Ruthless People

by J. J. McAvoy

  Liam roared so loudly I would have thought it was him who made the house shake. “Amory!”

  Amory appeared shocked at first, as if he had forgotten whose house he had attacked. But the shock soon gave way to fear as Liam stalked toward him like the devil himself. The moment anyone blocked his path, they were struck down so quickly I didn’t even have time to blink. I wanted to watch him rain fire and brimstone on the fool, but I wasn’t sure what they knew our how much they were after. There were only a few of them left. I needed to make sure that all our files and information weren’t being stolen right from under us.

  “Neal!” I yelled for him but he was too far gone in his thirst for blood, and was busy shooting down the motherfuckers in his way. He looked almost giddy, like he was in some video game and invincible.

  Glancing back at Liam one last time, I watched as his fist collided with Amory’s face before running down the hall. The further I went, jumping over rubble and exposed wires, the louder the screams. At first, I wasn’t sure what it was. Between the sparks, smoke, and the flames, I could barely see a few feet in front of me. As I peered around the corner, I heard someone scream.

  “Let go of me!”

  It was Olivia, yelling as three large men surrounded her like wolves around a sheep.

  “You’re pretty,” one of the men said, “but you would be prettier on my cock.”

  They all laughed as he grabbed at her, and in that second I put a bullet in his head, causing the blood to spatter all over her face. She stood there, shaken, while the other two men spun around, releasing a hail of bullets.

  Jumping behind what was left of a broken wall, I yelled out, “You have two seconds to run before I place a bullet in your brains.”

  “Fuck you, bitch, you’re outnumbered,” one said in a heavy accent.

  “Come out like a good bitch and we’ll be gentle with ya,” the other said, laughing, and all I could hear was Olivia’s scream. She was annoying as fuck. Why couldn’t she have just gone to the safe room like a good little damsel in distress?

  Taking a deep breath, I stood up slowly, hands up.

  Guns pointed in my face, the men smirked. The one holding Olivia smiled. “Drop the gun, sweetheart.”

  “I warned you,” was all I said to him, smirking as Fedel came up behind the other one. I shot through the hand the motherfucker was holding Olivia with, and when he backed up, I shot him right in his eye.

  Rushing over to Olivia as she screamed, I grabbed her bloody arm. Ripping my shirt, I wrapped it quickly and forced her to look me in the eyes.

  “Why the fuck aren’t you in the safe room?”

  “N-Neal . . .” she stammered in shock. “I–I-Neal.”

  Slapping her across the face, I glared into her eyes. “Get your shit together and move, or I will kill you myself. Fedel, get her to safety. She fights, knock her out.”

  He nodded and I left her in his care before running down the hall. This had to be a distraction. They wanted something. The east wing was nothing but bedrooms, and if they were smart, they had gotten blueprints of the house, which meant they knew what was in the west wing. Some of our most important documents, cash, and codes were kept in west wing.

  Running up broken stairs, the heat of a bullet seared me as it pierced my shoulder with so much force, I landed on my back and rolled down the stairs.

  It was the woman I remembered seeing at Amory and Saige’s wedding smiled as she looked down at me. “Oops, did I hurt you?”

  I tried reaching for my gun, but she stomped on my hand.

  “Do you even know who I am?” she hissed down at me, her gun pointed in my face. “Your people killed my brother.”

  “Sweetheart, we’ve killed a lot of people. I don’t give a fuck about your brother, lady.” I said into the barrel of the gun.

  “You bitch!” she screamed, but I would give her something to scream about. Grabbing on to a nearby electrical wire, I pressed the exposed wires against her leg, turning away as they sparked and shook her as though she was having a seizure.

  Crawling away from her, I held my shoulder and tried to keep calm. I felt the urge to grab my stomach, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t stop, and I couldn’t allow myself to panic. But even knowing all that, I still found myself rubbing circles over my stomach for a moment before I got back up and headed up the stairs.

