Vicious Minds: Part 2 (Children of Vice 5)

“Yes ma’am,” I replied, looking up the next fish.

Though she didn’t know how to read anything but a few words, she pressed her face beside mine, looking from the phone to the ceiling.

And that’s how we were, for a good hour until she fell asleep on my shoulder. It wasn’t that late, but at least she was only sleeping at night now. In a few more days, she’d be used to her life here. It wouldn’t erase the time she was in Italy, but slowly, day by day, this would be the only home she really remembered.

Gently rising off the bed, I picked her up and put her farther up the bed, placing the blanket on top of her.

“Keep going, Daddy.” She yawned.

“Sleep. We will read more tomorrow,” I whispered.

“I’m not asleep,” she muttered, trying to fight off the sleep, but snuggled into her pillow more.

I waited for a few more seconds, brushing the hair from her face before getting up. Walking to the sliding door, I glanced back at her one more time before turning on the camera system in her room and stepping into my own, closing the door behind me.

Taking off my jacket, I tossed it onto the couch and pulled down my tie. The bottle of red wine I had called for was already on the coffee table. And as soon as I uncorked it, Calliope entered the room like a bloodhound. She glanced at me as if she were a little shocked to see me.

“She let you go?” she asked. “When Gigi is interested, she never stops asking questions.”

I didn’t reply, needing a drink first.

“You are upset with me,” she said, walking over to where I was lifting the bottle of wine, and I still did not reply. “A 1949 Domanie Leroy Musigny Grand Cru? You’re drowning your sorrows with a fifty-thousand-dollar bottle of wine?”

I glanced up to her with my eyes narrowed. “A drop in the bucket compared to what I lost today.”

Her face fell as she took a seat opposite me. “I fucked up—”

“Since when do you fuck up, Calliope?” I snapped, gripping my glass. “Isn’t the point of your being at my side to prevent fuck ups?”

She just looked at me. “Really? Is that my role for you? And here I thought I was here because you—”

“Do not do that,” I sneered. “Do not fucking trying to spin this bullshit and put it on me. I am not in the mood for that fucking game.”

“I am human, Ethan. Sometimes I also, on rare occasions, fuck up,” she muttered.

I shook my head. “If one plan fails, you come up with an alternative. Yet today, you had nothing. What happened?”

“Nothing I say is going to be good enough—”

“You’re right but tell me anyway. What happened? Where were you all day?”

She had the bloody audacity to glare at me. “I’m sorry. Am I supposed to report my every move to you? I thought we were partners.”

I inhaled through my nose, gripping the glass, all while doing my best not to holler, so I didn’t wake up Gigi. “If it would make you feel like more a partner, I can tell you what my day entailed.”

“Sure—”

“Calliope.”

“I asked for men. Big Tillio let me down. I went there to change his mind. Then I had to clean up. I now have my people. I just didn’t get them when you needed them,” she said so quickly it almost sounded like a foreign language.

I sat forward, still trying to keep calm. “Last night, you told me to trust them, because they are your people. Now tonight, you tell me you could not get them, because of a nobody like Big Tillio. I’m confused. If they are your people, why aren’t they ready at your call?”

“It’s complicated.”

“I’m sure I can keep up.”

“Are you asking me to share all of my secrets right now?”