Текст книги "Ruthless People"

Автор книги: J. J. McAvoy

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Текущая страница: 18 (всего у книги 21 страниц)

To make it worse, Mel did nothing. She didn’t even speak. She just sucked on that damn straw.

“What? Do you plan to strike me down with your eyes? Where is that big bad bitch who set fire to the bosses’ wedding? Or are you just an Irish bitch now? Did Callahan fuck all the fight out you?” he asked her, and my eyes were clouding over. I was going to rip his throat out of his neck.

“Speak, you bitch!” he yelled, fighting against the chains. “You think I will just talk? You think I’m afraid of you? I fucking ran all the prisoners for the Valero. I was the one who cut off your motherfucking doctor’s hands. He begged and begged for mercy. He didn’t talk until I started cutting. So call the motherfucker really in charge, bitch, so we can get this over with. I’m no rat.”

Before I knew it, I already had my gun in my hands. Had she not spoken, I would have gone in there my fucking self.

“Monte,” was all she said, and he came out of the fucking shadows of the room like he was a damn ninja with a sword in his hands.

“What the fuck?” Declan, Neal, and I all said at the same time.

Placing her cup on the ground, Mel stood up as calm as I had ever seen her.

“My father taught me a lot of things growing up,” she began as she circled him. “He had this weird thing for swords . . . iron swords, though. He told me I should get martial arts training and shipped me off to Japan, because they knew their swords. I thought I would come back a motherfucking ninja, but I got my ass kicked.”

“Is there a point to this trip down memory lane sweethea—”

Before he could finish, Mel’s sword came down, slicing through his wrist.

“Holy Shit,” Declan, Neal, and I said together once again as we stared at the hand on the ground.

They spoke out in shock while I was kind of turned on. My wife was fucking bold, beautiful, and deadly. She never failed to amaze me.

Cross screamed loudly, even though Fedel stuffed something in his mouth.

“The point is, I have a sword, motherfucker.” She grinned, only an inch from his face as he huffed and puffed, trying to fight the pain.

“You’re going to answer my questions or you lose limbs. That”—she pointed to his bloody hand—“was for your comments before. I’m so in charge I could be the fucking Energizer bunny.”

He muffled something that sound liked fuck you, and Mel’s grin widened.

“Do you know why we call people rats?” she asked him as Antonio walked in with a cage full of the beady-eyed creatures.

Mel, with no reservation, grabbed one of them.

Note to self—ask doctor about shots for her and the baby.

“Because they are self-preservation creatures. They have no honor, no loyalty. It’s all about doing what they can to save themselves. In fact”—she smirked throwing the rat into a small jar—“they will eat anything if it means their survival.”

“She wouldn’t,” Neal whispered.

“I’m done doubting Melody. It’s unhealthy to be proven wrong so many times,” Declan whispered back.

Cross struggled as Antonio fit the jar and the rat on the end of his decapitated wrist. But she wasn’t done. Despite her calm appearance, she was seething. Pulling out a lighter, she held it to the jar, and the rat ran toward his wrist to get away from the flame. Cross screamed against the sock.

“So many limbs, so many rats. You called me a bitch . . . twice, insulted not only my intelligence, but also my abilities, and then killed my doctor. How ticked do you think I am?” she asked him.

“First question and I’ll make it easy. What is the Valero’s next move?” He only screamed in pain.

“Take your time. I can wait for you to stop screaming,” she added, drinking her damn smoothie.

MELODY

“He’s unconscious,” Fedel informed me, putting his hand to Cross’s neck. I was surprised he was still alive, he lasted two hours.

Sighing, I stood up and rolled my neck. “Make sure he doesn’t die.”

Cross had only given bits and pieces of information, most of which didn’t make any sense. It had to be the blood loss. However, I would get an answer, and I would put an end to them all.

“It’s you who should be worried about dying.” Cross spoke out in a daze. His eyes were barely open, and he was so pale he could have been mistaken for a corpse.

“I still have my hands and foot.” Who the fuck did this idiot think he was?

He smiled and laughed like a mad man. Fedel punched the side of his face, but Cross only laughed harder. Then the house shook so violently I had to hold on to Antonio for a moment. It took me only a second later to realize what caused it.

Liam busted in. “The east wing was just bombed, we need to move.”

“See you all in hell motherfuckers. Tell the Boss I said hello.” Cross laughed and passed out.

There was another explosion and the look in Liam’s eyes as he pulled out not only one but two guns was the deadliest I had ever seen.

