Stop, I thought.
“Stop,” I whispered.
“Please stop!” I finally yelled.
“Please? What have I told you about saying please, Melody?” The man turned around and when he did, all the air in my lungs evaporated.
“Dad?”
“Am I? Because the daughter I trained, the daughter I raised, she isn’t this weak? Melody Nicci Giovanni, the daughter of Iron Hands, Bloody Melody—that is who you are. What? You thought just because you defeated the Russians, your mother and your grandfather, that it was over? That you’d just ride off into the sunset with your Irish family! THERE IS NO SUN FOR YOU, MELODY! There is no place you can hide. There will always be someone after you. How many goddamn times do I have to teach you this lesson?”
“This isn’t real.” I shook my head and backed away. “I’m going to wake up now.”
“If this isn’t real, then you wouldn’t mind?” he questioned once again—this time with the gun pressed into Liam’s head and I knew this wasn’t real. I knew it, but I couldn’t stop my heart from racing.
“Look at you. I should have never let you into this family. They’ve made you weak. You are a boss, Melody. You belong to the Mafia. Not the Brady Bunch. Get your head out of the fucking clouds and act like who you are.”
BANG
His body fell over sideways, blood pooling out in front me…his eyes never looking away.
“LIAM!”
My eyes opened as I snapped up from bed, gun in hand, my heart still pounding against my chest, my whole body coated in sweat.
“Mel? What is it?” Liam sat up on his elbow, his eyes still half shut.
“Nothing. Sorry, go back to bed,” I whispered, lifting the sheets up and sliding my feet out to the side.
I could still feel his eyes as I walked to the bathroom.
Closing the door behind me, I dropped the gun by the sink before reaching ov
er and turned on the faucet.
“Breathe. Just breathe,” I whispered to my reflection as I tried to shake the images from my mind.
Liam dead.
Ethan dead.
Wyatt dead.
Dona dead.
Just me. Always just me…the thought scared me. Me who had spent almost all of my life being alone was scared of being alone. Just when I was feeling…like a Callahan…of course my father would pop up in my mind to remind me I was Giovanni before everything else.
“Damn Orlando. You’ve really fucked me up.” I smiled even though it wasn’t at all funny.
Washing my face, I stepped back out expecting to see Liam in bed. Instead he leaned against the wall to the bathroom, his eyes shut and his arms crossed over his bare chest. Lazily, he opened his eyes and looked over to me, the corners of his mouth turned up.
“You okay?” he asked.
This. This was the reason why I was afraid to be alone…since we got married, since I came into his house, he never looked away from me, he never let me be alone. He always had my back and so I leaned on him.
I was weak for him.
“Mel?”