“Time in!” Dona called out before sliding backward out of the ring. Cora walked around to meet her.
I wasn’t sure what she’d said to them, but for the first time in nearly two hours, they finally worked together. Wyatt tried to draw my attention to the left while Ethan came from the right. Slowly a grin spread across my cheeks…my children, I could see it in their eyes: this was the beginning, the darkness in their eyes, and their potential was showing. They would surpass even my own greatness.
Just not today.
“Damn it!” Ethan hissed through his teeth when my fist collided with his stomach.
“You all really need to stop fucking cursing.”
MELODY
11:49 AM
I had just stepped out of my bathroom when I found Mina holding blue jeans and a simple white button-down shirt for me to wear.
“We have a problem,” Mina stated.
“You mean other than the fact that you went into my closet?”
“Much bigger than that.”
“Are Liam, Ethan, Wyatt, or Dona in danger?”
Her eyebrows came together, a frown on her lips. “No, why—”
“Then there is no bigger issue than you being my closet.”
She sighed, rolling her eyes. “The sniper shot again, this time at another school, four more kids…is that a big enough issue for you?”
“Is it a copycat?” Why would a sniper sent to deliver a message to Liam and me then go and shoot up another school?
“The police aren’t sure.”
“When are they ever sure?” Spend millions educating them and they still couldn’t do their fucking job sometimes. Jesus Christ.
“Well, this is all very sad.” I shrugged, dropping the towel and putting on my underwear before grabbing lotion from my dresser. “Either way, we should wait before we see the parents.”
“Melody, you need to call a state of emergency—”
“Locking down schools and setting a curfew? What good does that really do Mina? The sniper is shooting in broad daylight. I’m not going to let one man hold my city hostage.”
Walking over to me, she pushed the outfit to me. “The public needs to see you, at least, pretending to be concerned then.”
“Let me guess, you chose this outfit because it looks like I didn’t have time to get dressed, I just rushed over at the call of the people?”
“No heels either.”
“I can run in heels.”
“Melody.”
“I can run in heels,” I stated again, stepping into my jeans. Truth be told, I didn’t care. Kids died, but I didn’t care because they weren’t my kids. They weren’t family. They were just four random little faces. What I wanted to do, what I did care about was staying at home with my family as I promised. However, I’d also promised to not make this city so goddamn bloody, but Chicago was apparently addicted to the violence.
Dressed and pulling my hair into a messy bun, I grabbed the black heels I had left for my dress and followed her out the door. She was already on the phone, most likely with the office, which would undoubtedly be full of press.
“O’Phelan, let Liam know I’ll be out until dinner,” I stated when the door opened. He bowed slightly.
“Of course, ma’am.”
“Good morning, boss.” Murphy held the door for me.
“It’s hardly a good anything,” I muttered to myself when Mina slid in beside me. Pulling out her tablet, she handed it to me. All over the news, just like the day before, were police, the media, and weeping parents.
“I’m getting updates as we go, however, just like yesterday, they used some bullets from a Norma?”
I nodded. “It’s a 6.5 Norma but it’s being fired from a Truvelo sniper rifle; whoever is shooting is a long-range professional. It is lightweight depending on the barrel length of course. It is compact enough to lug around and the accuracy is 1 MOA at—”
I stopped when I realized she had no idea what I was talking about, even though I hadn’t even gotten into the actual details of the thing yet.
“Funny, you don’t ramble about anything else but guns.”
“I wasn’t rambling, you just didn’t know what I was talking about,” I replied, leaning back into my seat. When I looked out, I noticed we weren’t heading toward the office.
“Murphy—”
“Yes, ma’am—boss.”
“Where are we going?”
“The hospital,” Mina answered for him.
I fucking hated hospitals.
“I thought we were not going to see the victims—”
“We aren’t,” she stated, not looking up as she texted quickly. “We are going to see the families who survived. Just do what you always do: smile, pretend to cry and care.”
I glared at her. “You know you grow increasingly more bossy with each passing day. I don’t like it.”
She paused, looking up from her phone. I didn’t see fear; instead, she smiled. “I’m just looking out for you. We are family after all.”
She and Cora both did this, pretending we were close enough to be…to be…friends? But I didn’t have friends. They were necessary because they kept Declan and Neal happy, which in turn made Liam happy. His family was happy; everybody was just shitting unicorns and rainbows of happiness while I sat in the corner trying not to lose my mind.
“Smile—no, don’t smile,” She spoke quickly when the car came to a stop at the hospital and, sure enough, the press were there. “Be solemn and don’t get off topic. Just say we are sorry for the loss of more innocent lives. The police are on it…blah blah blah…right now you want to pay respect to the families. Got it?”
Again I glared.
“Got it, boss?” she asked again, her voice going down an octave.
Nodding, she tapped on the window and Murphy opened the door. Stepping out, I heard the same questions I’d heard the day before.
“Governor Callahan, do you have any comments?”
“Governor, do you have a moment!”
“Did you not run on a platform of safer streets?”
“What do you have to say to the parents?”