We were under attack.

TWENTY-EIGHT

“Any of you fuckin’ pricks move,

and I’ll execute every mother fuckin’ last one of ya.”

~ Honey Bunny, Pulp Fiction

MELODY

“Monte,” I hissed through my teeth, and a second later, he placed a machine pistol and two extra mags in my hands.

“Your orders are to shoot to kill everyone but Amory or Saige,” Liam snapped at him. Fedel and Monte didn’t even waste a second before they were out the door. Placing the magazines in the back of my pants, I could feel the bloodlust kicking in.

“Where is the family?”

“The safe room . . . where you should be,” he said to me, grabbing hold of my arm before I could leave.

“Liam, I don’t want to waste bullets, but so help me God if you think for a second that I’m going to sit behind walls and wait for the storm to settle, I will end you myself,” I snapped at him holding my gun to his nose.

His green eyes narrowed. “You’re pregnant. Get the fuck behind the wall, Melody.”

“Fuck you.” I glared back before walking out. The moment I did, all I saw was destruction. It was like . . . it was like we were bombed. Lights flickered, wires dangled from the ceiling, and all I could hear was gunfire.

Leaning against the wall, I held my gun to my chest as Liam came up right next to me.

“Done treating me like a bitch and not your wife?” I asked, trying to see where the gunfire was coming from.

“You better not get hurt or I will kill you myself, love.” Liam smirked, kissing my cheek before stepping forward, shooting blindly into the hall and yet somehow, hitting the motherfuckers.

Stepping out from behind the wall, I glared at him as he smirked. “I hate you.”

“You love me . . .” He was cut off as I shot into the hall at one asshole hiding behind a broken door.

“You forgot one.” I smirked before running down the hall and I could feel him right behind me.

The moment we reached the east wing, it looked like an all-out war between our men, who used every part of themselves, including teeth and fists, and broken glass to kill if they were without a weapon. From the corner of my eye, I saw Neal almost rip the arm off a Russian. The air was clogged with the scent of blood, and I was going deaf from all the noise around me. Out of nowhere, a blade sliced up my leg, and the second I looked down, I met the eyes of the fool who thought it was a good idea to cut me with glass.

Stomping my heel into his face, I screamed as his blood went everywhere. Wiping my face with my arms, I turned to see Liam slit a man’s throat. When he looked over again, he wasn’t looking at me. I followed his gaze, in time to see Amory put a bullet in Eric’s forehead.

Liam roared so loudly I would have thought it was him who made the house shake. “Amory!”

Amory appeared shocked at first, as if he had forgotten whose house he had attacked. But the shock soon gave way to fear as Liam stalked toward him like the devil himself. The moment anyone blocked his path, they were struck down so quickly I didn’t even have time to blink. I wanted to watch him rain fire and brimstone on the fool, but I wasn’t sure what they knew our how much they were after. There were only a few of them left. I needed to make sure that all our files and information weren’t being stolen right from under us.

“Neal!” I yelled for him but he was too far gone in his thirst for blood, and was busy shooting down the motherfuckers in his way. He looked almost giddy, like he was in some video game and invincible.

Glancing back at Liam one last time, I watched as his fist collided with Amory’s face before running down the hall. The further I went, jumping over rubble and exposed wires, the louder the screams. At first, I wasn’t sure what it was. Between the sparks, smoke, and the flames, I could barely see a few feet in front of me. As I peered around the corner, I heard someone scream.

“Let go of me!”

It was Olivia, yelling as three large men surrounded her like wolves around a sheep.

“You’re pretty,” one of the men said, “but you would be prettier on my cock.”

They all laughed as he grabbed at her, and in that second I put a bullet in his head, causing the blood to spatter all over her face. She stood there, shaken, while the other two men spun around, releasing a hail of bullets.

Jumping behind what was left of a broken wall, I yelled out, “You have two seconds to run before I place a bullet in your brains.”

“Fuck you, bitch, you’re outnumbered,” one said in a heavy accent.

“Come out like a good bitch and we’ll be gentle with ya,” the other said, laughing, and all I could hear was Olivia’s scream. She was annoying as fuck. Why couldn’t she have just gone to the safe room like a good little damsel in distress?

Taking a deep breath, I stood up slowly, hands up.

Guns pointed in my face, the men smirked. The one holding Olivia smiled. “Drop the gun, sweetheart.”

