A Bloody Kingdom (Ruthless People Book 4) (31 page)

“Soon, sweetheart. Now look around; do you see another panel…I mean thing covering the floor?”

I looked and saw it. “Yeah.”

“Lift it up and you will see a cable like the one Daddy uses for his video games.”

“The old games?”

“Yes, Wyatt, the old games.” She laughed again. I liked when she laughed.

“I see it, Mommy. It’s yellow.”

“Okay, pull the cable.”

I did and heard a click.

“Now push, slowly.” When the roof came up, I sat up. Mommy was right there smiling down at me.

“You were amazing, Wyatt!” She hugged me. “Tomorrow we will try with other cars.”

“I don’t like this Mommy!” I started to cry and I felt even more bad because my pants were wet.

“I know.” She hugged me. “I don’t like it either, but you are safe when you are strong. We will work on everything, one by one. I’ll be there the whole time.”

“Wyatt!” Ethan yelled at me and I jumped.

“You said not to yell,” I reminded him.

“Sorry,” he said again. “I got worried. You weren’t saying anything; I thought you were hurt.”

I frowned. “I’m fine.”

“Okay, so what is your idea?” he asked me.

I felt the walls of the car to find panels but I couldn’t. “I need to be where you are Ethan.”

“What?”

“I need to switch, come on!”

“Okay. Okay, okay. Wyatt, sit up as far as you can. Dona, slide under him, and Wyatt, roll over us.”

“Ugh.” I rolled over Dona, who groaned, and then Ethan until I was in his place. I felt the walls again. I hoped it was like the first car; the other cars Mommy had put me in were hard.

“Do you know what you’re doing?” Ethan asked when I pulled.

Just like the first car, I saw the red glow.

“I need something heavy, like a screwdriver or something,” I told him.

“I have a knife.” He put it in my hand.

“Why do you have a knife?”

“Why don’t you? Rule 103: always have a knife. Don’t you know all the rules?”

I didn’t say anything.

“No one knows all the rules, Ethan, not even you,” Dona said, and I felt better using the knife to hit the red thing.

“What can you see—”

“AH!” Dona screamed. We all screamed when the car hit the brakes hard before hitting something. My back hit Ethan and the knife cut my hand.

“We stopped,” Ethan said, and I flinched hearing the gunshots. “Can you get it open?”

“Yeah.” I bit my lip, trying to not cry, pulled up the carpet, and then tugged the yellow cable. “Push up,” I said, pushing with one hand.

“Wyatt, you’re a fucking genius!” Ethan hugged me, lifting the hood only a little bit so he could see. “We need to run.”

“To where?” Dona asked.

“Doesn’t matter, just jump out and run.”

“Okay.” It was getting hard to breathe in there.

“One…” He counted, lifting the top more; the gunshots got louder. “Two…three!”

We pushed the hood up and the sun was right above us.

We saw men coming out of cars with guns.

“RUN!” Ethan jumped out, helping Dona. I hugged my hand to my chest and ran.

“What the fuck are you doing, go after them! FUCK!” someone yelled, but Ethan kept saying not to look back and to run and so that’s what we did, pushing people away from us and running past shops and stores. Everything was happening so fast. I was so tired but I didn’t stop running…until Dona tripped once we turned the corner into an alley. It smelled like poop and pee everywhere.

“DONA!” I almost fell over when I tried to stop turning. One of the men dressed in all back came up right behind her and took her.

“Let go!” I rushed to him and bit his arm.

“You stupid little fuck!” I put my hand over my head to stop him from hitting me but he never did.

BANG!

It was a loud shot. It echoed in the alley. The man dropped down onto the ground and then fell to his knees. When Dona and I looked up, it was Ethan. He had the gun the man had dropped and he had shot it at him. He walked over to him.

“Leave my brother and sister alone,” he said, and he fired again. The blood hit his face and it was like everything went quiet again.

“WE GOT THEM!” We all turned to see three guys at the end of the alley. Ethan held the gun up to them and they lifted their hands in the air.

“LEAVE US ALONE!” he screamed, standing in front of us.

