by J. J. McAvoy
“Is that jealousy or bitterness I hear?” I questioned softly.
“Neither,” she replied seriously, her gaze hard. “If you think about it, both of us are in the same place. Married to powerful men. And I am much better at handling it than she is. She’s upset she’s not getting the same respect she is accustomed to.”
“Really, that does not bother you?”
“I’ve never been accustomed to respect. The little respect I gained, I fought for. So, it does not bother me, like it does your sister. Besides, she can’t do what she was brought up to do—fight, kill, or steal whatever she needs—to get ahead. She does not know how to go forward, and the one person she thought she could ask is you. But you know your sister. If you lead her to the river, she won’t drink. So, she has to find it alone. You know she’ll find it eventually. So, you just wait until she does. Why would I be jealous or bitter of her? She’s still a child who’s upset she doesn’t get what she wants right when she wants it.”
There it was.
My thoughts vocalized. She did it with ease as if to say, “duh.” It was amusing. Though there was a tiny part of me that was annoyed at how good she was at figuring me out. It was a very small part, though. The greater part of me relaxed back in the chair, neither agreeing nor denying her explanations. She was perfectly content, and I allowed her to keep doing whatever it was she was doing.
“With Greyson gone, we are going to need new guards,” she said gently.
I stared at the nape of her neck for a moment before speaking. “With the current state of our family and the fact that our last personal guard was blown to hell, I doubt people are lining up for the chance right now, no matter how much we are paying.” I hated to admit it, but we needed to first build the prestige of this family back up again. She knew that. “Unless you have people in mind.”
Instead of answering me, she leaned back against my chest, lifting her phone and dialing a person saved in her contacts as Big Tillio before putting the phone to her ear.
“Big Tillio! How are you? Long time no talk!”
I flinched at how loud her voice suddenly became as she spoke on the line.
“Yes! I’m back in Chicago now. What for?” She glanced up to me, rubbing the back of her ear. “Well, I married a Callahan.” She made a face before adding, “Wyatt and me? God no. Do I look like I want to babysit another child? The one I have takes too much out of me as it is.”
I snickered at that, part of me wishing Wyatt had heard her.
“I married Ethan Callahan...How many other Ethan Callahans are there? Yes, I’m serious. So serious that I’m calling to see if I could get TNT to come work for me…Oh come on, Tillio! Why? We are basically family; you know you can tell me. What’s going on?” She listened, nodding and nodding again then frowning.
“Well, I can’t force you, but you know me. I’m going to be hurt if I can’t count on you.” More nodding, and just like that, she grinned. “See this why they call you Big Tillio! Say hi to Chloe and the kids for me, all right? Of course, we’ll meet up soon. I’ll make dinner.”
She laughed and nodded one last time before hanging up and looking at me. “Dino Tacinelli, Vinnie Napolitano, and Italo Tizzone.” She must have gotten so caught up in her little act she forgot one small detail.
“I do not know those people, Calliope.”
“But I know those people, Ethan,” she replied, turning in my lap, kicking her legs over the arm of my chair, as she now looked at me. “Or are you saying you don’t trust my people?” Her eyebrow rose, and her pink lips formed a thin line as she eyed me carefully. Apparently, she was gearing up for a fight.
“This family has a process—”
“If you don’t trust my people, that means you don’t trust me. If you don’t trust me, then why the fuck am I on your lap?” she snapped, now glaring at me.
I just closed my eyes, resting my head back. It had already been a long day; there was no point in getting into a battle I would undoubtedly lose.
“You’re starting to learn, Boss.”
I heard her snicker gently. Ignoring her, I tried to relax, breathing in the smell of fresh vanilla that came off her. Did she bake something again? My mind wandered, and I thought only a few minutes had gone by when I felt her move to leave. But from how heavy my eyes now felt, plus the now half-eaten food she had initially brought for me, I knew I had slipped off.
“How long was I asleep?”
“Not long, just a little over an hour.” She cracked her neck to the left and right. “I highlighted and drafted routes that would most likely be the safest during the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours with the manhunt still going on. We’re only going to be able to get out about 25-30%, though.”
“Sit,” I said, holding her waist.
“I know I am your best friend and all, but I am not a dog, Ethan.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. “Calliope, will you please sit back down?”
“I need to go check on—”
I pulled her back into my lap, feeling better with her against me again.
“I’m sitting. What can I help you with now, Boss?”
“Aren’t you the worker bee,” I muttered tiredly. “Talk to me.”
“You do not like long conversations,”
“90% of the time, I do not.”
“The other 10%?”
“Exceptions I make for you and Giovanna.”
“What am I going to talk about? Don’t you want to be out there making drug deals and risking it all against the cops?”
“That is a bit under my pay grade.”
“Spoiled,” she grumbled. “All of you.”
I smiled. “I need at least one flaw, right?”
“You think that’s your only one?”
Amused, I nodded. “Isn’t it?”
