“We don’t murder, we kill . . .
You don’t murder animals, you kill them.”
~ Samuel Fuller
MELODY
Flipping on the television, I couldn’t help but grin.
“Three weeks ago, Commissioner Patterson, you stood before us all and promised to make this city safe! You promised that you would put an end to the blood and corruption, but instead, all you have done is made it worse! For three weeks, it has been raining blood! The death count is up to twenty-seven that we know of. Most of them innocent people who just want to live their lives in peace. People are dying left and right! You did this!” A man yelled out in the crowd.
“My son was walking home for school. He walked that same path every day and then . . .” A mother sobbed with a photo of her son in her hands.
“Twenty-seven in the suburbs, fifty-four in the city, two a day in the most poverty stricken parts of the city. Commissioner Patterson, is this the new normal?” a reporter asked.
Commissioner Patterson looked old, tired, and stressed as he tried to find the words.
“The Chicago Police Department is . . .”
“The Chicago Police Department is no safer than we are! How many men and woman have we lost in the last three weeks?”
“We have lost at total of nineteen men in the line of duty.” Commissioner Patterson sighed. I could feel the defeat coming through the screen.
“How can you keep us safe, if you can’t even keep your own people safe?”
“Is the FBI going to get involved?”
“Nope,” I said aloud and even if they did I had more than a few friends I could call on.
“Each one of these instances has been at the hands of multiple criminals, leaving them up to the Chicago Police Department to solve. However, they will be consulting on many of the cases involved.” The Commissioner stood firm.
“Will the Governor call for a state emergency?”
“Not if he wants to lose his next election.” I’m sure he was a friend of the families, Coraline held a function for him.
“We are not at that point yet. I understand how frightened you all are, but please don’t lose faith in us. It is what the people who are responsible for this all want.”
“Do you know who is responsible? Some have speculated this is because of the Irish Mob, others say there was a breakout at the county jail.”
I wanted to listen to his reply. However, I was distracted by the man kissing my neck from behind. Leaning into him, I allowed myself to relax.
“Keeping an eye on our city?” he whispered when he came up for air. Wrapping his arms around me, he pulled me closer.
“The Commissioner seems stressed.” I smirked, reaching up to run my hand through his hair.
“With all the murders, robberies and bad press, I would be stressed as well.” He snickered. Turning me to him, his eyes went straight to my breasts, but that’s what I got for standing in my underwear as I watched the news.
“Like what you see?” I whispered to him while pulling on his tie.
His eyes were coated with lust before he shook his head clear. “Yes, very much so, and as much as I would enjoy making you scream my name until your voice cracked, we have a very important wedding to get to.”
“You’re turning down sex for a wedding?”
“It’s not just any wedding love.” He pouted. “It’s Saige and Amory’s wedding, which means . . .”
“Which means you get to sit and eat their food and drink wine, while our men fuck them across the ocean.”
“And I don’t want to be late for a moment of it.”
Stepping closer to him, I retied the bowtie around his neck. “Of course not. Who would like to have sex when they could watch Vance lose control? Who knows when that could happen again. You won’t be having sex with anyone for a while either, but still.”
I kissed him deeply, biting onto his lip before breaking away. His mouth dropped open as my words sunk in. “Sweetheart . . .”
“This body is now closed to you, husband.” Stepping away from him, I turned to walk to my closet but he pulled me back.
“Let’s not do anything rash,” he replied lifting me up and throwing me on the bed, crawling on top of me as he brushed my hair back.
“We don’t have time.” I smiled as he kissed me.
“We’re the guests of honor. We can make time,” he whispered kissing from my lips to my cheek and then to my neck.
Pushing up against him, I was able to flip him onto his back. Sitting on his waist, I stared into his eyes.
“You made your choice, husband now deal with it.” I smirked as I ground my hips into him before rising, and sure enough his hard-on was clear to the world.
“Wife.”
“Husband.” I smiled, and the moment I took off toward my closet, he leapt off the bed after me. Sadly, he was too slow, and I was able to lock myself in my closet.
“Damn it!” He pounded on the door as I laughed.
“Calm the fuck down and finish getting dressed,” I called out as I looked for the shoes I wanted to wear.
“Take off your underwear. You won’t be needing them tonight!”
“The fuck I will! You aren’t getting shit from me,” I replied even though I couldn’t stop grinning.
“Fine then, I will rip the bloody things off you.” His voice was fading, and I rolled my eyes at him.
