Vicious Minds: Part 2 (Children of Vice 5)

I pulled her back into my lap, feeling better with her against me again.

“I’m sitting. What can I help you with now, Boss?”

“Aren’t you the worker bee,” I muttered tiredly. “Talk to me.”

“You do not like long conversations,”

“90% of the time, I do not.”

“The other 10%?”

“Exceptions I make for you and Giovanna.”

“What am I going to talk about? Don’t you want to be out there making drug deals and risking it all against the cops?”

“That is a bit under my pay grade.”

“Spoiled,” she grumbled. “All of you.”

I smiled. “I need at least one flaw, right?”

“You think that’s your only one?”

Amused, I nodded. “Isn’t it?”

She wrapped her arms around my neck before kissing my lips quickly. “You wish. We’ll talk tonight. Go spend time with our daughter. You promised her, and she will gladly talk your ear off.”

Before I could kiss her back, she was up from my lap and out of my arms. “Don’t overwork yourself, Calliope. You are a Callahan now; you can be spoiled, too.”

“The Grim Reaper never sleeps, Boss.” She winked before exiting the room.

After she left, I found myself still looking at the door for a second longer before I pulled my attention back to the maps and notes she had left out on top of the desk. It took only a few minutes for me to see what it was she had planned. Like always, it was magnificent but not flawless. Nevertheless, it made my heart beat faster and my mind cloud over.

I made it a point of habit in my life to see the big picture, to not be blindsided by anything or anyone. I never wanted to fall blindly in love. I thought I had been doing very well, up until the day I met her. From then on out, I realized it didn’t matter if I was blinded or could see clearly; in the end, I was still at her mercy.

CALLIOPE

I wanted to stay and talk to him.

Sitting in his lap and working in silence with no one questioning me or watching over me allowed me to relax for the first time today. I wanted to go with him and Gigi; but, I thought my grandfather was waiting for me. I must have thought wrong because when I arrived at my grandfather’s room, it was empty. There was no indication he had even been here, to begin with, and that was a bad sign. The fact that he had left without telling me was an even worse sign. As if he knew I was looking for him, my phone buzzed with a single message from him.

“Alea iacta est.” Latin: “The die is cast.”

That’s why he left.

He was now sure that I was, without a doubt, completely and utterly in the heart of the Callahan family. I now had all the power and access to everything. Before I could reply, he sent another message which read in Latin. “Love is rich with honey and venom.”

I replied with his motto of our family and organization. “We gladly feast on those who would subdue us.”

It took only a second before hi

s response came in, and even before I saw it, I knew what he wanted.

“So, give me deeds, not words, for it is impossible for a deed to be undone.”

Because I refused to kill Ethan when he had asked, he would surely ask for something else, something to make sure I still understood my mission. My throat was dry and my body cold as I sent him the code and coordinates to the Callahan stashes. It took more than a few different phrases to explain what Ethan’s plan—my plan as I had just seen the maps—would be. Losing this much at one time, with the city in such chaos, would be like cutting off Ethan’s legs as he ran.

Yet even still, my grandfather’s reply was, “Aquila non capit muscas.” “The eagle does not catch flies.”