“My father said you came to see him today?” Olivia said as she stepped into the living with Neal.
“Yes we did. Did he tell you why?” Liam asked, as he took off his jacket and placed it on the couch.
Olivia shook her head as Evelyn came into the living room with a tray of drinks.
“Why didn’t you say you were going to see him? I would’ve liked to have seen my father and not be stuck here waiting for your orders,” Olivia snapped.
“Olivia,” Neal whispered, as he pulled her arm.
“No. We were dragged across the country, kept completely in the dark, watching your child as you both—”
“Olivia, enough, now,” Neal snapped. But she didn’t listen. Instead she pulled her hand from his and stomped back to what I could only guess was her room. Neal looked hurt and tired. He was on the edge…but why? Was Liam right? Was he the mole or was he just losing it?
“What’s wrong with her?” Sedric asked.
Neal didn’t answer him, instead he looked to Liam. “Do you need anything?”
“Yes, you and I will be going for a run in the morning,” Liam answered.
I wasn’t sure what he was thinking.
Neal nodded, wished us all a good night, and then turned to follow his wife.
“Well, do we get to know what you both have been doing all day? We just got here and you disappeared,” Evelyn said as she sipped on her margarita.
Taking Ethan away from the alcohol, I walked around the teal and white couch and turned on the flat screen. Sitting with Ethan, I rocked him in my arms as the breaking news came on.
“Good evening, I’m Andrea Salvia. At this hour, district police have ascended on the Nomad Inn here at 1325 New York Ave just miles away from the capitol. WPLA is coming to you first with this breaking news. Our sources tell us that senior Agent Timothy Wilson of the FBI has been taken into custody for the murder of an unknown woman who was stabbed several times. Also found in the room; over five hundred thousand dollars worth of cocaine and heroin. Our sources also tell us that Agent Timothy Wilson has been undercover for the last six years, trying to cut off the supply of drugs from Mexico. However, it looks like he, as so many other undercover agents, got lost in the life. This is a developing story and we will continue to keep you updated as we get more information.”
“I take that back, I don’t want to know what you’ve been up to. Good night,” Evelyn said with half a smile before she stood up and turned in.
“I’ll be right up.” Sedric kissed her cheek before he took a seat in the armchair opposite me.
Ethan’s eyes closed while he lay in my arms. He looked so peaceful.
“You’re poking a hornet’s nest,” Sedric said.
“What else can we do when a stick is placed in our hands and a hornet’s nest is kicked into our face?” Liam asked him, as he took a seat beside me.
“Just make sure you’re—”
“Sedric, we just need you to look after our son while we’re gone and show up for photos. That’s it. We’re not speaking about what we are going to do. Just keep an eye on the news if you’re interested.” I told him, not caring if it was rude or not.
“I’m getting too old for this shit,” he sighed. “When you’re both ready to share your plans, know that I will be here.”
Liam nodded, as he watched Ethan sleeping in my arms. Sedric got up and walked up the stairs leaving us alone.
“I knew retiring was never going to work for him,” Liam sighed, as he sat in the chair and relaxed.
“If the Pope can do it, so can your father. We just have to give him a bone to chew,” I replied.
“Our son isn’t a big enough job?”
Rolling my eyes at him, I shifted Ethan in my arms as I rose and headed towards our new room. Tomorrow we had another agent to take down. We intended to keep picking them off until the FBI crumbled from the inside out.
FIFTEEN
“Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage.”
—Ray Bradbury
NEAL
Stepping out of the closet, I watched while she gazed at the rising sun. She held herself tightly as if she were trying to hold herself together. She hadn’t even bothered to get dressed or fix her hair. She just stood there, staring. It was like we were mourning and I didn’t even know why.
“Olivia,” I called out to her.
She turned around, and looked me over with no emotion on her face.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“Liam wants to go for a run.”
She shook her head before she turned back to face the window. “He calls and you go running like his dog.”
“Olivia—”
“You make me sick sometimes, bending over for your little brother, hoping that he’ll finally bring you into the fold. When will you get it? He hates you. He will never love you. He only puts up with you, with us, because we are ‘family.’ Sometimes I wish you would be a man. Why is that so hard for you to even attempt?”
My first instinct was to wrap my hands around her neck and twist it off. Instead, I took a deep breath. “Why is it so hard for you to understand that you are not important?” I calmly asked her as I put on my watch.
“Excuse me?” She turned back to me.
“You. Are. Not. Important,” I said slowly. “You want me to be a man? From the very moment Mel came into this family, you’ve been jealous. No, this is beyond jealousy. This is insanity. No matter what you do, you will never be on that level. When will you understand? Why is that so hard for you to get?”
“Screw you and Mel!” she snapped before she stormed off into the bathroom.
Without a word, I walked out the door to find Liam waiting. He looked at me, but said nothing and I wasn’t sure whether or not he’d heard us. If he did, he didn’t make it obvious. Setting the timer on his watch, we began our silent run outside the door with Monte following close behind.
