Vicious Minds (Children of Vice 4)

I grinned. “Can your ego handle it?”

He didn’t respond. He just waited, sitting like a marble statue, his green eyes never looking away from mine.

“There’s been an uptick in violence lately. Members of cartels are turning on each other, struggles for what they think is power happens every time one of their leaders die. It’s very bloody, and in the end because they are morons, they get caught.”

“What does that have to do with me?” His face was blank, void of emotions.

“I guess I have to explain more clearly seeing as how you wish to play dumb. I really dislike talking so much. I feel rude,” I joked, but he didn’t flinch. “Not funny. Sorry, I forgot you’re in boss mode…aka Ceann na Conairte mode. You won’t talk about business with those who are not family, correct?”

He didn’t speak. He just watched me.

“Very well. I’ll speak, and I’ll tell, but I’ll do it my way.”

For some reason I truly enjoyed having his attention.

“Once upon a time...” I grinned when his eyebrow twitched in annoyance. His mask slipped there, but I let it go. “There was a small Italian girl by the name of Calliope, who was born in a beautiful but violent place

called Chicago, a kingdom ruled by the great Callahan family for generations. Or so she was told…you see Calliope didn’t get out much as child, her parents…were…very harsh to her. Some would even say cruel. But Calliope managed and was the best daughter she could be. One day, as reward for all her efforts, she got to go to the Callahan castle. She even met the queen. She wanted to be just like her, she wanted to live like her, and the Queen told her there was only one way…to be the wife of Ceann na Conairte.

Then she saw the young prince, and to remind her she was so low beneath him, he called her a mouse. Can you believe it? A mouse, a rodent, a creature that feeds on scraps and trash. That’s what he called her, and it hurt her feelings, but she forgave him because she knew she wouldn’t stay a mouse for long. She decided then and there, she’d marry that mean little prince and make him realize how wrong he was. But she had to get stronger, prettier, smarter…she did all of that, always checking in on that family, that prince. From afar he seemed to get colder and colder and when he became king, getting into that castle became all but impossible.

Not to be the deterred, Calliope decided if she couldn’t get in, she’d bring him out. It wasn’t easy, anyone can cause terror, but chaos requires delicacy and patience; after all, you can’t just kill anyone, you have to kill the right ones. A few cartel bosses here and few politicians there, until no one can trust anyone and people are stabbing even their own mothers in the back, thinking they're the ones who reported their stashes. How does this get the king out of the castle? When there is chaos, there needs to be order, and who better to bring order than the king? Especially when the idiots who are stabbing each other are hurting his bottom line.”

“The drug busts; that has been happening because of you?” His voice was barely a whisper. I knew the only thing holding him back from killing me wasn’t the fact that he knew me from childhood, but because he wanted to know the truth.

“Me?” I said in mock horror but gave myself away by grinning and leaning closer into him. “It was almost too easy, Ethan. Watching them turn on each other, on their own family after all that talk about loyalty…there was this one man, he cried when he found out his wife sold him out. Like legitimately cried…ha.” I bit back small laugh. “Sorry, that wasn’t funny. It was a really sad moment for their family. People say blood is thicker than water, I say put money in the water and blood means nothing anymore.”

“In one year, you pushed all the drug cartels in Colombia to blood wars just so you could get to me?”

“What can I say?” I grinned. “I’m a romantic.”

The look on his face…the blank and cold stare he was trying so hard to keep on his face was cute.

“I’ve lost hundreds of millions of dollars,” he sneered. “Do you think I am amused? Impressed?”

“That reminds me,” I went on, ignoring his comment and adjusting the ring on my finger. “The only way to get to you was to get a job as waitress, obviously I chose a restaurant you secretly own. It’s not a secret anymore because…well…María Paula. She actually held out much longer than I thought she would. I was very impressed by her, you should leave flowers at her grave.”

“Are you insane? Truly?” he questioned.

I rested my elbow and head against the couch and looked him over. “I seem insane to you… of all people?”

“Very.”

“Good, isn’t that one of the prerequisites for this family?”

“You think after all you’ve done, I’d just get down on one knee and give you a ring?”

“Oh…if only,” If it was going to be that easy, I would have just knocked on his front door. “Between your pride, trust issues, and my plot to bring you here, I know you mostly see me as threat…and only believe half the things I’m saying.”

“If you knew that all along, wasn’t this just one big waste of my goddamn time?” he questioned. I was doing my very best not smack him.

He was still playing dumb with me.

“No, because here I am, sitting right across from you, as you give me your undivided attention. So it seems like my trap worked perfectly well.”

“Except for the fact that now you might not leave here with your life.”

“You threaten me to scare me, but in reality, all you’re doing is telling me you don’t want to kill me.” If he truly wanted me dead, he wouldn’t have listened, he wouldn’t still be listening.