The Untouchables

by J. J. McAvoy

  “So you’re here due to the Briar’s,” Mel stated, eyeing him carefully. “Let me guess, you wanted Liam to marry her daughter.”

  “Look at you, using that pretty little brain of yours. I wish you would have done the same when you locked Natasha Briar away.”

  I tried to figure out where the dots connected. As far as I knew, the Briar family didn’t have anything worth taking, and yet he seemed adamant we marry the trash.

  “That was your grandson’s idea. I wanted to kill her. I came close one time in church,” Mel confessed.

  How she could manage to stay composed was beyond me.

  Shamus turned to me as I watched him, biting my tongue once again. He looked me over, held his nose up high, as if I were filth.

  “How did you two, of all people, become the Boss? You, Liam, will never be great,” he said. “You will always be the crippled boy trying so hard to be a man. I guess that was why you can handle being married to someone with bigger balls.”

  I grabbed the table knife just like my father, wanting to ram it into his goddamn throat, but Melody squeezed my leg.

  “I do believe I will take that as my queue to leave. These old bones of mine need to be rested,” Shamus said as he rose with the help of his cane. “You all enjoy your evening.”

  “Father,” Sedric called out to him, stretching out the word to the point where he grimaced just by saying it.

  Shamus stopped, turning back to him and looked just as surprised as I was.

  “Do not spend the night in our house,” he said.

  “That’s where you are wrong, son. It’s my house. All of this—everything you have, everything you have accomplished—is because of the deals I made.”

  With that, he left.

  MELODY

  No one said anything. With each passing moment, Shamus disgusted me. I was tempted to kill him the second I saw where he was sitting. But it wasn’t my place. I had enough issues with my family line.

  Liam grabbed his plate and threw the damn thing at the door after Shamus left.

  “I want him GONE!” he yelled. “I don’t care how, duct tape him to the bottom of a goddamn plane and send him back to Ireland for all I care. He’d better not be back at our fucking house!”

  “Liam,” I whispered, but he didn’t say anything, just backed away from the table trying to breathe as he reached for the closet bottle.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Callahan, I would like to remind you that this isn’t your home.” Mina snapped. “There are cameras everywhere and not to mention, I don’t know, a political candidate! Can you people stop going Rambo on whoever walks through the door?”

  “Can’t we just buy the building?” Coraline asked. Mina took a deep breath before dragging Senator Colemen out of the room. Walking over to Liam, I placed my hand on his shoulder.

  “I thought we were quite civilized, didn’t you?” I asked Liam.

  He looked around the building. “Honestly, if people would stop testing us, the world would be a better place.”

  “You both are so…” Olivia started, but stopped, perhaps remembering she too had blood on her hands and she wanted more. When you are part of this family you then you can’t judge anyone…We all made the choice to be here.

  “Well then, my wife and I will be calling it a night,” Liam said, taking my hand.

  Neither of us said anything as we left through the back, where all of our cars were now parked and waiting for us. Monte and Fedel had two cars up front while Dylan, Liam’s new right hand since Eric’s death, manned the cars behind ours.

  It was only when we took our seats that Liam pulled off his tie and leaned back, pinching the bridge of his nose.

  “I need to kill my grandfather,” he said to himself. “But if I do, it will be all-out war. We have a shit load of product coming in tomorrow, and I can’t take out Ireland’s superman. He knows it. He’s been pumping money into the country for so long I’m surprised they haven’t made him king yet. He’s untouchable.”

  “If you can see him, he’s touchable. Being untouchable is just an illusion people like us create to intimidate others. Everyone has a weakness. We will deal with him, he won’t get away with talking to you like that, I swear,” I said, staring out the window.

  “When did you become so sweet?” He kissed into the back of my hand.

  I hated how much I enjoyed that and how I couldn’t admit it. “I don’t know what you mean. Him calling you a cripple was insult to me. As if I would marry someone with less balls than me.”