She wrapped her arms around my neck before kissing my lips quickly. “You wish. We’ll talk tonight. Go spend time with our daughter. You promised her, and she will gladly talk your ear off.”
Before I could kiss her back, she was up from my lap and out of my arms. “Don’t overwork yourself, Calliope. You are a Callahan now; you can be spoiled, too.”
“The Grim Reaper never sleeps, Boss.” She winked before exiting the room.
After she left, I found myself still looking at the door for a second longer before I pulled my attention back to the maps and notes she had left out on top of the desk. It took only a few minutes for me to see what it was she had planned. Like always, it was magnificent but not flawless. Nevertheless, it made my heart beat faster and my mind cloud over.
I made it a point of habit in my life to see the big picture, to not be blindsided by anything or anyone. I never wanted to fall blindly in love. I thought I had been doing very well, up until the day I met her. From then on out, I realized it didn’t matter if I was blinded or could see clearly; in the end, I was still at her mercy.
CALLIOPE
I wanted to stay and talk to him.
Sitting in his lap and working in silence with no one questioning me or watching over me allowed me to relax for the first time today. I wanted to go with him and Gigi; but, I thought my grandfather was waiting for me. I must have thought wrong because when I arrived at my grandfather’s room, it was empty. There was no indication he had even been here, to begin with, and that was a bad sign. The fact that he had left without telling me was an even worse sign. As if he knew I was looking for him, my phone buzzed with a single message from him.
“Alea iacta est.” Latin: “The die is cast.”
That’s why he left.
He was now sure that I was, without a doubt, completely and utterly in the heart of the Callahan family. I now had all the power and access to everything. Before I could reply, he sent another message which read in Latin. “Love is rich with honey and venom.”
I replied with his motto of our family and organization. “We gladly feast on those who would subdue us.”
It took only a second before hi
s response came in, and even before I saw it, I knew what he wanted.
“So, give me deeds, not words, for it is impossible for a deed to be undone.”
Because I refused to kill Ethan when he had asked, he would surely ask for something else, something to make sure I still understood my mission. My throat was dry and my body cold as I sent him the code and coordinates to the Callahan stashes. It took more than a few different phrases to explain what Ethan’s plan—my plan as I had just seen the maps—would be. Losing this much at one time, with the city in such chaos, would be like cutting off Ethan’s legs as he ran.
Yet even still, my grandfather’s reply was, “Aquila non capit muscas.” “The eagle does not catch flies.”
His meaning—even this, billions of dollars stolen from this family all but overnight, would not be enough. Nothing short of blood would be enough.
I always knew I was going to have to kill the people I loved. I had waited all my life for this, but I also came to dread this moment. Turning off my phone, I moved to leave but caught my reflection in the mirror. My gray eyes now stared back at me. I saw it….my own desire for more time, even though more time would not change anything.
Hesitation was weakness.
If this were the old me, the me before Ethan, before Gigi, I would have long since pulled the trigger. “You grew a heart, and it has made you weak, Calliope,” I whispered.
Gripping the doorknob for a moment longer, I had to take a breath and put the mask back in place before stepping into the hall.
For a little bit longer, I just wanted to have everything. And yet in the back of my mind, I heard my grandmother’s voice saying gently, “Qui totum vult totum perdit.” He who wants everything loses everything.
“Papa!” Her voice was so loud that even though I was two floors up and behind glass windows, I could still hear her.
Moving to the window overlooking the courtyard, I could see it was nearly pitch-black outside, the only lights now coming from the patio and outdoor pool. In the water, Gigi’s brown hair floating all around her, and standing poolside, looking very concerned, was Evelyn. I had asked her to watch Gigi while I went to Ethan, and somehow, that little girl had convinced her to let her go swimming in the pool outside—it was winter. There was an indoor pool she could have gone to, wasn’t there?
That water better be heated, I thought as I watched Ethan come into view.
Gigi swam to him, and he knelt at the side of the pool, speaking to her. I disliked not hearing what they were saying, so much so that I had already started to move to go out to them, only to bump into something.
“You most definitely can’t be an assassin if I can sneak up on you,” Wyatt said as I met his green gaze. His eyes weren’t as sharp as Ethan’s. They had a hint of brown in them, while Ethan’s were pure emerald.
I forced a smile and nodded. “I told you I wasn’t, but you all seemed so sure of yourselves.”
“Papa!” Gigi’s voice captured my attention again.
When I looked out, I saw that instead of bringing her inside, Ethan had joined her in the water. He was still dressed in his button-down shirt and trousers, both of which now clung to him. Gigi splashed water back at him only for him to return a wave toward her. Her whole face exploded in laughter as she tried to swim away. He ducked beneath the water, swimming right under her feet to tickle her. I couldn’t help but smile.
“I’ve never seen him so happy,” Wyatt said beside me as he watched, too. “I thought I had, but apparently, I was wrong. Because this Ethan…he’s new to me. It makes me wonder how different everything could have been if you hadn’t kept her away from him for so long.”