“Ethan,” the first big guy said. He was bald but had writing on the sides of his head, and a big beard. “Your father sent us. We are Irish. We’re here—”

“I don’t believe you. Stay back or I will shoot!” Ethan said, holding the gun up again.

One of the other guys moved his hand to his waist.

“I SAID DON’T MOVE!” Ethan screamed.

“We just want to prove it okay?” another one said, lifting his shirt. I saw a giant C on the side of his stomach.

“You know what this is, right? I work for the Callahans, and that means we also work for you.”

Ethan didn’t put down the gun. “If you work for me, put down your guns.”

“Huh?”

“Your guns, put them down,” he said again.

“Fine, kid.” They slowly put them down.

“Wyatt, go get it.” Before I could, Dona went and got the guns and picked them up, handing them back to the men.

“DONA!” Ethan yelled.

“I saw them shoot the guys that took us. They aren’t lying,” she replied before turning back to them. “Right?”

They smiled. “No, ma’am, we aren’t. Now come. We need to get you all somewhere safe.”

Ethan still didn’t want to move so I pulled on his shirt. “Ethan come on…we don’t know where we are or where we can go. Dona is sure.”

He nodded, putting down the gun. He looked over his shoulder at the man behind us but didn’t say anything as we followed them out of the alley and toward the cars.

When the doors closed, we all sat close together. One of them reached for my arm but Ethan grabbed his first.

“What are you doing?”

The man held up a few bandages. “You, Wyatt, have one hell of a protective brother. I know the feeling. I’m Max.”

I wasn’t sure what to say so I just held out my hand.

“How is Uncle Neal?” Dona asked.

No one answered.

It was scary when people didn’t answer. It meant they couldn’t even lie, and that was bad.

LIAM

Fifteen minutes.

That’s how long it took for us to get to the airfield and for them to get the jet ready for us. We were just about to board when my phone went off.

“It’s them.” Mel turned to me, her face so close to mine I could see her breathing.

Nodding, I answered, holding the phone out between us and putting it on speaker.

“Boss. We got them.”

She exhaled, reaching out to grab my arm, her nails digging into my skin.

“They are fine. Wyatt has a cut on his arm but he’s all right. Ethan…”

“Ethan what?” Mel yelled.

“He shot down one of the men who chased after them. I think he’s shaken up a bit. He won’t let go of the gun or relax. He probably won’t until someone he knows comes.”

“Put him on the line,” I said, knowing what was going on in his head.

“Dad?”

“Son,” I smirked. “You did well. I’m proud of you.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m still in Chicago, but I’ll be there soon. The family you’re with, you can trust them—”

“Dad…” He cut in, but then his voice trailed off. Mel bit her lip and dropped her head.

“Ethan, I want you to sit with your brother and sister. Watch TV or play some games. I don’t even care if you all argue. Just remember while you are with your siblings, if you hadn’t done what you did, they wouldn’t be there. You did not only the right thing, but the best thing: you protected your family.”

“It wasn’t just me, Wyatt got us out of the trunk,” he said, a little more upbeat. I saw Melody grin so wide and so proud, it was hard not to grin back.

“Your mom and I love you guys, now give the phone back to Max,” I said.

“Okay.”

There was static on the phone before he came back.

“Sir?”

“My mother and Neal?”

His voice was sad when he answered. “Neal was taken into surgery at Boston General. I don’t know much more other than the state he was in; he’s most definitely lost his left leg. Your mother is with him now. We have people with her.”

“I’ll be there—”

“Sir, with all due respect…”

“What?”

“We don’t really need you here right now.”

“Excuse me?”

“What I’m saying is kill this cockfucker you got in Chicago. Boston is fine, and loyal to you. There is no way anyone is getting through the army we got here. It’s been peaceful for so long here we got our grandparents strappin, happy that finally Chicago isn’t the only city getting action. Show them what happens when they mess with us, boss. Damn Italians ain’t good for shit.”

Melody just rolled her eyes.

“I want updates on my children every goddamn hour,” I replied, hanging up before he could say another word.

When he did, I leaned back against the car and Melody stood in front of me. It had stopped raining, but the sky was still turbulent.

“You think he’s still in the city?” I asked her.

