Vicious Minds

by J. J. McAvoy

  “I love you so much, cuore mio.” I kissed her cheek.

  Thank you for helping mommy and daddy today.

  Chapter 21

  “Vice is like a fury

  to the vicious mind,

  and turns delight itself

  to punishment.”

  * * *

  ~Ben Jonson

  LIAM

  She got up from the chair and glanced out the window as if she could see him from a distance. As if he would see her silent rage and correct himself like he did when he was child. Getting up, I walked over and stood beside her, staring out at the city in front of us hanging underneath the moon.

  “It’s all right, but it’s no Chicago,” I whispered.

  “And the people far too nice,” she added, her arms crossed under her breasts.

  At that I snickered. “They’re Canadians. Being nice is their trademark.”

  She rolled her brown eyes before glancing to me, her expression softening a bit. Each time I noticed that, I wanted to bloody applaud myself for somehow surviving her. I reached up and placed my hand on her cheek. “Don’t worry, nobody will ever believe you were old enough to be a grandmother.”

  Her eyes widened at that and she shook me off, turning back and entering our suite again. She glared at the television screen and shook her head. “I know my son, Liam, there is no way in hell he would make this sort of mistake.”

  “Why?” I leaned against the wall.

  “What do you mean why? It’s Ethan!”

  “And so?” I pressed, and she clutched the remote, cocking her head to the side, visually annoyed with my response. “It’s Ethan, your son, our son, a human fucking being, who as you may remember has made a series of mistakes, one of which nearly got our other fucking son killed.”

  “You’re blaming that on him—”

  “Who else am I supposed to be blaming it on?” I snapped, pushing off the wall. “He left his brother, he left the family!”

  “So did Wyatt—”

  “Wyatt is not the Ceann Na Conairte!”

  “He lost his wife!”

  “Another stupid fucking mistake!” I yelled back. “The daughter of Shay ‘The Fool’ O'Davoren? Who also happened to be an incompetent fool. It must run in their family and still he chose that woman! It’s like we taught him nothing! Both him and Wyatt. We should have left everything to Dona instead of throwing her to the pathetic little prince!”

  “Oh, really? Are you going to kill your sons to make it happen? Because I doubt Ethan would have let her live—”

  “Ethan is weak! If anyone would have let anyone live, it would have been Dona!”

  “Do you hear yourself? We are talking about our children’s lives!”

  “Do you hear yourself? The almighty Bloody Melody using her heart to make decisions—”

  BANG!

  “FUCKING SHIT MEL!” I hollered, grabbing on to the tip of my ear which was now bleeding. The remote was gone from her hands, and in its place her motherfucking gun. Her nose flared out like a dragon ready to burn down the village. She held the gun up. “How many times do I have to tell you to use your goddamn words, woman!”

  “I was using my words, but it didn’t seem like we were getting anywhere—”

  “More like you couldn’t defend your fucking position.” I grabbed one of the napkins, as well as ice from the wine bucket on the damn table to hold to my ear. “I am too fucking old, and I have been married too fucking long to be dodging your motherfucking bullets. Shoot at me again—”

  “I still have the gun in my hands, Liam.”

  “And?” I snapped, looking back at her. “Is that supposed to be a threat? What are you going to do, shoot me again? Go ahead love, you just keep making more work for yourself while I recover.”

  Her eyes narrowed, and she exhaled saying nothing and placing the gun on the side table.

  “This has escalated—”

  “You think?” I snapped again before laying down on the couch. She came over sitting on the edge of the seat and reached up to the napkin from me, holding it herself.

  “It’s a flesh wound, you old wimp.”

  “It’s a wound and it’s unnecessary, especially seeing as you know I am old, you should be more delicate—ahh...” I clenched my teeth as she pressed hard into my ear.

  I smacked her ass and she snickered. “Sorry love, was that not delicate enough?”