“You are free to keep wondering,” I muttered, annoyed that I was up here with him and not down there with them.
But I didn’t leave because I wanted to know why Wyatt was on this side of the house. This wing of the house was for guests; nothing of real importance was kept here. Which meant he had no good reason to be here.
“I will,” he said, turning to look over to me again, and I turned as well. “I will keep wondering and keep digging until all my questions are answered.”
“Your questions were answered, Wyatt. You just don’t like the answers.”
His jaw clenched. “Because the answers don’t make sense. Did you really think I, or anyone else, would just take you at your word?”
“Yes.” I nodded.
He glared into my eyes. “Then that would make you an idiot, but that cannot be possible because Ethan hates idiots. So that means you are a liar. A good one. But a liar, all the same.”
I dropped the smile, tilting my head to the side as my eyes narrowed on him. “What do you want, Wyatt?”
“The truth.”
“Ethan and I gave that to you earlier. Do we have to keep having the same arguments? Do you really want to see him throw another plate at someone’s head?” I questioned. “Why is this hard for you to accept? You should know your brother and trust him, at least.”
“I do trust my brother.”
I laughed, shaking my head. “No, you don’t, or you wouldn’t be hounding me like this.”
“I trust my brother. I just love him more, which means I nag and hound until this feeling I have goes away,” he replied.
“And what feeling is that?”
“Danger.” He frowned, looking me over again. “Something about you is off. I feel it. I don’t know why Ethan doesn’t, or maybe for the sake of your daughter, he is letting it go. That’s his business. Mine is to protect my brother.”
“Finally.”
“Yeah, right, finally. What you said this morning is still in my head. You were right. I’ve failed to live up to what he needed. He’s had to shoulder everything alone. That is my fault. I can’t change that. But I am back home now. And no matter what he threatens, no matter what he throws or shoots, I will have his back even if he doesn’t want me to,” he replied, stepping closer to me. “I will put a bullet in you in the exact same place as Ivy if you dare hurt him.”
I stepped back, looking at the fool that had just openly threatened me. “What Ethan told you really did go in one ear and out the other. Is this how you show respect?”
“Are you going to run to tell him I threatened you?” he shot back.
I shook my head, walking around him, but not before petting his shoulder. “Keep up the good work, guard dog.”
I only took two steps from him when he spoke out again, “Normally, a woman would usually say ‘I won’t hurt your brother, I promise,’ to such a threat. Or, at the very least, try to come up with a reason to say my feelings are unwarranted. Why don’t you?”
“Because nothing about me can fit into normal. Even if I did that, you’ve already deemed me a liar, so why waste any more of my time,” I replied as I walked farther down the hall.
“You don’t give me much confidence, Calliope.”
“That’s not my job, Wyatt!” I called out, waving back at him as I turned to the stairs. Walking down, my jaw clenched.
Apparently, Wyatt was a good guard dog…just what I did not need.
13
“Everyone has a part of themselves they hide. Even from the people they love most.”
~ May Parker
CALLIOPE
When I woke up that morning, Ethan was already gone.
And I felt a pit in my stomach.
“Mommy, I want a bow here.” Gigi pointed to the top left side of her head as I worked on her hair.
“Pick the one you want,” I said, nodding to the box in front her, letting go of her hair so she could lean over and get it when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” I called, picking up her hair when she leaned back, lifting the green bow for me to use.
“Good morning, ma’am, little miss,” O’Phelan stated as he walked into the room.
“Mornin’,” Gigi giggled, waving to him.
“Have you seen Ethan this morning?” I asked him casually as I tucked one of her
hairs behind her ear.
“No, ma’am. I needed one of your signatures,” he said, surprised Ethan wasn’t here in the room also, and that was all I needed to know.
“Give me it,” I said, outstretching my hand.
He lifted the tablet for me.
I read over it quickly before signing and return it to him. “And the chef?”
“He’s working on the things you requested for breakfast this morning.”
Nodding, I looked at my ringing phone, and the name ‘Big Tillio’ appeared on the screen. Leaning over, I kissed Gigi’s cheek. “Gigi, go with Mr. O’Phelan, and see if the chef did a good job.”
“Okay.” She hopped down, excited, rushing to O’Phelan’s side and lifted her small hand up to him. O’Phelan glanced at her for a moment, startled like she was a little alien. However, he sucked it up and took her hand.
“We will be in the kitchen,” he said to me.
I nodded, lifting my phone. It was only when they left that I hit redial.
“Calli, girl, sorry I got to call you back so early like this!” His loud, thunderous voice boomed over the phone. Big Tillio had two settings—loud and louder.
“I’ve never been sorry to hear from you before. Why start now?” I lied.
“This is why I like you, Calli girl. You always know how to make a person feel at ease.”
I could feel all the emotion leave my face as I stepped away from the living room. “And why would you not be at ease? We spoke just last night, and you sounded perfectly fine.”
“Yeah, about that…I can’t give you TNT, Calli.”