Ruthless People (20 page)

“Liam,” I hissed pulling on his tie. “We are about to go to war. We will not be stuck
in the middle of Vance and the Chicago PD. Especially when our men are acting like
children and fucking up every time we look away. They hate each other.”

“Hate is a strong word.”

“Since I’ve gotten here, has there been one night where either of our men haven’t
insulted or tried to kill each other?”

His pink lips parted for a quick second before closing again.

“Exactly.”

“We Irish have been fighting you Italians for generations. Of course they are not
going to stop just because you’re sprawled out in my bed.”

The grin on his face, like an obese cat after a meal, made my blood run hot. When
was he going to get it?

“You are a fucking . . . it is this thing you Irish do that pisses us off. You don’t
think before you speak.
Sei in ottone, idioti maleducati, egoisti e cazzo, razza di mangiare, dormire, uccidere
e gobba come cani!
”

“I’m sorry you lost me after speak.”

Talking a deep breath I took a few steps away from him, trying my best not to just . . .
ah. “How can someone with your IQ not have taken the initiative to learn Italian?”

“Have you seen the
Sleeping Dictionary
?”

“The what?”

“In the movie this Englishman goes to a foreign country in the nineteen thirties to
help colonialize the area. But he doesn’t know the language so they give him this
beautiful village girl whom he sleeps with and shares words until he knows the language.”

I . . . I couldn’t even. He had to be a masochist or just enjoyed fucking with me.
I didn’t have the energy for this.

“Let me guess, the movie was written and directed by men.
Voi tutti mi fai schifo.
”
²⁰

The corners of his jaw turned up as his shoulders relaxed leaning on the front of
his desk.

“So, dear wife, what shall we do about
our
men?”

“Tonight we go to dinner and tomorrow we prepare for camp,” I said with a smile of
my own.

He stared at me as though I had lost my fucking mind. “Camp?”

“When I took over as Boss my men didn’t trust me. They didn’t think I could lead them
and when I brought in new people, they didn’t trust them either. I bought a stretch
of forest near Cascadia, Oregon and made it into sort of a camp. It’s their moment
to let their guard down, because the place is like a fucking fort. The hackers all
spend time playing with the newest toys I provide them. All I ask is that they don’t
get on any FBI lists. The very fact that I have to tell them that is beyond me. The
woods are filled with targets to challenge snipers. The gym is for the hand-to-hand
knife nuts, and there are seven chefs there around the fucking clock to feed them.
They kill things together, they eat together, and they sleep in the same houses. By
the end of the week, they are brothers.” It was genius on my part, and I could see
it in his eyes as well.

“One week? That’s it, and then we will be the Brady Bunch?”

“Well, they won’t be trying to kill each other as often. That’s a start.”

He shrugged. “Well, wife, to camp we go then.”

I grinned almost wanting to take more pride in his words. “No women allowed other
than Adriana and me.”

“What the fuck is with this Adriana?”

“She is part of the crew, Liam, and if you saw past the physical looks, you would
know that. She is a trained marksman, expert profiler, and a damn good personal dresser,”
I added, pushing away from him to grab my phone off the desk.

“I still want to take out Vance’s cars.” He frowned.
Men and their cars.

“We can, and we will.” I smirked, already loving the plan forming in my head. “Except
this time we will have to steal it from Vance’s estate before he gets there.”

He looked at me, grinning like a mad fool, and stepped forward brushing the side of
my cheek.

“Fucking perfect,” he said to me before kissing me once again, and I knew this time
there was no stopping him.

FOURTEEN

“If the desire to kill
and the opportunity to kill
came always together, who would escape hanging?”

~ Mark Twain

LIAM

“You destroyed my underwear,” she hissed at me as she put her white shoes back on.

Straightening my tie, I tried not to smile, but I couldn’t help it. “Next time, don’t
wear any at all and we won’t have this problem.”

My beautiful wife stalked up to me, slowly glaring at me with daggers in her eyes,
and yet, it only made me want her more. I wanted to reach out and touch her.

What the fuck is wrong with me?
No matter how many times I had her, it only
made me want her even more.

“I don’t have a problem with that,” she said, glaring. “I’m not the one who has to
sit through dinner thinking about how I have nothing under this dress, about how you
could easily slip your hand underneath it and reach in me. But I think I will sit
opposite you tonight.”

She backed away so quickly it felt like I’d been awakened with cold water from the
loss of her warmth. That, and the fact that all the blood in my body was rushing to
another part of my anatomy. Damn her.

“You’re going to sit next to me,” I demanded as she walked toward the door and, my
eyes went straight to her ass.

“No, I’m not. I would rather shoot you, but since I can’t, I will sexually frustrate
you instead. Do not rip my clothing,” she snapped, leaving me aching for her.

“Bitch is going to kill me,” I muttered, trying my best to calm myself down.

Staring at the file on the desk, I wanted nothing more than to destroy Vance now.
I wanted to stare into his eyes as I lit his world on fire. However, I would wait.
First I . . . we needed to fix the idiots under us.

The moment I stepped out of the study, Declan was already waiting.

“How long have you been out here?”

He smirked. “Long enough. I apologize because I would have waited, had I realized.
She told me to calm down, it was just fucking sex. That woman scares and bewilders
me all at the same time.”

Just fucking sex.

I frowned. “Try being married to her. One minute she kisses you and the next she has
a letter opener to your throat.”

Declan’s eyes widened at me before he broke out laughing. “One day she may just kill
you Liam, I swear it.”

