by J. J. McAvoy
“You have two choices!” I called out, gun in hand when I got out of my car. The door was the only thing shielding me from them, that and, of course, the people I had waiting as back up. “Choice one: get out of the car and beg. Choice two: stay in the car and die.”
One by one little red dots appeared all over each of the cars. No car or glass was one hundred percent bulletproof and I’d be happy to prove it to them.
Instead, the back door of the second town car opened. All I saw were a pair of black snake leather shoes and brown cane as he got out. “You Callahan's sure know how to welcome a man.”
“Ju-long of the Tàiyáng,” I whispered, gripping on tighter to the gun in my hand. His hair was slicked back and he wore an eye patch covering his blind eye. The scar running from the tip of his hairline to his cheekbone looked worse in person. “You are a long, long way from home old man.”
“The current events of this city made it impossible to stay away.”
Closing my door, I walked forward. His one good eye dropped to the gun in my hand, his bodyguards each holding their weapons up to me. He lifted his gloved hand and they dropped their weapons.
“Are you not going to tell your men to back down as well?”
“I see no reason why I should do so. After all, our families aren’t on the best of terms at the moment.”
He nodded, gripping his cane. “Exactly why I have tried to get in contact with you, but it seems my calls go unanswered.”
“Your letter was delivered loud and clear, though.”
“What letter?”
Son of a bitch. “The letter delivered mere seconds after you took a shot at a local school my child, along with my nieces and nephews, attend. That letter.”
He frowned, leaning in closer to me. “Obviously, there is some sort of misunderstanding at play here.”
“There is no such thing as a misunderstood bullet, Ju-long.”
The wind howled, blowing over us with such a force that it felt like knives were slicing across my face, and yet neither of us moved, neither of us looked away.
“I recognize that you and your family are in quite the dilemma. However, I hoped it would not cloud your judgment to such a degree.” He reached into his jacket pocket and I lifted the gun to his head. He lazily stared at it before pulling out the cigar and placing it to his lips. One of his men came around with a light, burning the end of it before running back. He took a long drag of it and blew the smoke from his nose. “My family and our people have nothing to do with the current events of this city.”
“So you’re telling me you’ve been framed.”
“Quite excellently, I might add.” He inhaled the smoke, the end of the cigar glowing red and ash falling slightly with each drag. “As such, I personally came to this godforsaken city to speak with Liam, but like I said, my calls go unanswered.”
“And you knew where I was, how?”
He snorted. “Let us not get hung up on the logistics.”
“I’m the one brother who cares a lot about the logistics. How did you know where I was?”
His eyes narrowed and he paused, smoking, his grip on the cane so tight it looked uncomfortable. “Listen carefully to me, boy, I am not the same as the vermin who crawl on their backs for you people. Whoever is after the lot of you has no nothing to do with my family, and as such, you should be thankful that I have cleared the air, or else your family would chase its own tail right into a trap.”
“Excuse me if I don’t believe you—”
“Whether you do or not is not up to you. It is up to your boss. Or will you be making the executive decision by yourself? Maybe it is you who decided to betray your family and take over; seems far more plausible. If so, call me when you are through and we can make a new deal between us.” He placed the cigar back into his mouth, turning from me and heading back. However, he didn’t get into either of the two now useless cars. Instead, an Escalade pulled up right behind them and escorted him back.
I stood watching for a moment as the rest of his people poured gas all over the cars, then moved back to mine.
“Sir?” The Bluetooth connected.
“I want eyes on Ju-long at all times. However, no one, I mean no one, is to harm him until Liam gives the order. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
Stepping on the pedal, I sped right past both cars as the flames engulfed them. None of this made sense…if it wasn’t the Tàiyáng, then who?
I didn’t even need to search for a station to hear news on Mel; everyone everywhere was talking about her.
