“He taught me a lot of things before you killed him.” With my only free hand, I was able to reach my gun and shoot the man who’d slapped me in his back.
He screamed and a bullet went through my shoulder, sending me onto my back.
“Rude and rash,” Aviela said, kneeling next to me as I gripped my shoulder and fought the urge to scream.
“You’d better kill me now, Aviela,” I hissed up at her. “Or I swear to God, I will not rest until I take your head from your shoulders.”
She pulled a gun and pressed it into my wound.
“You are a cub. I’m a lioness, sweetheart. Count your lucky stars you’re not on my list today.” With that, she shot me once more before rising.
The sun was in my eyes and all I could see was her shadow as she pulled off her white gloves.
“I’m your daughter…” I whispered as I started to fade.
“I never wanted you. I had orders. I followed them, and you were a side effect. No hard feelings.” Another gunshot went off, but I didn’t feel it. Everything went dark and all I could think of was…Liam.
LIAM
“Where is my wife?” I roared to the hospital nurse behind the desk.
“Liam, son, breathe.” Sedric pulled me back as I tried to keep calm. But that was hopeless at this point. I could barely see straight.
“I am breathing, where the fuck is my wife?” I screamed again, pulling the very first nurse who came out.
She stared at me, wide eyed, buckling under my grip.
“My wife,” I hissed into her face.
“I…I you’re hurting me.” She sobbed, trying to pull away.
“Liam, they just took her to room 228,” Declan called out and I ran. I ran like a man without his head.
I was going mad.
I knew it.
I could feel it.
One moment she was there, on the phone and the next, all I could hear were the windows shattering, the grating sounds of metal, and finally a chorus of screams.
Over and over again I called into the phone.
Over and over again I tried to get a message out to any of them, but nothing. For over two hours, we had nothing but radio silence. The GPS on all of our cars had been stripped. I demanded Jinx to take me to their last signal location, but she wasn’t there.
It wasn’t until my mother called, saying someone had leaked to the press about a car accident, that we were we able to find her. She was in some small rundown hospital on the edge of the city, and I didn’t even know if she was alive, or…I didn’t know anything. She wasn’t answering my calls. Neither was my brother. But I knew this wasn’t just a car accident. The bullet shells and Natasha’s skull had proven that.
They had killed her. Two shots to the back of the head. That was now Natasha Briar. Her body was found only two miles from the “accident” and the moment we found it, I feared what had happened to Mel… my Mel.
The moment I opened—more liked kicked down—the door, I came face to face with Neal, who sat at her side; busted eye, broken ribs and arm. He looked like hell.
But Mel, who lay as pale as the sheet on top of her body, looked far worse.
“They fucked us, brother…” Neal whispered. “Aviela DeRosa and her men. They waited until we got Natasha and ran us off the road. It happened so fast. She shot Mel three times…I tried. I tried to get her, but Aviela’s men. She had the power to kill us. She could have killed us. She wanted us to know she could fuck with us. Us. We Callahans, she could bring us to our knees.”
I grabbed his face, grabbing on to his hand before walking over to my wife. Sitting on the side of her bed, I brushed her hair back, trying my best not to imagine her being shot three times.
“Rest, brother,” I said. “Rest long. Rest well. Because they will pay for this. I will make her suffer. I swear it. She thinks she can bring us to our knees, but she can’t. No one can.” I kissed Mel’s lips before lying next to her and I felt myself calm at the sound of her heart.
Neal looked as though he didn’t believe me. Like he had seen the devil, and suddenly I didn’t seem as scary anymore.
But this wasn’t over.
This was far from over.
He shook his head before leaving, and I saw a flash of blonde hair that had to be his wife’s.
“She was toying with me,” Mel whispered, gripping onto my chest.
Pulling her closer, I kissed the top of her head. “I didn’t know you were up.”
“She played me like a child. She outdid me with ease, and left me on the ground powerless to stop her, Liam. She…”
“Shh, love. Rest. Just rest. This isn’t the end,” I told her.
“It’s not the end because she let me live.”
The thought of her being “allowed” to live angered me like nothing else.
“Mel, rest,” I hissed, holding her tighter.
Aviela would pay. She would pay dearly. Nothing, not even God himself could stop me from getting revenge. But right now I needed to keep my wife calm. I need the family calm. We would come out on top. We were Callahans, no matter what, we came out better and stronger. We couldn’t ignore this anymore. We couldn’t ignore her.
You did not fuck with my business. You did not fuck with my brother, and you sure as hell did not fucking mess with my wife. There would be blood. It would rain blood until justice was met.
We were going to Ireland.
“Liam,” Mel whispered into my ear as I stroked her arm.
“Yes, love.”
“…I’m pregnant again.”
God had a twisted sense of humor.
ELEVEN
“The business of murder took time, patience, skill, and a tolerance for the monotonous.”
—J.D. Robb
LIAM
Neither of us spoke. Neither of us really knew what to say, nor where to even begin. A lot had happened in the last forty-eight hours. Too much in fact, and I was still trying to sort through it all in my mind. I tried focusing on her breathing, the beating of her heart as it beeped on the machines around us. I tried to calm myself down and just clear my mind, but then it hit me. It hit me like the car that hit her. I almost lost her…them. Everything would have been over.
