“Look who’s joined the party,” Mel said as she stood at the door and waited for me to follow.
I couldn’t wait to shake Avian’s hand tomorrow when we got back to the White House.
TWENTY
“A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction.”
—Criss Jami
CORALINE
As I walked towards the front desk, I held my head high and tried to deny the fact that my heart was beating erratically. So much so that I could feel it pulsing within my eardrums. But I couldn’t break now. I was going to have to hold in the panic that was threatening to surface. Pulling out the forged badge, I held it over the scanner, and released a small sigh of relief when I wasn’t tackled by some three-hundred-pound security officer.
“Thumb,” the guard demanded, without even bothering to look at me, which was a shame really, since I’d put in a lot of effort into getting ready for this.
“It’s fine, Coraline,” Declan said in my ear.
I pressed my thumb onto the green pad, feeling better because of Declan’s reassurance.
“Thank you. Have a good day,” the guard muttered as I walked through the rest of the security measures they had set.
“They’re going to do a body search. Do not make eye contact, just walk through as if this is a normal routine,” Declan told me.
I didn’t answer, instead, I tried to follow his instructions as I placed my bag onto the conveyor belt. It reminded me of the security checks at an airport—an x-ray machine, a metal detector, and a line of stoic faces waiting for their turn. Once on the other side of the metal detector, I took my purse and walked towards the elevator bank. I entered without a word and held my bag tightly as the other occupants moved aside and allowed the janitor to enter. I slid my bag off of my shoulder and opened it without drawing attention to myself. From my peripheral, I watched as the janitor slipped a gun in and quietly took his exit on the next floor.
“Fedel will meet you on the top floor,” Declan’s voice called through the indiscernible earpiece.
Again, I didn’t reply. Instead, I examined the number pad in front of me; there were sixteen floors accessible by the elevator and I was only on the fourth.
At the tenth, he spoke again.
“Coraline, get off the elevator on the next floor. I’m looking at the security feed and there are guards everywhere. We’re going to have to abort this.”
I looked around me and saw that there was only one man left, a man who kept looking at me strangely. He caught my gaze and held it.
“What level?”
“Do not answer,” Declan told me.
“What level?” he asked with a little more force, as he reached behind him.
Shit.
“Coraline, get out when the doors open.”
“This is federal property. It’s off limits to civilians. You are not allowed beyond the ninth floor,” the man stated.
“Coraline!” Declan screamed.
I pulled out my earbud and faced him. “I’m sorry, were you speaking to me?”
“Who are you?”
“Excuse me,” I snapped. “It’s not your business as to who I am, Agent Morgan. Nor do I answer to you, are we clear?”
He froze as he stared at me with an expression akin to shock. “I—I—”
“This is your floor,” I told him as the doors opened.
He looked confused as he walked out.
“Agent Morgan,” I called out, “if you wish to advance in this career, you’d do well to remember your station and those of higher rank.”
I flashed the forged badge as the doors close. When they did, I took a deep breath before I leaned against the wall.
“How in the hell did you know what to say?” Declan asked when I placed the earpiece back in.
“I saw his phone when he was checking his email, it had information that gave me an idea of his rank and status. And as Mel always says, ‘if you demand respect, you will get it.’” I was sure that Mel wouldn’t have frozen for even a second.
Declan said nothing, and when the doors opened, I walked out onto the sixteenth floor.
“Fedel should be there by now,” he said just as Fedel came out of another elevator, dressed in a suit. Apparently he’d decided to forgo the janitor’s disguise for this stage of the plan.
“You ready?” he asked me.
“Are you?” I responded before pulling the gun from my bag.
Nodding, we both walked through the double glass doors. The entire level was filled with computer drives and other electronic devices that littered the area. The single office in the back stood out and marked our destination.
“Do not kill her,” Declan stated.
Fedel stood to my side as I slid the badge through the electronic keyhole. The room smelled of sex and stale perfume. As we walked forward, the agent’s attention, the very agent I was copying, snapped from the man she was fucking, to us.
NEAL
“I’m really glad we did this,” Olivia said, as she placed her hand over my own.
Forcing a smile, I nodded. “We needed a good night out.”
“Where did you find this restaurant?” She looked out the window where she was able to see the capital.
“Liam and Mel just bought it. I think they’re planning on making this their new headquarters or some shit. They’re meeting here after their night at the White House,” I lied, as I sipped on my brandy.
She frowned for a quick moment, then smiled. “I should have known from the décor; it’s very Mel.”
“You two are never going to get along are you?” I fought hard to not roll my eyes.
She snorted before she drank her red wine. “How can anyone get along with Bitchy Mel? She is the most conceited and rude person I have ever met. She only cares about herself. I feel bad for Liam.”
“Liam is an ass, he deserves her. One day—” I stopped.
She grinned. “One day what?”
“Nothing. He just pisses me off. Karma’s a bitch, and everyone gets what’s coming to them someday.”
“Better him than you.”
