A Bloody Kingdom

by J. J. McAvoy

“Governor. Just call me governor!”

  LIAM

  When she left, both Neal and Declan cringed at the prospect of what would only be one hell of a fight tonight. I was partially excited, but then I remembered the look in her eye as Ethan spoke.

  Grabbing him by the bow tie, I crouched down right in front of him.

  “Dad?”

  “Hold your ears,” I said seriously and I waited. Frowning he did what I asked. “To everyone you meet, I am the boss, the Ceann na Conairte, Don. There is only one person alive who is the exception to this and it is your mother. The reason being is that she is the boss, the Ceann na Conairte, Don. Everything I am, she is. Saying anything less than that is an insult. Are we clear?”

  I could see he looked hurt and confused, but nodded. His head dropped down. I stood back up and put my hand on his head, rubbing the back of it when he dropped his hands.

  “Ethan, will you walk with me and wait for your mom?” Mina asked with a smile. He nodded and stepped over to her left, and as always Neal stepped up just a little bit in front of her like he was going to guard her with his body. He’d been doing it for so long that I don’t even think he realized it.

  “If only Mel was around to hear that little speech,” Declan said beside me.

  “Not even that would help me. She needs to get a few hits in at me first.” Once Ethan had said it, there was no going back. Plus, on top of taking him on the “job”…tonight was not going to go at all as planned. I could feel it. God fucking damn it.

  “Look on the bright side,” he said when we got on the elevator.

  “What’s on the bright side but sunburn?”

  He snickered and leaned against the paneling. “After all these years, she running out of places to not lethally shoot you.”

  Neal laughed out loud causing Mina to elbow him in the ribs, but it didn’t stop him.

  “Fuck you both,” I muttered under my breath. The doors opened again and we were in the cream and gold hotel lobby. Across from us, another pair of elevators opened and even though I knew she was pissed off at me, I couldn’t stop the small smirk from forming on my lips as she stepped out—an army of black suits behind her.

  She was so stunning; no one could look away from her, their eyes filled with lust, jealousy, respect, and fear. She walked into a room and commanded all of with one glance. Her place was at my side, but instead of coming to me, she walked over and placed her arms on the shoulders of our son, not even sparing me a glance.

  “Looks like we’re going to fight tonight,” I muttered to myself, my jaw tensing up. The two clowns beside me grinned.

  “So—”

  “Don’t make me hurt you,” I said to Declan. Strolling right up to her side, I wrapped my arm around her waist.

  Her brown eyes focused on me, eyebrow raised. We’d been married for so long I could tell what she was thinking “You’re really going to touch me when you know I’m pissed off at you?”

  I smiled and winked at her. Her nose flared because she knew what I meant. “Yes, I know what I’m doing. Get over it, sweetheart.”

  “You’re not tired?” She ignored me and focused on Ethan as we walked to the car.

  “Nope.” He yawned and leaned in closer to her.

  “Okay, big kid,” I replied.

  “I’m really not tired.”

  “I believe you,” she said, shivering at the instant change in temperature. It was only March and yet it felt like November tonight.

  “Boss,” Fedel nodded to her and opened the door for us. Ethan stepped in first, followed by Mel and then me.

  The moment the doors closed, Ethan rested his head on her side.

  “I’m not tired,” he muttered softly.

  “I believe you,” she said softly, again kissing his forehead as his eyes closed. “Mio bel leoncino Significhi tutto per me.”

  “And his father?” I asked her. “If he means everything to you, what happens to me?”

  “Are you jealous of your son?” she asked, not bothering to look at me, her eyes only on him.

  “Yes.”

  Her head snapped to me like she wasn’t expecting me to admit it. Reaching up, I brushed her hair behind her ear, leaning in closer to whisper, “I love seeing you as a mother, you are stunning. But Sei il grande amore della mia vita. Il mio cuore è solo tuo Senza di te la vita non ha più senso. (You are the love of my life. My heart is yours. Without you, life has no meaning.) So never look away from me for too long.”