“Ahh…” Mel groaned, forcing me to sit up quickly.
“What’s wrong?” I scanned her body, but other than the obvious, I couldn’t find anything wrong.
“Nothing,” she lied, making herself comfortable once again on the hospital bed.
Ignoring her, I went to look at her chart, Neal had already been moved to another room.
“You’re not a doctor, put my chart down,” she snapped, throwing her pillow at me.
Catching it, I handed it back to her as I read.
“You declined all painkillers?” She was white-knuckling the pain. What the hell was wrong with her? “When did you decline meds? I’ve been with you since I got here.”
“You were in the bathroom. Plus the doctor said it was fine.”
“After you probably threatened him. Have you lost your mind? You have two shots in your shoulder and one in your thigh. Not to mention the countless bruises I can see up and down your legs and arm. Take the damn drugs, Melody.” I tried not to snap at her, but I was only working on two hours of sleep. This was not the fight I wanted to have with her.
She glared and I glared back.
“No drugs,” she hissed.
“You’re in pain. You’re getting drugs if I have to shoot you up myself.” When I reached over to call for the nurse, she grabbed my wrist.
“No drugs, Liam,” she whispered. “They increase the chances of miscarriage and stillbirth. I can’t lose this one. If I do, I’m done, I can’t…”
I stared at her for a moment, not saying anything. I hadn’t even thought about the baby; I hadn’t had time to process it all.
“Okay. Okay, no drugs.”
Once again, we fell into silence. I wasn’t sure what was going through her mind. I still couldn’t believe she
was pregnant. I mean, yes, it was more than possible. We jumped each other whenever we were alone. I was addicted her.
She glared at me and I wanted her, she sneezed and I wanted her. She was everything, and it had been more than a year since we lost…but the science behind how made sense. It was just a lot.
“What do you want to do, Mel?” I asked.
She didn’t answer right away.
“Do we have to tell them?”
“No, we can wait.” Until we were more comfortable with the idea…until I knew what to do. I had so much to plan and think over.
“Mel,” I whispered, walking over and taking her hand. “I love you. I love who you are and what we do, but it has to be different. I can’t…you cannot fight this battle. You can’t go up against Aviela. Not now. Not like this. I can’t lose our child again. You have to step back…”
“Liam.”
“Mel, I’m not debating this with you. I swear by all that is holy, I will make Aviela pay. I will make them all pay. But…”
“Let me speak,” she snapped as she sat up, only adding to her discomfort. Trying my best to help her, only gave her the chance to push me away with her one good arm.
“Mel…”
“Will you stop interrupting me? It pisses me off and you know it. What the fuck is the point of me telling you shit that ticks me off when you don’t fucking listen anyway?” she hissed through her teeth. Her brown eyes narrowed into slits and I tried my best not to smirk. She was sexy when she was pissed at me.
Even with her bruised lips, tangled hair and bandages, my wife still looked hot as fuck.
“Hormones already? Should I just buy the smoothie store?” The look on her face would have scared any man, I on the other hand found it funny by now.
She reached over and grabbed the first thing she could, and threw it at my head. Sadly, it was her own phone. I dodged it as quickly as possible and it broke apart upon impact with the wall.
“You are an ass, Liam Callahan. First, this isn’t ‘hormones,’ it’s me. Me with three bullet holes in my body, an asshole of a husband…. and meeting Aviela.” She said the last part softly. “The woman who gave birth to me, and also happens to be insane. I’ve had a rough few days, my reaction is completely normal,” she said,
But her reactions weren’t normal to me. If this was anyone else, my Melody would have stitched herself back up yelled at me for being late and then demanded that we hunt down who ever the son of a bitch was right then. Her reaction...well, she was hurt. What was worse was the fact that she didn’t even realize how much.
“What do you need?” I asked her gently, causing her fist to clench up.
“I need to be looking down at my mother the way she looked down at me,” she said as she turned away from me, but I made her face me.
“Mel. I’m never judging you. I don’t need you to be strong every moment of forever. I need you to let me in now more than ever.”
“She shot me, Liam.” Her voice cracked. “With no remorse or hesitation, she shot me with ease. She said that I was nothing more than an unwanted side effect of her job. But I should have known right? Everything we had found out about her said that she was a cold-hearted bitch, but I really didn’t think she would shoot. I don’t know why. I heard her voice and it sounded like the same woman who used to read to me at night.”
I wasn’t sure what to say in reply. What could I say? Part of me didn’t believe Aviela could pull the trigger either. For God’s sake, it was her daughter, her own flesh and blood. Melody and I did not draw lines in the sand, but that was something that I could never dream of doing.
Placing my hand over her stomach, Mel sighed and leaned back into the bed before covering my hand with hers.
“Mel…”
“Fine.”
“What?” I whispered.
She looked me in the eyes. “For our child and for your sanity, I will not chase Aviela. But I want you to. From now on, she’s your mistress.”
“Excuse me?” I tried not to cringe. Maybe she was on drugs.