  “No, not at all, but I’ll let it go since you’re at least not glaring anymore.” I grinned when her eyes met mine. She slowly relaxed and I went on. “I know you love them. I love them too, I want to protect them too, I will help you protect them, but we cannot deny the fact that Ethan is not living up to what we have expected of him…and that might not be all his fault. Maybe we didn’t train him well enough. Maybe we left too soon. Maybe he only pretended to be strong in front of us—”

  “No.” She shot up quickly, turning back to the screen, dropping the ice and napkin on my chest. Thanks, love. She got closer, taking the remote with her and rewinding. She watched him and this new woman fight in the wine cellar. She paused and went back again and again.

  “Are you going to tell me what the no is for?” I asked, picking up napkin and sitting up straight. She turned back to me and smiled, truly smiled. I was a bit worried but couldn’t help but smile back. “What?”

  “What if he hasn’t been pretending to be strong, but has been pretending to be weak?” She said seriously, and I wasn’t sure what expression I was making but she seemed to know what I thought of that.

  “Ethan? Pretend to be weak? Mel, love, the one thing I can say about Ethan is that more than anything, he loves strength and power—”

  “Then why Ivy?” she asked, hands outstretched.

  “He knew her as child—”

  “He knew this one too, this Calliope. They met as kids too.”

  I frowned trying to remember. “When?”

  “Wyatt and Dona’s 7th birthday party. Remember the girl who I asked what we should do for the next party?” She stared down at me.

  I thought back and nodded. “Oh right. You said then she was just a silly girl—”

  “She was.” She went back to the brown-haired woman on the screen. “She told me she was going to marry into our family and become Mrs. Callahan.”

  “She did?”

  She nodded slowly. “I thought she was silly because almost all children and the things they want are a bit silly. However, I remember her because she had this look in her eyes. It was one of pure determination. A few days after their birthday, she left for boarding school in Italy.”

  She kept tabs on her?

  “You rarely care about other people’s kids—”

  “I never care about other people’s kids,” she said quickly and grimaced as if she could not believe I would dare think her circle of love could be bigger than our family.

  I leaned back into the cushions and rubbed my temple. “Okay, love, explain. Make me understand how all of this relates. How does her wanting to be Mrs. Callahan equal Ethan pretending to be weak? Like I said, Ethan loves strength and power—”

  “So wouldn’t he love a woman who builds her own strength and power to have him?” she asked.

  “The opposite of Ivy.” She sighed and shot me look. “What? Calliope, with how quickly she wiped the floor with our pitiful family, is strong. We can see this. But we cannot forget his track record when it came to women before her. First Klarissa, then Ivy, both the complete opposite of her—”

  “Didn’t you sleep with women you knew you’d never marry? They were the opposite of what you would have wanted—”

  She really knew how to dig up the past. Fine. “No, I slept with any pretty face with a nice body because I was worried I’d be marrying an Italian cow—”

  She moved for the gun, but I dashed towards it, putting my hand on top. She glared at me and I flashed a smile at her. “Just trying to help, love.”

  “Are you?” she snapped, pulling he
r hand away. “Just shut up and listen to me, I need to figure this out…”

  “The simplest answer…” She bared her teeth at me and I lifted my hands and sat back, but not before taking the gun with me.

  “Klarissa Moretti, she came from an Italian family, but her father was trying to appeal to the other Italian families for years…”

  “Should have killed him years ago…” I muttered to myself and she again faced me. “Right sorry—”

  “No, you’re right.” She pointed to me.

  Say what now? “Excuse me, can you repeat that?” I laughed.

  She ignored me, pacing slowly in front of the television. “If it was me, if it was us and Moretti pulled any of the shit he’s pulled over the last few years, we would have had him limbless in the streets. But Ethan didn’t. Instead he dated his daughter. Why?”

  I opened my mouth to speak but said nothing. Washing my hands in the ice bucket, I picked up the plate of grapes, kicking back and watching her think.