  When I entered the secret room, I found no one there. Pulling up our files, I began to send them to other computers before deleting everything. I heard what sounded like glass cracking and turned around, pointing my gun at the face of the devil’s mistress. But the gun slipped from my hand as I glanced down at the blade in my stomach.

  “I warned you,” Saige Valero said, laughing. It was the last thing I remembered before everything went dark.

  LIAM

  “Hold him still,” I told Declan and Neal as they brought Amory to his knees in front of me. The fucker thought he could out run me. The moment I had my hands on him, he knew his life was over and the prick ran. I caught up to him in what was left of my half-a-million-dollar garage.

  Placing my brass knuckles on, I pounded his face.

  “You thought you could come into my house,” I yelled as I broke his jaw. “You thought you could destroy me?” I loved the sound of the bones in his face breaking with only his skin to hold it together. “You thought you could burn my fucking house down!” I couldn’t even see his face through all the blood.

  “You thought you could hurt my family? You reckless”—his teeth burst out of his mouth like popped corn—“idiotic”—punch—“motherfucking cunt!” Punch.

  The moment I stopped, the flesh of his nose was kissing his lips and one eye was out of its socket.

  “You? The great big piece of shit who no mother could love and no father could even respect. But worst of all, the man-whore who just had to fuck up my motherfucking day,” I sighed, wiping my nose before grabbing the chains.

  “I saw this on a movie once,” I told him as Neal and Declan bound his feet and hands to the ends of two different cars. “I always wanted to know if the human body would actually rip apart.”

  Amory coughed up more teeth as they bound him. “How’s your wife, Liam?”

  It was only then did something click in my mind, and I felt my heart drop into my stomach. However, I couldn’t let it play on my face. Instead, I nodded to the two drivers and they begin to drive away from each other as Amory’s body rose from the ground and his screams increased.

  “I’ll be sure to mail this to your father,” I told him, nodding once more at the drivers, and pushing it to full speed. I reveled in the sound of his cries as his body ripped open. But looking up, his words still haunted me.

  “Where the fuck is my wife?” I yelled over the roars of the engines, and as I did, Olivia rushed in covered in blood. Neal didn’t even waste a moment, rushing to her side, but she just pushed out of his arm and ran to me.

  “Melody—she saved me, but . . .” She stammered, and stopped speaking the moment she saw the two halves of Amory’s body.

  “Olivia!” I yelled, grabbing her arms. “Where is my wife?”

  Shaking, her eyes went wide. “She left me with Fedel, and he put me in one of the safe rooms. But I saw on the camera, Saige . . . some room full of computers . . . everything was . . . Melody didn’t see her . . . she . . . Saige . . .”

  I never thought I would have to raise a hand to any woman in my family but in that moment, I slapped her so hard she fell on the ground. Neal stepped forward, but Declan held him back.

  “Olivia, one last time . . . Where. Is. My. Wife?”

  “Saige stabbed her in the stomach. Then Patrick came and helped Saige escape with some documents. Sedric is with Melody now,” she sobbed.

  I never ran so fast in my life. I felt as though I was possessed. I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t hear. And by God, I didn’t want to feel anything. The only room Melody would go to would be in the west wing. She would have tried to protect our files.
Files they could have gotten with Patrick. I trusted him. I brought him into this family. And he fucked me over. He had balls, but not for long. I stopped when my feet could take me no further, and stared at the river of blood that led to my wife’s body. My father hovered above her, his shirt off and wrapped around her body.

  “Your mother has called an ambulance. I’ve stopped the bleeding for now, but . . .” Falling to my knees, I wasn’t sure what to do. She looked so pale, so sick, and so different from the woman I saw only a few hours ago.

  “Liam,” my father snapped at me, trying to pull me from my despair. “Your wife will live. Right now, you need to stay calm. Do you understand me?”