“In a press conference, the surgeons at Merry West have confirmed that Governor Callahan is alive though her condition is critical. The chief of surgery does say however they remain hopeful…”
LIAM
4:07 PM
“Mel?” I whispered, staring down at her hands in mine. “She squeezed my hand.”
I glanced over to Doctor Fortmen, who didn’t even bother looking up from the chart. “It was most likely her reflexes. With the drugs she is currently on, there is no way she can wake up—”
No sooner had he said the words than all the machines around us erupted into various beeps.
“She’s coding! I need a crash cart in here!” he yelled as one by one, an army of white coats and blue scrubs came running in, pushing me back as they huddled around her.
“Sir, you need—”
“Get off me!’ I hollered, ripping my arm from her grasp. Not even God himself was getting me out of that room.
“Charging!”
Is this hell?
It had to be. Once again everything went silent, even though I was sure they were screaming. I could see them screaming, and yet the only thing I could hear was the sound of my own heart drumming in my ears.
Her chest rose off the bed each time they tried to jumpstart her heart. Reaching up, I grabbed the side of my chest as if I felt it…maybe I did?
Maybe I was losing my mind.
SEVEN YEARS BEFORE
“Liam?”
“Liam?”
“I’m up!” I called out, my eyes snapping open to see a pair of brown eyes staring back into mine.
“You’re exhausted. Go sleep, I got her.” Mel smiled, reaching into my arms and taking Dona from me. Getting up out of the rocking chair, I let her sit, stretching out my back.
“What time is it?”
“3 AM. You said you would just check up on her, but that was two hours ago.” She made a face at me, rocking back and forth, slowly pressing her hand up against Dona’s cheek.
“I was worried, she’s had a runny nose this morning.” I pouted, leaning closer to them both.
“Oh, the horror.” She laughed mockingly at me. “She’s the one who ripped the blankets off Wyatt last night; if anyone should have a cold, it’s him.”
“Don’t listen to her, princess, Mommy is just jealous I love you so much.” I gave her my hand and even in her sleep, she grabbed on.
“Would you tell her the same thing if I got a runny nose?” she teased me. I stood up just a little more so my face was level with hers.
“If you got the flu, Mel, I’d lock us in a room together and be the best damn doctor you ever had. I’m a full-service husband, don’t you know?”
Rolling her eyes, she leaned forward and placed her forehead on mine. “I’ll just have to stand naked in the snow to test this full-service husband of mine out.”
“I don’t like the thought of you sick, so why don’t we just play doctor and nurse without any patients to get in the way.” I kissed her lips quickly.
“Only if I’m the doctor.” She kissed me back.
“Control freak,” I whispered.
“Everywhere but in bed.”
Before I could reply, Dona got restless, tossing and turning between us.
“You and I are going to finish this later. In the meantime, come to Daddy,” I sang, lifting Dona out of her arms and back into mine, bouncing her gently.
“I’m soo
oo jealous right now,” she joked, kissing my shoulder before kissing the top of Dona’s dark hair. “Obviously, she loves you more than me. Both Ethan and Dona are a team, Liam.”
“And Liam only plays on Mommy’s team so it works out.” I winked at her.
She shook her head at me and headed back to our bedroom. “Try not to hold her all night. She’s never going to get used to sleeping on her own.”
“Night, Mommy!” I took Dona’s hand and waved it at Mel.
The look on her face as she walked away from us made me smile as the door closed.
4:11PM
“Mr. Callahan? Mr. Callahan?”
“What? Huh?” I blinked my eyes, automatically refocusing on Mel. The doctors had all left, leaving only two nurses, Dr. Fortmen, and me in the room. “Mel?”
“Her heart is failing…this will happen more and more frequently without a transplant, and each time there may be brain damage—”
“She needs a heart, I’m working on it. Is there anything else?” I pinched the bridge of my nose, fighting back the pain echoing in my body.
“No—”
“Leave us, then,” I murmured, swallowing the bile in the back of my throat.
