by J. J. McAvoy
“The reason why she’s perfect is that they molded her to be perfect, Liam.”
“Exactly,” he laughed, and now the sound of it annoyed me. The stupid grin on his face made me want to put another bullet hole in him. “Mel…he never stood a chance. I’m so fucking pissed he didn’t see her for what she truly was. So, fucking pissed that he’s blinded by her. But what the fuck did we expect? She’s perfect for him. We are legitimately asking him to reject his dream woman. To go back to being alone. Why the fuck would he want to do that again? He’s human. The woman could murder the whole family in front of him and he’d figure out a way to justify it. Because he does not want to lose her. So…”
“So, what?”
“You spent all this time figuring out how she used us, and it doesn’t fucking matter. She spent all that time planning, and it doesn’t fucking matter. Because Ethan is going to defend her no matter what.”
“Which is why she needs to die!”
“You are not hearing me, Mel.” He leaned forward. “Our son, Ethan, is not on our side. He’s going to defend her with everything we have ever thought and everything he’s learned alone.”
I leaned in, as well. “Which. Is. Why. I. Will. Kill. Her.”
Smash!
He threw the bottle at the wall beside him. “Don’t you fucking get it? You kill her, and he will come to kill you. And what am I supposed to do? Let you die?”
“Liam, I’ve said this once, but I will say it again, just in case you’re too drunk to remember. Neither you nor anyone else in this goddamn world is going to hurt my son!”
“So, we die!” he hollered back at me. “That’s fine. You want me to die with you, baby, let’s go. But what about our other son? And our daughter? What happens to them? What happens to the Callahans?”
“I—”
“My father died for him!” he nearly roared, rising from the ground. “My father gave his life to build this family! And you are telling me I am supposed to sit back and watch my own godforsaken, fucking lovesick, dumbass son, piss it all away for a pretty bitch?”
“No! I am telling you, we will kill her—”
“He got it from you,” he scoffed.
“Excuse me?”
“The inability to see when it comes to love,” he said, and I nearly fell over. He was lecturing me. He, the one who sang love songs in the bathroom and wanted to do every romantic date he’d ever seen in a movie, was calling me blind in love.
“Not wanting to kill my son does not fucking make me blind you shit-face, cock-brain moron! He is our son! Our son!”
“And it might come down to his life or the whole fucking family’s! Who are you choosing, Mel?”
Rising, I limped and nearly fell over, but I ignored the pain. “God as my witness, Liam, I swear if you hurt my son, you will have to bury me with him. Because I am never burying them…any of them. I will die first!”
He stared at me.
And I stared back, trembling.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Immediately he and I pulled out the guns, pointing them at the front door of the motel. We exchanged glances. It was three in the fucking morning. No one knocked at this time. He pointed for me to stay at one corner; however, before I could move, a clear envelope with a telephone was slid under the door.
The moment we didn’t have to wonder who it was because there was a picture of Calliope in her wedding dress smiling brightly. However, her face wasn’t the only thing that made it horrid. It was the ringtone.
“Requiem in D Minor, K 626.” It was a requiem mass, aka music that the church played for the dead at mass.
Funny.
I looked at Liam, and he nodded, turning on the bomb detector. It was green, so I stepped forward before he could and took the phone out to answer.
“Mom!” I cringed. “I was worried you weren’t going to answer for a second.”
Neither of us spoke.
“Right, you both must be very pissed at me. I understand. It’s not every day you both experience such a heavy loss, right?”
Liam exhaled through his nose, gripping his gun tighter. I nodded for him to get our go bags. I didn’t know how she knew where we were, but we needed to move and fast.
“Daughter,” I spat out, walking to the corner and checking the window. “I do not think you should waste the few days you have to breathe with stunts like this.”
“Again, with the threats. Mom, how are you going to beat me when you don’t know what’s going on?”
“A bullet doesn’t need to know anything. It just needs to find your skull.”
“True. Let’s see if you have any bullets left after my friends come to play.”
“Sorry, dear, I think I am a bit too old to play with your friends,” I said as Liam pulled out the machine guns. I took my arm out of its sleeve, ignoring the pain and took one, too, along with a bulletproof vest.
“I’m sorry, did I say friends? I meant coworkers.”
Liam's head snapped up. “Fuck,” he mouthed to me as he put on his vest.
“I’m disappointed, Calliope. I thought you wanted to settle this as women, but you go and send an army of assassins to fight us.”
“Don’t be disappointed. If you are good enough, we’ll still have a chance. If not…well then, I just thought I should say thank you for giving birth to such an amazing son. Don’t worry, I’ll watch out for him. Bye!”
I threw the phone at the wall, but even as it shattered, it still played that goddamn music.
“Of all the fucking women he could have fallen in love with, he couldn’t have chosen a pre-school teacher? At this point, I would have even been grateful for some dumb cheerleader,” Liam grumbled, holding a smoke grenade.
“Lecture him after we kill her,” I said, handing him the mask and putting on my own.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
We both looked at the door again.
“You came to the wrong door, motherfucker.”
25
“Watch me
I will go to my own sun.
And if I am burned by its fire,
I will fly on scorched wings.”