  I nodded. All I could do was nod as though I was a fucking bobble head. “Patrick Darragh. Patrick betrayed us. I—”

  “Son, you have done your duty. The house is secure. Take care of your wife,” he said, and I felt the pressure building up in the back of my throat. I wanted to hold her, but I couldn’t, not without possibly causing any more damage. Kissing her forehead, nose, and lips, it took all my willpower to back away as the paramedics came in.

  MELODY

  Everything hurt. Everything was darkness. But in that darkness, one voice rang out louder and stronger than all the rest.

  “Melody. My beautiful Melody. I’m right here.” He sounded so sad.

  “Liam . . .” was all I could say before I drifted back into the darkness.

  LIAM

  “Mr. Callahan, don’t worry. We have the best doctors operating on your wife. If there is anything—and I mean anything—” Grabbing her by the neck, I slammed her body against the wall.

  “Are you flirting with me, Dr. Lewis?” Her eyes widened in fear, as she tried her best to pull my hand away from her very narrow throat. I only squeezed tighter. “Are you flirting with me while some idiot is sewing my wife back together? Tell me you aren’t so I don’t have to rip your head from your shoulders, you classless, low-life, idiotic bitch!”

  “Please,” she cried, kicking her feet wildly.

  “Liam, we are in public,” my mother whispered behind me.

  “So? Who are you going to call?” I turned to the rest of the hospital staff. “I own this motherfucking hospital, and I own this fucking city. If you didn’t know it before, you know it now!”

  Turning to the bitch as she turned blue, I glared into her eyes. “Never come near me again or I swear on the head of your mother and father, I will kill you.”

  Dropping her on the ground, I took my seat again, pulling out a cigarette as my father handed me a lighter while mother frowned. It was the only thing that could calm me down now. Neal held on to Olivia for dear life. Declan kept staring at Coraline as if she could disappear at any moment. I knew they were still fighting or whatever the fuck they were doing, but they would be fine. Despite the fact that she wasn’t looking at him, she did allow him to hold her hand. The only ones who truly seemed calm were my parents, but I knew it was simply due to the fact that they had done this before. It wasn’t the first time we had lost a child because of the Valero, but it would be the last. I would make sure of it. I did my best not to think about it. But it left a burn in my chest and made my blood boil.

  The moment the surgeon came out, we were all on our feet.

  “Don’t waste words. How is she?”

  “Mr. Callahan, your wife is fine and is now in her room. We did everything we could for the child, but . . .”

  Turning away from him, I nodded at Declan and Neal who already knew no one but family and her doctors were to enter that room.

  “Thank you, doctor.”

  “Blake, sir, Dr. Nickolas Blake,” he said quickly, shaking my hand. I tried to leave but my mother held on to me.

  “Everyone go. We need a moment.” She said it in such a way that none of us could even bring ourselves to argue. I had never heard so much anger roll off her tongue. She and my father shared a quick glance before she pulled me off to the side.

  “Mother, whatever it—”

  “Right now, this very moment, will define you and your marriage forever,” she said. In her eyes, all I saw was pain. “The wife you once knew is not going to be the same woman you see when you walk into the room. Imagine that Melody ‘the Boss’ is simply asleep and how you react will define how long she remains so. She needs to mourn.”

  She doesn’t know my wife. She didn’t even shed a tear after her father died.

  “Mel isn’t the crying type.”

  My mother slapped the back of my head, something only she could do. “You’re not listening to me. Your wife was attacked. Her child was stolen from her. She isn’t the same ‘type’ you remember. At least not now. You have two choices—pull away or hold on to her even when her words and actions hurt you. Because they will, believe me they will. Do not make the same mistakes your father and I made.”

  “You came through it,” I whispered. Here they were, so many years later, as in love as ever.

  She smiled, but it didn’t make her eyes shine like usual. “I asked for a divorce. I had the papers drawn up and even called my cousin in Canada. Your father agreed. Had you not gone to the hospital, we wouldn’t have made it. He couldn’t handle my mood swings or all the names I called him. I couldn’t stop myself from blaming him. We made it. But we made it through the hard way. So this, son, is your defining hour, and how you react now will either break or make your future. Whatever pain and anger you are holding on to let it go before you see her or you may just lose her.”