I had no idea where we were going, but for some reason I wasn’t worried. If he was going to kill me, he would’ve thought of something much more fucked up and intricate than going for a run. Ten minutes later I finally understood; he wanted to race.
“I don’t even fucking know where we’re going!” I yelled as he sped up.
“Not my fucking problem,” he shouted in reply, running faster.
Just as I was about to pass him, the son of a bitch turned the fucking corner and ran on towards the bridge. Unless he planned on jumping off, I knew I could pass him and I did, but he easily came up next me and matched my speed.
From somewhere behind us, Monte passed us both, which caused us to pause for a moment, though we keep jogging in place to keep our legs from tensing up.
“Isn’t he your bodyguard?” I asked him.
“Bloody Italians. All of them are out to piss me off,” he replied before he sprinted forward, and caught up to Monte. As he passed by, he looked back and glared at Monte, causing the dark haired man to smirk.
Finally we reached the Arlington National Cemetery and Monte fell back. We ran on until Liam stopped at the base of two of the white graves.
‘Eli and O’Neal Callahan’ the gravestones read and I felt a chill run up my spine.
“Brothers,” Liam said. “They were United States military aviators who commanded the "Flying Spades" during World War II.”
“Wow.” Where had he found this? How had he found this?
“O’Neal killed Eli, he shot his own brother right out of the sky without realizing it. He was later captured and tortured by the enemy, and he died on a rescue mission back home.”
“You think I’m going to shoot you out of the sky?” I asked him, as I stared at the graves and he snickered.
“No. This time I’m in the position to clip your wings, brother.” He turned to face me and his face was dripping with as much sweat as mine. “I took Declan out for dinner and poisoned him right at the table. I knew without a doubt that he would never betray me, but I still wanted t
o get my point across. I don’t hold that same confidence with you.”
Shaking my head, I tried to figure out what to say.
“Liam—”
“No.” He cut me off. “You are my brother, despite everything we’ve been through no matter how much I’ve threatened or fought with you, my blood is your blood. And no matter what, I would like to say that killing you would bring me dissatisfaction.”
“I do not know what I can do to ease—”
“We think that Olivia is a mole,” he said, and he might as well have cut me off at the knees.
“Liam…” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You think Olivia is feeding information to...that is…that’s insane.”
“It is either you, or her, or the both of you. So tell me, brother, are you the mole?” he asked and I felt Monte step up behind me.
I stared into his eyes. My little brother, and yet there is nothing small about him. He was like a giant, and for the first time I saw what my father did. How can one person hold so much pride and confidence?
“Are you the mole, brother? Are you the reason why I spent five months away from my son? Why my wife was ripped away from us? Why she spent months running? Tell me right now and it will be clean. One bullet and I will personally bury you.”
My mouth dropped open and before I knew it, I answered with more confidence than I knew I had.
He nodded. “Then it’s your wife.”
“She’s my wife,” I repeated. Slower, to myself, as I ran my hand through my hair. “You have to give me more proof than that, Liam.”
“Think about it, Neal. Think of everything…can you say with a hundred percent certainty that your wife is not a mole?”
I wanted to confidently deny his accusations. I want to tell him that he was insane, that this whole thing was just madness and he and Mel were just paranoid. But I couldn’t, and I saw my life with Olivia flash before my eyes. From the moment she first smiled at me to our moment in the bedroom. It was like a silent movie.
“I love her,” I whispered to him.
He placed his hand on my shoulder. “I know. Which is why I wanted to tell you. We aren’t going to do anything about it right now. Once we confirm it for your sake, we will use her and then we will—I need you not to break under this, brother. We need you. I need you. I understand your pain, and I don’t say that lightly. Five months in the dark, not knowing whether or not my wife was safe, being away from my family, from my newborn son…believe me, I understand. But we are blood before anything else. This family, our name, is what we fight for. Olivia went against that. She didn’t betray just Mel and me. She betrayed Mother, Father, Declan, Coraline and you. She betrayed our way of life. I don’t want to shoot you out of the sky, not for anything. Not for her.”
With that, he and Monte continued their run back, leaving me behind. I stood there for a moment, staring down at the graves. I stayed still for an hour before I walked my sorry ass home. I knew the way, and with each step I remembered how happy Olivia had been when Liam and Mel were gone. She glowed with a radiance that I hadn’t seen in years.
She wanted to be important. The final nail that pierced through me came when I finally made it back to our room. I entered to find her sitting on the bed, dressed in black, with her hair curled. And donning her feet were whites shoes. Mel’s white shoes…
“I’m so sorry, Neal,” she whispered as she came closer to me. “I was just in a bad mood and I just had so much on my mind.”
When she reached for me, I backed away.
“I’m all sweaty. We’ll talk after I clean up.” I kissed her cheek before I retreated into the bathroom.
When had the world changed so much? Had I been asleep the entire time?
SIXTEEN
“Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die.”
—Herbert Hoover
MELODY
Sitting on the bed, I brushed Ethan’s hair as he lay in between my legs. He was getting so big. Every day he seemed to grow, and so did that grin of his. Every time I looked at him, all I could see was Liam. They looked so much alike, it was as if he’d gotten no physical characteristics from me.
