A Bloody Kingdom (Ruthless People Book 4) (28 page)

No…please…no, don’t cry on me…damn it!
I had to force myself not to cringe, slowly peeling away from her as she blew into a napkin.

“If neither of you mind, do you think I can talk to your son?” I questioned, glancing back at him.

“Huh? Our son? Why?” His father tensed up. “He’s not feeling—”

“My children were also involved in the other school shooting. My son also has had a hard time adjusting, but we finally managed to break through. I don’t know if I could just come by and say hello without at least reaching out to him.”

They glanced at each other and his mother crossed her arms over herself like she was trying to keep herself upright. “If—if you can do anything…okay.”

Her husband nodded and with that, Mina held the door open for me. When they moved to follow, I stopped, “He might not want to talk if he feels you standing next to him. Is it possible to just watch us from a distance?”

Luckily they didn’t fight me on it, maybe because they were just too tired to. Taking the white rolling chair, I moved it over to his bedside. He didn’t bother looking over so I sat between his bed and the window.

His eyes were hazel, his brown hair messy; a few strands fell on his face and he didn’t brush them back. For a quick second, he focused on me, somewhat confused as to who I was, but didn’t say anything.

“I’m Melody, I was shot too.” I outstretched my hand to shake his but he didn’t move, so I took his hand and made him shake mine anyway. At that, he pulled back and shifted to face the other direction. Leaning back in my chair, I said, “I have a son your age. When he’s upset, he either blows up or gets real silent; it scares the shit out of me some days.”

The boy’s head snapped back, eyes wide.

“What?”

He didn’t answer.

“Shit,” I said again and he made a face. “Fuck. Damn it. Bloody hell. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!”

The corner of his mouth turned up just a little.

“What, you’ve never heard a curse word before? Say it. I won’t tell your parents.”

He opened his mouth but then stopped, making me realize he had stopped talking because he was sad but had continued to not talk because he felt like everyone was trying to make him talk. He was being stubborn…and kids were allowed to be stubborn sometimes, especially when they were upset.

“Come on, I know you wanna…” I leaned closer. “This could be the one and only chance you get to say it to an adult and not get in trouble.”

Again he opened his mouth. “Fuck.”

“High five.” He left me hanging, making a face as if to say ‘not cool.’

“Are you going to ask me to talk about it? Because I don’t wanna talk. Kevin and Lizzy are dead and they aren’t coming back!” he screamed at me, on the verge of tears.

“I know. Dead people can’t come back. I’m not in here to make you feel better because the truth is you aren’t going to. You are always going to feel bad. So cry, get angry, but don’t just sit here and look out the window doing nothing. It’s not fair to your brother and sister. I don’t know them, but you giving up doesn’t really seem like something a brother and sister would want for their brother. I can’t promise you anything other than that the person who did this…will hurt more than you.”

“Can you?” He frowned, finally turning all the way around. “Can you hurt him?”

I smiled. “Absolutely, it’s kind of my specialty. I just need you to do a job for me.”

“What is it?”

“My son, Ethan, he’s going to need a friend like you.”

“You want me to be his friend? But what if I don’t like him?” He frowned. Smiling, I shrugged.

“You can use him for all his toys and leave.”

“You’re weird,” he replied. He was okay, as okay as a child in his situation could be, he just wanted someone to talk to him, not down to him, I could tell.

“Yeah, I know, but it’s the weird people who rule the world,” I said, rising from the chair.

“You’re going?” He frowned, looking back down at his hands. “My mom and dad keep crying and fighting. The doctors keep asking me how I am feeling…I don’t know. I don’t want to be here, but I don’t want to be there either.”

He nodded to the city outside his window.

“I have to, I’m one of the weird people who rule the world. You need to remember, Toby, your parents will always be sad too, the doctors will not leave you alone until you leave their hospital, and no one wants to go out there, you just kinda have to. It sucks, but that’s what we grownups do all the time.”

“I’ll do it,” he said when I moved to the door. “I’ll be your kid’s friend.”

