Ruthless People (37 page)

“This side of the hospital has been cleared, so let’s chat.” I grinned, giving him
a few seconds of air before pulling the mask from his face again.

“Go to hell,” he breathed out.

“My wife is a raging homicidal hormonal pregnant woman. I sleep with hell.” I sighed,
giving him air again.

“Give me a second to shit bricks of sadness.”

And I laughed, too, before grabbing the pillow from behind his head, pressing it against
his face.

“I’m not in the mood for a smartass,” I snapped at him. When I took the pillow off
his face, he coughed like a dying chain smoker.

He held on to my hand as I fed him his air. “Let’s start with something simple. Why
did you jump out of your hotel room? That could kill, you know.”

He tried to hold on to the air but I simply ripped it from him.

“You burned down my house.”

“I wasn’t charged, tried, or arrested for anything.”

“I know it was you! You Callahans destroy everything.” His voice broke, and again,
I rolled my eyes. “But you warned me and I should have . . . you warned me and so
it’s my fault they died. That little girl, you sick mother! I told you about her!
It was me. I-I—”

“Please don’t get emotional, that was only my first question.” I needed him alive
right now.

“No games, what do you want from me? You have taken
everything
.” He coughed, leaning back on his bed.

“I want to know everything you have on the Valero.” He laughed liked a mad man, and
when he did, I held the pillow to his face again. He struggled until he was too weak,
and it was then that I let him go.

“Let’s do this again.” I held on to his face. “Tell me about Amory, Saige, and Vance
or so help me God, I will make you wish you had died. I will make sure you are alive
and well, trapped in your own fucking body like a jail cell. Each day, I will make
sure someone personally gives me a patch of your skin until you are nothing but an
open wound. What . . . do . . . you . . . know?”

He smiled. “They want you dead, your wife, your child, and every last Callahan. They
tried bringing you down the legal way, but I’m a failure remember? They are just as
ruthless as you are. Word on the street is that your wife’s personal doctor was tortured
and then dismembered.”

“Word on the street? Did you hear that when your body collided with it?” I wanted
to rip the smiled from his lips.

“Doesn’t change the fact that they are coming for you,” he said, and when he did,
I pulled away, grabbed the morphine drip and replaced the liquid.

“This is adrenaline in small doses. It blocks out pain. In large doses, it does the
opposite. You feel everything.” I tapped the bag. “You’re not going to ride to the
afterlife in sweet painless bliss. You’re going to feel it all, and right as your
heart gives out, think about how big of an idiot you were to step into my house. The
very day this city was born, people like me have run Chicago. You thought you were
the next somebody who did shit. But all you will be remembered as will be the motherfucker
who failed at his marriage, failed at his job, and failed to even kill himself.”

Grabbing my newspaper, I walked back to the door.

“This isn’t over Callahan. It doesn’t just end with me. You won’t always be untouchable.
You’re only human!” he yelled at me.

“All men are touchable, Andrew, those who touch me simply lose their hands. So let
them come. I’m only just beginning. What I’ve done to you is not even the beginning.”
A second later the adrenaline must have kicked in because he shook and screamed like
a fish out of water . . . much to my ears’ enjoyment.

Stepping out into the hall, Declan, Neal, Monte, and Fedel all stood waiting for me.
Declan walked over, handing me a phone as we walked out of the hospital.

“Hello, sweetheart.” I smirked.

“You no good motherfucking bitch!” she yelled at me.

“Sweetheart, we don’t want our kid coming out swearing like a sailor.” I laughed as
Fedel opened the car door for me.

“The life-form who is fucking with my emotions, draining my energy, and stealing half
of all my food is certainly in a sac of fluid and can’t hear a word I’m saying. You
went to see the commissioner without me!” she screeched as I flipped through the files
in front of me.

“Love, you were knocked out cold this morning . . .”

“Then use your motherfucking hands and wake me the fuck up. You benched me!” Little
did she know, I tried to wake her up but she was no longer in the land of the living
then.