  He smiled so wide it made me uncomfortable. Like he knew something I didn’t.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Anyway do you find it odd that my father, a former rival of your family, came into town around the same time your mother suddenly popped up?” he asked, staring out into the city.

  “You don’t think—”

  “I don’t know what I think. But if I were my grandfather, after everything that happened last year, maybe he wants to take back the business.”

  “Over my dead body,” I muttered, pulling out my phone. “We’re going into lock down until we can talk to father crime himself.”

  EIGHT

  “Children aren’t coloring books. You don’t get to fill them with your favorite colors.”

  —K Colemend Hosseini

  EVELYN

  I wasn’t sure what to say to him. No, that was a lie. I knew what I wanted to say. I knew how I wanted to say it. Sadly, I couldn’t. It wouldn’t be right. I never once flinched at Liam or Melody’s actions. My moral compass was shattered beyond repair, but that didn’t bother me either. When I first married Sedric, knowing what his life was going to be, I thought I could keep my head up above it all. But this life has away of sucking the good out of you…how can it not when you are surrounded by the worst of people. I’ve never physically killed a man, but twice in my life I’ve asked for retribution, and twice Sedric had ensured that it was done it for me.

  “What are you going to do?” I whispered as he lay on our bed. He stared up at the ceiling, not bothering to move like a fat cat after a feast. I knew this Sedric. He was about to do something…something evil.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he said, as I took off my heels.

  They were originally Melody’s and the damned girl wanted to burn nine hundred dollar Jimmy Choos, just because they were white.

  We were the same size, and like the shoe hoarder I was, I took them with pleasure. However, it seemed like they were molded for her feet alone and were going to kill me.

  “You’re a bad liar. Thank God I keep you locked away.” I laughed, crawling on top of him.

  “I’m a great liar. We’re just born with a strong pair of bullshit detectors.”

  “Raising three boys—four if I count you—it was a required skill.”

  He chuckled, but didn’t reply.

  “Sedric, what are you about to do?”

  “Shh…” he whispered, just holding me.

  I stopped struggling, allowing him to just hold me. It was what he did, what he always did. He held onto me as if he were worried I would never forgive him for whatever he was about to do, but I always did. No matter what, I always would.

  We sat there, wrapped in each other’s arms, and I felt sixteen again. I felt like that same loud mouth, know it all, rash, love-struck teenager who saw her prince charming and went weak at the knees the moment he looked my way.

  “What?” he asked, as I smiled to myself.

  “Nothing,” I said, and in one swift motion, he flipped me onto my back and pinned me under him.

  He glared into my eyes with a smirk on his lips. “Woman, what is so damn funny?”

  “Man,” I lifted my head up to him, “I said nothing.”

  “The hard way then…”

  “Sedric, don’t…” before I could stop him, he ripped my shirt open. “Damn it all to hell, Sedric, that shirt was a gift.”

  “My gift will be so much better.” He kissed my
neck and with one hand, he ripped my bra from my chest.

  “Really?” I dared him, crossing my arms over my chest, but the moment they covered my breasts, he pried them away.

  “Isn’t it obvious?” he whispered, one of his hands wandering down the side of my arm, which were pinned over my head, until he reached my nipples. He played with them as he stared into my eyes.

  “Sedric…”

  “What better way can I show my wife I care, than to give her pleasure?” he whispered again, kissing my lips before trailing the side of my jaw. “Give us both pleasure.”

  “Father, Liam wants…” Neal burst through the door before I could speak. “Jesus, mother fucking Christ of Nazareth, my eyes!”

  I grabbed for a pillow, and Sedric reached for his gun in a fit of rage.

  “What have I told you about knocking?” he roared, before firing a round at Neal’s head.

  Neal ducked but it took off piece of the door. “SORRY…”

  “Neal, I swear, if you don’t leave, I will skin you!” Sedric shouted, getting off the bed once I was covered.

  Neal’s head dropped, and I tried really hard not to laugh. He looked like he did when he was a child and caught us doing the same thing.

