Vicious Minds (Children of Vice 4)

“Ethan…”

“She’s almost four, Calliope.” I reminded her. “The memories that stick with a child for the rest of their lives begin when they turn four. My daughter is coming home. You are coming home. If the world is coming for us, I want us united under the same damn roof the Callahans have always been united under.”

She exhaled and put her head on my chest. “It’s hard to reason with you when you do this.”

“Aren’t you tired?” I asked, kissing the top of her head. To my surprise she nodded an admission.

“I am,” she said softly. “But like you said earlier, the difference between us and everyone else is our sacrifice.”

“Don’t use my words against me.” I frowned, and she giggled…actually giggled, wrapping her arms around me.

“You have enough on Moretti?”

“Tobias has been helping.” The little cunt.

“The little cunt,” she said, as if she could read my mind. Her eyes met mine “You still want Dona to do it?”

“I need her to do it. It’s the only way she’ll come to terms with it. But she can’t kill him unless I give her permission, and I can’t give her permission without exposing the fact that I want her to

do it.” What a fucking clusterfuck.

“It’s a fucking clusterfuck,” she commented and this time I just stared at her, baffled. “What?” Her eyes were wide with confusion.

I just shook my head. “I need to think of something that gives her the right to kill him without me being there.”

“Don’t be there.” I could see her trying to piece together a plan. I wondered if this is how I looked too.

“Go on.”

“If you are called away for work in another area, who do you usually leave in charge?”

“No one,” I answered, not sure why she asked. “Just because I’m in another location doesn’t mean I still don’t know what’s happening at home.”

“Well change that, at least this once…leave to take care of business and make it clear you aren’t going to be reachable. Let Dona run the family for a little.”

“That’s dangerous. Once my sister tastes that power—”

“Will your sister betray you for power?” I hated to even think of the answer to that question.

“She will be tempted to.”

“Temptation is not a sin, it is the thought of committing sin. She’ll think about it until her face turns blue, but will she do it? Will she betray you?”

I shook my head. “No matter how badly she wants to, she’s a Callahan. She’s my sister. Her ambitions give way to our family. Always.”

“Then trust her with this.”

I could see how it might work, but I was going to need one hell of an excuse to leave her in charge when I would normally never do so.

“What could be big enough to draw you away though?” she asked, and I was convinced she could read my mind but was not telling me. “The Finnegan brothers?”

I snorted at that. “You yourself said without Grams they’ll crumble within weeks,” I reminded her.

“They don’t know it was Grams,” she observed, and I automatically knew where her mind was going.

Grinning, I followed her logic. “I should support them in her place, just like with Rocha. Let them grow thinking they are getting stronger to fight me.”

I could use them in more ways than one; this could be exactly what I needed to bring all of this to an end.