The Untouchables (Ruthless People 2)

I wasn’t sure.

“Ok?” I replied, taking a seat next to her.

“My father had money stashed away for you.” She laughed, running her hands through her dark hair. “He was worried that you wouldn’t marry me if I had no money, and worse yet, no power. He kept a black book of every judge, police officer, and politician that were indebted to the family. Not to mention a few stretches of weed fields down south. I was so pissed when I saw it. First off, I am worth way more than seven mil.”

“Yeah, now,” I joked, to which she just lifted her gun at me.

“Seriously?”

I couldn’t help but laugh. “So you took my seven million and…?”

“I took my seven million and bought product through one of Beau’s associates.”

“Beau? As in Officer Brooks?”

“Yep, he was just a poor beggar when I met him. I still don’t know if he was a junkie or not.”

“What is with you and bums? First Jinx, now Brooks?” She sure liked strays. Hopefully that was out of her system.

“I’m not going to ask how you knew about Jinx, because I may shoot you.” Her brown eyes narrowed in on mine. It made me want her more when she looked at me like that.

“Anyway, Beau knew a soldier in South America smuggling it in. I offered him a job, he offered me everything he had: connections, workers, smugglers. In return, I gave him a way out. Apparently, he had two kids to feed and he didn’t want to be a drug dealer all his life. Seven million was enough; I owned it all, and the moment I did…”

“The Gold Rush,” I whispered, grinning. “You were behind the gold rushes. It damn well pissed the shit out of Dad. Every junkie and dealer in the goddamn country wanted only gold rush. You sold it cheaper and stronger than we ever could. We were bleeding money and we had no idea who was behind it.”

My father had damn near went mad searching for the source of her shit.

“Seven million became twenty eight million in the first month. By the end of that summer, I had stopped the bleeding, and all those rats who left us came running back.”

“I’m sure you had a field day with them.” Rats had no loyalty after all.

“Fiorello took care of them.” She laughed and shivered, not because of the cold air, but at something I clearly didn’t understand.

“Fiorello?” I asked her, placing my jacket over her shoulders.

She stared at it for a moment, then back at me before nodding, stretching out her legs in the rubble. “Our head butler. The day you came, he most likely bowed.”

“Ah, the guy from Downton Abbey.”

“Yes,” she rolled her eyes. “To celebrate, I invited all the men for a large banquet at this very villa. A video was played from all the men who left. To prove their loyalty, they were supposed to shoot themselves. None of them did and so I had snipers do it. The rest of them were warned by Fiorello.”

“You didn’t want Fiorello with you when you moved in?”

She frowned once again and I hated it. “No. He wouldn’t have come, and I wouldn’t force him. He stayed for my father and after my father died, he went back to Italy. I found out Brooks had applied for the force but was rejected a year before he came to me. Part of me believed he could bring my family down and get the credit if he joined. Still, I used my father’s black book, cashed in a few favors, and he was in; my personal mole, working the Chicago police. It took me years, but I did it. Even after the Valero burned down our fields, the Giovannis were still on top. After the gold rush, the feds were on the hunt anyway, so I focused on the crystal and heroin.”

“And Coraline’s…” I couldn’t even bring myself to say it. It was so odd. She was good. She tried her best to be as tough and as bad as us, but she was too good. I liked that about her.

“And Coraline’s illness brought it all back. It made me wonder how things would have been if my father never had it. Would I have gone to UCLA? Who would I be?”

“A cute, sweet, college graduate, most positively still married to me. My life sure as hell would have been easier.”

“You really want me to shoot you, don’t you?”

Laughing, I pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her. “I can see it. You would actually be as innocent as you look.”

“All I see is you walking all over me and bending me over for sex like your personal plaything.” She pushed back, clicking the safety on before putting the gun away.

Watching her handle her gun made me want to bend her over now. This wasn’t the place. The last thing I needed was for her to get sick again, but the car…

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, to which I just grinned.

Leaning over, I grabbed her legs and picked her up bridal style.

“Liam fucking Callahan, put me down right now!”

“Not until I bend you over in the car. Of which you owe me a new one anyway!” I smiled.

“You stupid, Irish brute!”

TWENTY-SEVEN

“Everything Dies. That is the law of life-the bitter unchangeable law”

—David Clement-Davies

DECLAN

Up the halls, down the corridors, in circles, I ran. She just upped and left, not bothering to speak to a nurse or even text me. I had no idea where she was or where she was going, and what pissed me off the most was the fact that it was my fault. I never should’ve left her alone, but I just needed a goddamn second to breathe, to gather the broken pieces of myself. I should have been with her; I should have never left her side.

“Declan?” My father grabbed hold of me in the middle of the lobby, but I couldn’t meet his eyes. I just stared at all the faces passing me by, some in snow white coats, others in blue scrubs, but most of them were just visitors wandering about. None of them were Coraline.

Where was she? Damn it, where was she?

“Declan? Son? What’s wrong? Speak to me.” He shook me like he did when I was child, forcing me to meet his eyes. They looked just as tired as mine. I wouldn’t be surprised if I now shared the wrinkles he now wore.

“Coraline. She’s gone. I don’t know where she went. The nurse said she checked out.” She’d checked out without me, without anyone in the family.

“Son, she’s at the church down the street. I had Monte follow her….”

I didn’t even wait for him to finish speaking before I broke out of his arms, rushing out the automatic double doors and into the blaring streets. I had no idea what street I was on, my mind was coming undone every moment she wasn’t next to me.

The church my father spoke of was in sight, farther down the road. Pushing through the crowd, I did my best not to run, to stay calm and to think of what I was going to say to her. With each step that brought me closer to the looming brick cathedral, I felt the words drip out of my brain and disappear into some gutter.

I wasn’t sure what to say. I must have been going out of my mind. Like a madman, I’d been running all over the damn hospital, calling her phone over and over again. Now I was standing outside of the intimidating wooden doors of Saint Margaret, unsure of what I could possibly say to her.

Mind went back to the first time I had met her. I was entering Eastside Diner to escape the monsoon that was pouring over the city. The moment I saw her run in, out of breath, dripping wet, and laughing like a madwoman, I found myself unable to look away from her. She had this presence about her and it drew me in.