  “Liam said…”

  “I don’t care what your brother said. I don’t care if the goddamn moon is falling out of the sky. Get out, boy!” he roared.

  His throat was going to be sore in the morning.

  “Father, I’d rather die at your hands than at Liam’s…or worse, Mel’s. Give me one second to tell you and then I will run faster than Forrest Gump.”

  That did it, I couldn’t hold back from laughing, and Sedric glared at me, forcing me to place my hand over my mouth.

  He stood in front of Neal, not that he could see since he was forcing his eyelids shut, and put a gun to his skull.

  “Sedric…”

  “You rather I kill you than Liam or Mel?” he asked, and I wanted to smack him over the head.

  Neal smirked. “You would kill me quickly, and then mom will kick your ass. Liam and Mel would take a page out of George Bugs Morgan’s book, and hang me by my testicles with piano wire from a ceiling. Then burn my eyes out with cigarettes. Then maybe go after Olivia too, just for the heck off it. So yes, I fear them much more than I fear you, because they are bat shit crazy.”

  Sedric’s jaw clenched.

  “Neal, what is it?” I asked, before Sedric really did pull the trigger.

  “Aviela DeRosa is in Chicago, and Liam thinks she’s related to gramps somehow. Gramps isn’t home yet, but we’re on lockdown. Which means…”

  “I taught you the damn rules, I know what it fucking means, you dumbass!” Sedric snapped, pulling Neal by the ear just as he used to. “Out.” He pushed him out the door.

  “Liam wants a family meeting…”

  “Tell your brother that your mother and I are having our own meeting. With the grace of God, maybe we can have another child to replace you three knuckleheads!” he said, slamming the door in his face.

  Another child? Who were we, Abraham and Sarah?

  “Urgh! Really? As if I haven’t been scarred enough for one lifetime!” Neal’s muffled voice rang through the door.

  “Pull up a chair at Declan’s therapy lessons and cry to them,” Sedric yelled back before falling onto our bed. “I knew that boy would forever cock-block me. I knew it from the first month he was home.”

  Laughing, I kissed his back before lying next to him. He was right. Between all of our children, Neal was the only one who had ever caught us in the act. The others might have heard, but only Neal ever came in and killed our moment. He did it as an infant, he did it as a young boy, and even as a teen. And now, he did it as an adult.

  “Remember, he is also the one who makes you laugh harder than the rest. Neal is the laugher. Declan, the quiet observer. Liam is…”

  “A smart ass, controlling prick, with a God complex to rival my father’s,” he added, turning to look up at me and pushing the pillow away in order to see me.

  I shook my head. “No, Liam is the thinker, the master chess player. It’s why you love him so much. It’s always a back and forth between you. But each one of them is like you. Neal radiates joy, the way you used to before this life; Declan reads like you, studies like you, listens like you. He enjoys the peace…”

  “And then Liam, oh wise mother?” He smirked, kissing my hand.

  I smacked his arm. “Liam is the tiny part of you that wishes to achieve greatness at all costs. Yes, he is a smart-ass, and yes, he is controlling. He may even have a God complex. But you see him and you see what you could never have become and you respect him for it. You and I both know if Liam were first born and never ill, Shamus would have tried to adopt him.”

  “I knew it even when he was sick,” he whispered. For some reason, his voice was stuck at this level with me tonight. “He had so much fight. He used to tell me while in bed that once he was better, he was going to buy the damn hospital, just so they could stock it with better food. When I asked why he didn’t just suggest it to them, he said, ‘that’s too much talking and I want it done.’ He was seven. I took him and the boys fishing when he was thirteen. Neal caught five fish, Declan three, and I seven.”

  “Liam didn’t catch anything? Are you sure?” I frowned, trying my best to remember those days, but he and I both knew that time for me was like the dark ages.