It was only when they left that I rushed past her bed, into the bathroom, where everything I had eaten in the last twenty fours came right back out. Hunched over the toilet, I couldn’t stop my whole body aching.
“Liam? Fuck, Liam?”
Supporting myself on the edge of the toilet, I saw Cora, dressed in jeans and a black blouse, her brown eyes wide as she watched the most pitiful version of me crumble on the ground.
“You’re supposed to be with the kids.” I groaned, rolling over and reaching for a tissue to wipe my mouth.
“Your mother, Neal, and an army of guards are with them at the safe house.” She frowned, reaching in her bag for mouthwash and a washcloth. She flushed the toilet for me and turned on the sink. I knew I was supposed to get up, but I just didn’t have the energy to.
“When Mel wakes up she’s going to kick your ass for falling apart like this, and she isn’t even dead,” she stated, soaking the washcloth before squeezing the additional water out.
“Then why does it feel like she is?”
“Maybe because you’re feeling guilty. It feels like it did with Sedric and you never wanted to feel that way again,” she replied, crouching down beside me. “You’d rather be the one on the bed, right?”
Apparently all those counseling sessions for her and Declan had rubbed off on her. “Why are you here right now?”
“Because we’re family, and because I know where to get Mel a heart.”
“What?”
She stuck the tiny bottle of mouthwash into my face. Grabbing it, I rose from the ground and threw it back before spitting into the sink.
“You know where to get her a heart?”
She handed me the washcloth.
“Cora—”
“Yes. I do. So stop feeling sorry for yourself and let’s go before she tries to leave us again.”
Taking the cloth from her, I wiped my face as she grabbed her purse.
“Where are we going?”
She didn’t answer, just walked out of the room. When she did, I noticed Mina hunched over a tablet and talking on the phone. Her head snapped up at us and she pushed the glasses on her face up her nose. Fedel stood beside her, also on the phone. They both looked to us as Cora walked over.
“We have a heart. Just work on finding the shooter.”
I wasn’t sure if I was still dreaming but I didn’t say anything, more just nodded for Fedel to do what she said as we walked toward the elevators.
“Cora, I’m not going to ask again, where are we going?”
“The cancer ward,” she stated, pressing the button for the elevators.
CORA
4:15 PM
There was a joke among the Irish that the Callahan’s became powerful by selling their souls to the devil. Whether they were born a Callahan or married into the family, the price was the same. Even though it was said over pints of beer and laughter, I didn’t think it was a joke—or at least, it wasn’t for me. When the elevator doors opened and I was once again back at the wretched cancer ward, watching as men, women, and children went by, their heads bald, their eyelashes the only hair on their heads, I knew I was going to pay for all the shit I had done or would do for the sake of this family…one day, if not today.
“Room 591,” I said to him, following him as he walked, almost ran, past each one of the doors down the hall. I didn’t make eye contact with anyone, just kept walking until we stopped right in front of the window, allowing us to look in.
He paused, his eyebrows coming together. “Who is this?”
“Does it matter?”
He didn’t reply because it didn’t matter to him, but he still wanted an answer.
“Imani Wilson,” I replied, watching her sleep.
“Your cousin,” He remembered, finally meeting my gaze. “I thought Declan had her sent to North Mount Psychiatric Hospital after she tried to—”
“Rub me?”
“Yeah.” It felt like a lifetime ago, Imani, her boyfriend Otis—who Declan had killed in my honor—the chaos that was my life right before I married Declan and realized the world was even more fucked up than I’d thought. “She has ovarian cancer as well…because of that, I had her moved to this hospital. She starts chemo in the morning. If she does, every cell in her body will be shot. The doctors say she is in perfect condition with the exception of her ovaries. She is AB negative, thirty, and I have a say over medical decisions; it was part of the deal for me paying for her treatment.”
For the first time since I had come into the hospital, Liam stood straighter, a small but evil smirk on his lips, his expression cold.
