“No. This is ridiculous! It is absolutely ridiculous what this city has done to the Callahans. It’s horrendous. These people abuse the power given to them by the citizens of Chicago to bully good, decent people. If I were the Callahans, I would sue the state blind…”
“She’s going to go to prison,” Mel remarked.
“Do you know what happens to former policemen and officers in prison?”
“But, that’s all?” She pouted from her place on the bed.
My wife was pouting. With a laugh, I walked over to her and pulled her into my arms. “We can’t kill everyone, love. We have bigger fish to fry.”
“Yeah, I know. But I still hate them all.” She leaned into me as I kissed her neck. “Can you go get Ethan?”
A small part of me wanted to groan, since we’ve been back and were able to sort out everything between us, Ethan had been sleeping in our bed at night. And as much as I loved my son, I was really hoping to spend a little more alone time with his mother.
“Liam?”
“Yeah, I’ll get him,” I replied.
Walking out into the hall, I watched as Neal spoke with my father outside of Ethan’s room.
“Is everything alright?” I asked, walking up to them both.
“Neal here believes that you’re cutting him out of the family,” my father answered before stepping inside the room.
Neal rolled his eyes at him before turning to me.
“Is that so?” I hadn’t yet, but I was preparing to.
“Private meetings with Declan, I have no idea what’s going on, and I’m finding out from the help that you want us to pack for D.C. I’m starting to feel as though you don’t trust me with information, brother.”
“I don’t. But it’s not just you, it’s everyone. Father had no idea—”
“Father doesn’t care to know. He’s pulling out of this life and working on his fucking golf swing,” he snapped.
I could’ve told him the truth…but that would have just set him off, and right now we needed fewer cracks in this family’s foundation.
Placing my hand on his shoulder, I made him look me in the eyes. “Neal, we have issues, there is no denying that. Declan had some problems and we talked privately. Right now, I’m repairing my inner family. They come first. If it feels like I’m cutting you out, know that I’m not. I’m just dealing with the fall out of Mel’s madness. You sound paranoid and I don’t like it. People tend to do stupid things when they’re paranoid.”
He looked at me and sighed, before nodding. “I’m sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry about. I need us all together while we go up against Avian.”
He nodded once more. “Of course.”
Watching him leave, I once again wondered if he really could betray me. He just didn’t have the balls. Or maybe he was a better actor than I thought.
“Dad, you can go to bed,” I told him as he leaned down and stared at Ethan.
“I used to enjoy watching you all sleep, you all were a lot less troublesome when you were children.”
As I gently lifted Ethan, I smiled at how warm he was; a little bundle of life.
“Be careful, Liam.”
“I know how to hold him.”
“Not Ethan. But with Neal. Before you and Mel do or say anything reckless, remember he is still your brother and therefore my son. I love him as dearly as I love you. My dream is for you all to depend on each other, not destroy one another,” he replied.
“Only time can tell then.”
MELODY
The next morning I found myself dressed like a political Barbie doll as I stood on the steps of the capitol, holding onto our son as Liam was given the key to the fucking city on behalf of our family. Chicago had no doors, why the fuck did it have a key? But if it had been me, I would’ve done my part and smiled. It was a pointless show of gratitude, but I would always play my part no matter how badly it irked me. Even Ethan seemed annoyed with his suit. I wasn’t even aware that they made suits for infants.
“Words cannot express how much this means to me,” Liam said to the crowd. “I have loved this city all my life and that will never change. No matter what has happened in the past, Chicago is my home…our home.”
He turned and reached for Ethan and me. I wanted roll my eyes, but I smiled instead as I moved forward. I did not like to be used as a prop.
“Mel and I have thought long and hard about this and we truly want to do more to make this city a great one. While in prison, I was forced to see, hear, and experience things at that no one, not even a prisoner should. Together, let’s work to make our community and our political system a better one. Let’s treat humans as such. Let’s respect life and celebrate it. I thank you for this honor and I hope that in return I can honor you all.” He smiled and we posed for photos as the flashbulbs rained upon us.
“Did you forget to tell me you’re running for office?” I muttered through a smile.
“I’m just rolling with the punches and I do like getting the key,” he whispered as Ethan reached for it. I knew it would only end up in his mouth. It was like he had to lick everything new he encountered.
“Now that this is over, let’s get out of here.”
“What am I supposed to do? Cut the Governor short so we can escape?” he asked, as he placed his hand on my back and I could feel it starting its downward movement.
“Are you feeling me up in front of the entire city?”
He looked to me and winked. “It’s my city. I have a key to prove it.”
I couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around his ego right now. Holding Ethan to my chest, I walked off the stage as the last of the clapping rang through the air.
Finally.
FOURTEEN
“Presidents are selected, not elected.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
MELODY
We were in Washington.
Not just Washington, but the goddamn White House.
