A Bloody Kingdom (Ruthless People Book 4) (12 page)

“Mr. Callahan?”

“Where are my kids?” I asked him, unable to rip my eyes away.

“The principal separated them from the rest of the kids when they were brought back in. They are waiting in the office with guards and two of my officers. They were in the yard when the shots started. I’m sure they watched a few of their friends go down. We haven’t caught the sniper yet.” He talked as we walked up the stairs; I would have run but I needed a second to compose myself before I saw them. The rage flooding my veins made my hands twitch. Wherever my kids were was off limits. Whoever had done this I wouldn’t just kill, I’d fucking skin them alive. “This is it.”

I stared at the door, taking a deep breath before he opened it for me.

“Daddy!” A ball of black hair brushed my legs, wrapping her hands around my ankles.

“Dona!” I said with the same excitement, reaching down to pick her up and throwing her into the air before hugging her to my chest. Like a monkey, she wrapped her arms and legs around me, burying her face into my neck as I brushed the back of her hair. She sniffled and I swallowed, trying to ignore the warm tears dripping onto me. “It’s okay princess.”

Wyatt and Ethan stood on opposite sides of the office, Wyatt by the window and Ethan by the bookshelf, neither of them even looking at each other. The one thing about Wyatt was that he clearly wore his anger on his face. He was so angry his tiny hand was balled into a fist and his face was red. Ethan, on the other hand, ignored him and came up to me.

“Hi, Dad.” He gave me a small smile. Up close, I noticed the cut above his eyebrow and the scratches on his hands.

Petting the top of his head, I put Dona back down and moved over to face Wyatt. He wiped his face quickly when I kneeled in front of him. His upper lip was cut, dry blood now staining his face.

“H…hi D…Dad.” He hiccupped, taking a deep breath.

“Hi Wyatt,” I said in return, looking him over to see if he was hurt anywhere. I couldn’t see anything. “Are you hurt?”

He shook his head, trying to force a smile.

“So why does your face look like that?”

“Because he’s a baby,” Ethan snapped behind me.

“Am not! Shut up!” he yelled back over my shoulder.

“Hey!” I hollered at both of them. “Ethan, I was speaking to your brother, not you. Go sit down.”

He crossed his arms, moving to sit on the principal’s couch as I focused my attention back to Wyatt. Placing my hands on the sides of his head, I turned him toward me and stared into his big brown eyes that had flecks of green within them. “Wyatt. Tell me what happened.”

He swallowed, taking a quick deep breath. “We were in the yard.”

“We?”

“Me and Abby,” he shouted, his hands moving as he spoke…just like his mother. “Bang, bang. The bullets hit everything. I saw Ethan get Dona and I tried to get Abby, but then Ethan came and pulled me toward the doors. Abby, she broke her foot last month and can’t run and I tried to take her with me but Ethan came too fast. He wouldn’t let me go. I told him we had to help her. But he wouldn’t listen! She was crying and crying. I tried to go back but Ethan wouldn’t let go, he hit me and pushed me behind the tables. He wouldn’t let go…I tried to fight. Then…then…I…the bullet hit…she was looking at me. She…died, right?” He started to shake as tears fell from his eyes again. “She died. I could have saved her. But Ethan stopped me.”

I stared at him. I couldn’t look away, and for the first time in all my life, I felt truly torn, like I was seeing the Liam, the Mad Hatter, and Liam, the father, standing at odds inside myself. The boss in me, the monster in me, wanted to smack my own son, tell him to grow up, that Ethan had done the right thing. You protect your family first. Fuck Abby. Fuck anyone who wasn’t a Callahan. The father in me, though, the person I would be if I wasn’t a boss, if we were normal, that part would have been proud of him. Proud that he was willing to sacrifice everything to save his friends, that he had that kind of bravery…but like always, the monster in me won out.

“Wyatt,” I said, my face emotionless. “You are my son. My blood. So I will let you wipe your face. I will forgive you this one time because I know this is hard and you are still young. But if you ever put yourself or your siblings in danger trying to save someone who is not family…you will no longer be my son, do you understand me? The family is all that matters. Now, tomorrow, and forever.”

He stared at me, stunned. As I stood up straighter, I reached into my jacket pocket for my phone and saw twenty-seven missed calls from Mel.

Shit. She’s going to…
No sooner had I thought of her than my phone rang once more.

“Ethan, your mother,” I answered, handing the phone off, but before he could speak, Dona grabbed the phone, grinning widely.