  She kissed me on the cheek before leaving me standing there, unable to even speak. I couldn’t even breathe. Walking into a nearby supply room, I let the tears fall for the child I would never get to meet—who I would never get to know—and I tried to not let myself grow angry with her. What was fucked up was the fact that my anger at Mel overshadowed my anger at Saige. I told her not go. I told her to get in the fucking safe room, but she didn’t listen. She never listened.

  Slapping my cheeks, I took a deep breath before walking back out again. No one made eye contact with me until I stood right outside her door. Neal and Declan were smart enough to look away.

  It felt like hours before I found the will to walk in, and to my surprise, Mel was sitting up. She looked so dazed, like she had gone to war and come back, but nothing was the same as it once was. Evelyn kissed her forehead, while Coraline gave her a small hug. Olivia stayed back. She stood next to Sedric with her head hung low as if she were some servant, and the sight of it pissed me off.

  “Out,” was all I had to say before they left, and it was in that same moment that I knew my mother was right. Never in all our months together had I ever see Mel jump at my voice.

  Taking a seat beside her, she shook her head at me as she fought the tears building in her eyes.

  “Say it,” she whispered.

  “Say what?” Anything she wanted me to say I would say.

  “Say it was my fault. Say I killed our child. Say it was for the greater good, because I would have been a horrible mother anyway.”

  Anything but that. Taking off my jacket, I laid next her, pulling her into my arms.

  “This was not your fault, and you did not kill our child. You would, and will, be a great mother,” I whispered, kissing for forehead.

  “Then why do I feel this way?” She held on to my shirt as she fought back her sobs.

  I couldn’t answer, mostly because I couldn’t think of what to say. I felt so guilty for thinking that this was her fault just moments ago. This was Saige. This was the Valero, and they would pay dearly.

  After Mel had gone to sleep, I let go of her and stepped out into the hallway.

  Neal, Declan, Monte, Fedel, and my father all stood waiting. I didn’t trust any of them. That’s what Patrick had done. He had broken the band of trust that we kept in our innermost circles.

  “How did this happen?”

  “Patrick was the one who found the lead on Cross, the man Melody was interrogating.” Declan stated. “He had
a CS-5 jammer implanted inside of him. With that, it blocked half of our defense codes and sensors. From there, Patrick opened the gate from the inside. He’s been working for them for mouths. We have no idea why he betrayed us. All they needed was a person willing to die, and Cross was that person. With the botched surgery he had to get the jammer inside of him he did not have long anyway. It was simple.”

  “Getting into our home should never be simple,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I want him found and I want to know how no one else knew. Then I want you to call every Irish or Italian man in the damn country able to build our house. We aren’t moving.”

  “Liam we can stay in the summer home—”

  “We are not moving!” I yelled, breathing through my nose before taking a step back. “I will not be chased out of my home like a poverty stricken street rat. There is plenty of house left. Pick a room and deal with it, Father.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me, grinning before he nodded.

  “As for Vance and Saige, take photos of Amory’s body and send it to them. When you’re done, throw Amory’s body anywhere you fucking please. Ship him to the moon for all I fucking care. Just make sure Vance knows those pictures are all that he will ever have left of his son.” Part of me wished I hadn’t killed Amory outright and used him for some leverage to bring down his father.

  “When are we hitting back, boss?” Fedel asked me, and I do believe that was the first time he had ever called me his boss.

  “We start now.” I glanced over to them all. “Declan, gather every motherfucking hacker and suck him dry. Anything you can destroy, do it. The rest of you, your orders are the same. Shoot to kill. I don’t care if they’re in the street or their damn beds. We’re ending this if I have to bomb all of Russia to do it.”

  TWENTY-NINE

  “The family that mourns together

  survives forever.”