“If you’re going to look like him, you’re gonna act like me,” I whispered down at him, as I gently tapped his little nose. He giggled and tried to grab onto my finger as if it was something he’d never seen before.
“I’m going to teach you how to shoot, and if he ever tells you that he’s a better shot than I am, tell me, and I’ll show you all the bullet wounds he got from me.” I tapped his nose again and this time he laughed loudly.
“When you’re old enough to understand, he’s going to tell you all these rules that he claims were passed down through his family, but I swear he makes them up as he goes.”
He frowned and I would’ve liked to think that it was because he dreaded having to hear those rules, but I was pretty sure that he only wanted me to push his nose again.
The door to our bedroom opened and Liam leaned against the frame grinning like a loon. I glared at him and picked Ethan up before sitting him on my lap.
“How long were you eavesdropping?”
“Long enough to hear you trying to turn our son against me,” he smirked as he walked to us.
“I wasn’t turning him against you, I was just making sure that his love was spilt fifty-one—forty-nine.”
“Won’t work. I’m the cool parent,” he replied. And as he bent down to kiss Ethan’s forehead, Ethan started to cry.
“I can feel the good times coming,” I laughed, as I pulled him back. Liam looked so confused that it was almost sad, but he should have known better, Ethan loved Liam, if only to pull on his hair. “You stink, babe, try again after a shower.”
He sniffs his shirt. “Ah, no wonder he’s in tears.”
“Yeah, that’s the reason,” I replied sarcastically. And as he took off his shirt, I found myself fighting the urge to look at his chest…but I lost and caught myself gawking like a teenager.
“See something you like?” Liam asked, as he gazed down at himself before meeting my eyes.
“I’m free to look at what I own.”
“Remember that when I repeat the sentiment.” He dropped his pants and boxers.
Biting my tongue, I walked to the door with Ethan. “We need to be ready in an hour. How was the run?”
He grabbed another towel from the closet. “It went as well as it could have gone.”
“Neal returned an hour ago.”
“Yeah. I chose to keep running with Monte.”
I nodded but I didn’t press him for more. Neal knew he had a choice to make. Hopefully the gravestones would haunt him, they were fake, no one knew that but Liam and myself, but the point remained the same. No matter how Liam felt about Neal, I knew he didn’t want to kill him.
I walked into the room we’d been using as a nursery here in D.C., and I saw Sedric and Evelyn standing by the window speaking quietly to each other. They looked like teenagers sneaking around.
“Am I interrupting?” I asked them.
“Yes, but since you brought Ethan, we shall forgive you.” Evelyn grinned as she came towards us with open arms.
Kissing Ethan’s head, I placed him in her arms.
“Do you want a bath?” she asked, as she bounced him up and down while they walked off towards the bathroom.
“He’s already been changed,” I said to her.
“But you want a bath. Don’t you, Ethan?” She grinned and I rolled my eyes and watched as they disappeared.
“She’s been waiting for a grandchild forever. Let her have her fun,” Sedric said and smiled, as he leaned against the window.
“Well as long as she’s having fun,” I replied, moving towards him. “How are you enjoying the role of babysitter?”
“I was enjoying it a lot more before you labeled it. I’ve taken up a few new hobbies, why does the Great Melody wish to know?”
“Idle hands are the devil’s play tool.?
??
He perked up slightly, as if he were waiting for the bone I was throwing his way. I gazed out the window and stared at the Washington Monument that stood in the distance.
“Do you plan to keep me in suspense for long?”
Giving him my attention, I sighed. “I need you to create different identities for us.”
“Don’t you have those already?” He frowned.
“We do, but I need them to cover every angle. Birth records, passports, taxes, education, yearbooks, I need you to build us eight brand new lives.”
“You mean nine, including Ethan.”
“No, eight, including Ethan. Maybe even seven, but for now eight.”
He stared into my eyes and I didn’t flinch.
“Olivia and Neal—”
“Have a choice.”
“Do you really believe new IDs will be needed?”
“I don’t know. But I’d rather be safe than ignorant to the facts. Avian is different. If anything happens, I want to have my bases covered.”
“Fine. I’ll get working on it, but it will take time.”
“That’s why I’m telling you now. And Sedric, don’t allow anyone to find out you’re doing this, not even Evelyn. Not even Liam knows what I’m asking of you. I don’t want him thinking that I doubt us.”
He nodded as the door opened and Liam walked in dressed in jeans and a button down shirt with a bag over his shoulder.
“You both look suspicious,” he said tentatively.
“They do, don’t they,” Evelyn stated, as she stepped in with a sleepy looking Ethan in her arms. Liam kissed his head and this time he didn’t cry but yawned instead.
“We have a meeting to get to,” I said, and Liam nodded.
LIAM
“Name?” a blond-haired bodyguard asked as he blocked our path into the mansion with his hands.
For it being so early in the day, you would think there wouldn’t be so many people already here, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Nothing got people going more than a millionaire throwing a pool party.