Ruthless People (45 page)

Our men gathered around us, all watching with joy, pride, and most of all excitement.
They had grown to either enjoy my method of torture or hate it in silence. Either
way, this has been long overdue.

“What were you saying?” I asked him pulling out a knife. “Something about this not
being over?”

Vance grinned. “You stupid Irish bastard. You thought I was something to worry about?
You don’t even know what’s coming. I was your buffer, without me she will come after
you next.”

“You’re not making sense, Vance,” I sighed running the blade against his cheek. “And
you don’t have a lot of time to explain.”

Again, Vance grinned, looking over to my Mel. “Ruthless isn’t she? Just like her mother.”

At that, Mel’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh is that rage?” he asked her, and I punched him right in the face, sending him
onto his back, but he just laughed.

“Correction, that was rage.” He grinned before coughing up blood along with a few
teeth. “But poor little
Melody
, the little girl who lost her mother so tragically at my hands. But wait?”

He laughed on like a mad man. “She isn’t even dead!”

“What are you talking about, Vance?” Mel replied shooting him in the ankle.

But Vance was so mental, he didn’t even flinch.

“I mean, my sweet girl, your mother is alive, your mother and grandfather are both
alive actually. Ruling in secret. They have just been waiting for us to kill each
other and pick up the pieces.” He sighed shaking his head.

“You’re lying,” I hissed, shooting him though his other ankle.

“Maybe,” he said, falling onto his back. “Or maybe all those years married to Orlando
‘Iron Hands’
Giovanni changed her, made her into something dark and ruthless. After all, the apple
can’t fall so far from the tree. But you’ll see soon. You can’t touch her. She’s untouchable,
they are all untouchable.”

Mel and I both unloaded our weapons into him, not stopping until every last bullet
was in his body.

Grabbing Saige by the hair, Mel forced her to stand right beside Vance’s fallen body.
Pulling the ripped shirt from her mouth, Mel glared into her eyes.

“Was he telling the truth?”

Saige just smiled. “Fuck you, fuck your mother, and fuck every last one of your men.”

Taking a deep breath, Mel took a step back.

“Strip her.”

Saige’s eyes widened as the men closed in on her. “You’re going to let them rape me?”
She tried not to look scared. The men all cringed at the thought.

“No one wants you, whore,” Fedel said from behind her, causing the men to laugh as
they approached. Without a second thought, they ripped all her clothes off, leaving
her standing there bloody and dirty.

“You get to leave this world the same way you came in,” Mel said holding her hand
out as Adriana handed her a pair of scissors.

“First, bald.” Kicking her bad knee, Mel grabbed a fistful of hair and cut. She pulled
and cut until all Saige had were clumps of red hair. When she was done, she grabbed
the handcuffs Saige was in and cuffed her to the back of the Jeep.

“Second, screaming.”

The rage, the fire, the pain in Mel’s eyes made it clear to everyone that they should
not stop her until Saige suffered, and this was the only way. Mel was going to drag
her body for God knows how many miles until Saige either died from the shock or the
loss of blood. The animals would do the rest.

“Please . . . please . . . don’t do this. I—” Mel just stuffed a sock in her mouth.

“A life for a life,” Mel whispered to her. “You crossed the wrong family.”

Monte held open the car for her, and she smiled at me through the mirror.

“This is going to hurt you way more than it’s going to hurt us,” I said to her before
stepping in through the passenger side door.

Starting up the engine, Mel hit the gas hard, and screams filled the morning sky,
but I just turned up the music. We were finally on top of the world.

“When did you take out my fucking CD?” Mel snapped at me as she drove faster.

“Your taste in music is shit, love.”

“Just because I don’t like that fucking classic and old school hip hop crap, doesn’t
make it shit.”

“All those artists are auto-tuned anyway. I like real music,” I said, turning it up
just a little bit louder to drown out the screams.

“What the fuck is this?” She glared at the radio.

“MC Ren,” I said, and she just stared at me. Smirking, I began to rap along with it,
causing her eyes to widen before she broke out in a fit of laughter.

“You are a pale-ass white kid from Chicago Elite. You are not allowed to try to rap
this.”

“Hater.” I winked and as she smiled. For the first time in forever, we both felt like
we could just relax.

Looking out at the lions as they rose for another day, I wondered if we were any different.
After all—I killed, ate, slept, and fucked just as they did. I was the king of the
jungle, and the woman beside me was my queen.

EPILOGUE

“Like Alexander the Great and Caesar,
I’m out to conquer the world.”

~ Jarod Kintz

MELODY

“Five.” I kissed his nose

“Four.” He kissed my forehead

“Three.” I kissed his cheek.

“Two.” He kissed my chin.

“One,” we said at the same time before kissing each other deeply.

“Happy New Year,” I whispered into the darkness of our room.

“Happy New Year, love,” he whispered back.

Hearing the fireworks go off pulled me away from him, much to his protests, but I
did want to see all the effort Evelyn had put in. Grabbing my robe, I stood at the
window taking in the sight of all those celebrating like drunken fools.

