The Untouchables (26 page)

“Damn it!” I screamed as Liam, Declan and Sedric entered the study to find it empty. As if he could feel my rage, Liam angrily paced across the room, grabbing the book Aviela had left on the desk.

“Find her,” he said through a clenched jaw before leaving the room.

Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm down. When the doors to the control room opened, I instantly threw my knife. Liam stared at the knife lodged in the wall by his head before looking up at me wide eyed.

“What did you find out from the Briars?” I asked, still trying to catch my breath.

Handing me my weapon, he looked at the monitors, putting his gun—which he had drawn before the knife hit the wall—away. “What was she doing?”

“What did you find out from the Briars?” I repeated.

“Mel…’

“She killed the President, Liam. She killed the leader of the free world, just to make sure we didn’t get the White House. Right now, I do not care about her. I want to know what’s going on, now!”

He looked over the screens, still searching for her. We both knew she was gone. There was no way we could get to her right now. Not like this. She had entered our home without us noticing; she could get out just as easily.

“She or an accomplice somehow found and disabled the old cameras in the study. They weren’t aware of the ones Neal just installed,” he whispered, clicking through the monitors. “She went down the west hallway but…”

“Liam,” I snapped impatiently.

“Your grandfather. He was a monopoly taking over the mafia,” he spat. “He’s been setting up marriages for decades, all with the single purpose of making sure no one family is too dominant. He’s trying to spread the wealth, drugs, and power.”

“So, basically he doesn’t like the fact that Google and Bing are in bed together,” I whispered, trying to figure out what this meant.

“Who’s Google and who’s Bing in this analogy?”

“Aviela had me at gunpoint. Shit, she shot me. Why didn’t she kill me? I doubt that it was her maternal instincts kicking in.” I could never even
think
of doing anything remotely harmful to my own child. How could she?

Leaning against the desk, he thought it over. “What happened when Caesar fell?”

“Everyone tried to become Caesar.”

“That’s why she didn’t kill you. Killing you right then and there would spark the need for revenge from those loyal to you. Killing us both would open the door to anarchy and more bloodshed, everyone will be trying to fill the shoes we’d leave behind.”

Running my hand through my hair, I tried my best to ignore the stabbing sensation I was feeling. “What does Ivan get out of this?” Why did he care? Where was his link in all this?”

“A kick out of controlling the Mafia without getting his hands dirty?” He frowned.

“There has to be more to this, right?”

He thought for a moment and shrugged. “Who knows, but at least we have something to hang around that woman’s neck. I wonder how the people will feel when they find out.”

“I think they’ll bring out the guillotine. I doubt she knows who Aviela really is. She might not even know her as Aviela. But that woman is just itching to confess, we just have to give her a soapbox to stand on.”

“I’d better call Neal and tell him not to bother with whatever half-assed plan he was working on.” He sighed, texting his idiotic brother.

“Not that it would have worked anyways. I’ve seen puppies who are more useful than he’s been. Though we have to give him credit for the cameras.”

Liam shook his head. “No, we don’t.”

I tried to smile, but there was that pain again.

“Are you alright?” he asked, reaching for my hand.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just…damnit, Liam. I want her gone. I want them all gone! I saw her, and for the first time in my life, I was truly scared. If I was who I used to be, I would have stormed in there the moment I heard her voice…but…” I paused to stare down at my protruding stomach.

“Mel…”

“I don’t like to be scared. I don’t know how to be scared. That isn’t my nature and yet, there I was,” I whispered.

Taking my hands into his, he kissed the back of them. “You weren’t being scared, you were being a mother, love. You put your anger and your need for revenge aside and protected our child. That’s your nature.”

The smile on his face, despite all the things going on, made me want to smile. But I couldn’t. One moment I was sitting up, the next, I was hunched over just enough to see blood—my blood—rapidly staining the white of my dress.

No. Please no. Not again.

“Mel? Mel!”

LIAM

I don’t know what happened. It was all a blur. One moment I was in awe of her, so proud that she had been open with me. The next, I was surrounded by the press as I carried her into an ambulance. I wasn’t sure if I had gone deaf or if my brain had momentarily shut down, allowing me to focus without really breaking.