  “He caught one. He was just getting over his trip from the hospital and still a bit weak. I was surprised he caught anything. I just wanted him to get fresh air and relax. We camped out by the lake, but when I woke up in the morning, Liam was gone…”

  “Sedric!” I slapped his arm.

  “Ouch. Damn it, woman!” he yelled, holding onto me tighter. “I found him, didn’t I? The little brat took the boat, went out on the water and fished until he caught eighteen fish. Kid was half frozen, his fingers were cut from the wires. I never wanted to kick his ass so much!”

  I could see how now, years later, he couldn’t stop himself from smiling at the memory of it.

  “He was so determined to out-do us all. He could have stopped at ten, but no, the damn kid had to double it. He was so proud of himself, even though he reeked to high heaven,” he added.

  “That sounds like our Liam. He has to be number one, and everyone has to know it.” I laughed.

  “Yeah.” He kissed my head. “It’s how I knew he was the one who was going to take over. Liam could barely stand to bow down to me. If it were Neal or Declan, I know he would have broken away or killed them. Never in my life was I more grateful to Neal than when he accepted it without question.”

  “That’s because he’s like you and never wanted to be in charge. He hates working under pressure.” I would never admit it, but Neal’s fun craziness came from me.

  “Your biggest success was finding Mel, you know that, right? Liam would not be half the man he is now if it weren’t for her,” I added.

  “Both a good and bad thing. Good for the family and the company. The world may just hate me for it. Liam feeds off of her, and she him. They both like to out-do the other and it’s scary. Liam would have killed Shamus, but Melody pulled him back.”

  I could see it in his eyes. Pride. They were finally growing.

  “What are you going to do?” I asked for the third and final time.

  He kissed me before sitting up. “I’m going to have a talk with my father.”

  SEDRIC

  There comes a time in every child’s life where they have to look their parents in the eye and say enough.

  I always wondered when that time would come. Or how I could look my demon of a father in the eye, whilst standing with my head held high with no fear. We are all afraid of something or someone. Shamus had always been that person. Yet, as we walked through the back woods behind our home, I felt nothing…and nothing was a familiar feeling.

  It was how I spent almost thirty years running the family. There were brief mom
ents of relief; the moment I met Evelyn, the moment each of my children were born, and the moment Evelyn came back to me. But that nothingness was always there eating away at me.

  “I didn’t seek company,” Shamus spoke in the darkness, as the wind blew the leaves above us.

  “I didn’t seek your presence,” I said to him, moving to stand beside the tree. I hated coming this far back in our property, but I still made the trip once a year with Evelyn, just to see the tombstones that rested right under the tress. One for my mother and one for the daughter we never got to raise.

  “I told you that boy of yours was going to cock-up everything I’ve built.”

  I didn’t reply for a moment, enjoying the chill of the wind as we stood.

  “Why are you back here, Shamus?”

  “Because death is coming,” he replied. Turning to me, I noticed for the first time he held a gun in his hand. “You have no idea what you did when you arranged for their marriage. There are rules even we have to follow.”

  “Any rules I broke was because you failed to teach,” I replied. “Are you truly going to kill me out here, in the woods, in front of my own mother and daughter?”

  “Not you,” he said before turning the gun onto himself.

  Before I could blink, the shot echoed through the night. His body fell onto the leaves, and I couldn’t bring myself to care. Not even a little bit.

  Kneeling down, I stared at him. “You should have done that a long time go.”

  Sighing, I pulled out my phone. Liam was going to be pissed.

  NINE

  “Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die.”

  —Herbert Hoover

  LIAM

  “I’m sorry, what the fuck did you just say?” Neal asked our father as he poured himself a drink.

  “Your grandfather shot himself in the head with a nine millimeter while we were talking in the woods,” he repeated before downing the entire glass.

  I opened my mouth, but for the first time in my life, I wasn't sure what the hell to say. How he could just stand there all calm and collected as if he’d just told us about the weather and not a man’s suicide. Melody, Declan, Neal and I sat there, and I allowed them a moment for the news to sink in.