“I warned you,” was all I said to him, smirking as Fedel came up behind the other one. I shot through the hand the motherfucker was holding Olivia with, and when he backed up, I shot him right in his eye.

Rushing over to Olivia as she screamed, I grabbed her bloody arm. Ripping my shirt, I wrapped it quickly and forced her to look me in the eyes.

“Why the fuck aren’t you in the safe room?”

“N-Neal . . .” she stammered in shock. “I–I-Neal.”

Slapping her across the face, I glared into her eyes. “Get your shit together and move, or I will kill you myself. Fedel, get her to safety. She fights, knock her out.”

He nodded and I left her in his care before running down the hall. This had to be a distraction. They wanted something. The east wing was nothing but bedrooms, and if they were smart, they had gotten blueprints of the house, which meant they knew what was in the west wing. Some of our most important documents, cash, and codes were kept in west wing.

Running up broken stairs, the heat of a bullet seared me as it pierced my shoulder with so much force, I landed on my back and rolled down the stairs.

It was the woman I remembered seeing at Amory and Saige’s wedding smiled as she looked down at me. “Oops, did I hurt you?”

I tried reaching for my gun, but she stomped on my hand.

“Do you even know who I am?” she hissed down at me, her gun pointed in my face. “Your people killed my brother.”

“Sweetheart, we’ve killed a lot of people. I don’t give a fuck about your brother, lady.” I said into the barrel of the gun.

“You bitch!” she screamed, but I would give her something to scream about. Grabbing on to a nearby electrical wire, I pressed the exposed wires against her leg, turning away as they sparked and shook her as though she was having a seizure.

Crawling away from her, I held my shoulder and tried to keep calm. I felt the urge to grab my stomach, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t stop, and I couldn’t allow myself to panic. But even knowing all that, I still found myself rubbing circles over my stomach for a moment before I got back up and headed up the stairs.

When I entered the secret room, I found no one there. Pulling up our files, I began to send them to other computers before deleting everything. I heard what sounded like glass cracking and turned around, pointing my gun at the face of the devil’s mistress. But the gun slipped from my hand as I glanced down at the blade in my stomach.

“I warned you,” Saige Valero said, laughing. It was the last thing I remembered before everything went dark.

LIAM

“Hold him still,” I told Declan and Neal as they brought Amory to his knees in front of me. The fucker thought he could out run me. The moment I had my hands on him, he knew his life was over and the prick ran. I caught up to him in what was left of my half-a-million-dollar garage.

Placing my brass knuckles on, I pounded his face.

“You thought you could come into my house,” I yelled as I broke his jaw. “You thought you could destroy me?” I loved the sound of the bones in his face breaking with only his skin to hold it together. “You thought you could burn my fucking house down!” I couldn’t even see his face through all the blood.

“You thought you could hurt my family? You reckless”—his teeth burst out of his mouth like popped corn—“idiotic”—punch—“motherfucking cunt!” Punch.

The moment I stopped, the flesh of his nose was kissing his lips and one eye was out of its socket.

“You? The great big piece of shit who no mother could love and no father could even respect. But worst of all, the man-whore who just had to fuck up my motherfucking day,” I sighed, wiping my nose before grabbing the chains.

“I saw this on a movie once,” I told him as Neal and Declan bound his feet and hands to the ends of two different cars. “I always wanted to know if the human body would actually rip apart.”

Amory coughed up more teeth as they bound him. “How’s your wife, Liam?”

It was only then did something click in my mind, and I felt my heart drop into my stomach. However, I couldn’t let it play on my face. Instead, I nodded to the two drivers and they begin to drive away from each other as Amory’s body rose from the ground and his screams increased.

“I’ll be sure to mail this to your father,” I told him, nodding once more at the drivers, and pushing it to full speed. I reveled in the sound of his cries as his body ripped open. But looking up, his words still haunted me.

“Where the fuck is my wife?” I yelled over the roars of the engines, and as I did, Olivia rushed in covered in blood. Neal didn’t even waste a moment, rushing to her side, but she just pushed out of his arm and ran to me.

“Melody—she saved me, but . . .” She stammered, and stopped speaking the moment she saw the two halves of Amory’s body.

“Olivia!” I yelled, grabbing her arms. “Where is my wife?”

Shaking, her eyes went wide. “She left me with Fedel, and he put me in one of the safe rooms. But I saw on the camera, Saige . . . some room full of computers . . . everything was . . . Melody didn’t see her . . . she . . . Saige . . .”