~Segovia Amil
ETHAN
“Red sky at night, shepherds' delight. Red sky at morning, shepherds take warning,” I whispered as I watched the sunrise over the horizon, casting a reddish glow over the earth. The wind howled, and the air was colder now than it had been since the beginning of winter. I’d never seen the weather so fitting.
“This just arrived for you, sir,” O’Phelan stated, interrupting my thoughts to hand me an envelope.
Taking it from him, I nodded for him to leave before opening it, only to find a cell phone. The moment I touched it, it lit up, vibrating instead of ringing. Answering, I said nothing.
“Mio bel leoncino, do you really think it was us?”
I didn’t answer.
“Your wife sent assassins to our door this morning. Did you know that?”
“She didn’t,” I said coldly. “I did.”
“Ethan!”
“More will be coming.”
“I do not understand you. I do not understand this. Do you really want a war between us? Do you really want to do this?”
“No,” I answered, honestly. “But you gave me no choice.”
“I am giving you a choice now! Stop this. Stop her!”
“That is not a choice. That is an order and I do not take orders from you or anyone else.”
“Are you sure, because that woman seems to have a solid hold on you.”
I snickered, nodding, “She really is one of a kind.”
“You…you knew…you knew today was going to happen.”
“Would you believe me if I said I didn’t?”
“No. You are too smart not to know. She killed your aunt. She will not stop until she destroys the whole family in the name of her grandfather. Ethan, we will not sit back and watch that ha
ppen.”
“…And this is why I am on her side, not yours.”
Silence.
“You want to destroy this family too?” she said, disbelieving.
Silence again was my answer.
“So, it’s war, then?”
“We’ll be waiting for you both—that is, if you survive,” I replied before disconnecting the call, turning to stare right at Calliope’s crystal campfire still roaring beside me. I tossed the phone in it and turned back toward the house. The maids were still working to take down all of the decorations. They did so in absolute silence. The air was cold with grief, but it became heavy as Darcy stepped in the backyard. He was still blank and numb, but there were bags under his eyes.
“Who?” he demanded, and the longer I stayed silent, the more he trembled. “Don’t tell me you don’t know. There is no way—”
“Do you trust me?” I asked him.
He stiffened for a moment, not expecting the question before nodding. “Yes.”
“Be patient, then.”
He shook his head. “Would you be? If it were…if it were your mother, would you be patient?”
“Yes. But I realize not everyone can be like me.”
He hung his head. “So, you know, then. You just can’t do anything right now? Why not explain it to me?”
“That’s where the trust comes in, Darcy,” I said, walking past him.
“Do not call me that.”
“What?” I looked at him.
He lifted his head to glare at me. “Darcy. Don’t call me that anyone more. Call me Killian. And remember, it was my father who stepped aside for your father.”
“And you are stepping aside for me?” I asked with an eyebrow raised.
“Yes…and I’ll keep stepping aside for you for as long I trust you.” He took another step forward. “But if you fail to give me an explanation as to why the Ceann Na Conairte couldn’t even protect his family, in his own goddamn home…I won’t step aside anymore.”
“A new name is a good step, Killian, but remember, it doesn’t give you superpowers…or protect you from bullets. The Callahan behind your name and the one behind mine aren’t the same. So be careful whom you bare your new teeth at.”
“Everything changes.”
“And some things stay the same.”
“I’ll be patiently waiting for that explanation.”
“Good.” Because I was patiently waiting for my wife to explain why she really killed my aunt and I couldn’t give him one until then anyway.
I wouldn’t waver in my trust of her, not only because it was her, but because I chose her, and I didn’t choose wrong.
I trusted her.
Because I trusted myself.
In the beginning, she had asked me, “What if I need your blood for that kingdom?”
And I told her, “Then, take it without hesitation.”
So, in truth, I had also killed my aunt.
Maybe that was the reason I couldn’t bring myself to grieve like the rest of them. I’d joined hands with the angel of death a long time ago, and there was no looking back now.
So, ‘til death do us part, then.
To Be Continued
In VICIOUS MINDS: Part 3
Also by J.J. McAvoy
Ruthless People Series
RUTHLESS PEOPLE
THE UNTOUCHABLES
AMERICAN SAVAGES
A BLOODY KINGDOM
DECLAN + CORALINE
Children of Vice Series
CHILDREN OF VICE
CHILDREN OF AMBITION
CHILDREN OF REDEMPTION
VICIOUS MINDS: PART 1
VICIOUS MINDS: PART 2
Single Title Romance
MALACHI AND I
BLACK RAINBOW
RAINBOWS EVER AFTER
THAT THING BETWEEN ELI AND GWEN
SUGAR BABY BEAUTIFUL
CHILD STAR
About the Author
J.J. McAvoy was born in Montreal, Canada and graduated from Carleton University in 2016 with an honour’s degree in Humanities. She is the oldest of three and has loved writing for years. Her works are inspired by everything from Shakespearean tragedies to modern pop culture. Her first novel, Ruthless People, was a runaway bestseller. Currently she’s traveling all across the world, writing, looking for inspiration, and meeting fans. To get in touch, please stay in contact via her social media pages, which she updates regularly.
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