“Love—”

“You left me here with your mother, who is now calling every motherfucking asshole
with a drop of Irish in their veins to the house. I will kill someone, cut off their
head and put it on the dashboard of your car if you do not fix this shit. I’m eleven
and a half weeks and barely showing!” Her hormones were going to cost me my life . . .
or a relative.

“Mel, sweetheart . . .”

“Call me ‘love’ or ‘sweetheart’ one more time, sweetheart, and I will bust your teeth
in,” she said sweetly.

“I got nothing from him. Antonio and Eric told me they caught one of the Valero men,
Cross, in Mexico. They should be in the house, and you can handle that when I get
back.” There was silence on the line, which I prayed meant she was okay.

“I hate this,” she whispered into the phone. “I hate how I have no control of how
I’m feeling. I feel like a ticking time bomb, Liam. It’s pissing me off.”

“I’m good at defusing bombs, lov—” I stopped. I could almost feel her rolling her
eyes. “I get it. One step at a time, and I will try my best to help to not tick you
off. Would you like a smoothie?”

“That ticks me off!” she snapped. “Since when could you bribe me with treats like
a fucking child.”

I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. “So no smoothie, then?”

“Mango, banana, orange and extra kiwi,” she replied before hanging up, and I fought
back a laugh.

“Take me to Smoothie Hut,” I told the driver up front. Neither he nor Fedel said a
word. But what could they really say? I had a pregnant and dangerous wife waiting
for me back home.

MELODY

Taking a deep breath, I rolled into a ball on my bed.

“How are you feeling?” Evelyn said, literally sounding like a bird from a Disney movie,
before taking a seat beside me.

I’m tired, hungry, or annoyed every ten minutes. I spent the first weeks puking in
Adriana’s bathroom just to hide it from Liam, and now you’re treating me like I’m
an infant.

“I’m fine, Evelyn,” I said coldly, sitting up.

“Cut the bullshit, Mel. I’m serious, I get that you want to remain ‘Boss,’ but you’re
also about to be a mother. That supersedes anything else. So drop the act and speak
to me as if I were Liam.” If I spoke to her like I spoke to Liam, I would lose it.

“I shouldn’t be pregnant, Evelyn. I did everything but take my uterus out not to become
pregnant. Yet here I am. This kid is taking all my energy, and I’m tired all the damn
time,” I said, leaning against the pillows.

Damn him and his Irish swimmers.

“You’re still in your first trimester. Fatigue is normal. Give it three more weeks,
and it will fade.” She smiled, taking my hand into hers. “Mel, you don’t understand
how happy this makes me. How happy this has made our whole family. I’m going to be
a grandmamma.”

“Yeah,” I said with no emotion, because I wasn’t excited.

“You don’t want a child?” I could tell she was trying not to judge me, but I could
see the worry in her eyes.

“I kill people, Evelyn. It’s part of the job, and have no regrets about it because
I’m good. I’m one of the best there ever was. History will put me right up there with
Al Capone and Charles “Lucky” Luciano. I’ll be the second woman on that list next
to Xie Caiping. That was my baby. That’s the kid I’ve been taking care of for the
last seven and a half years. I don’t know how to take care of that child, while taking
care of this one.”

There, I said it.
I took a deep breath as Evelyn processed.

“You do know the reason for family right?” She smiled. “You are good at delegating
everything but your power.”

“That’s because power shouldn’t be delegated.” It’s what made me stronger. Why share
that? I was already splitting half of it with Liam.

“Maybe not. Maybe you could do it all by yourself. The only downside would be losing
your mind, Liam’s heart, or your child.” I don’t know why my hand went to my stomach
but the smirk on her face annoyed me. I had Saige and Amory already aiming for its
life.

