Vicious Minds: Part 2 (Children of Vice 5)

“What? Why?” she asked.

“The ne

w Mrs. Callahan always hosts a party at the Callahan manor, not that any of us have gone.” Bianchi Jr. grumbled.

“Oh, stop sulking,” she said as if they were old friends, and she looked at me. “Is this true? I have to host a party?”

I nodded slowly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she snapped. This act of hers…world class.

“I’m under new management. Shouldn’t you tell me?” I replied.

“Oh…” The people around me laughed as she glared.

“You’re going to pay for that one later,” Bianchi Jr. grumbled.

“Oh…yes, he will.” She huffed, sitting back down. “All of you, please make time on Friday, as you will come to the very best Mrs. Callahan party yet. Mr. Callahan will personally write you thank you notes, too.”

I glared, and she smiled.

“Party at the Callahan house!”

“Who is this person?” I whipped back around, whoever it was that kept announcing as if they were deaf.

Only to see Spider Brows himself.

“Sorry about him. His hearing was a bit damaged in the church explosion. He can’t hear how loud he is,” Bianchi Jr. explained.

“It’s so sad…what they have been through,” Calliope whispered, looking back. “I can’t believe some people are so heartless. Who bombs a church?”

You. I answered in my mind. And like she had heard me, her eyes met mine briefly amusement slightly in them…also brokenness in them.

Whatever happened before this, with her mother, she was burying it behind this mask right now.

And like always…I let her.

WYATT

I watched the crowd around them grow and grow.

I wasn’t exactly sure how it happened because it happened so fast.

One minute they looked ready to march us off to the guillotine, and the next, they were laughing around Ethan as if they were all the best of friends. What was even more shocking was Ethan’s humor. It was dry and cold, but it still came across and made everyone comfortable.

“She’s terrifying,” Helen whispered beside me, her eyes dead focused on the woman who had caused this all, who Ethan allowed to tease him publicly. “Terrifying and amazing.”

I snapped my fingers in front of her face to get her attention. “Don’t get sucked in, too. She’s already gotten Ethan, the house, and now some Italians on her side.”

At this rate, by this so-called party, she might be crowned governor or something.

“You still don’t trust her?”

“You do?”

She gave a halfhearted smile. “I want to. Just like these people want to believe that our family is their family, too. They don’t trust her, but they want to.”

“I don’t want to.” I frowned.