“Are there any leads on the Sandbox Sniper?”
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Had they already given this fucker a name?
Pausing, I leaned in, their disgusting microphones so close to my face you’d think they were trying to shove them down my goddamn throat.
“The Sandbox Sniper?” I asked.
One woman stepped up, her red hair cropped at her shoulders. Her eyes were green, scared, and excited, like a fledgling bird just starting to fly.
“Yes.” She stood straighter. “Due to the nature of these crimes, people have—”
12:17 PM
BANG.
The shot was so loud it echoed in my ears. Like ants, they all started to run, tripping over one another as I fell backward. Murphy and the other guards grabbed hold of me, all of them pulling me into the safety of the hospital. I knew they were screaming, I could see their mouths moving, but I couldn’t hear anything. Glancing down at my white Valentino shirt, I saw blood now soaked into the fabric and only one thought came to my mind.
Liam…I’m going first.
FOURTEEN
“A reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying.”
~ Albert Camus
NEAL
12:24 PM
“You’re out of mayo.” I frowned, glaring at my very plain turkey and cheese sandwich. “How am I supposed to eat this without mayo?”
He didn’t answer. Well, he couldn’t answer.
Our police commissioner…former police commissioner…was too busy weeping, naked and bloody on his living room floor, his legs and arms bound. He actually looked like a pig ready for slaughter—a pale pig, but a pig nonetheless.
Opening the fridge, I searched high and low, but he was apparently one of those goddamn health nuts. Gluten-free shit, fruit, kale…how do people fucking live like this?
“Freaks,” I grumbled, grabbing my humble sandwich and walking around the kitchen, eyeing the black granite countertops. I entered the living room, sat in the middle of the couch, and kicked my feet up on the glass coffee table.
“Nice house. I think high ceilings are always the best choice. It makes the house feel open and airy. Plus all the extra natural sunlight really helps,” I told him before taking a bite. I’m not sure if this actually tastes good or I am just really hungry.
“Gmmsh.” He grunted against the duck tape over his mouth.
“I’m sorry, you’re going have to speak English…or Irish, if you know it, which I would be pretty impressed at because not many people speak it here anymore. It’s more like pidgin, used to drive my father crazy,” I replied, taking another bite.
I wasn’t sure what I’d said but he got riled up, screaming and twisting his body as if that would really help him get out of the zip ties or something. He grunted and scowled, his pale face turning pinker and then redder each passing second. Reaching over to the coffee table in front of me, I took the crystal coaster and threw it right at his head.
“Calm the fuck down, Jesus. You’re going to give yourself a heart attack you know. And where is the fun in that?”
He rolled over onto his side. The blood…first one drop, then two, then far more than I could care to count…slowly began to spill from his head.
“You still with me, Commissioner?” I paused mid bite. He didn’t reply, or move, or even seem to breathe. “Well, this is disappointing. I’ll just make myself at home then until you come to…I wonder if you have milk.” Reaching forward, I took the remote, turned on the television, and got up, heading back to the kitchen. Of course, it was soy milk. Fucking shit.
“We go back to Andre Curry, with our breaking news…”
“Thanks, John! Ladies and gentlemen, we’re just across the street from Merry West Hospital, the location in which just moments ago, current Illinois governor Melody Callahan was shot—”
Everything in my hands fell and slipped to the ground. It all slowed down, everything: my heartbeat, my breathing, me turning back, the reporter on the screen. Everything was slow with the exception of Mel. The video of her speaking one moment, then falling back, it all lasted two, maybe three seconds, and they just had it on loop. Melody talking. Melody falling. Mina screaming. Melody being rushed inside. Over and over and over again. Melody talking. Melody falling. Mina screaming. Melody being rushed inside.
“We have no current update from the hospital, however, John, there is a lot of blood in front of those hospital doors.”
Liam…he’s going to…kill, everyone.
DECLAN
12:30 PM
He was laughing.
He looked beside himself with happiness.
Every time he was with his kids, he couldn’t help but smile, even now as he was teaching both Ethan and Wyatt how to bandage their own wounds. Dona sat beside them, watching, and every once in a while he’d reach over and brush her hair back. They were in pain, all three of them, Ethan, Wyatt and Dona, but they still listened carefully, watching as he showed them how he wrapped his arm with one hand.
“Wyatt, you’re a natural.” Liam laughed.
“Of course.” Wyatt puffed out his chest, wincing once but still holding up his bandaged hand with pride. “Ethan, having trouble?”
Ethan ignored him and tried to focus on wrapping neatly. Giving up, he sighed and held out his hand to Wyatt. “Do it for me.”
“What? No!”
“Teamwork, remember! Right, Dona?” Ethan grinned and I could see the same look in his eyes that Liam had whenever he was up to something.
“Right!” Dona threw her fist up. “Come on, Wyatt.”
“Dad!”
Liam just shrugged. “Are you really going to let your brother suffer alone? He’s useless without you.”
“Hey! Don’t give him a big head!” Ethan hollered. Wyatt grabbed his arm. “Ouch!”
