“Hi, my dear,” I smiled back at her.
“What did she tell you to call them?” Ethan asked, picking her up and holding her when she tried to come to me…man was he petty.
“It’s a secret, Papa!” She stuck her tongue at him, and he pulled her nose, moving her closer to where her mother lay in bed.
Her eyes widened, and her smile dropped. “Mommy.” She bent down to reach.
“Don’t worry.” He kissed her head. “She’s okay. Some bad people hurt her, but she’s fine. Stay with her.” He carefully placed her on the bed before coming to us, his eyes falling cold again. “One of you get a car, and the other get my guest in the stairwell. We won’t be staying here for long.”
“All these measures,” Melody finally spoke, her voice above a whisper. “Saferooms, bulletproof hospital suites, secret Latin codes, poison smoke bombs, they were created by—”
“Calliope,” Ethan answered, looking down at her. “All that money people thought she was stealing or wasting on diamonds…it was for this. It’s easier to get work done in secret when you don’t use cash. She was protecting us—your son and your granddaughter. She’s been planning this for a very long time. So, get to work while I help her recover.”
I cracked my jaw to the side.
Now I was impressed, with Calliope too.
But it made me wonder how paranoid she had to be…how deep were the horrors behind that woman’s mask.
“She knew we were coming to kill her…and she still told her daughter about us.” Melody exhaled slowly. “That’s how bad wherever she came from was. She would rather her daughter be in the arms of the woman who might murder her than the one who raised her.”
“I said this once before. This family always attracts the most tragic of us,” I muttered slowly.
“This is not the moment for you both to reflect on your actions,” Ethan stated. “I gave you jobs, didn’t I?”
My eyebrow twitched.
“On it, boss.” I spat out, turning to leave.
How the fuck did my father manage this shit with me?
ETHAN
It took me more time then I liked, but I got the hospital to cover this up. For now, they would just say there was a faulty machinery issue, which caused the blast, if anyone on the bottom floors felt it. The rest of my men would clean up the bullets before repairs would be made…for this all, of course, the chairman of the hospital asked for a few new toys as well.
“When you bought major shares in the hospital and got involved in staffing, I thought it was your way of preparing a place for your brother,” my father said as we stood in the elevator, and I really wished the old man would shut up. “I see now how you planned on tainting their hands, too.”
He nodded over to the two nurses, one female and the other male, who monitored Calliope’s condition as we moved her. They pretended not to see or even hear us…well, they couldn’t hear us. They were deaf. All the nurses who worked on our floor were deaf. The hospital had created a unique program for them…they were happy for it. These two were also in very desperate need of funds and knew better than to even acknowledge any of us.
“How much do you spend a year paying people to be deaf, blind, and dumb?” he asked me curiously as he looked them over. “It always cost us an arm and a leg.”
It wouldn’t have cost that much, more like a thumb and a pinky. But he was stingy when it came to things like this.
“Mister?” Gigi called out to him instead of Grandpapa because my daughter was smart and knew not to do so when strangers were around.
“Mister?” My father replied, frowning, apparently not getting the game.
But Gigi put her hands to her lips. “When Daddy doesn’t answer, it’s cuz he’s either thinking or mad.”
I wanted to smile, knowing who had told her that.
“Really? How do you know which is which?” He snickered.
“When he’s mad, he gives you the look.”
“The look?”
I turned slightly so he could see for himself. His eyebrow raised.