I never thought I would have to raise a hand to any woman in my family but in that moment, I slapped her so hard she fell on the ground. Neal stepped forward, but Declan held him back.

“Olivia, one last time . . . Where. Is. My. Wife?”

“Saige stabbed her in the stomach. Then Patrick came and helped Saige escape with some documents. Sedric is with Melody now,” she sobbed.

I never ran so fast in my life. I felt as though I was possessed. I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t hear. And by God, I didn’t want to feel anything. The only room Melody would go to would be in the west wing. She would have tried to protect our files. Files they could have gotten with Patrick. I trusted him. I brought him into this family. And he fucked me over. He had balls, but not for long. I stopped when my feet could take me no further, and stared at the river of blood that led to my wife’s body. My father hovered above her, his shirt off and wrapped around her body.

“Your mother has called an ambulance. I’ve stopped the bleeding for now, but . . .” Falling to my knees, I wasn’t sure what to do. She looked so pale, so sick, and so different from the woman I saw only a few hours ago.

“Liam,” my father snapped at me, trying to pull me from my despair. “Your wife will live. Right now, you need to stay calm. Do you understand me?”

I nodded. All I could do was nod as though I was a fucking bobble head. “Patrick Darragh. Patrick betrayed us. I—”

“Son, you have done your duty. The house is secure. Take care of your wife,” he said, and I felt the pressure building up in the back of my throat. I wanted to hold her, but I couldn’t, not without possibly causing any more damage. Kissing her forehead, nose, and lips, it took all my willpower to back away as the paramedics came in.

MELODY

Everything hurt. Everything was darkness. But in that darkness, one voice rang out louder and stronger than all the rest.

“Melody. My beautiful Melody. I’m right here.” He sounded so sad.

“Liam . . .” was all I could say before I drifted back into the darkness.

LIAM

“Mr. Callahan, don’t worry. We have the best doctors operating on your wife. If there is anything—and I mean anything—” Grabbing her by the neck, I slammed her body against the wall.

“Are you flirting with me, Dr. Lewis?” Her eyes widened in fear, as she tried her best to pull my hand away from her very narrow throat. I only squeezed tighter. “Are you flirting with me while some idiot is sewing my wife back together? Tell me you aren’t so I don’t have to rip your head from your shoulders, you classless, low-life, idiotic bitch!”

“Please,” she cried, kicking her feet wildly.

“Liam, we are in public,” my mother whispered behind me.

“So? Who are you going to call?” I turned to the rest of the hospital staff. “I own this motherfucking hospital, and I own this fucking city. If you didn’t know it before, you know it now!”

Turning to the bitch as she turned blue, I glared into her eyes. “Never come near me again or I swear on the head of your mother and father, I will kill you.”

Dropping her on the ground, I took my seat again, pulling out a cigarette as my father handed me a lighter while mother frowned. It was the only thing that could calm me down now. Neal held on to Olivia for dear life. Declan kept staring at Coraline as if she could disappear at any moment. I knew they were still fighting or whatever the fuck they were doing, but they would be fine. Despite the fact that she wasn’t looking at him, she did allow him to hold her hand. The only ones who truly seemed calm were my parents, but I knew it was simply due to the fact that they had done this before. It wasn’t the first time we had lost a child because of the Valero, but it would be the last. I would make sure of it. I did my best not to think about it. But it left a burn in my chest and made my blood boil.

The moment the surgeon came out, we were all on our feet.

“Don’t waste words. How is she?”

“Mr. Callahan, your wife is fine and is now in her room. We did everything we could for the child, but . . .”

Turning away from him, I nodded at Declan and Neal who already knew no one but family and her doctors were to enter that room.

“Thank you, doctor.”

“Blake, sir, Dr. Nickolas Blake,” he said quickly, shaking my hand. I tried to leave but my mother held on to me.

“Everyone go. We need a moment.” She said it in such a way that none of us could even bring ourselves to argue. I had never heard so much anger roll off her tongue. She and my father shared a quick glance before she pulled me off to the side.

“Mother, whatever it—”

“Right now, this very moment, will define you and your marriage forever,” she said. In her eyes, all I saw was pain. “The wife you once knew is not going to be the same woman you see when you walk into the room. Imagine that Melody ‘the Boss’ is simply asleep and how you react will define how long she remains so. She needs to mourn.”

She doesn’t know my wife. She didn’t even shed a tear after her father died.

“Mel isn’t the crying type.”

