in my soup.
“If you keep focusing on how lucky you are to have Declan, then you’re going to forget how lucky he is to have you. Imagine you’re a princess and then demand to be treated like one,” Olivia replied, and I was a little confused. Since when did I get on the same page as the blow-up doll?
“All my sons need to be knocked upside their heads every once in a while.” Evelyn gave one of her motherly smiles.
“Or shot.” I smiled, causing Evelyn to glare at me, and I simply shrugged, it was true. Bullets spoke louder than words.
“Melody, do you mind if we speak in private?” Olivia asked me, oddly polite. I glanced over at Coraline and Evelyn who seemed just as shocked. Nodding, I stood, waiting for her to follow as I headed to the women’s bathroom.
Taking off the stupid hat, I placed it on the counter before turning back to her. “Speak.”
“I wanted to apologize for my hostility and for being—”
“A rude, immature bitch?” I asked, crossing my hands.
Her eyes narrowed at me, and it looked like she was trying her best to bite her tongue. “Yeah, for that, too.”
“I won’t accept your apology until I know why you’re offering it.” I turned back to the mirror trying to fix my hat hair.
“Because that is what grown people do? We apologize when we are wrong,” she snapped before taking a deep breath.
“Well, I’m calling bullshit.” I smiled. “You see, when people apologize and mean it, they don’t need privacy. So I’m guessing Neal put you up to this. What did he say to make you try and humble yourself?”
“He—”
“Don’t lie to me, Olivia. I’m much better at it than you, and I have no problem breaking your head against this mirror. You can take a little drive to West Ridge and ask Natasha if you don’t believe me.” I couldn’t kill her, but I hated liars and would make that clear.
She stared at me wide-eyed and nodded. “Fine. A few months ago, Neal and I talked about it. I’ve been trying to stay out of your way, but I know we are going to have to speak sometime. I just . . . Neal wants me to make peace. I love Neal, so I will do it.”
“What is with you all and bending to what your husbands want?” They really were Stepford wives.
“It’s called love, Melody,” she snapped at me once again. “When you love someone, all you want is for them to be happy. That doesn’t make you weak, and that doesn’t make you an idiot. Liam is head over heels in love with you, he would die for you, and yet you cringe at the thought of it. Coraline and I are not G.I. Janes, and we can’t walk on the dark side of the moon and come back okay. But at least neither of us are scared of love. So I’m saying sorry once again. I have to go home to my husband, have amazing sex, and see him smile.”
She said nothing else before walking out. When she did, I turned to the mirror and stared at myself. I remembered a time when my life was so much easier.
LIAM
Most people—a lot of people—would be disgusted with what I did tonight. They would call me a monster, tell me I was heartless or cruel. But none of them knew the life I lived or walk down the same dimly lit streets as me. I was head of the family. I was the Ceann na Conairte. Which meant it fell on my shoulders to protect this family from past, present, and future nuisances. All you had to do was watch an old mafia movie to see how one loose end brought down some of the greatest empires there ever was.
Rule Two: Take no prisoners and have no regrets about it.
Anyone we captured were either killed or flipped to our side and used for intel. But after we got what we needed, they were killed anyway. Any man who can flip on his boss once can do it again. What made the Callahans successful is that we had evolved past all the mistakes that had brought other greats down. We didn’t cheat on our wives, and we didn’t do any of the smack or drugs we so
ld. Those two things alone were things the mafia world was known for. However, it was also the first thing that brought them down. Everyone stayed clean, even the men closest to us. The men of our family had worked too hard to become what they were today for some junkie to snitch to the police to save his skin. Wives were key, because if you treated them right, they would live and die for you. I had no regrets for what I did. I didn’t kill because I was a sick twisted motherfucker. Everything was for the betterment of the family.
Sighing, I played away on my piano. I came back late and I didn’t feel like dealing with Mel or anyone else for that matter. I thought she understood, but she just wrote it off like it was nothing. She was too focused on Amory and Saige. Yes, they were a huge problem, but we needed to cover all our bases. Vance would just love it if we hung ourselves. He was trying to spread us out all over the globe. The more areas to cover, the more room for mistakes. I just needed to find an opening.
“You’re going to wear out the keys,” my wife called out behind me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look at her. I knew whatever she was wearing tonight would leave me smitten . . . fuck that . . . it would leave me fucking hungry for her.
I just kept playing. I wasn’t even sure what it was. I just played. However, with each step she took, I could feel her like a wave of warmth behind me. I knew when her hand was hovering right over my head, and I leaned into it without thinking. She ran her fingers through my hair before stepping onto the seat next me. From there, she climbed onto the front of the piano, placing her legs on either side of me and forcing me to play while staring right at her. Damn her to hell.
“Mel . . .”
“Do you love me?” she whispered, looking me dead in the eye. I froze. What could I say to that? If I lied, she would know. If I told her the truth, she would push me away. So I just played.
She slid down, the keys chiming as she hit them, until she was in my lap. Kissing me, she wrapped her legs around my waist.
“Do you love me?”
“Yes, I love you. You don’t have to say it back. I can wait.”
She took a deep breath and dropped her head down.