During to ride to the hospital, everything was moving so quickly. Mel was squeezing my hand so damn hard, and yet, I was frozen, unsure of what was going on, unsure what to say or what to do, so I held her hand, brushed her hair back, and kissed her forehead. She was curled up in the fetal position and there was nothing I could do. I was a phone call away from making a man the next President, and yet, I couldn’t help my wife.

The moment we stepped into the hospital, they wheeled her away, cutting her dress off as they went. The nurse was already preparing to put an IV in her arm, but I reached out to stop her.

“We don’t want drugs.”

“Mr. Callahan.” I looked up to find that doctor, Am… something. She looked down at Mel, pressing into her abdomen softly, which only made Mel cry out again.

“Your job is to fix her, not make her worse,” I snapped, wanting to pop her ugly little head off her neck.

“Mr. Callahan, I’m sorry but it’s going to hurt before it gets better. Either way, she’s going to need the fluids, and the painkillers have a dual purpose. She needs to be calm or we run the risk of losing this baby,” she snapped right back.

The nurse looked directly at me, waiting for me to release her arm, when I did, she had that needle in Melody’s arm before I could blink.

“We’re going to need a sonogram,” she spoke right past me, still pressing on Mel’s stomach. Each time she applied pressure, Mel would squeeze my hand. It was like that for what felt like hours, but in reality, it was probably only a few minutes; push, squeeze, until Mel stopped squeezing and her body relaxed. Looking at her, I found her staring at me, completely relaxed with her eyes wide open. It was scary as shit, and yet I welcomed it all the same.

“You look like shit,” she whispered with a smile.

“This how all men with wives who terrorize them look,” I whispered back, kneeling at her bedside.

She rolled her eyes at me before looking at the nurse who was currently taking her blood pressure.

“What are you giving me?”

“Acetaminophen.” The blonde haired doctor smiled, as she grabbed hold of the ultrasound. “Don’t worry, it’s safe.”

“What’s wrong with her, doctor?”

“Dr. Lewis,” she corrected. “Dr. Amy Lewis we met last year and I just want to—”

“Question one: what is wrong with me?” Mel asked, cutting straight to the point. “Question two: how is my baby?”

“I’m checking your baby right now, but he or she should be just fine,” she said as the nurse closed the door and blinds.

“And question one?” I asked.

“You people waste no time…”

“Because we have no time to waste,” Mel and I said at the same time. “And
please
don’t make me have to ask again.”

I almost wanted to laugh at her attempt to be nice and use ‘please.’ It just made her sound even more annoyed.

“Mrs. Callahan, from what we can tell, you have preeclampsia. It’s not life threatening,
yet
. However, your blood pressure is very high. If this doesn’t change, there is a high possibility of you developing eclampsia, which can be hazardous to both your health, and that of your unborn child. You’re going to need to take it easy in the next coming weeks, alright?” Lifting up her dress and placing a blanket over her legs, Dr. Lewis placed some sort of gel on Mel’s stomach.

“Easy? As in bed rest easy?” she asked. The one way to make sure Mel didn’t relax was to tell her to do so.

“No, I don’t think it’s that serious yet, but I would honestly recommend taking some time off from work.”

“A Callahan that actually works?” the nurse whispered behind us, unaware that I could hear her and I was about two seconds away from strangling her with Mel’s IV. However, before I could comment, a small whoosh echoed through the room. It was like a tiny underwater drum.

“That is your baby’s heartbeat.”

Mel laughed, reaching for her stomach as the whooshing continued. It was strong and beautiful at the same time. It was like the music I could imagine God enjoying, and I couldn’t for the life of me tear my eyes away from the black and white picture on the monitor.

Smiling, Dr. Lewis stared at the screen, moving the wand over Mel’s stomach. “Would you like to know the sex?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“No?” I stared down at her. We were finding out the sex, now.

“Your parents really wanted to find out with us. Evelyn cornered me in the car. Is she here?”

I had no idea. Everything had happened so quickly and my main concern was getting her here as quickly as possible.

“Can you check if the rest of the Callahan party has arrived?” Dr. Lewis instructed a nurse.