I grinned. “Great, I’ll talk to your parents. But you should try getting out of bed and cleaning up, you kind of look sick.”

“I was shot.” He made a face at me.

“So was I! You don’t see me with a booger in my nose!” I exclaimed, and his eyes widened as he put his hands over his nose.

Laughing, I walked out of the room. The moment I did, his mother latched on to my arm.

“What did you say to him?” she begged. “He hasn’t said a word to us.”

In the corner of my eye, I saw Mina give me a look. “He just needed someone who wasn’t grieving. I asked him to come over to play with my sons. I hope we can work something out.”

“Thank you.” His father shook my hand more energetically this time. “Thank you.”

Nodding to them, Mina came over to me. When they walked back into the room, she lifted her phone for me to see the photo that was now trending online.

“I walked into this one.” Was this what he meant by ruining my reputation? By claiming we were having an affair?
How childish.

“He’s releasing a statement already?” Mina asked, moving the phone to herself, clicking on the video.

What in the hell was wrong with this man?

“Melody…” Her eyes widened as she turned the screen back to me.

“What!” I snapped.
Jesus Christ.
“I do not have time for this.”

“Listen to what he’s saying!” She stuffed the earbud into my ear, replaying the video.

He stood in front of the camera, his whole body serious. “Just a few minutes ago I, along with many of you, saw a photo taken out of context by media. My advisors and staff tell me it is better not to comment on this. However, due to the double standard in our media coverage of females in power, I felt it would not be right to stand by as one of the strongest and finest governors this state has ever had is forced to comment on such a torrid photo. Not only is it not true, it is not possible, because Melody Nicci Giovanni Callahan is my half-sister.”

I wasn’t a fainting type of person.

Nothing shocked me.

But all of sudden, I couldn’t breathe anymore.

TWENTY

“All her young life she has tried to please her father, never quite realizing that, as a girl, she never could.”

~ Alice Walker

LIAM

“She’s not all right,” Mina whispered to me when I got to the door of her office. “I tried to tell her to stay in the hospital but she wouldn’t.”

“I got it, go home,” I said, opening the door. She sat on the floor of her office, her heels off to the side, the blinds closed, a bottle of red wine in her hands.

“He’s lying,” she said, as she drank from the bottle. The wine spilled over the corner of her mouth but she didn’t care. She drank until she needed to breathe and then wiped the side of her mouth before adding, “That’s what I first told myself. He was lying or he has to be insane. But then I thought to myself, Melody, why were you so shaken when you looked at him? What was wrong? I realized it’s because he looks like Orlando. His eyes, he has my father’s eyes. And when I realized that, I thought to myself, how stupid am I? Of course, my father could have another kid. It wasn’t like he was celibate. I clearly remember women coming in and out of his room. I forgot that men like to fuck multiple women because everyone in the Callahan clan is so passionately in love with their spouses. How did I forget that? It is the number one thing you learn as a female. And just as I am kicking myself, I start to laugh, Liam. I’m laughing my ass off because guess what?”

I said nothing and she lifted the bottle to drink again.

“I have a brother and he is trying to kill me.” She snorted, laughing again. “Think about it. First my mother, who should have been dead, came out of nowhere and tried to kill me. Then my grandfather, who was the head of the FBI, tried to kill me. Now I have a half-brother, who is the mayor, also trying to kill me. Liam, I’m a living breathing telenovela!” She laughed harder. “I’ve even come up with a name for my life: ‘
Las pasiones de Melody!’
I am currently casting for the next season where we are going to introduce you to my evil twin sister who is going to murder me and try to live my life. But!” She held her hands up. “I won’t be dead. I’ll come back in some dramatic way to kill her but, oh no, she’s pregnant. And even though you feel betrayed by evil twin Melody, you can’t let me kill your child! It’s soap opera gold!”

“Are you done?” I asked, hoping we could fast-forward through her crazy talk. She had an imagination, no doubt, and it only came out when she was either far too drunk or pregnant.

She took a deep breath and relaxed back against her desk, lifting up a piece of paper. “He sent me this a letter Orlando apparently gave him years ago. The handwriting is my father’s, that is for sure.”