“You big baby,” he muttered to his brother, laughing.
Finally, Liam glanced over to me. Kissing Dona’s forehead, he got up, and I wished he hadn’t. I wished he had just stayed in that moment with them for another second, another minute; the closer he came to me, the farther into hell he was.
“Ethan knows how to tie it,” he muttered more to himself than to me, glancing over his shoulder. “He knows but he just wants Wyatt to feel good about himself. I think I overreacted to Wyatt. Ethan loves his brother, and I don’t think anything can ever change that.”
I said nothing, just stared at him, my heart ringing in my ears. He was going to kill me for hesitating but I…I knew what would happen when I said the words.
Finally, he turned back to me. His eyes looked me over once, his body tensing up as he saw my face. “Declan. What is it?”
Fuck.
“Declan—”
“Mel.” The moment I said her name, his green eyes widened. “She was shot…I don’t know how bad but…Mina was screaming and she’s in surgery.”
He took a step back from me, a small smile on his lips as he shook his head. “What are you talking about? Mel went to take a shower. We are all having lunch—”
“Liam.”
“Don’t fucking play with me, Declan!” He grabbed my throat, slamming my back up against the elevator doors. “Don’t joke like this, Declan. I will kill you!”
“Liam!” Cora screamed, running over to us. I wasn’t sure how I had missed her standing there…actually, that was a lie. For the first time since I’d met her, she wasn’t important right then; Liam was.
“She’s at Merry West,” I whispered.
He just stared at me for the longest time, his grip never loosening, not even once. Again he shook his head.
“Cora…kids…safe…house.” It was the last thing he said before he let go of me. Getting into the elevator with his head down, I wasn’t even sure if he was breathing.
“Liam, I’ll drive—”
The look in his eyes when I spoke…it was bloodcurdling. I never once thought he would actually kill me, but I had no doubt that if I’d gotten on that elevator with him, he’d slit my throat.
He was homicidal.
LIAM
12:32 PM
My wife.
My Melody.
She doesn’t die.
I had lost count of how many motherfucking times some fool had tried to take her from me, but each time she came back. It wasn’t some miracle and it wasn’t even by the grace of God. She didn’t die because Mel…she was a phoenix.
It was that thought alone that made me go to our room. I stripped down and changed into the fitted dark navy suit and green tie she had gotten me. I’d never forget it…it was too perfect to forget. We had had a huge fight hours before, yet I couldn’t remember what it was about, just her at the door of my closet, her dressed in nothing but panties and a robe.
EIGHT YEARS BEFORE
“I don’t like your ties.” She frowned, leaning on the frame of my door, her red robe completely open, thus defeating the purpose of having one…not that I cared at all.
“I’m sorry they offend you so much,” I muttered, looking her over before polishing my shoes.
“Yeah…well…stop being upset at me,” she blurted out.
“Of course, your highness, I’ll just do whatever it is you ask of me without thinking on my own.”
“Really? You’re mocking me now?”
“Mocking you? No, I’m mocking me, because apparently I’m a fucking idiot!” I snapped, throwing the shoe to the side.
“And childish, too.”
Rising from my chair, I grabbed her tiny neck. “You keep using my love for you as an excuse to run your mouth, Melody, I will kill you.” She drove me insane.
She smiled as she wrapped a tie I hadn’t realized she had around my neck, pulling me closer to her. “If you want to kill me then go ahead, but remember the unspoken rule between us. You are mine, Liam. You belong to me. Your fac
e, your body, your heart, your soul, you sold it to me and I sold mine to you. So if I die, you die. If you die, I die. As long as there is air in your lungs, there is air in mine. So don’t pretend, Liam. You’re not fooling anyone…not even yourself. So either let me go and kiss me, or kill us all and be done with it.”
I froze. “All?”
The smile on her face broke out into a full grin and her hands slowly dropped to the small space between us, resting on her stomach.
“All,” she repeated.
The anger I’d had, everything, was gone, and kissing her reminded me, again, that she was right. We were connected to each other. She was the air in my lungs, the blood in my veins; she was my whole life.
12:40 PM
Placing my guns in the shoulder holsters at my sides and another at my ankle, I opened the door to my room only to find Fedel dressed, black gloves and all, waiting. He didn’t need any order, he just followed me.
By now the house was already on lockdown. Silence permeated every corner until we stepped outside where a black Mercedes waited.
Taking a deep breath I reminded myself: she was alive. She was alive because I was alive.
“Keys.” I held my hand out, already at the driver’s door.
The only people who were going to die were the ones who fucking dared to cross me this way, to insult me this way. My wife was alive, and they were the dead ones.
FEDEL
1:03 PM
Over the years, I had watched over both of them, my bosses. With each passing year, I watched as they became more and more like each other. When I had first met Liam, I had thought of him as nothing more than a rabid dog, and for the most part, I was correct. He acted on pure instinct, he didn’t wait and calculate, he killed not only to prove a point but because he got off on the power of it. It was like he was pissing on his territory and wanted the world to know.