“Momma where are you? Ethan is crying!” She giggled.

“Dona! Stop lying!” Ethan tried to grab the phone and she ran away from him. Wyatt didn’t say anything, moving to sit on the couch quietly.

We need to stop babying them.
Mel’s voice rang in my mind. The thing was, Wyatt wasn’t being a baby…he was developing a moral compass.

“Boss.” Fedel walked inside a simple file in his hand, the look in his eyes unsettling me.

“What now?” I snapped, snatching the file from him. Inside were two pictures and a one-sentence note.

Before you harm another man’s child, remember you have three of your own. For the sake of peace, let this be the last time our guns cross.

~ Tàiyáng Ju-long

I flipped through the photos: Dona screaming from behind the blue table, her hands gripping so hard they looked white. Wyatt reaching for some girl in a purple coat in the far-off edge of the frame while Ethan dragged him over to where Dona was. Whoever had taken them had done so from close.

“For the sake of peace, he says.” I hissed through my teeth. “His son broke
my
rules, he takes shots at
my
children, and now he wants fucking peace?”

“They also sent it to the governor’s office sir. I have people looking through all the street camera—”

“Daddy!” Dona skipped right back to me, handing me the phone. “Mommy says she wants to talk to you.”

“Thank you, princess.” I smiled, taking the phone as she ran back to Wyatt and wrapped her arms around his neck. He was annoyed but couldn’t help but laugh when she said something.

“Mel—”

“The Tàiyáng Family has declared war on us Liam.”

“And they, like every other motherfucker, will learn that the goddamn price of war is blood.”

ETHAN

“Why ain’t Mommy here yet?” Dona made a face, tugging on the ears of her stuffed elephant, Mr. Missmore. Dad had named it for her cause she couldn’t decide. The maid combed her hair softly, not speaking to us; they never spoke to us unless we asked first.

“Not ain’t, Dona, isn’t. Why
isn’t
Mommy here yet?” I said, leaning on her dresser table.

“Really?” She stuck her bottom lip out. “But some of the kids at school always say ain’t.”

“It’s because they’re stupid,” I replied, flicking the nose of Mr. Missmore.

“And you are just
sooooooo
smart.”

In the mirror I saw Wyatt crawling onto his bed, not looking at me.

“If you’re going to say something, say it to my face!” I didn’t want to yell but he kept getting on my nerves.

“Fine.” He jumped off the bed and marched right in front of me before yelling.

“And you are just
sooooooo
smart, right?”

“Why are you so mad? I saved you!”

“Shut up!” He stomped his foot. “You only saved me to prove to Dad you are great!”

“No!”

“YES!”

“No, I didn’t, Wyatt!”

“Whatever. You should just leave me alone.” He frowned and started to turn around when I grabbed his arm.

“Let go.”

“Wyatt—”

“I don’t care! Let go! I hate you!”

When he said it I let go of his hand. I didn’t know why, but my chest hurt like really hurt. It felt like it was on fire. I didn’t know what to do or what to say so I lied. “I hate you too!”

“I hate you mor—ouch.”

“Ouch!”

We both looked at Dona, who had smacked both of us with Mr. Missmore as hard as she could.

“I hate you, Ethan, and I hate you, Wyatt.”

“What? Why?” Wyatt and I said at the same time.

“Stop copying me!” Wyatt yelled.

“I’m older than you are, you’re copying me—ouch!” I jumped when she hit us again, this time with her hands, dropping Mr. Missmore on the ground.

“Stop that!” I snapped at her.

“I hate you, Ethan, and I hate you, Wyatt.” She stuck her bottom lip out and crossed her arms.

“Dona?” Wyatt frowned, trying to touch her when she smacked his hand away.

“If you guys hate each other then I have to hate both of you. You guys are being stupid. STUPID! S-T-U-E-D,” she yelled so loudly we had to break away.

“Dona.” I tried not to laugh. “Stupid is spelled s-t-u-p-i-d.”

She raised her hand to hit me again and I backed away.

“Oh because you are
sooooooooo
smart,” she said, dropping her hand and moving back to the maid. “If you guys hate each other, I hate you, and if I hate you, I won’t talk to you guys anymore! Because you are s-t-u-e-d.”

“Not fair, Dona!” Wyatt called after her but she didn’t say anything back, she just turned to face her mirror.

“Why are you nice to everyone but your brothers?” I asked her and she stuck her fingers in her ears, humming to herself.