“Which means should she die, you have a say on who gets her organs or not,” he said it more to himself than to me, already reaching for the doorknob when I stopped him. “Cora—”
“I’ve handled it already,” I replied, nodding to the doctor behind the nurses’ station. He didn’t say a word to me, he just came up to Imani’s room and walked in.
“How?” Liam questioned me, watching as the doctor changed her drip.
How did I get him to break every oath he ever took? “Two million in gambling debts. That’s how coldblooded and ruthless people can be…” I had no room to judge him, though.
“I love this city.” The smirk on his face grew to a full-blown devilish grin.
I wished I felt worse. I wished I cared more about Imani, but I didn’t. If she died, the world would go on. No one would care. If Melody died…war would break out, and that didn’t just put Declan in danger, but our kids. No one else meant more to me than them, so if I had to do this for them, I would.
It’s a dog eat dog world, and I had sharpened my teeth a long time ago.
LIAM
4:23 PM
It took two minutes for Imani die, ten minutes for Cora to fake grieving before consenting, and another minute for them to come for Melody.
Once again I found myself in front of an operating room staring at doors, barely breathing.
“Boss.”
“Not now, Fedel,” I replied. I couldn’t think.
“You have to see this.” He handed me the tablet, but all I saw was a pixelated image of an alleyway, maybe a street corner.
“What am I looking at?”
“The shooter.” He zoomed in, and the pixels slowly came together until I was staring at none other than…
“Is that—”
“Liling Tàiyáng.” He nodded, and I could see he was shaking, but whether it was from anger or excitement I wasn’t sure. “Yesterday the boss wanted me to look into her and Emilio. She thought there was no way she as just a dimwit heiress, nor would she marry down. No sooner had I put feelers out, trying to get information on her and Emilio, when she goes and shoots the boss. I don’t think Emilio thought she’d catch on to who he was so qui
ckly and panicked trying to get rid of her.”
Mel was right: she was a monster, parading around like everyone else.
“Liam.”
We both looked up to find Mina still in her bloodstained clothes from that morning.
“What is it now?”
She didn’t answer, instead lifting her phone to show a current press conference taking place on the news. A banner scrolled across the screen: NEW MAYOR SPECIALLY ELECTED.
Ladies and gentlemen of Chicago, due to the tragic events that have taken place in our city in the last forty-eight hours, the district attorney and various associates across the city have chosen an interim mayor, as we cannot be a city without a working government. He may be young, but he is the best-qualified person for this position. Please welcome Chicago’s new mayor, Emilio Esteban Cortés…
“The little cunt.” I hissed through my teeth. They had planned all of this. Liling hadn’t just shot Mel out fear, she’d done so to clear the table. Normally in these situations, the governor would appoint the mayor.
“What do you want me to do?” Fedel questioned. “Declan was stopped by Ju-long and was told this was all some sort of misunderstanding.”
If this was a misunderstanding…I wondered what would happen when we finally started to understand each other.
SIXTEEN
“Certain motherfuckers think they can fuck with my shit, but you can't kill the Rooster. You might can fuck him up sometimes, but bitch, nobody kills the motherfucking Rooster. You know what I'm saying?”
~ David Sedaris
ETHAN
10:08 PM
I was good at Italian…when everybody spoke slowly, I could understand. I wanted to know because I hated when people spoke around me and I couldn’t get what they were saying. When the adults did that, spoke in other languages, it was because they didn’t want us to know what they were saying, and if we couldn’t know, it was because it was about us.
Cracking the window open slowly, checking back to make sure Dona and Wyatt didn’t wake up, I crawled out onto the roof, sliding on my stomach until I got to the edge of it, staying low so the men in the yard wouldn’t see me. There were so many, all of them dressed in black, holding big guns, just walking back and forth across the lawn in front of the gate. The men at the gate stood there with dogs. It reminded me of those war movies I saw on the history channel.