  I kissed her cheek. She glared at me, but said nothing and leaned back in the seat.

  I closed my eyes and tried to relax, but only seconds later the car came to a stop and we were at the gates of the mansion.

  Over the years, we had expanded it to make room for the newest members of our family. Rule Five: One family. One Roof. Yes, even though we basically lived in a palace now, it still felt crowded some days.

  “I got him,” I told her. I got out of the car and came around to the other side to lift him out of the seat.

  His arms snaked around my neck. I can’t believe how big he is getting.

  “Good evening, Sir, Ma’am,” our butler said to us when we stepped inside. “Madam Coraline has already put Wyatt and Donatella to bed, but they wanted to wait up for you.”

  “I’ll go to them now,” Melody said and kissed Ethan’s cheek before walking up the steps.

  “O’Phelan, anything worth noting happen in our absence?” I questioned.

  “No, Sir. Between your mother and Madam Coraline, it was a casual evening. They baked cupcakes, spent some time outside before watching a movie in the theater with popcorn. Most of them fell asleep after that.”

  “Good work. That’s all for the night.”

  “Of course, Sir. Goodnight.”

  Ethan’s room was only two doors down from ours, in the west wing, with a door that connected to his sibling’s room. It was massive, as per Melody’s orders, the floor covered in soft cream carpets, cherry wood paneling on the walls, and the best view of the backyard with the Chicago skyline in the distance. His bed was much bigger than it needed to be and when I laid him down, he rolled into the middle. I pulled off his tie and shoes and he stirred as I sat him up and took off his jacket and pants.

  “Ethan, you need to change,” I told him when his eyes cracked open.

  He made a face before lifting up the comforter and crawling underneath in only his boxer briefs. He fell right back asleep.

  “Because of you, my night is ruined and yet you sleep like a baby,” I muttered as I kissed his head. “Sleep well.”

  Moving to the door that connected to Wyatt and Donatella’s room, I turned off the light to his room, leaving the door only partially closed.

  “Daddy?”

  Donatella sat up rubbing her eyes.

  “Shh,” I whispered and walked over to her pink bed. Her brown hair was a complete mess around her sweet face. “What are you doing up, princess?”

  She didn’t answer, she just wrapped her tiny hands around me when I was close enough. Closing my eyes for a second, I hugged her back and patted her hair down.

  “Come on, bed,” I whispered to her. “Beautiful girls need sleep to stay beautiful.”

  “Love ya much,” she said with a yawn.

  “Love ya more,” I said and kissed the space between her eyebrows. “Sleep well.”

  I moved over to Wyatt, who was snoring softly and kicking off his blanket when he shifted over. Of all of my kids, he was always the most expressive when he slept, making faces. He even talked in his sleep sometimes. If Dona ever heard him, she would tease him the next day. He hated when she did, but he never asked for his own room and neither did she.

  “Sleep well,” I said to him and kissed the top of his head.

  When I opened the door that connected to our bedroom, I prepared myself, locking the door to their side. Our rooms were all beyond sound proof, we’d never hear them if we didn’t open the door.

  “Zipper,” Mel said and turne
d her back to me. She seemed relatively calm…

  Is this good or bad? Was she over it? Or did she not want to ruin her dress? I couldn’t help but wonder as I pulled the zipper down exposing her beautiful olive skinned back.

  She allowed it to fall to the ground and stepped out of it, revealing a black lacy bra and…that’s it.

  Fuck me.

  My eyes traveled the length of her body. Over the years, I had watched it change, She was as fit as ever and had gotten most of the stretch marks on her body removed except for a few on the left side of her stomach. She said it because giving me my children was one battle she wanted to have scars from.

  “What’s wrong with you?” She paused in the center of our room as she took her earrings off. My eyebrow rose at that.

  No guns? No cursing? Not even a glare? Everything was wrong.

