Vicious Minds: Part 3 (Children of Vice 6)

“And what if that leads you to getting hurt?”

“You get hurt. But the hurt you go through with him is most likely less than the hurt you would go through without him…as you may have noticed.”

He pursed his lips and rolled his eyes. “Ethan has always been different from me, from all of us. I tried following him. But it’s sometimes very cold next to him. He keeps everything in his head. He never says what he wants. Instead, he goes through these elaborate schemes to force us to do what he wants. Sometimes I want to smack him and just say ‘speak you dumbass.’ If you want us here, tell us. If you want us to do something, tell—”

“Then, you’d argue with him.”

“So? We argue. He explains. If we argue more. He yells and threatens. We won’t like it, but we will fall in line. After all, he yelled at us to accept you, and here we are.”

“Your girlfriend slash cousin, and then your cousin both tried to kill me.”

His jaw cracked to the side for a second, then almost like a kid, he pouted, looking up to the ceiling. “You are not fun to talk to. You’re biased in his favor.”

“Good to see the last few weeks hasn’t knocked the childishness out of you.”

The corner of his lips turned up, though he still stared up at the ceiling. “That’s good to see? I would have thought you would call it annoying.”

“It is. But it is you,” I replied. “You are childish. Smart, stubborn, dedicated to your family, but childish. Nothing is to going to change who you are at your core. Same as Ethan. He’s never going to tell you everything. He’s having so many thoughts and conversations in his mind he forgets about the people around him. His way is the only way. There is only one compromise.”

“And that is?”

“Me.”

“You?” he scoffed, not understanding.

I nodded. “I don’t mind silence or conversation. I get Ethan. I see his flaws, and I will fill them. And if it takes me holding your hand for you to calm your ass down and listen, fine. I’ll do it, I guess.”

“No fucking thank you.” He chuckled. “I think I’ll figure out how to mend things with my brother without using his woman.”

“Is that so?”

“I have known him longer.”

“Then why do you keep doubting him?”

“Now we’ve talked ourselves into a circle,” he replied.

We had.

But before I could get another word in, there was a knock on at the door.

“They are most likely worried we are killing each other, or they want to know when we will leave,” he said, rising from the chair. “Come—”

“Enter.” I cut in, reminding him who owned this place now.

O’Phelan entered.

“What?”

“Mr. Callahan and his sister are here,” he said.

“What?” Wyatt gasped, stunned.

I glanced at my watch. 7:57 am. We’d be a few minutes late to the funeral, but we’d all be there. Calmly rising from the chair, I walked out into the entrance foyer, and there, walking in from the front doors, was Dona, princess blah…blah. I didn’t really care. It was the man behind her that Gigi dashed to. He caught her before he lifted her into her arms. He stood tall, a dark head of hair, dressed in all black, with not a fucking scratch on him.

“Papa, where did you go?” Gigi hugged him so tightly that if he let her go, she’d probably just hang from his neck.

Dona went to the rest of her family, hugging them. But Ethan scanned the entrance until his green eyes landed on me. We stared at each other for a moment before he kissed Gigi’s head and whispered something. She shook her head, so he whispered again. Finally, she agreed to allow him to put her back down on her feet.