“He wants to run us out, to say he made the Callahans leave their kingdom. It’s just another ego trip for the son of the bitch.” She cracked her jaw to the side. “He got us on this one, Liam. If something happened to them…if I lost them…”

“Shh.” I kissed the side of her head. “They are safe now. Everyone else’s children, not so much.”

I lifted a full magazine of bullets for her.

“Let’s flush out the rats.”

TWENTY-TWO

“On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn of both man and beast; I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD.”

~ Exodus 12:12

MELODY

“Honey, I’m back. The storm is really picking up,” he said as he closed the door behind him and hung up his jacket.

“Honey?”

His wet shoes squeaked upon the floorboards as he came farther into the house. I heard him reach into the drawer and pull out what was most likely the revolver my father had gifted him years ago.

When he finally came around the corner he saw her, slumped over the couch. “Violet!” He rushed toward her.

“She didn’t suffer,” I said to him, and his head snapped up to me as I drank the wine. “In fact, we had a perfectly nice chat. I brought the wine, of course, Uncle Vinnie. A 1961 Barolo Riserva. You told Fedel you loved it, did you not?”

Reaching over for the bottle on the coffee table, I poured him some in the empty glass I had left out for him before refilling my own.

“It truly is magnificent. You can tell they put effort into every one of the grapes. My father took me to his vineyard home in Tuscany; it was beautiful. The rolling hills, the smell…I loved it, far more than I loved Bosa. The town was so boring, but my father told me he could never escape the place he was from. The people there were the most loyal and true he’d ever met. I believed him too; after all, he had friends like you, Uncle Vinnie. You swore never to betray my family and yet here I sit, across from your dead wife, drinking wine, talking about Tuscany and my father, when all I want to do is put a bullet in your skull.” I savored the taste of the wine on my lips.

“I never betrayed the Giovanni's…Emilio is—”

“Don’t you dare!” I hissed, my grip on the glass tightening. “You point to some mutt on the street and think he compares to me? That he is better than me because what, he has a penis? You know nothing about him or what he believes or if he even gives a damn at all. My father chose me, and you disrespected that choice.”

He stood taller, stepping away from his wife and facing me directly. “If you are going to kill me, do it now. I’m sure you’ve taken the bullets out of this anyway.”

He threw the revolver my feet. Reaching down, I grabbed it and held it back up, handing it to him.

“I’m not going to kill you, Uncle Vinnie—”

“Well, you’re a damn fool if you think I’m going to tell you anything.”

I fucking hated it when people interrupted me; it drove me in-fucking-sane! Taking a deep breath once again, I held the gun up at him.

He took the gun and I told him, “You are going to kill yourself.”

“Why would I do that?”

I shrugged. “Because you know you aren’t getting out alive either way, so why bother? At least, you can say you left on your own choice.”

He paused for a moment, holding the gun to himself. “You are evil.”

“Says the man who killed dozens of men alongside my father,” I replied, and before I could blink, he turned the gun to me, but another gun went off first, the bullets striking his chest.

BANG.

BANG. BANG.

Three shots total, and he fell down as I sipped more wine and Liam stepped up right behind me. Holding the glass up to him, he handed me the gun so he could take a drink.

“I don’t see what all the fuss is about,” he said, even though he had finished the glass off. “In fact, I think it could be stronger.”

“You have a horrible taste for wine.” I took the glass back. “The last of that was completely wasted on you.”

“However will you live?” he replied, rolling his eyes at me when I moved over to Uncle Vinnie. His body convulsed on the ground, blood pooling in his mouth as he stared up at me.

“It didn’t have to be this way…you all made me do this,” I whispered, Liam already waiting by the door. The main street of what I liked to call New Italy was eerily silent. In rows across the street, all the houses looked exactly the same. Inside I could see families in living rooms, watching television, others in their kitchens or upstairs in their bedrooms. I had built this community for them, my money, my sacrifice…I had taken a rundown cul-de-sac and built a new urban neighborhood.

What I give, I can take away.

“Melody,” Liam stated when the car pulled up.

I nodded and he dialed as Lucian held open the door for me. When the door shut, Liam hung up and we pulled out. As we passed by, I couldn’t help but look over the homes whose red flags weren’t up on their mailboxes…the people against me.