THIRTY-ONE
“Nothing thicker than a knife’s blade separates happiness from melancholy.”
—Virginia Woolf
MELODY
“Mrs. Callahan, are you sure you don’t need a doctor?” Scooter, the know-it-all cop, asked me as I rested against our Range Rover.
The whole opera house had been cleared just a few moments ago, but none of the guests had left. The only thing more tragic than an opera was our real lives. With dogs, the pigs were there with their flashing lights, silver badges and yellow tape; all of them taking pictures of Antonio’s body as he lay there, cold and lifeless. He wasn’t supposed to die. My men died when I fucking said they died…at least if the world worked as it should.
“Mrs. Callahan?”
“We’re fine, officer,” Liam said. “I think it’s time I took my wife home.” He came to stand beside me.
“Mr. Callahan, if you have anything to add to this investigation—”
“Like I said before, we were leaving the opera when our bodyguard was shot,” Liam hissed, opening the car door for me.
“That’s what we’re trying to get at. There is no reason for anyone to kill your bodyguard. That bullet may have been for you, Mrs. Callahan. This type of shot was the same used on the President.” Scooter stood up straighter, as he grabbed hold of my car door.
“On the news they said that was the First Lady…” I started when he cut me off.
“It was, but she has an accomplice we have no information about. If you could just come down to the station, maybe help to find the connection—”
“You’re a cop, not a detective, if you have any more questions for us, please contact our lawyer. Goodnight, Officer,” Liam stated, helping me into the car before slamming the door closed. “Drive.”
Fedel didn’t need to be told twice. It felt odd leaving a man behind. Antonio had been with me for years—with Fedel for years. Antonio was a mentor to both Fedel and Adriana. I knew Monte must have called her. It wasn’t the type of news you broke over the phone, but Adriana would want time to separate herself from us.
Next to me, Liam was so tense he felt frozen, and all I could do was stare into the darkness of the night sky. Chicago was used to death. I was used to death. Neither was I grief stricken nor was I in shock; I was just fucking angry. I felt powerless, and it was a feeling I wasn’t familiar with. This was bad. We need to retaliate quickly or we would have anarchy. The reason our men trusted us and were loyal to us was for the simple reason that we were the biggest and baddest animals. Aviela was making us look weak. This has to end, I just wasn’t sure how. How could she be so fucking good? How could she kill, get into our house, know where we were going? Who knew that much?
I sighed as we pulled to a stop in front of the house. When Fedel opened the door for me, I didn’t even wait for Liam, or anyone else for that matter, to help me. Seeing Evelyn and Sedric along with Olivia and Neal all huddled in the middle of the foyer made me want to scream. I didn’t want to deal with this shit right now.
“Thank God you’re alright.” Evelyn sighed, making beeline for my stomach as I took off my coat and handed it to the maid.
“That depends on your definition of alright, Mother,” Liam stated, walking in and standing beside me. “May I ask what you two are doing back here?”
“We live here,” Olivia snapped.
“Olivia…”
“Liam, I’m sorry, it’s a force of habit. My father is done campaigning and is back in Chicago so we…”
Neal grabbed her hand, stepping forward in the hopes of shutting her up. “Declan and Coraline will be back in the morning. I figured you would want the family together before we get even with this bitch. Tell me what…”
I couldn’t listen to them for another goddamn second. They were just so fucking idiotic, why waste my energy on the waste of space. Walking past them, I pretended they weren’t even there while walking up the stairs. The bottom of my feet hurt like a bitch’s ass at a BDSM club. All I wanted was my bed, but sadly I knew I couldn’t go there just yet. I didn’t usually go to Adriana’s room. It was sort of beyond decorum, but what hell, I made the fucking rules. Pushing into her room, I knew wouldn’t see her.
Her bed was made, every book she surrounded herself with was stacked around the room like erected monuments, and her curtains were closed. Breathing deeply, I walked over to her bed and grabbed every one of her pillows and threw them to the ground, creating a makeshift bed for me to lie on. I felt like a damn penguin, but it was the only way I could see her. The moment I was on my side, I saw her curled up under the bed, her eyes spilling tears she couldn’t control.
This was Adriana. After everything she had been through, the only place she ever really felt safe was under the bed. It was a habit she couldn’t shake after being taken.
“He asked me to marry him,” she whispered, moving her hand so I could see the ring. Even in the darkness, I could tell it was small and forged into the shape of a teardrop. It was very much Adriana. “I told him I wanted to think about it. I told him I wanted to talk to you. But the truth was, I was scared. He told me to keep the ring, that it would help me think. I should have just said yes.”
“We all know you would have. So did he.” I smiled at her. Like me, she just wanted to be difficult.
She rolled her eyes, hoping to stop her tears but it didn’t work. “I can’t move. If I move, life continues on and I can’t…I loved him so much.”
“Then don’t move,” I whispered to her. The problem with loving someone that much was the fact that it hurt ten times more to lose them. Great love only equaled great pain eventually…that’s why Liam was going to have to die after I did.
LIAM
“What number are you on?” Neal asked, stepping into my office.
Staring at the glass in my hand, I downed it quickly before pulling out another bottle from my bottom drawer.
“I’m not counting. What do you want?”
Sitting across from me, he sighed and pulled out two cigars. “I want to help you. I want to be your brother again. I’ve spent weeks on a campaign, being asked how it feels to be a Callahan, what we’re like, what do I think about families on food stamps right after I bought Olivia another diamond necklace. Father told me that I would hate it; being without the family and having to actually pretend I give fuck almost drove me mad. Olivia ate it up. She loved it. We were like string puppets on stage dancing for everyone else; going where we were told, keeping our comments rehearsed, being the better fucking person to people whose necks I could snap off if I wanted to. Part of me had a hard time dealing with you as my boss, but I’d rather dance under your strings than anyone else’s.”
Staring at him for a moment, I handed Neal a glass and took the cigar. “Do you have a light?”
“As long as you don’t tell my wife.” He laughed, holding the flame at the end of it.
“At least you can lie to yours. Mel can sense smoke like a bloodhound. Truthfully, she knows me well enough that she just lets me slide on some lies for the sake of my pride.” We both sucked in smoke.
“You’ve both come a long way from trying to kill each other.” He had no idea how wrong and right he was. She still tried to kill me, except now it usually had us both naked. “What are we going to do about this Aviela bitch?”