His whole body language changed. His arms went to his waist, and his expression, along with his jaw, hardened. “Well, Ma’am, there ain’t any need to be worried. Other than being jobless and without her son, she’s just fine. Due to the recent events with the President, we are keeping our witness under protection.”
Did this fucker just try to backhand me under-handedly?
“I only recently learned about her losing her job,” I said. “If you could please let her know she can have it back once this has all died down, I would be grateful.” And I won’t slit your throat.
He frowned, looking me over carefully before glancing over to Fedel and Monte. “A lot of muscle you have there just to see a maid. I’m sure you people can find a new maid in a jiffy.”
“Who, them?” I pointed to Fedel and Monte. “My husband is so paranoid sometimes, and now that I’m pregnant, he’s just gone bonkers. Ms. Morales has been working for us for years. She’s been trying to bring her son over. When I heard my sister-in-law fired her, I felt horrible. She’s not only done so much for us, but now she’s stood against injustice, against the most powerful woman in the country. With that type of strength, I wish I could do more for her. I truly want to let her know that the Callahans are in her corner if she needs anything. You can do that, right officer? I’m not breaking some super-secret police code, right?”
“Yeah.” He nodded. “I’ll have it passed along once she testifies tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Officer Scotty—”
“Scooter.”
“I’m so sorry. I’m horrible with new names. It’s pregnancy brain. Can you believe I’m almost eight months already? Well, I’ll be off. Thank you again.” Reaching out to take his hand, he smiled as he shook mine.
“You too, Mrs. Callahan. Congrats on the Senator’s win.”
“He hasn’t won yet. The election isn’t for another three weeks.” Or did he have a crystal ball up his ass?
He shrugged. “Everybody knows now that the First Lady is out of the picture, your man is about to become the leader of the free world. You Callahans always have the best luck. How do you all do it?”
He wants to do this now?
“We’re just blessed, I think. Good things happen to good people, right? I still can’t believe all that mess with the First Lady.”
“You know,” he laughed, “there’s this crazy rumor going around about how you were all connected in this somehow. That this was all part of your husband’s master plan to get his guy in the White House for his own agenda. The First Lady said she had help, but she didn’t know the woman’s name. What do you think about that?”
He was pushing the wrong hormonal woman right now.
“Should I…call my husband or my lawyer or something?” I asked him, rubbing my stomach.
Before he could speak, Brooks walked up beside him. “Mrs. Callahan? Is there anything I can do for you? I’m so sorry, none of us knew you were coming in today.”
“No, Officer…?”
“Brooks, Ma’am. Your family helped pay for my old partner’s injuries from that Chicago factory fire last year.” He reached out and shook my hand. The moment his rough hands met mine, I squeezed before letting go.
“Please, don’t thank us or apologize. I’m the one who came unannounced. I had some information I wanted to pass on to Ms. Morales. But Officer Scatter…”
“Scooter.”
“Right.” I blushed. “Told me he would handle it. I really should get going before my husband calls searching for me.”
Before I could leave, the golden haired fucker had to get the last word.
“I’m glad to see the rumors of you marrying a Callahan for power were all false. You both seem very happy.”
Biting my tongue, I forced myself to smile once more. “All these rumors. No wonder you all can’t bring down the crime rate. It seems all you do is gossip. Good day.”
Monte opened the door to the street as the car pulled up onto the curb. I wobbled slowly down the stairs with Fedel hovering behind me. They all did that, and now that I was showing so much, I couldn’t even get out of bed without help. Sliding in, I took off my hat, throwing it against the seat.
“That no good motherfucking cocksucker! I want his head! I want to beat the shit out of him until his neck snaps and then drop him over a damn canyon!” I yelled, breathing through my nose as I rubbed circles on my stomach.
“Ma’am, please. Mr. Callahan—”
“I swear on your head that if you tell me to calm down out of fear of my husband, Fedel, I will remind who I am—baby or no fucking baby. Do you understand me?” Liam had all but drilled into their minds that I was in need of not only a bodyguard, but someone to keep me calm.
He nodded, glancing over at Monte as if to say: you’re up.
“Would you like me to handle the officer, Ma’am?” Monte looked back at me.
“No.” I wanted to be the one to take care of that self-righteous prick. But he couldn’t die, not yet. “I want eyes on him at all times. I don’t want to deal with another wannabe hero cop. Right now, I’m more worried about making sure this plan works.”
“Ma’am, why go through all this trouble for a maid?” Fedel asked. “She hasn’t said anything to the police in months.” For some reason, his voice was just grating the fuck out of my nerves.
“We can’t kill her if the police have her under protection, and killing her would only make us look bad. Aviela went through a lot to prevent us from winning the White House, and in a matter of weeks, we will have eighty-seven percent of the electorate. There has to be backlash for that, and we don’t want them using the maid against us. So we have to keep the only leverage we have: her son. She can have a job and her child, that is just as good as buying her off. Aviela can’t get to us through her.”
“But will he let the maid know?”
Grinning, I nodded and stared out of the window. I waited for the phone call I knew would be next. When Beau had called informing us about his partner’s ambition, we’d figured it was best to kill as many birds as possible with one bullet. We would prevent Aviela from taking any action against us through the maid, make sure she couldn’t kill the maid, and now we had given Officer Scooter a damn bone.
“Ma’am, Beau’s on the line.” Monte turned, handing me the phone.
“Put him on speaker,” I whispered, rubbing circles into my stomach as I closed my eyes. I really wanted to take a hot bath and unwind; the pains in my ankles were a nuisance.
“You’re on,” Monte said to him.
“Ma’am, you were right, Scooter wants the maid to go undercover at the house after she’s testified. He’s running it past the Chief now. Should I—”
“Help them anyway you can, Brooks. Goodbye.”
“Oh shit.” Fedel stated forcing me to snap open my eyes. They both stared out the windows with their mouths hanging open before Fedel met my eyes in the rear-view mirror.
Looking out, I felt myself starting to hyperventilate. There on the Callahan’s giant entryway was a massive blue sign draped in ugly birds, rattles, and cribs.