Ruthless People (14 page)

“I would say sorry, but I wouldn’t mean it,” I said, rising from the bed as well.

We stood there, staring at each other, both naked and both desperately in need of
each other.

“One last fuck before we get married?” That look in her eyes made me shiver.

All I could do was smirk before pushing her against the wall.

“You and I, what a pair we make,” I said, spreading her legs once again and one of
the many more times that will happen in the future, I hoped.

“You and I against the world then?” she asked me as I pushed inside her.

“With this fuck, we start a new chapter in our life,” I hissed as I slammed into her.
“May we forever be rulers, may our enemies tremble at our feet, may we never forget
our great love that is the family. Which we will rule with an iron fist.”

“May we be ruthless and have no regrets,” she added gripping onto my back. “May we
take what we want, when we want it, with the world at our feet.”

I smiled as I fucked her against the wall. We moved in sync. It was like our bodies
were also agreeing to our package of glory, death, and blood.

“Mrs. Callahan, we shall have the world soon,” I said, never wanting to stop my hunt
to go deeper within her. The tides were changing, and we must adapt to survive during
drastic changes, and Mel was that drastic change. What we had was much bigger than
the two of us, but as she moaned out my name, I couldn’t be more grateful. She would
help me fill the sky with the Valero blood. Once we did, we would rule.

That thought added to the pleasure, and it was the best fuck of my life.

ELEVEN

“I love the old way best,
the simple way of poison,
where we too are strong as men”

~ Euripides

MELODY

“After hours of rescue missions and millions of prayers, we have yet to find any survivors
of Flight 735. Our hearts go out to all the families affected by this great tragedy,
which was caused by a simple and unpredictable engine failure. The Callahan family
has created a charity in honor of the victims and has already donated fifteen million
dollars on behalf of Melody and Liam who, as we all know, are getting married this
evening. Their wedding has been the talk of the town since we broke the story to you
only three days ago. Apparently, the couple had been seeing each other in secret for
quite some time now. The rumors of who are to attend this wedding range from U.S.
senators to the very top of the A-list . . .
”

“Ma’am would you like me to turn it off?” Adriana asked as she fixed my hair. Taking
a sip of my wine, I shook my head at her before looking into the mirror.

“Adriana, I do not want an up-do.” Screw tradition, I liked my hair down.

“Are you sure?” Evelyn smiled kindly as she walked into my room.

Tying the robe around myself just a little tighter, I smiled before standing up. Adriana
left us quickly to get the dress that hung in the deepest, darkest part of my closet.

“I prefer it down,” I stated when Evelyn walked up to me looking me up and down then
nodding. Reaching over she pulled the pin out of my hair and took a simple step back.

“Well, I must say you do look even more beautiful with it down.”

“Thank you, Evelyn.”

“Mel, please look at me,” she asked, and when I did her palm came right across my
face so quickly I never saw it coming.

Shocked, I touched the side of my cheek, unsure if I was dreaming or not.

“What the fuck!”

She didn’t even flinch. “So, I’m guessing this is the real Melody Giovanni, the girl
who had the balls to step into my house, destroy my Jackson Pollock, and then shoot
my fucking husband?”

Now I was starting to get angry. Standing straighter, I glared into her eyes. She
got one slap and that was it, the next time she raised her arm at me I was going to
break it. Before she could move, Adriana stood behind her with a gun to her skull.

I grinned, wiping my cut lip thanks to her fucking ring. “Evelyn,
you
should know better.”

Evelyn glared back not even a little bit scared. “I come to you as a mother coming
to a daughter. Had it been any of my sons who had put a bullet in Sedric, I would
have taken them out of this world so quickly they wouldn’t even know it was me. I
may not walk the same line you do, nor do I wish to, but you should know that when
it comes to my husband, I will not hesitate to kill anyone. You crossed the line.”

Look who has a spine.
Nodding over to Adriana, she took a step back and walked over to the bed
pulling out my dress.

“Noted,” I said, not even a least bit threatened. I was too amused for that. “Sedric
is off limits. He wasn’t my target anyway; your idiot son was.”

She glared once again before smirking. “It took me a long time to shift Sedric’s view
on women when I first met him and again when he first learned about you.”

What?

“Sedric found out about me the same time Liam did.”
Didn’t he?

Evelyn beamed. “Like I said, I may not choose to walk the same path as you, but that
doesn’t mean I’m naïve to the inner workings of this family. Everything Sedric has
ever done he has told me. The moment he knew what you were, he believed you were the
best thing for my
idiot
son, as you so elegantly put it. He kept it a secret from him to let him deal with
the information as he saw fit. I will commend you on your acting and will expect it
whenever you are in public with me. What you and Liam do is none of my concern. I
just wanted to make sure you knew where you stand.”

“And where is that?” I wanted to bust her smug face in. It reminded me of Liam for
fuck sake.

Evelyn pulled out a small box setting it on the table. “Today, you become my daughter;
I will love you, stand by you, and when necessary put you in check. You may very well
have the world in your hands, but you are still young and that makes you just as stupid
as my son is at times. I like you, Mel, so I hope the next time we speak in confidence
it is more civil.”

I said nothing as she looked over to the bed and grabbed my new white shoes.

“Christian Louboutin.” She smiled before turning back to look at me. “When we go to
Paris in the spring you, Coraline, Olivia, and I must go shopping. You have impeccable
taste.”

“That would be Adriana, but I shall take the invitation all the same,” I replied,
and she nodded before walking to the door.

“Well, I will leave you to it. The girls and I will come back later if you don’t mind.”
It didn’t seem like a question, but I nodded anyway.