“You know they say the first year of marriage is the hardest,” Liam said, kissing
my shoulder.

Groaning, I leaned into him. “We’re still in the first year.”

“Really? I swear it’s been longer than that.” He laughed, trying to untie my robe,
but I slapped his hands away.

“Control yourself. We have a meeting, remember?” Despite the fact that I wanted him
as well, this was important.

“You’re starting the year off wrong.”

“You’ll forgive me, now put on pants.” He was such a pain sometimes.

“You put on pants.” He glared at my bare legs.

Rolling my eyes at him, I threw him his pajama bottoms. “I can wear whatever I want!
So let’s go, the family is waiting.”

He frowned but wore his stupid pants, following me out of the room and into the study.
There sat the whole family, along with Senator Colemen, Olivia’s Father, who looked
very confused about why he was here.

His whole demeanor changed when Liam took a seat in his chair while I sat on the desk.

“Thank you all for coming,” Liam said to them coldly. “As you all know, it’s been
a stressful year. However, that’s what happens when you take over a state.”

“And now that we have the state eating out of our hand, we want the country.” I smiled
at them all.

“How do you plan on doing that?” Sedric asked, leaning into his chair.

Liam and I grinned before Liam spoke. “You run for the highest office in the land.”

Declan coughed up his drink. “You want to run for President?”

“Hell fucking no,” Liam replied. “Senator Colemen does, and we’re going to support
him one hundred percent.”

Senator Colemen’s eyes widened as he gaped at us. “You want me to run for President?
Have you lost your mind? Is this a joke?”

I glared at the idiot. “No, this is an order, or did you forget who has been funding
all your other campaign events?”

“You’re going to run for office, and you’re going to win,” Liam said as fact. “And
then you’re going to work for us.”

Senator Colemen shook his head. “That isn’t possible. Not only am I part of an unpopular
party right now, but I’m divorced and have only been in the Senate for a few years.”

“Why are you under the impression that we’re asking?” I stood, turning to face him.
“You’re running for President, you will be the President of the United States of America,
and you will also work toward our best interests.”

“As for your wife,” Liam said, paging Adriana who opened the door to reveal the ex-Mrs.
Coleman.

“Mom?” Olivia gasped quickly, rising to give her a large hug.

“There, look, a wife. And by coming back together, you will prove you can work with
both parties, blah blah blah . . . you have a ready-made family with a lot of connections
and deep pockets. When we say you’re going to be President, we mean you are the next
Commander and Chief. ”

“We want the country and the world. Truthfully we wanted it yesterday so don’t try
to get in our way,” I told him.

“It took even God six days to create the world, Mel. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Neal acted like this was a joke.

“We may be all powerful, but we are not God. We do not want to create the world, we
want to own it.” Liam rose from his chair. With the end of the fighting, and wars,
we could finally do what we did best—make money. We had a whole shipment of drugs
pouring in, and we needed to focus on the business.

By the end, we would be untouchable, and what better way to do it than having the
President of the United States in your back pocket?

LIAM

When they all left, only Declan and I remained in the study as the sunlight slowly
started to creep in through the blinds as it rose over the forest. A new year, a whole
new brand of problems, and I wasn’t sure how to even begin to tell Melody.

“Check it again, Declan,” I commanded pouring the brown liquid in to the crystal glass,
this was just . . .
fuck
.

“Liam, I’ve checked more than ten dozen times in the last two weeks. Nothing is going
to change the fact that—”

“Don’t you dare fucking say,” I snapped, squeezing the glass. “If you say it with
that much conviction then it’s true. And if it’s true, I’m going to be the one who
has to explain it. I do not want to fucking explain it.”

“Liam, it’s time we face this head on. You know it. I know it. It’s time Melody knows
it.”

Easier said than done.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and cracked my knuckles trying to ease the tension
through my body.

“We’ve been so happy, Declan,” I whispered, staring at the sun as I drank slowly.
“She’s been happy. How do I tell her that everything she knows is a lie?”

He paused, taking a deep breath as he walked up beside me at the mirror. “It’s better
that she hears it from you, than finds out on her own.”

He handed me the folder once again, and I stared at the woman with short black hair
and warm olive skin. Standing tall and proud with her sunglasses on.

“They look so much alike.”

“They
are
alike Liam, and all the evidence shows Vance was right. There is much more to this
than we knew. Not only that Aviela Giovanni, Melody’s mother, isn’t dead, but that
she’s been behind it all. She wants to kill not only you, but her own daughter.”

“And Orlando knew?”

“He did what you’re trying to do now and protect her. But I doubt that’s going to
work much longer. Aviela Giovanni just entered the States.”

And just like that, I could feel the floodgates of hell beginning to open.

“May God have mercy on all our souls when Mel finds out.”

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I know if it weren’t for you, I would have never made it to this point.

All of you have made me feel incredibly special!