“You could say that,” I snickered. “But I honestly think Avian might beat them—us. He’s been fucking over people like us for God knows how long. He sees all their plans from a mile away.”
“Their vanity and pride is going to be the end of them, Neal,” she whispered as she squeezed my hand. “We can save ourselves, we should just go. After this is all over, we can come back and pick up where we left off.”
“Olivia, don’t be ridiculous, Avian is coming after all of us. We don’t abandon family.”
“So they send us all to our deaths and we’re just supposed to accept it?” she snapped.
“What would you have me do, Olivia?” I frowned.
She glared at me as she got up. “Sometimes I don’t even know why I bother. I’ll be right back.”
I waved to the waiter for the check as I pulled out my phone. Olivia wasn’t aware of the fact that I knew about both phones, nor was she aware that I had bugged her phones while she slept. Putting my phone to my ear, I listened to her ongoing conversation.
“I want to hear the deal again.”
“I am not in the mood for games, Olivia,” an older man replied.
“This isn’t a fucking game, Avian, this is my life. You wanted information and I have it, but I need to know I’m not putting the nails in my own fucking coffin.”
“I am a man of my word. I swore that you, your husband, and the little one will make it out unscathed. I do not take kindly to having to repeat myself. So speak if you still wish to stay alive, because right now I am your only friend.”
“Mel and Liam own a new restaurant called the Blue Garden, they plan on meeting here after their night at the White House. I think it’s something big.”
“You think?”
“I don’t want to push Neal, everyone’s a little jumpy. Mel and L
iam still think there’s a mole.”
“Do they know it’s you?”
“No. I’m just the annoying, jealous airhead. They don’t give me enough credit.”
“For your sake, you should be grateful.”
I waited for them to hang up before doing so as well. Downing my drink, I enjoyed the burn as it went down. She was going to save Ethan and me? What were we supposed to say, thank you? Thank you for wiping out our entire family, our legacy? If she knew me, she would have known that I was as good as dead without my family. My father? My mother? She didn’t give a fuck.
“Babe?” Olivia placed her hand on my shoulder and I flinched. “Are you okay?”
“No, sorry. King Liam needs us back home.”
“I can’t wait for this shit to be over.” She drank the rest of her wine.
“Me too,” I muttered as I took her arm.
You are a bitch, Olivia, a motherfucking bitch.
TWENTY-ONE
“For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first.”
—Suzanne Collins
LIAM
“Look at Mommy go,” I whispered to Ethan, bouncing him on my knee as Mel swam through the pool. I could barely keep up with her, she was like a motherfucking mermaid.
“Gagba,” Ethan babbled, as he reached out for her.
“No swimming until you at least learn how to walk,” I snickered, not that he paid much attention to me. He was just as mesmerized by her as I was.
She said she swam to clear her mind. I just wished I knew what she was trying to focus on. In a few short hours, we’d be at the White House for this afternoon’s award ceremony where Avian would undoubtedly be in attendance.
There was a small part of me that thought it best to simply kill him and be done with it. Who cared if he got the glory or a bloody parade in his honor as long as he was dead. Somehow I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Avian had spent decades planning and plotting, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was some sort of contingency plan should he die. We needed to not only end him, but make sure our lives, our businesses, were safe.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
I blinked a few times to find Mel out of the water, drying her face off with a white towel. My gaze followed the residual water beads as they rolled down her chest before I looked up to meet her brown eyes.
“Only a penny? You can do better than that, baby,” I winked at her. She rolled her eyes at me, but I could see the smirk that was slowly spreading across her face.
“The chlorine is starting to get to you,” she said as she bent over slightly and squeezed the water from her hair while she cooed at Ethan.
My eyes followed the lines of her body and I swallowed. “Believe me, it’s not the chlorine.”
She wrapped the towel around herself, causing me to pout. “Can you take him inside? If it’s not getting to you, it may be irritating him. I don’t want him getting high or something.”
“High off chlorine?” I laughed as I rose from my chair and pulled Ethan to my chest. “Seriously, love, have you ever known anyone who has gotten high off chlorine?”
She smacked my arm.
“Hey, baby on board.” And to prove my point, Ethan immediately grew fussy.
“I have no clue what babies can and cannot get high off of. They are usually not in my company, and I don’t want to take the chance, so go.”
I looked to Ethan, as I bounced him around. “Mommy is bossy, you’ll get used to it.”
She rolled her eyes and stepped towards the outside shower to rinse herself off.
I was somewhat taken aback by Neal who was leaning against the couch with a glass of bourbon and a file in his hand.
“A little early, don’t you think?” I asked him.
“Says the man who used to say ‘A bottle a day, keeps the doctor at bay,’” he replied as he took another sip from his snifter. Walking towards Ethan’s playpen, I laid him inside before I handed him his favorite teething toy.
“What is it, Neal?”
“Olivia’s out shopping with Mom, so I think now would be the best time to give you the information I’ve gathered.” He waved the file at me.
Walking to him, I took the file and the bourbon, downing it all in one shot before I handed him back the empty snifter.