When she left, I smiled as I finished the rest of my wine. I was starting to like
Evelyn.

My moment of peace didn’t last long, however, before Liam walked in dressed in nothing
but silk pajama bottoms as if we weren’t getting married in a few hours.

“What is with you people and not knocking?” I glared at his chest before pouring myself
more wine. I would have to make sure it was close by if I was going to make it through
the rest of the day.

“What did my mother want?”

“The better question is what do you want?” I asked him, stepping forward. He towered
over me, and the fact that I was in my underwear beneath the robe was not lost on
either of us.

“Adriana, leave us.” She froze, looking to me.

Rolling my eyes, I nodded, and she stepped outside, the moment she did he kissed me,
opening up my robe so he could cup my ass. Pushing him away, I slapped him across
the face.

“Just because we fucked already doesn’t mean we need to jump each other every time
we make eye contact,” I snapped at him. Despite the fact that he did look rather sexy,
I didn’t want him getting used to the idea that my body was his to do anything he
wished with when he was horny.

“Maybe if we did, you would be kinder.” I just snorted and turned away from him to
the items on the bed.

“Callahan, seriously what is it you want? We have the wedding of the decade to go
to soon,” I replied, stepping into my shoes.

“Those shoes make it hard not to have you right now,” he said, staring at my legs.
“However, I will take pleasure in that later tonight. I just wanted to let you know
Vance and his son, Amory, will be attending.”

What the fuck?

“You do know this would be a perfect moment for him to strike back at you for what
you did to the plane.” I crossed my arms over my chest, and his eyes went to my breasts.
Jeez, you would think we hadn’t had sex all night. If it weren’t for Sedric’s call,
we’d both still be on that boat.

Stepping forward, he let his hands trace up and down my sides. “Well love, as our
new personal contract states, we now work together. My plans were to either beef up
security and enjoy the evening, or take a moment out of our night and poison the bastard
right then and there.”

I frowned at the thought. “First, do not call me
love
. Second, when Vance falls, I want him to watch his empire burn around him and know
that he was outsmarted, outgunned, and fucked over. Drowning in the soup seems . . .”

“Too easy.” He agreed. “Then the first option it is. I’m shocked,
Mrs. Callahan
, did we just agree on something? Can it really be this easy?”

He cupped my breasts, and I gripped his dick tight enough to cause him pain. “If that’s
all,
sweetheart
, I would like to spend my last few moments as a Giovanni by myself.”

“Bitch.”

“You, too.”

“I should have—” He stopped himself before stepping up behind me. “You look beautiful.
See you at the altar, and try not to flinch at the holy water.”

“I won’t, if you won’t,” I replied as he kissed me where my shoulder met my neck.

He said nothing else before leaving, allowing Adriana to come back in. I sat down
again, and she finished making the waves in my hair as I stared into my own reflection.
His kiss brought back all his touches of the night before. He was amazing and had
stamina that was unheard of. My body cried out for his, and my mind both hated and
loved that. I loved being dominated in such a beastly sexual way, how his hands, lips,
and tongue all grabbed on to me. He was the best partner I had ever had, but I didn’t
want him to know that. I didn’t want his head to become any bigger than it already
was.

I also didn’t want him to think that just because he was a great fuck, that he held
the key to making me bend. He said he understood, but the Boss in me told me that
everyone lies. People lied about how much they drank, how much they were in debt,
how many people they had killed—people were liars. I always thought I was good at
reading liars. I could see it in their eyes, and if I did, I would kill them. However,
with Liam, I was lost. It was like I was blind. He seemed honest, but he was just
like me—a master liar.

“Adriana, what do you think of Liam Callahan?”

She froze, not sure what to say.

“Adriana, you can speak freely. I’m sure you’ve dug up more dirt since we’ve been
here.”

She nodded. “Liam Callahan is cocky, arrogant, controlling, manipulative, hotheaded,
and attractive. What makes it worse is that he knows it. He has bloodlust. He stares
at people with such rage, it is as though he wishes for them to mess up so he can
put a bullet in them. However, the moment he looks at you, it’s gone. He is content,
which is far from the man I saw three days ago. He seemed a rather isolated and lonely
person. From what I’ve gathered, he was a very ill child, to the point he was crippled.
Add that to his high intelligence, and it made him a prime candidate for bullies throughout
his early life. He keeps it private and is embarrassed about it, seeing as he is a
Callahan. He was admitted to a hospital for almost year, and from there, gradually
became better. He trusts very few people, which includes his family. He’s searching
for something.”

I stared at her through the mirror, eyebrow raised, before grinning. This was Adriana’s
talent. She was a profiler. A very good profiler. Everyone overlooked her, thinking
she was just my personal maid. However, I kept Adriana close because she was my second
pair of eyes. She saw people as if they were an open book and could collect information
because no one noticed her. She wasn’t a fan of the blood, or the violence, and I
wouldn’t force her to be. She proved her worth often in times like this.

“So you think I should trust him.”

“Only you know, ma’am. You are a better judge of character than I. I think he wants
you to care about him as much as his mother cares for his father. I don’t think he
is out to hurt you—yet. But he is still a Callahan, and the Irish are tricky. He is
going to be your husband, and you are not cringing at the thought of it, ma’am.”

She was right, and I didn’t know how to process that.

“It has been a long three days.” I sighed, standing up and allowing my robe to fall.
She nodded, grabbing my dress and holding it for me to step into.

“You look beautiful,” Coraline said, beaming when she, Olivia, and Evelyn stepped
in. Olivia looked sour, and I wouldn’t have been surprised that she figured out I
was the one who put a hole in her husband’s arm.