My mother slapped the back of my head, something only she could do. “You’re not listening to me. Your wife was attacked. Her child was stolen from her. She isn’t the same ‘type’ you remember. At least not now. You have two choices—pull away or hold on to her even when her words and actions hurt you. Because they will, believe me they will. Do not make the same mistakes your father and I made.”

“You came through it,” I whispered. Here they were, so many years later, as in love as ever.

She smiled, but it didn’t make her eyes shine like usual. “I asked for a divorce. I had the papers drawn up and even called my cousin in Canada. Your father agreed. Had you not gone to the hospital, we wouldn’t have made it. He couldn’t handle my mood swings or all the names I called him. I couldn’t stop myself from blaming him. We made it. But we made it through the hard way. So this, son, is your defining hour, and how you react now will either break or make your future. Whatever pain and anger you are holding on to let it go before you see her or you may just lose her.”

She kissed me on the cheek before leaving me standing there, unable to even speak. I couldn’t even breathe. Walking into a nearby supply room, I let the tears fall for the child I would never get to meet—who I would never get to know—and I tried to not let myself grow angry with her. What was fucked up was the fact that my anger at Mel overshadowed my anger at Saige. I told her not go. I told her to get in the fucking safe room, but she didn’t listen. She never listened.

Slapping my cheeks, I took a deep breath before walking back out again. No one made eye contact with me until I stood right outside her door. Neal and Declan were smart enough to look away.

It felt like hours before I found the will to walk in, and to my surprise, Mel was sitting up. She looked so dazed, like she had gone to war and come back, but nothing was the same as it once was. Evelyn kissed her forehead, while Coraline gave her a small hug. Olivia stayed back. She stood next to Sedric with her head hung low as if she were some servant, and the sight of it pissed me off.

“Out,” was all I had to say before they left, and it was in that same moment that I knew my mother was right. Never in all our months together had I ever see Mel jump at my voice.

Taking a seat beside her, she shook her head at me as she fought the tears building in her eyes.

“Say it,” she whispered.

“Say what?” Anything she wanted me to say I would say.

“Say it was my fault. Say I killed our child. Say it was for the greater good, because I would have been a horrible mother anyway.”

Anything but that. Taking off my jacket, I laid next her, pulling her into my arms.

“This was not your fault, and you did not kill our child. You would, and will, be a great mother,” I whispered, kissing for forehead.

“Then why do I feel this way?” She held on to my shirt as she fought back her sobs.

I couldn’t answer, mostly because I couldn’t think of what to say. I felt so guilty for thinking that this was her fault just moments ago. This was Saige. This was the Valero, and they would pay dearly.

After Mel had gone to sleep, I let go of her and stepped out into the hallway.

Neal, Declan, Monte, Fedel, and my father all stood waiting. I didn’t trust any of them. That’s what Patrick had done. He had broken the band of trust that we kept in our innermost circles.

“How did this happen?”

“Patrick was the one who found the lead on Cross, the man Melody was interrogating.” Declan stated. “He had a CS-5 jammer implanted inside of him. With that, it blocked half of our defense codes and sensors. From there, Patrick opened the gate from the inside. He’s been working for them for mouths. We have no idea why he betrayed us. All they needed was a person willing to die, and Cross was that person. With the botched surgery he had to get the jammer inside of him he did not have long anyway. It was simple.”

“Getting into our home should never be simple,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I want him found and I want to know how no one else knew. Then I want you to call every Irish or Italian man in the damn country able to build our house. We aren’t moving.”

“Liam we can stay in the summer home—”

“We are not moving!” I yelled, breathing through my nose before taking a step back. “I will not be chased out of my home like a poverty stricken street rat. There is plenty of house left. Pick a room and deal with it, Father.”

He raised an eyebrow at me, grinning before he nodded.

“As for Vance and Saige, take photos of Amory’s body and send it to them. When you’re done, throw Amory’s body anywhere you fucking please. Ship him to the moon for all I fucking care. Just make sure Vance knows those pictures are all that he will ever have left of his son.” Part of me wished I hadn’t killed Amory outright and used him for some leverage to bring down his father.

“When are we hitting back, boss?” Fedel asked me, and I do believe that was the first time he had ever called me his boss.

“We start now.” I glanced over to them all. “Declan, gather every motherfucking hacker and suck him dry. Anything you can destroy, do it. The rest of you, your orders are the same. Shoot to kill. I don’t care if they’re in the street or their damn beds. We’re ending this if I have to bomb all of Russia to do it.”