  “Nothing,” I replied and pulled off my tie. When she went into her closet, I moved over to her side table and quickly took the bullets out of her gun. Then I moved to the one under her pillow, and the one strapped to the headboard and the one behind the dresser, and the one under the bed.

  “Tomorrow, are you going to be with us for the food drive after church?” she called from the bathroom.

  Throwing the pistol back under the bed I stood up straighter. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I?”

  No answer. What was she doing in there?

  Goddamn it. This was more stressful than her actually being straight and fighting me.

  Fuck it. Kicking off my shoes, I moved to my closet. I stripped down and changed into a pair of black pajama bottoms, running my hand through my hair as I joined her in the bathroom.

  Her eyes met mine in the bathroom mirror, a toothbrush in her hand and a silk robe now covering her.

  “No guns tonight?” I asked her as I grabbed the toothpaste.

  Rising her mouth out, she shook her head. “We have a busy day tomorrow and my husband can’t show up with a black eye. Besides, I think you know how pissed I am. That’s good enough.”

  “Look at you being all mature,” I smirked as I brushed my teeth.

  “Don’t push me!” she snapped and stomped out.

  Leaning back, I watched her ass as she left. “What about our other plans for the night?”

  “I put lotion by your sink…have fun.”

  I looked down and sure enough, there it was with a box of tissues.

  After I rinsed my mouth out with her mouthwash, I followed her. When I stepped back into the room and she was already in bed.

  “Mel, we don’t go to bed angry with each other,” I reminded her as I moved over to my side of the bed.

  She didn’t reply.

  “Fine. I’ll wait,” I said. I fluffed the pillow behind me and sat up against the headboard.

  Again, she said nothing and turned off the lights. Now the only source of light was the grayish-blue moonlight streaming in from the window.

  This was ridiculous. “I took him today because he was ready. He wasn’t in danger, nor would I—”

  I froze when I felt the heat in my neck. Reaching up, I touched my skin as a drop of sweat rolled down my face.

  She didn’t.

  “Ahh…” I hissed at the burning. When I looked at her, she was staring right at me, resting her head on her hand with evil smile playing on her lips.

  “You should know better than to cross me by now, sweetheart.”

  “You…fuck…in…bitch…Ahh.”

  THREE

  “There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy. Or more exasperated. Or more…secure.”

  ~ Jim Butcher

  DECLAN

  “You did what?”

  She turned back to me as she casually said, “Melody asked me to poison Liam’s mouthwash before you all came home. What did he do?”

  My mouth dropped open and for some reason, my mind could not process this. Wait. “You help Melody poison my brother and ask what he did wrong?”

  “You and I both know Melody loves Liam more than she loves anything in this world. She’s torturing him a little bit…because again he must have fucked up. So what did he do?” She came over to me and pushed me onto the edge of the bed as she pulled off my tie. I held onto her waist.

  She was right. But still. “She’s never been the poisoning type. I expected her to take a bat to his ribs or something.”

  “Yes, because that’s more civil.” She giggled as she unbuttoned my shirt. I loved it when she giggled; her nosed bunched up and her brown eyes sparkled. Pulling her closer to me, I rolled us both over onto the bed.

  “I missed you tonight. Everyone had their wives beside them and meanwhile, I was surrounded by bitch ass cops and Ethan, who is so much like Liam, it’s kind of scary,” I said and she reached up to brush my hair.

  “Someone has to hold the fort down. And besides, you survived, it didn’t you?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re supposed to say you missed me too, Cora.”

  “Am I? Honestly, I was so busy with everyone I—”

  Grabbing her wrist, I rolled on top of her and pinned her hands down. Her dark brown hair fell in waves cropped at her shoulders. Gravity pushed her breasts up higher, and I kissed the top of them both.

  “Declan—”

  “Say you missed me,” I said above her.

  “Make me, baby.”

  “Gladly—” We both paused when we heard the baby monitor go off. “Damn it.”

  Sighing, I got off of her, helped her up and she kissed my lips softly. “I’ll be right back.”