“I don’t have to tell you to be yourself. But do use us if needed. Liam realizes he
needs you, and I doubt he would side-step you. Do less, but when you do something,
make it lasting. Leave a mark. Your men and the rest of the world will see you as
you are—Bloody Melody.” She winked at me as Liam walked in. He looked confused and
slightly worried. I guess he thought if I was talking to his mother, something had
to be wrong.

“I will leave you and the Mad Hatter alone, for now.” She gave me a small hug, which
I didn’t return. I was not a hugger, but I patted her on the back.

“Darling.” Evelyn hugged him and smirked at the smoothie in his hands. “That’s a small
cup.”

“What?” Liam replied, looking at it. Evelyn winked at me before leaving, even though
I had no idea what it meant.

“Are you all right?” he asked, handing me the smoothie.

I rolled my eyes, slurping down the drink. “I can’t have alcohol. How would you feel?
And this is a small cup.”

“Touché.” He laughed, falling next me. He had this annoying new habit of rubbing my
stomach as if it were a fucking crystal ball. It seemed to make him happy, so I didn’t
say a word. Someone should be excited for this kid.

“What did the commissioner have to say?” I asked, shaking my drink—stupid fruit kept
getting stuck at the bottom.

“We ruined his life, we killed his men, we are evil . . . same old, same old.” He
sighed. “I didn’t get anything new out of him.”

“Please tell me you ended him then. I’m done with the Chicago PD.” If not, I can always
go back to the hospital myself.

“It’s done. He died painfully and slowly. Monte stayed behind to make sure.” He kissed
my stomach before looking to me.

“This Cross person, how far up the chain is he?” The closer the guy was to the boss,
the harder it was to make him talk.

“Personal guard to Vance’s favorite mistress, Hera.” He smirked, taking a sip of my
smoothie. I glared but said nothing about it. He handed me his tablet and I flipped
through some of the files.

“Have Declan look for this Hera. She has to have a money trail.” Being his favorite
meant she was paid off well enough to keep her happy.

“I already have,” he told me, and I almost wanted to pout, stupid hormones. I was
not a pouter.

“Why don’t you just get me caught up since you’re the reason why I’m behind,” I snapped
at him. He was so cocky, and I was torn between jumping him and beating his face in.

“I killed Patterson. Antonio and Eric have Cross in the basement. Hera hasn’t left
Vance’s side from what Declan could tell, and I wasn’t able to get the extra kiwi—”

“What the fuck do you mean you couldn’t get extra kiwi!” I yelled, opening the lid
to my drink. “You can fucking destroy Chicago, make it rain blood, but you can’t get
a fruit in my drink?”

“I was just joking.” He laughed at me, and I punched him right in his fucking nose.

“Fuck, Jesus Christ, Mel!”

“Jesus Christ wouldn’t mess with a pregnant woman, you idiot.”

He shook his head wiping off his nose. “One of these motherfucking days—”

“Careful, Liam, you don’t want your child to hear you threatening his mother.”

He glared at me before smirking. He always smirked, or smiled, or laughed when I mentioned
I was carrying his kid. It was like he was on drugs. Leaving him on the bed, I walked
into the closet and grabbed my white heels along with a new dress shirt.

“Your breasts are bigger,” Liam said from behind me. I could feel the lust rolling
off him in waves.

“I know, it’s how I figured out I was pregnant to begin with.” All my bras were custom
made for me and me alone. When they no longer fit correctly, I knew. I had been the
same size since I was sixteen.

“I should have noticed,” he whispered, closing the distance between us.

“Liam, don’t. We have to go.” I wanted him, but I also wanted to get back to my job
and his dick was the reason why I was in this situation.

His eyes were glazed over when he ripped open the shirt I just buttoned. He stared
at my breasts for a moment before pulling me into his chest. With one hand, he lifted
me up, holding my ass.

“He’s a prisoner, he isn’t going anywhere.”

Grabbing his hair, I bit his lip. “Cork your cock. Put me down, and you will live
to have sex another day. I have a job to do.”