  “Ethan would know that dating his daughter would give Moretti more clout, but he did it anyway. He was never serious about marrying her or he would have done it. However, killing her outright her would just provoke Moretti so why not just kill them and save yourself the stress? She wouldn’t have that much information; her father would have kept her in the dark purposely just in case Ethan was using her for intel. So again, there was no point…” She looked to me as I slid the grape between my lips. “Unless he didn’t want people to blame him for the death of the Morettis….at first. But if Ivy did it, that’s still the same…”

  “Well,” I spit the seed out on the tray before adding, “he used and threw away Klarissa, embarrassing her. Then after that embarrassment, he kills her. Her father is enraged. I’m sure his old Italian heart broke for his little girl…ha…sorry. You’d think as father of a daughter I’d feel for him, but I’m sure it made it all the easier for Donatella to find out how he was betraying us with Tobias.”

  I paused, my eyebrows coming together as I looked to her and she gave me the same look.

  The son of bitch…fuck, I can’t say that…the bitch is also my wife. Fuck how do I curse that boy?

  “He did it for Donatella.” She finished my thought.

  I nodded, tossing the grapes back on the table. “Could Ethan make mistakes? Yes. But Ethan being slower than Dona on business? No bloody way in hell. If Donatella could find out Tobias was betraying us with Moretti…”

  “Ethan already knew.”

  “And the only reason he didn’t end them both is because of…”

  “His love for his little sister.” She snickered. “He let Moretti grow strong, used his daughter, allowing him to relax and think he was going to get a hold on our family. When Klarissa is murdered—”

  “He loses his shit and wants revenge. His betrayal becomes clear to everyone, and so does Tobias’.”

  “And just when all of this happens, he’s out of town and leaves his little sister to take of it…and Tobias, so he doesn’t have be the one who killed her lov….” Her voice trailed off when I gave her a look. I didn’t want to hear that shit. She smirked, knowing it too.

  “He let Moretti get bigger to expose Tobias so that Donatella would do it herself,” she said to me. “And we knew one of the reasons he chose Ivy was so he could use her to bring Wyatt home.”

  “One lover to take down each sibling?”

  “Oh, you don’t have an issue calling them lovers when it is for your son?”

  “Do you want to have this fight? Because I’ll have it, and that can take up the rest of our night.”

  Amused with herself, she moved to sit back with me, picking up her tablet and typing.

  “Well?” I asked.

  “What are the odds that he’d lose his wife so soon after he used her to bring his brother back home?” she questioned.

  “Slim.”

  “And what are the odds that poor wife never got a church wedding in front of everyone, or even added to our family registry?”

  “Slimmer,” I answered as she pointed up to television to show me our family registry. We were both listed as dead, and Ethan was still listed as single.

  “They weren’t legally married.” I didn’t know how to feel about this. I just looked at her. “And no one checked?”

  “Why would they check? They were all at the sham ceremony. They saw him sign whatever documents right there. Why would they think he didn’t file them?” she asked, the corner of her mouth twitching.

  “You’re happy about this—”

  “Should I be upset?”

  “What are the odds that a bomb goes off in our church, which gives them a reason not to marry there, and a cover for this sham wedding?” I snapped, and it was only then did she realize. “Our son nearly burned my goddamn mother alive! As well as the rest of our family.”

  “They lived, didn’t they?” She shrugged and tried to hold back a laugh.

  “There is a line, Melody.” I grumbled, getting up.

  MELODY

  He was flaming.

  He was conflicted.

  I didn’t blame him. On one side was his first born, on the other side was his mother. Liam loved Evelyn, to hurt her is to die, and yet he’d never hurt Ethan. If he did I’d kill him. Not without great pain and regret but I kill him nonetheless.

  I picked up the grapes and watched as he stood like stone, his fist clenched. Finally, as I was mid-chew, he turned to me and asked “What is the point of this?”