Walking over to her, I took it, once again proud that I had taken the time to learn how to read and write in Italian.

Emilio,

If you are reading this letter, it means your mother has told you who you are: a Giovanni, the son of Orlando Giovanni, a man who came to this country from the small town of Bosa with nothing except my grandfather’s pocket watch and a new pair of shoes I stole from my neighbor’s son. Of all the questions you have for me, the most important one to you would be why I am not in your life. It’s very simple: our name is ‘Giovanni’, the one shown favor, but it is actually a lie. Nothing ever comes easy for us, nothing is given, we must take everything we want and defend it until there is no air in our lungs. My whole life I fought for my name. I will not just give it to you. You will fight and only if you survive can you stand as my son. Can you rule as I have ruled, as the head of the Italians? With our people, respect is earned, so earn your name. Fight for your name. Until you can do that, you can never be my son.

This is the lesson, the training I’m giving you. One day, maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to see you, get to see my legacy and the family name continue.

Orlando Giovanni

“It was a lie,” she whispered when I was done reading. “All the times he pushed me and tortured me, he said it was so no one would doubt me when I took over. It was a lie. He wasn’t counting on me. He was bored or maybe he just set me up as the final obstacle for his son. Either way, the one person I thought was always proud of me, always saw the best in me, is the same person who planned to backstab me. My own father. I can feel the knife in my spine, Liam. I got played.”

“Melody, get up.”

“Liam, I’m not in the mood—”

“Get your ass off the ground!” I snapped at her.

Sighing, she pushed herself off the floor, wobbling slightly as she stood in front of me. Grabbing her, I spun her around. “I’m not sure who this woman standing in front of me right now is, but I do know she is not my wife.”

Pushing her hair to the side, I zipped down the back of her dress.

“Liam—”

“Shh.” I kissed the back of her neck, my hand slipping into her dress. “I’m taking the knife out.”

I could feel myself getting harder as she relaxed against my chest, breathing in slowly. I wanted her…badly…but I couldn’t, not yet. She was already pushing herself, the last thing I needed to do was add any more stress on her heart, whether it was positive or not. Instead, I just held her close to me, leaving kisses up and down her neck and shoulder.

“You aren’t just a Giovanni. You are a Callahan. I am proud of you. I see the best in you. That’s all that matters to me. When your father died, he entrusted you to me. I don’t give a fuck what the piece of paper says and you shouldn’t either. So, have you returned from crazy land or am I going to have to keep listening to the plot of ‘
Las pasiones de Melody?
’” I smirked.

“I’m telling you, we’d make a killing on that show.” A smile spread across her face. “But yes, I’m back. A little tipsy, but back.”

“We are going to have to kill Emilio, you know this right?” I knew she knew it, but it needed to be said.

“I’ve killed everyone else in my family already, why not him?” she muttered. When she tried to move away, I held her tighter to me.

“It is not the same. He started this. The whole reason he became mayor was just so he could publicly announce he was your brother, and in doing so getting the Italians’ attention. You are going to have to go personally to remind them who you are.”

She didn’t reply. We just stood there quietly until her phone rang and I let her go. Walking around her desk, she put the phone on speaker.

“What is it?”

“They are throwing him a get-together. He’s here now with most of the families,” Fedel replied as she sat in her chair. “What do you want me to do?”

“Nothing,” she said, spinning around. “Do nothing but watch and listen. That’s all.”

“Yes, ma’am.” With that, he hung up, and she slowly spun around.

“Mel—”

“Liam, what do you think I should do?” She paused, asking me honestly. She seemed like a different person right then, and I hoped to God it was still the wine talking. “Should we kill him now and be done with it? Or should we wait and see who’s going to follow him and cut them all down together?”

Thank God. She’s still herself.

Reaching to the floor, I grabbed her bottle of wine. “This could be another Italian-Irish war, which could lead to blood feuds and more death down the road.”

“So?”

“So, we are going to see what happens tonight. You don’t know for sure if anyone really will follow him.”

“And if they bite the hand that feeds them?” she asked.