  She moved around me and towards Darcy’s nursery. He was only two years old and yet he was an expert at cock-blocking me. Taking out the cotton pajama bottoms she’d brought me, I changed and put my phone and wallet on the nightstand before following her into the nursery. Darcy was wide-awake. The grin on his face and the way his hazel greens were staring at his mother were contagious. Moving to them, I reached out for him and he stared at me before trying to grab my nose, as he always did.

  I kissed his light brown fingertips, “You and I are going to have to work on your timing. Daddy was about to—Ahh.” Cora punched my side. “He can’t understand me.”

  “You don’t know that.” She crossed her arms. “For all we know, Ethan is so much like Liam because you all kept talking about your work in front of him as a baby.”

  “He’s like Liam because he’s like Liam. He could have been born deaf and still been the same way. He went on the job with Liam today—”

  “He what? Does Melody know?”

  “She does now.”

  “That explains the poison,” she muttered, running her hands through Darcy’s thick curly hair. When he was first born, his hair looked almost blonde, even his skin was very light, but with each passing day, he got just a little more color to him. He was just as gorgeous as his mother and had her smile, too. Helen, our daughter, even though she was adopted, took after me. She was always breaking things and tearing them apart just to see how they worked.

  “I heard Helen took apart your laptop?” I asked softly, trying not to smile.

  She sighed as if she couldn’t even find the words to say.

  “Baby, you look exhausted, go lie down. I got him.”

  “But—”

  “Father-son bonding time. Darcy, say night-night to mommy.” I held him with one arm and pushed her towards the door with the other

  “I’m going. I’m going.” She laughed, kissing us both before leaving. When I sat down on the rocking chair with him on my chest, I couldn’t help but shake my head…what had happened to all of us?

  The big bad Callahans, all at the mercy of their children. It was madness…

  “Excuse you,” I said he when burped

  …It was perfection.

  However, I was nervous…the longer our peace lasted, the harder it would be if something happened and something was always happening with this family.

  NEAL

  I was married to the most beautiful wo
rkaholic in the world.

  After peeking in on our kids, she all but ran back to our room and plopped down on the couch, her dress puffing up around her. She typed away on her laptop, with three different smartphones beside her. Over the years, I noticed she had a few habits. The first was her pink lips; whenever was excited or nervous, but trying to calm herself down, she would bite down on the corner of them. The second was her black hair, which she always tucked behind her ears when she wasn’t sure what do or say. The third was when she played with her engagement ring. Whenever she rolled the oval shaped diamond around her ring finger, she was trying to make herself confident. Like somehow that ring gave her the power to make it through everything.

  Contrary to popular belief, Mina was a lot gentler than she seemed. It was easy to forget sometimes when she stood next to Melody, because of how tall she stood, especially at 5’6”. She directed and pushed Melody all of the time, not at all like…like Olivia. Olivia did it out of jealously. She’d wanted to be Melody. Instead, Mina wanted something as close to perfection out of everyone around her.

  I did my best not to compare Mina and Olivia; they were like the sun and the moon. If someone asked me to make a list of their differences, it would take hours for me to explain. The most obvious difference was that Olivia was a blonde-haired blue-eyed Irish girl and Mina was of Korean decent. Even the sides of the beds they slept on were different. But the most important difference, the only one that mattered…was how happy I was now. When I was with Olivia, I thought I was happy. I thought our marriage was fine…it was only after meeting Mina did I realize that being fine was as good as being comatose. You’re alive, but there is no way it can be seen as living.

  Liam and Melody.

  Declan and Coraline.

  Neither of their marriages was ever fine. The loved each other with a passion that was sometimes so intense I had to look away. Nothing else in the world mattered to them more than each other. Declan was ready to give up on our family. He begged my father, just so he could be with her. When she got cancer, I’d never seen a man so ready to be devastated. He stayed at her side and picked her off the ground every time she fell with a smile on his face because he was happy she was alive to at least fall.