“One day, she just may.” I sighed. Truthfully, I wasn’t even sure if she liked me
for any other reason than the fact that we were married. I was ‘just sex’ to her,
and it shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did, but I couldn’t shake the feeling
that she wasn’t going to change . . . that she would never care.

“So, I’m guessing you both handled the Superintendent? Or is there something I can
do?” he asked, right as we stopped outside the door. I could see it in his eyes. His
own bloodlust.

Declan wasn’t as much of a killer as Neal or myself. He had always been, and would
always be, the man behind the computer, where I needed him to be. But when it came
to the police, Declan wanted blood. It was, after all, an officer who had taken both
his parents. He hated them and the code they lived by.

“If things get messy, you can personally clean it up, Declan,” I answered. “But until
then, just keep a watch on our Superintendent. If he buys a home near anything Callahan,
let me know.”

He nodded, and the dark look in his eyes disappeared the moment he stepped into the
dining room. He stopped for a moment, noticing my wife sitting in his position next
to Coraline. He raised an eyebrow at me before smirking as if he already knew the
reason why. Saying nothing, I walked over to my Mel, kissing her on the cheek softly.
She flinched as if I had slapped her instead.

“Evening, wife,” I said, trying to be polite while being just loud enough for everyone
to hear. I knew full well it would tick her off as I took my seat across from her
and to the right of my father. But I didn’t care.

She was pushing me and I was close to snapping.

Sedric was and would always sit at the head of the table. I didn’t care. It was a
prop chair. It held no real power other than carving a turkey. I sat at the true head
of the table. My mother sat on the opposite side and as always, they were speaking
another language with their eyes. I tried to focus my attention on Mel. However, she
seemed lost in her own mind. A mind I would give anything to read.

“Mel, is there a reason why you are not sitting next to Liam?” my mother asked kindly
as I reached for my glass of brandy.

Mel frowned. “I swear he’s trying to get me pregnant. He can’t keep his hands to himself.
It’s kind of annoying, actually.”

I felt the liquid rush back up my throat as I coughed. I glared at her. Of course
she would bring up sex at the dinner table, of fucking course. She was
my
Mel and didn’t give a damn about decorum. She lived to make me fear for my life,
horny, or uncomfortable.

“What’s wrong with getting pregnant?” Olivia asked, glaring as she drank her wine
while the servants brought our food.

“Nothing,” Mel said, glaring back. “Nothing at all, especially when you do nothing
else other than make yourself look pretty and shop.”

Declan kicked my foot, but I said nothing, simply cutting into my steak. This was
not my battle, and I was definitely not taking a bullet for Olivia.

“You think you’re better than us?” Olivia snapped, causing Melody to laugh and me
to stuff my mouth with meat.

“Barbie, I know I’m better than you,” Melody said, sipping her red wine. It was basically
a food group for her. “All my parts are original and not made in China.”

It took all my might not to laugh, but I did grin like a fool, and in the corner of
my eye, I could see my father smiling as well behind his glass.

“You bitch,” Olivia spat, rising from her seat.

Glaring over at her, I met Neal’s eyes. “Control her, Neal, or else she will need
new parts. No one calls my wife a bitch . . . with the exception of me.”

“No one calls me a bitch, period. You aren’t special, Liam,” Mel said, and it felt
like she had stabbed me.

“Maybe you should tell her we don’t attack family,” Neal said as Olivia sat back down.

“Yeah, we simply fail to defend them,” I replied, knowing full well it would shut
him up. However, he simply turned to me.

“How long are we going to do this Liam? It’s been almost two decades!”

“When I said I would never forgive you”—I took another bite—“I meant not in ten, twenty,
or even eighty years. We share DNA, nothing more.”

“Liam!” Evelyn shouted. “I’m not sure what happened between you two, but Neal is right.
It’s time to make peace.”

“Neal, would you like to tell our mother what happened between us?” I asked him, waiting.
The coward had never told either of our parents what he had done to me as a child.
Part of me believed Sedric knew, even though he had never let on.

Neal nodded slowly to himself before standing up and walking to the door.

“Neal,” Melody said, calling after him. His back straightened before he turned to
her.

“Pack your bag. I have something planned for the week. We leave tomorrow after mass,”
she said, not bothering to look at him.

He left quickly, causing Olivia to stand up as well.

“Are you happy?” Olivia asked.

I turned to Mel. “Well, love, are you happy?”

“No.” She frowned at my use of
love.
“I would be happier if you passed the peas,” she said, pretending not to even notice
Olivia.

Coraline, who had kept her head down and mouth shut this whole time, surprisingly
reached over and handed them to her. I looked over to Declan to find him glaring at
her, and I knew that look. Coraline had most likely gone through another credit card
saving the hungry children of
fill in the blank
 . . . it had only been two weeks. People were going to start questioning where all
this money was coming from. At least we looked good. He was pissed. Maybe I would
let him kill the police officer just to release some stress.

“You all sicken me,” Olivia hissed.

“You’re still here?” Mel asked, acting confused as she added peas to her plate. Olivia
stormed out, and I was fucking grateful. I was already in a small battle with my wife,
the police, and Vance. The last thing I needed was Olivia and Neal drama.

“What are you two planning?” my father asked, simply.

“Camp,” Mel and I said at the same time.

“Camp?” Coraline’s head popped up. If I remembered correctly, Coraline actually liked
the outdoors.

“No women,” I said without thinking, causing her to look at Mel. Mel eyes narrowed.

“Only those who are part of the job, Cora.”

Coraline looked surprised at the nickname, as did everyone else. “Cora?” she asked.