“This is your fault,” Wyatt muttered, frowning. He hated it more than anyone when Dona was mad at him.

“Everything is my fault, right?”

He didn’t answer me, just went back to bed.

Fine.
“Goodnight, Dona!”

“Hummmmm.” She hummed even louder as I walked into my room. The second I closed the door behind me, I remembered the look on Wyatt’s face when he said “I hate you.” It did not feel like Dona’s “I hate you.”

“Ugh!” I messed up my hair, stomping my feet. My head hurt. It had been hours since we’d come home, and Nana and Aunt Cora had stayed with us for a while. I loved Aunt Cora; she always told the best stories, getting up and making sounds and running around. It was fun. Nana painted pictures; Dona and Wyatt thought it was boring but I liked it. I knew they only wanted to keep us from remembering but I didn’t really care cause I was tired.

Knock.

“Come in.” I moved to the door when Sedric, Helen, and Nari all poked their heads in.

“We wanted to check if you are okay,” Nari spoke up since she was thirteen and the oldest. She was Uncle Neal and Aunt Mina’s daughter, but she didn’t look anything like Uncle. She was short like Aunt Mina, but her hair was super long. It used to touch the ground before she cut it, and now it stopped at her butt. Her skin was so pale she could never stay in the sun for too long and her eyes were so black. It was like staring at the sky with no moon or stars. It was dangerous to say that she was different; once on a Sunday while we were passing out bread at the soup kitchen someone called her a Chinkerbell. Uncle Neal lost it even though Nari and I didn’t know what a Chinkerbell was. Nobody told us either. He almost killed the guy, but Aunty Mina stopped him.

Sedric, on the other hand, looked just like Uncle Neal, except his eyes were brown. He was only six but he was already the same height as Wyatt. He loved football more than anything, so Uncle Neal took him out every weekend. I thought that was why he always beat us at arm wrestling contests.

“Earth to Ethan?” Helen grinned, waving her hand right in front of me. Her hair was pulled up into two big brown curly puffs on her head, kinda like Mickey Mouse ears. She was the exact same brown as Aunty Cora…well duh, she was Aunty Cora’s daughter. She was also a computer geek; she and Uncle Declan spent all their time working on computers.

“Nari, I think you should tell Uncle.” Helen grabbed the sides of my face. “Ethan doesn’t look so good.”

“I’m fine, Helen.” I smiled back.

She mushed my cheeks. “You
sure
?”

“I’m
sure
. Can you let go of my face now?”

“He’s back.” She cheered, lifting her hands off my cheeks and into the air as she spun around. “Told you he was okay.”

“We have to check. You sure, Ethan? All the parents are freaking out,” Nari replied as Sedric came over to me.

“Freaking out?” My parents didn’t freak out.

“Yep!” Helen hopped, walking in circles and pushing her glasses up her nose. “Everyone is really sad about what happened. I was in class when it happened. Then the vice principal took us all into her office.”

“It was boring!” Sedric ran to my bed and jumped up and down. “But I hate class so I was happy.”

“Sedric, you can’t say that, people got hurt. And stop jumping on the bed!” Nari rushed to him but he just jumped to the other side.

“Na!” He stuck his tongue out at her, running in circles.

“Fine, hurt yourself. See if I care.” She threw her hands up. It was kind of funny because Uncle Neal did that too.

“Ethan.” Helen came over to me. Seeing her serious was weird, she and Dona were the same age, but Helen always felt older even when she joked around.

“What?

“Nothing, I just wanted to say your name seriously, like my mom did to my dad,” she joked.

“Helen! You scared me!”

“Ethan, you get scared?” Sedric stopped dead in his tracks and Nari caught him.

Shit.

“No, I mean…it’s an expression, Sedric.”

“An…ex…expres…sion?” He frowned, not getting it.

“I’ll explain later. Come on, we have to get back before Mom comes.” Nari took his hand and hooked hands with Helen, dragging them to the door. “Night, Ethan.”

“I wanna stay,” Sedric whined.

Helen dragged her feet. “Me, too.”

“Nope.” She pulled harder and out the door.

“Night, Ethan.”

“Goodnight!” I called out after them and when they were gone, I felt even more tired. Pulling off all my clothes, I crawled into bed and wrapped the sheets around me two times. As I closed my eyes, I couldn’t help but remember the…the screams, all the screaming, and the booms. I couldn’t help but see Dona and Wyatt.