“I’m guessing that this is about Olivia?” Mel asked as she stepped inside.
She was now dressed in a pair of shorts and a basic t-shirt. It was weird to see her dressed so casually. She, like myself, rarely ever wore anything basic.
I nodded, and flipped through the files, before I showed her the document with the one thing we both suspected had been a part of her little ‘deal’ with Avain. I couldn’t believe she’d gone that far.
“She will die,” Mel stated stoically as her hands gripped tightly onto the folder. Her tone alone seemed to freeze the room over.
“I know,” he replied.
She took a step forward. “She wanted my son, Neal. No one can save her from me.”
He nodded. “I know.”
“You better not crumble on us, Neal Callahan, or I will put you down. I don’t want to; I can see an end to this. All you have to do is stay strong.”
Once again he shocked me by leaning in towards her.
“I’m not a child, boss. I will never be put in this situation again. She’ll be back in an half an hour, have at it,” he uttered before walking away.
I watched him take his leave, but before he could leave the room I called out to him.
“Neal.”
He paused before turning to me.
“Take Declan’s Aston Martin.”
When he left, Mel gave me a look.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I told her. “You have to give a dog a bone every once in a while, or it loses its sanity.” Declan would be pissed since he personally worked on it himself, but he would get over it.
“Fine. He’s your brother. What else does the file say?”
“Apparently that we own a restaurant downtown as a cover for cocaine distribution.” I wanted to laugh at the thought and I could see that she wanted to as well.
“A restaurant as a cover? Sure, maybe if we were in The Godfather. Avian is going to see right through that. Rule eleven; don’t shit where you eat, both figuratively and literally.”
“Thanks for the mental picture,” I cringed. “However, it seems that my brother has put the deed in our name—”
“He did what??”
“It’s not real.” Damned woman, never let me finish. “They’re fakes, but proof enough for Avian. I think we should sit on this. We’ll be seeing him in a few hours, and I’m sure he already has his people doing surveillance. Why not fuck with him a little?”
She chewed it over before she nodded. “In the meantime, I think I should have a little chat with Olivia.”
“Mel—”
“I’m not going to kill her yet.”
Why didn’t I believe her?
“Melody, I want her alive for now since she is our key to Avian.”
“I know. I’m calm.”
She was anything but calm. Then she walked to the kitchen, and oddly enough, started doing the dishes.
“Mel, what are you doing?”
“The dishes.”
Never in all of the time we’d been together had I seen her wash a fucking dish.
“Mel—”
“I need to keep my motherfucking hands busy, Liam. Now will you please stop looking at me like I shit unicorns and leprechauns? God damn!”
This was supposed to be calm?
MELODY
It was wrong to be this excited. It was sick. But I couldn’t help who I was. I watched the doorknob turn and I heard their laughter. There’s a moment right before you cause someone great bodily harm when adrenaline rushes through your veins, your hand twitches, and your mind seems to focus in on one thing and one thing alone: pain.
My father used to tell me that there were differ
ent types of pain, and once you mastered them all, nothing hurts. I never believed him though; physical pain never seemed to get old. Just ask any of the people I’ve hurt.
She walked in, seemingly on cloud nine, holding three Michael Kors, a Marc Fedels, and a Christian Louboutin shopping bag. Her red lips were wide and large as she laughed her blonde head off.
Evelyn was right on her heels. “Mel, I have the most wonderful dress for you to wear this afternoon.” Evelyn smiled as she moved straight for Ethan. “And I have something for you too, Mister.”
“Let me guess, a bow tie,” Liam said to her, but I paid them both little attention as Olivia moved into the kitchen to get a bottle of sparkling water. She called for Neal but got no reply.
“Where’s Neal?”
The moment she asked, I snapped. Releasing all the rage I’d been holding within, I took one of the plates I had just washed and smashed it onto the side her head. It shattered on impact. When she screamed and stumbled forward, I took a fistful of her hair, pulled her to the sink, and dunked her head into the dirty dishwater.
“Mel! Oh my God, Mel, what the hell are you doing?” Evelyn shouted at me.
“Go mom, and take Ethan with you,” Liam said to her. I didn’t know if she listened or not, because I was far too busy pinning Olivia’s flailing arms behind her back.
Pulling her head up, she gasped and wheezed for air as I tightly gripped her hair.
“You have no idea how long I’ve waited to kick your motherfucking skinny ass. You stupid, stupid little bitch, did you really think you could outsmart us? Outsmart me?” Before she could reply, I dunked her head into the soapy water once more. She screamed, and tried to fight me off, but I could feel her strength slowly sapping away.
“Everything in me tells me to kill you, to take a knife and skin you alive, Olivia, and I want to! I want to so damn badly,” I told her as I brought her up again. “You betrayed us, but in all honesty, I never trusted you to even hold my shoes.”
“Please—”
“You’re pleading to the wrong person, bitch!” I sneered as I dunked her head back into the sink. She screamed, and as she did, I pulled her out and allowed her to cough up the water.