American Savages (Ruthless People 3)

“You are a bitch.”

“Excuse me?” I stood straighter, my body tensing while I glared at her.

She crossed arms and held her head high. “Liam is an ass, and you are a bitch. But you’re both still human and under the armor you both wear every fucking day, you love each other.”

“Coraline—”

“No. No. I’m still speaking and you’re going to listen. If you want to kick the recent cancer survivor’s ass afterward, that’s your choice.” She held her finger up at me and I fought the urge to break it. Who the fuck did she think she was?

“Mel, just tell him you’re sorry,” she added and I turned away, and pressed my nose against Ethan and inhaled. “I know you love him and he loves you. You have both gone through hell together and apart, but at least when you’re both together, you can find comfort in each other. When you love someone, you just have to let them win sometimes. It doesn’t mean you’re weak. It doesn’t mean that you are any less of the woman he fell in love with. He would walk through fire for you…while you were gone, he told Evelyn to show Ethan pictures of you. He wouldn’t let any of us doubt you. If you truly love him give him this and move on, Mel, or you will lose him permanently. I’m sure you all will still have plenty of fights in the future.”

Handing Ethan to her, I straightened my jacket. “Bring him down to the basement. I have work to do and I don’t want him too far from me.”

Kissing his head once more, I took off the earmuffs and threw it into the corner of the room as I left. It was only when I exited the room that I took a deep breath. Placing my hand over my chest, I tried to calm down, but my heart kept pounding against my rib cage.

What was wrong with me?

LIAM

What was wrong with her?

What the fuck was wrong with me?

“Liam, have you heard a word I just said?” Declan questioned me, as he leaned against the wooden door.

“No,” I sighed as I pulled my shirt on. Five months of seeing their faces on a limited basis suddenly didn’t seem so bad anymore.

“Speaking as your cousin, you are an idiot.”

Tell me something I didn’t know.

“Declan—”

“I know what happened to her,” he cut me off and I froze, only for a moment before turning to him.

“What?”

Pushing himself off the wall, he stood before me with purpose. “Mel. I know what happened to her. Coraline overheard you both arguing. No, she did not mean to spy on you, and yes, she did tell me everything. No one else knows, and you are still an idiot.”

“Coraline needs to mind her own fucking business. Her loyalty should be to Melody and I, not you. Husband or not.”

“When the parents fight, children find people to talk to. So, pin your anger on Coraline, we will have problems, but it’s your prerogative. You can add it to your list of fuck ups.”

My list of fuck ups?

“Declan, leave. I am not in the mood.”

He didn’t look worried. “I won’t until you admit it.”

“Admit what? What the bloody fuck do you and your goddamn nosy wife want? For the love of Jesus, say it and be gone.” My brain felt as though it was boiling over. I didn’t want to do this now. This wasn’t what I thought it would be like…I just…fuck it all.

“Admit you want her to suffer,” he whispered.

“You’re damn right I want her to suffer. Are you happy now, dear cousin? I said it. I admit it. I want her to feel the pain because I want her to think before she does something like this again.” Which made me a horrible husband, but it was true.

He didn’t look surprised or even bothered. He just nodded. “The only problem is she has already suffered. She’s suffered more than enough. And you’re not the one who should be aiding in her torment. She can never match your pain, Liam because it is impossible to match. You need her; she needs you, and the rest of us need you both together. Walk in her shoes for a moment—she’s spent her entire life with a dying father, who only ever taught her to depend on herself. You can’t change that in just two years. And if you love her as much as I think you do, then you should know that. You’ve always been good at patiently working towards what you want. I’m not sure why it’s so hard for you to be that way with her.”

I pulled back on the safety of the gun and looked him in the eyes. He sighed before turning to leave. My father who stood outside the doorway glanced at us then shook his head before retreating. I heard the door close and I had a feeling that Declan would never bring this up again. This wasn’t the first time he had ever tried to advise me, and it wasn’t the first time I’d held a gun to him.

Which was odd since it was Mel’s gun.

I placed the gun down on the dresser and started at my reflection. I looked like shit and felt ten times worse.

Don’t think about it. Don’t think about her.

I’d said that I was done and I was. Right now, I needed to focus on getting our…my…the men back in line.

Leaving my room, I hoped no one else would care to share their wisdom with me. I figured Mel was going to give some sort of speech, which meant I was going to have to add something. Riding the elevator to the basement, I heard nothing. It was completely silent, the air was still and no one moved.

Stepping out, I saw Coraline sitting in the corner with Ethan who stood on her lap. The rest of the men, including my father, Olivia, Neal, and Declan all stood around my boxing ring. Mel was inside, walking in a square, slowly wrapping her fists. Her dark hair was in a tight ponytail and her face was void of anything but stewing raging. When her brown eyes fell on me, she seemed stuck in place, as if I had pressed pause. Moments later, she regained her stride and composure.

“As you all can see, I am not dead. For those of you who doubted me, I will find you and I will weed out your sorry asses. You all were supposed to be rock solid, made of iron, and instead you all look weaker than a newborn calf. Fedel, get in,” she commanded. And like the Red Sea, the men parted and allowed Fedel to enter the ring. “Hit me.”

He positioned himself and within a second his fist went flying towards her face, fast. I took a step forward without even thinking about it before I stepped back. He was fast, but she was faster. She blocked his fist, and punched him in the neck and chest before dropping low and kicking him off his feet. She pressed her foot into his neck, and held him down.

“Get out of my ring,” she sneered, as she lifted her foot.

Coughing, Fedel rolled over and picked his sorry ass up off the ground.

“Next!” she called. One of my men, Kain Fionn, slicked back his dark hair and held his fists up, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He had at least a hundred pounds, if not more on her, but that didn’t seem to faze her a bit.

The second his arm came towards her, she dodged it. He kept punching and she just kept moving. She was letting the idiot overexert himself, and like a fool, he was letting her. He was pissing me off and making the Irish look bad. His fist slowed as he drew in a breath, and in that second, her arm curled back and her fist collided with his nose. We all heard the sickening pop as his head snapped backwards. His blood dripped from both his nose and her fist as he went down.