If you could see me now, Orlando. I looked through the windows. I stared at the green garden, fresh cut and perfectly in place; a picture perfect photo, waiting to be taken. Liam leaned into the chair, and placed his feet up on the desk. Neither of us spoke. This was the beginning; once we went down this road, we couldn’t turn back.
We waited though we knew it would not be for long.
Within seconds, the door to the Oval Office opened and the President, dressed in a dark suit, blue tie, and an American flag pin on his jacket, walked in. His aids surrounded him, speaking quickly about a Supreme Court nominee before they froze at the sight of us sitting at the Presidential desk.
“Mr. President,” Liam stated, his foot still on the desk, completely relaxed.
“Jane, Chris, please give us a moment, and tell Judy to hold all of my calls,” Colemen said as he forced a smile at them.
They nodded before running off like the little, dull mice they were.
“Have you lost your minds?” he almost shouted once the door clicked shut.
“Would that make you feel better?” I asked him. I moved from the window and sat at the edge of the desk.
He glared at my ass and then at Liam’s feet. “That is the Resolute desk…a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. Every President from Jimmy Carter to now has sat at that desk. Will you both please remove your ass and feet from it?”
I looked at Liam who took his feet down and grabbed the knife from his jacket pocket. Without hesitating, he ran the blade across the surface where his feet had been. It was the only thing that cut through the silence, and Liam never once broke eye contact with the leader of the free world. When he was done, he put the knife away.
“Sorry,” he said, as he crossed his arms over the top of the desk.
“I am the President!—”
“Oh no, no, no,” I cut him off with a finger. “You, are a puppet; our puppet, bought and paid for in full. Made in Chicago for one purpose and one purpose alone—to work for us. That was the d
eal. You signed your name in blood, and we made you President. Now you need to pay.”
He crossed his arms. “I helped you with you cover up. I have the whole nation believing that you’re national heroes.”
“You think we spent eighty-nine million dollars for one favor?” Liam snickered. “We built you, and if you think we didn’t install a self-destruct button, you are sorely mistaken. Now that you have tasted power, are you willing to give it up? You can spend the next four, and if we’re pleased, eight years as the ‘most powerful’ man in the world.”
Colemen frowned and clenched his jaw. This was the man with his finger on the button? May God help us all.
“What do you want, Callahan?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“That’s a good puppet,” I smiled and Liam snickered once more.
“We want a list of the FBI’s biggest pending cases. The ones that make careers and are made into movies,” Liam said before rising.
“What for?”
“Bad puppet,” I sighed. “Don’t ask questions you truly do not want the answer to.”
“You are asking me to breach protocol and expose top secret information. But you will not tell me why? These are people’s—”
“Stop,” Liam said, as he walked to him and held his face. “We know what we’re asking. We also know that you’re going to come under fire. But you will stand strong and you will put pressure on Avian Doers, your director of FBI, to fix the issues.”
“Tell him to fix the issues that you yourself will cause?”
“See, now you know and now you’re upset. You should have listened, puppet,” I replied, as I moved in front of the desk.
“I’ll have the files tomorrow,” he said.
I smiled at Liam, and watched as he moved away from Colemen and walked back to the Presidential chair where he once more placed his feet back on top of the desk.
“We have time. I’m sure if you ask nicely, someone will have it to you within the hour. You should really put a computer on this desk, I’m sure Queen Victoria wouldn’t mind,” Liam added, and this time I chuckled.
I watched as Colemen walked up next to me and lifted the receiver end of the telephone. “Judy, patch me over to the FBI White House Correspondent.”
“Best eighty-nine million I’ve ever spent.” I grinned at Liam.
LIAM
We weren’t wasting time, simply because we didn’t have any more time to waste. I was sure that Avian knew we were here, and I was beyond ready for payback. This was what we needed. So I sat in the booth, and watched as the hooker in the tight, blue dress and fish net stockings, flirted with the undercover agent who was currently ingesting copious amounts of drugs. I should’ve be insulted by the fact that he didn’t notice my beautiful wife, who was pretending to be a bartender. Normally we had people to do this type of work, but this was personal. It needed to done correctly, and the only people who could make sure that would happen was us.
Mel didn’t look bad in her red wig and tight-vested shirt, in fact, I would’ve taken her into the back and have my way with her right that second if I could’ve, and I briefly wondered how my blond wig and glasses affected her. She glanced at me and winked as though she could read my mind.
The crowded bar smelled like old smokes, stale peanuts, and booze. I watched as Mel mixed drinks with skills I didn’t even know she possessed, and the idiot who was supposed to be a federal agent drank them down as he spoke with the hooker.
When Mel was finished, she took a tray of drinks and walked away from the “couple.”
“You look like you need a drink,” a woman said, as she stepped into my line of sight and blocked my view of Mel. Her breasts were all but falling out of her shirt, and the skirt she wore was so tight it looked as if she needed to piss when she walked.
“I’m fine.” I lifted my glass to show her.
“Yes you are, sugar.” She licked her lips.