  “His siblings—”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Ethan…we cannot believe he would go through so much for his siblings and then hurt his grandmother. Ethan loves my mother, he loves her at the very least the same as he loves his siblings, but I know it’s more. She is the one person he listens to and talks too. He would not drop a church on her head for anyone.”

  He was right. I hated to admit it, and I’d never in my life say it aloud, but Evelyn was in many ways both a grandmother and mother figure to him.

  “Okay. What is more precious to him than his siblings and his grandmother—”

  “You.” He said without thinking about it.

  I froze.

  His green eyes were on mine as he thought about what he just said. He cracked his head to the side. “The most precious thing to Ethan was you.”

  “Was?” My eyebrow rose at that.

  “His child might have you beat,” he frowned even though his comment was meant to be humorous. “After your death, Ethan closed up. He was cold and hard, and I thought he was doing that to put on a brave face. But what if Ethan knew you were alive?”

  “Well after going to Wyatt in the hospital, he knows now. But before then how? We’ve been careful, beyond careful. How could he have known?”

  He shook his head. “But what if your previous point was right, what if he was pretending to be weak, allowing his enemies to grow, taking the hard road, what if all of this has just been a plan so he could draw you out.”

  I swallowed the grape in my mouth trying to ignore the tightness I felt in my chest. “If that was his plan he’s failed twice now. Once in Boston when he was hurt, and in Chicago when we saw Wyatt...”

  “Both times he was distracted. First he was nearly dying, then he thought his brother was gone,” he reminded me, and I still couldn’t wrap around my head it.

  “Fine. Let’s say Ethan did all of this to bring his siblings back home, and to bring us, I’m not sure why you are pretending as if he is only attached to me, he’s always wanted to live up to you…nevertheless, let’s say he did this all to catch us. What next? And how does this Calliope come into play?”

  Again, he shrugged. “Maybe the simplest answer is he made one mistake, instead of several mistakes, or maybe she trapped him as part of her plan to become Mrs. Callahan?”

  “That doesn’t sound like our son,” I said, getting up and standing in front of the screen beside him. “But I can’t make sense of her or see how she fits in yet. All
I know is I do not trust the Orsini family.”

  He turned to me, frowning “They were loyal to your family—”

  “They were loyal to the Giovanni family. My name is Melody Callahan. My son’s name is Callahan, and you better than anyone else must know how badly they hate the Callahan family. Your father brutally murdered Fiorello’s sons, two of them, and the Giovanni family, the family they were loyal to, ignored their rage and married their enemies. The Giovanni family betrayed them. Why would they be loyal?”

  “So, she’s using him?” He questioned seriously now, and I knew the that look in his eyes. We’d been here many times.

  “Maybe or they are both using each other.” I looking between the both of them on the screen.

  “They have child together,” His voice was gravelly. “You think Ethan would use her to this degree and then just kill the mother of his child? Leave her without her mother?”

  “He learned from us, didn’t he?” Didn’t I leave him when he was young? Maybe history isn’t linear, but circular. We are doomed to repeat it.

  “There is a line, Melody. If all of this is true, if he’s using anything, even family, to get what he wants then…”

  “He’s ruthless and upset and no one is safe.”

  Not even us.

  And maybe this was why, deep down, I always knew I had to focus on Donatella and Wyatt more, why I just knew I had to protect them. Why I made sure Donatella had her own place to grow and command. Why I made sure Wyatt knew he had my love and wanted him to focus more on having fun, watching out for his brother, then actually ruling…it was all because deep down, I knew out of the seven capital vices, the seven deadly sins, Ethan embodied six of them; pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath. They spun in Ethan like a wheel and were the reason he moved forward. That wheel cannot be stopped unless something of an equal or greater force stops it. Had Donatella or Wyatt tried, they would have been crushed underneath him.

  So now his wheel was at wrath and his fury was directed at me…at us for leaving him, and instead of being happy we were alive, he wanted to punish us for living.