She laughed, pulling me to her until I was once again lying on the small cot they dared to call a bed. It felt like a prison mattress.
“Aviela is your mistress in that I shouldn’t know anything about her. Everything involving her will be kept secret from me. Even with the men. If they tell me anything about ‘mistress,’ you threaten to cut their balls off and make them wear them as earrings,” she explained softly.
Only my wife could talk about castration and sound like an angel.
I watched her skeptically. “You’re just going to back down and stay out of danger?”
“Depends on your definition of danger,” she stated.
“Melody…”
“Don’t ‘Melody’ me. You’re not my father. I’m letting you take over the hunt for Aviela; I will help if you need me. But don’t need me. I know myself well enough to know that if I get involved, I will want to take over. I will want to hunt her down myself. But I’m not becoming a housewife either. If we’ve learned anything, it’s that Aviela cannot be underestimated. You can’t focus on the business and her at the same time—”
“So, you want control of the drugs?” I cut her off. If this were anyone else, I would have snapped their neck.
“Liam…”
“Don’t ‘Liam’ me,” I said. “You want me to hunt down your mother while you’re off making drug deals with the rest of the country?” She was definitely on drugs.
“It’s safer and you know it,” she whispered.
I could only shake my head at her. Only in our world would selling drugs be safer than dealing with family.
“What would be safer is you spending the day at malls and charity events while I handle this…” She squeezed my hand so tightly I felt my knuckles crack. “Ouch. Damn, baby.”
“This is the deal, Liam. Take it or leave it,” she demanded.
Always the demanding bitch. She was lucky I fucking loved her. I don’t know why, but like a fool, I did.
Grabbing her good arm, I glared down at her.
“You’re not in any position to make deals, love. You’re pregnant and you’re not putting yourself in danger. You are not your mother, and you wouldn’t harm our child by letting the same thing happen twice. How would it look, having my pregnant wife dealing smack to junkies and dealers that would put a bullet in their mother’s head just to get a line?”
Why couldn’t she just spend nine months watching re-runs and painting her nails in bed?
She frowned and winced. “Liam, you’re hurting me.”
“Shit, love. I’m sor—” The moment I let go of her arm, she smacked me over the head.
“I’ve been pregnant for seven weeks. It didn’t affect my ability to handle junkies. I get it, you’re nervous, so am I. But we have so much work to do. You cannot do it all alone, nor should you have to,” Melody said. “Handle Aviela for me. Focus on that. I can handle everything else. You know I can, and if you tell me not to, I will only ignore you. So why are you fighting me on this? It’s a good plan. It’s the only plan we have right now. Liam, I’m not asking permission. I own half of our family. I’m doing this, or we deal with both situations.”
I hated this.
I didn’t want this. I wanted her out of the business. Not forever. Just until…just until I knew they were both safe. Luckily, before I could reply, my phone beeped.
“I have to go,” I told her, kissing her quickly before grabbing my jacket from the chair.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“To find out more about my mistress.” The look in her eyes as she sat up told me this would only last about a minute before she was prying the details out of me.
“I’m only taking Fedel, the rest of the men are here to protect you…” I paused looking over once more. I didn’t want to leave her. “To protect the both of you.”
“And who’s going to protect them?” She glared, lying back down.
Shaking my head,
I walked toward the door.
“Love you,” I said.
She sighed. “I love you too, okay? Happy? I love you. Now leave before you mess with any more of my emotions.”
MELODY
When he left I stared up at the ceiling rubbing my flat stomach. My flat stomach with a kid inside of it. A kid with really bad timing. Our kid; my and Liam’s own kid.
I was going to be a mother…if it made it. If I didn’t get it killed again, I was going to be a mother; a mother who wouldn’t shoot her child at point blank range.
“I never wanted you. I had orders. I followed them, and you were a side effect. No hard feelings.”
I could hear her voice—the voice I so desperately craved as a child—and now I wished she was dead. I felt the pressure building up in the back of my throat, and I tried to push it back down. But I couldn’t, and the sob rippled through me before the tears came.
I was not a crier. This was not me. But it hurt. Everything hurt. It hurt so badly and I just wanted to forget everything.
Hearing a knock at the door, I wiped my eyes and nose quickly before taking a deep breath.
“Enter,” I called out, and in walked Adriana.
“Mr. Callahan said you would like some herbal green mint tea for the pain,” she said, holding the mug tightly as she walked over to me.
She looked me over and I knew my eyes had given me away, but I just nodded and took the tea.
“Liam said to give me herbal green mint tea?” I asked, staring at the cup.
“No.” She said. “He said, ‘my wife’s in pain. Find some natural shit to make her feel better before I get back.’”
“Dartmouth’s finest,” I whispered, rolling my eyes as I sipped, only to spit the liquid out. “This tastes like shit and mud.”
Adriana grabbed a few napkins, cleaning me off.
“I’m fine. But I’m not drinking this.” Handing her the cup, I lay back down.
“Is there anything I can get for you, ma’am? I’ve been trying to get information from the nurses and doctors, but they’re a little too afraid to talk.” She frowned, eyeing the chart at the end of my bed.