However, her flirtations only last for a moment before Mel was standing before her.
“Leg it babe, he’s not on the market, and I’m the last woman you want to piss off,” she said, a lot nicer than I’d hoped. But I knew she was just trying to keep from causing a scene. Luckily the woman didn’t bother fighting, and she left quickly and smartly.
“I leave you for a few minutes and you’re already picking up strays,” Mel said, as she took a seat in front of me.
“Next time, don’t leave me and we won’t have a problem.” I winked at her.
She rolled her eyes at me before she looked back at Agent Wilson and his new friend. “How long will this take?” she asked knowing that the faster we got out of here, the better.
“Soon. He’s about ready to jump her.”
“And you know this how? Because he’s leaning in?”
“Because I know the feeling.”
She paused and looked to me. “Not in that wig.”
“What? I think I look dashing as a blond!”
“You look like the man that mothers warn their children about. I’ll keep mine on, but you’d better take yours off if you plan on coming near me later.”
I felt a tightening in my pants and I wished that later meant now. “Noted, wife.”
She held my gaze for a moment before it once more shifted to the Agent who was had just left with the woman. We waited for a few seconds before we rose and walked out to the back alley where Monte had been waiting. He handed Mel a large bag before he walked down the quiet alleyway to an awaiting car. We both put on our gloves.
As the cold air kissed our faces, I watched as the happy couple skipped across the street to the motel…after all, what good was a seedy bar if there wasn’t a trashy motel close by for a quick drunken fuck?
I took out a smoke only to find Mel glaring at me. “What?”
“You’ve been smoking a lot lately.”
Seriously? “It’s cold.”
“I’m in a vest and a skirt, but you’re cold?” she said slowly.
“Since when do you have a problem with me smoking?”
“Since we have a child. I don’t want him getting sick. Secondhand smoke kills. But hey, you’re cold.” She shrugged, and her lips pulled together as she looked towards the motel.
Sighing, I flicked it over to the corner. “You happy now?”
“Ethan’s lungs are,” she countered, proving once again how easily my emotions could flip with her.
Rolling my eyes, I began to walk towards the motel. “They should be out by now.”
“Lead the way,” she said.
I was tempted to look both ways before crossing the street just in case. Whenever my wife tells me to “lead the way,” I have to make sure I’m not about to get kicked in the face for her amusement.
Pulling the rusted doors open for her, I watched as she raised an eyebrow at me but said nothing before she stepped in.
“Room thirteen,” the manager said.
Reaching into my jacket, I pulled out a thick envelope and threw it at him.
“Take it and walk away from this place tomorrow. This motel is going to be closed for a while,” she told him, and he nodded greedily.
Obviously the motel business was not going well for him, the flickering lights and water stained ceiling was proof enough. We both walked down the hall until we reached the wooden door with the number three that was hung upside down on a single nail.
“Let the games begin,” I said to her as I opened the door, which creaked as we stepped in.
The room glowed in cheap, dull, golden light, and across the room, the couple’s clothing lay spread about the floor.
“How much time?”
The woman, who was still awake, lay on the musty bed next to the naked, tattooed man with a horrible farmers’ tan. He was so out of it, that no matter how much noise we made, he didn’t even stir.
“Five, four, three…” Mel counted down, “…two, one.”
Just like that, the hooker fell asleep. Without a word, Mel opened the bag, pulled out Age
nt Wilson’s badge and credentials, and placed them on the floor next to his clothes. Then she took his gun and threw it against the wall before we proceeded to trash the room. Satisfied with our destruction, we planted the cash, cocaine, and heroin all over the room.
She handed me the knife with a smile, as I walked over to the bed and placed it in the agent’s left hand. As I suspended his hand above to the woman’s chest, I drove the blade into her, stabbing her multiple times until Agent Wilson’s body was covered in her blood. The drugs in their system were untraceable, and luckily for the hooker, she never felt a thing. I took her hand and dragged her nails against his arm. That, plus the evidence of their sexual activities provided more than enough physical evidence.
Releasing his hand, it dropped almost lifelessly with the knife still clenched within it. Turning back to Mel, I watched as she looked through the edited files once more before she left them strewn on the ground.
Avian had declared war, and like any war, there would be casualties.
Mel walked out into lobby knowing that there were no cameras on this block, or anywhere else in the hotel for that matter. Then she dialed from the burner phone.
I listened in as the 911 operator answered.
“Hello? Me at the Nomad Inn at 1325 New York Ave, there was much screaming and yell! No sé lo que está pasando!” she said with a thick Spanish accent that was almost flawless.
The operator questioned for more, but Mel hung up without another word.
MELODY
When we both stepped in, newly dressed and wigless. The one person I needed to see was dressed in a darling little onesie, waiting for me.
“You both are spoiling him. He can’t sleep without you.” Sedric smiled as we walked into the living room of our D.C. home. Walking over to him, I took Ethan into my arms. He sucked on his pacifier before he rested his head against my chest.