Brushing her brown hair back, I watched as Melody fought the urge to fall sleep. We were working on almost eighteen hours of no sleep. That couldn’t have helped her condition. She needed to rest more. “Can’t we just find out a second time with them in the room? I’m sure I can fake a surprised face.”

With her eyes half open, she shook her head.

“This is the least I can do for your mom. Plus, maybe she’ll calm down a little.”

“Apparently you don’t know my mother.”

“Are you bad-mouthing me, son?”

Speak of angels and they appear.

Walking over to us, with my father an inch behind her, she kissed Mel’s forehead.

“You gave us quite a scare, young lady,” my father told her.

Laughing, she grabbed hold of his hand. “Now Sedric, you and I both know you were itching to escape those political asshats.”

He could only grin before kissing her forehead.

“Is the baby alright?” Evelyn asked, mesmerized by the black and white screen.

“Can I tell you the sex now?” Dr. Lewis asked Mel directly.

She didn’t say anything, just took a deep breath, grabbed my hand and nodded.

“Well then, your son is going to be fine, as long as mommy here takes it easy.”

“A boy?” I whispered with a grin so wide my face felt as though it would break in half.

Nodding, she showed us the tiny boy, who was seemingly exposing himself to the world with pride.

“Just like his father.” Mel smiled.

I kissed her forehead, her nose, and her cheeks before kissing her lips. All I could think to say was, “Thank you.”

“Another young Master Callahan. I can’t wait to help with his nursery!” My mother, almost jumped out of her skin.

“I bet you I can get him to love golf early on,” added my father.

To which my mother could only shake her head. “Sedric, dear, you’re the only man in this family who thinks that’s a real sport!”

“Son, don’t listen to her. Now your father wasn’t any good, but with your mother’s genes, there’s hope for you,” he spoke to Mel’s stomach.

Mel simply looked at me.

“And you thought this was going to calm them down?”

TWENTY-THREE

“Actions are the first tragedy in life, words are the second. Words are perhaps the worst. Words are merciless...”

—Oscar Wilde

CORALINE

I used to hate hospitals. Everyone was either dying or dead. Yet, right now I felt like I was going to die from excitement. Or nervousness.

“What has you looking like a megawatt light bulb?” Olivia asked, sitting across from me and calmly checking her phone.

“What?”

“Your face. You look like you’re about to break out into a show tune. Which is a little twisted seeing as Mel is losing her baby again.”

She was such a bitch.

“Olivia, you don’t know that,” Neal whispered, sitting up in his plastic chair.

“She was bleeding, and curled up in a ball, I’m sure every news outlet is talking by now…”

“Unless you’ve magically gone to medical school in the last two hours, shut up, Olivia. You don’t know shit,” I couldn’t help but snap at her.

She drove me insane.

Rolling her blue eyes at me, she frowned. “I forgot, you’re her little lackey. I wonder how long that will last when she plans to kill
your
father.”

“Olivia, enough.” Neal grabbed her arm.

She looked him dead in the eyes. “You were going to kill him, weren’t you? From wherever you were hiding, you were going to kill him at the end of the night.”

“This is not the time or the place for this,” he hissed at her.

“For what? To discuss your loyalty? Because apparently you can’t even stand up for me, your wife. Other men would move heaven and earth. You on the other hand, don’t give a damn. It’s all about twisted fucking Mel, and now karma is biting her in the ass. So let go of me,” she yelled, pulling her arm away and forcing him to let go. She went to rise, but before she could leave, Declan made his way over.

He smiled, running his hands through his hair. “She’s fine. So is their son.”

“A boy?” I jumped up into his arms. “Evelyn must be in overdrive right now.”

“Who says God doesn’t have favorites?” Olivia sneered before walking off to some random part of the hospital.

“Tell Liam I said congrats,” Neal said, shaking Declan’s hand before following his wife.

“Olivia is driving me up the wall,” I whispered, holding onto him.

Kissing my nose, he just smiled.

“What?”

“Mel is fine. We’re in a hospital with all types of devices that can find out whether or not you’re pregnant,” he whispered.