Hearing the door close, I smiled to myself. In the last three weeks, my relationship with Liam had changed drastically. We no longer fought with one about personal matters. Instead, most of our issues were with the job, and even those were few and far between. Sometimes our plan of attack didn’t mesh well, and the only way we could settle it was to “fuck it out.” Neither of us complained about that though, and I was sure he disagreed with me sometimes just so we could have sex afterward, the little prick. Yet, I found myself smiling more often because of him. I was happy, and that just seemed odd to me.
He insisted we have our “dates” at least once a week. The first week was awkward because I hated the word date and neither of us did anything really but work. The second week he brought me a snitch, a lower-level pawn who had been in the process of speaking with the police to get out of jail time. Too bad for him, we wire tapped all our men’s phones. To make an example of him, I gave him embalming fluid to drink and when he died, we made sure to ship his tongue to the Commissioner.
After that, Liam and I didn’t come out of our room for two days. The date we had this week consisted of Liam and I both naked on our bed watching the local news. We had scheduled a hit on three officers and their families.
“Ma’am, it’s Adriana. I have your dress.” Adriana knocked. Opening the door, I pulled the dress from the bag.
“Perfect.” I smiled, touching the satin of the dress.
LIAM
Stepping out of our bedroom, I tried to wipe the grin off my face. However, it was damn near impossible. I hadn’t known before that I would have no other choice than to say I was in love with Melody Nicci Callahan. I loved how she broke people’s noses, how she smiled whenever we killed someone. I loved the way she moaned my name while we made love, only to slap me afterward. She was ruthless in everything she did, and yet she could still manage to be open with me. We had both changed. I felt like I had known her for a lifetime and not just a few weeks.
“So I’m guessing by your smile that all is well in your bloody wonderland?” Sedric asked me as I reached the study.
He was decked to the nines like myself and seemed just as excited as I was, despite the fact that he didn’t know any of our plans.
“Yes, father,” I said stepping into the study. “All is well in our bloody wonderland. In fact, the adventure is just beginning.”
He sighed, taking a seat in front of the desk. “Must you torture me boy, or will you tell me what is going on? Half the city is covered in blood and the other half is afraid of its shadow. Both you and Melody insisted that we attend this mockery of a wedding. However, neither Neal nor Declan are going to be in attendance.”
“You always said I was impatient. If so, I see where I get it from,” I replied pouring myself a glass of wine.
“I’m guessing you and Melody are no longer shooting at each other.”
“For now. My wife’s opinion of me changes more often than the tide. She may shoot me tomorrow if I tell her I dislike her gun collection.”
“But at this moment—”
“Are you asking as my father or as a Ceann na Conairte?” I cut him off leaning into my chair because it was my chair and not his. Kicking my feet onto the desk I watched as his eyes narrowed at my shoes. He used to hate it when I placed my feet on his desk as a teen, but he couldn’t say anything now.
“I’m asking as a father. Son, are you happy with your wife?”
“Yes, father, everything is bloody and well in fucking wonderland.” I drank some more. “She is . . . she is Bloody Melody and perfect. God created her and then shattered the mold afterward, for the world could not handle two of her.”
“Look who has become a poet.”
“Hardly, it was a simple fact.” My wife was a ruthless animal, and it only made her sexier.
“So then I could expect something to go terribly wrong at this wedding.” He really wanted to know. It was almost sad.
“I hope when I have a child, I’m not in the predicament you are in.” I laughed at him.
“Knowing you, I doubt you will allow your son or daughter to take the throne as easily as I did.” He was joking. He had to be joking.
“Bullshit. The amount of hell you put me through—”
“I put you through hell so you could sit in that seat and call hell to you. In three weeks, you have brought this city to its knees.” He almost sounded jealous, but I could also hear the pride.
“We, Melody and I, brought it to its knees. However, it’s not bowing yet. The police commissioner is still holding out for hope to overcome the mess. A judge gave him the okay to place wiretaps on the house and our phones.” I snickered. That was only after the first week.
“When was this?”
“It doesn’t matter.” I grinned drinking again. “We had jammers and frequency scramblers placed throughout the house, and then updated all the phones. Melody insisted that we make an example out of the judge.”
I waited for it to click in, after all it had been all over the news that week. He shook his head as the realization hit him.
“Judge Randal. They found him hanging from the bridge. I figured, but I didn’t understand why.”
“I don’t believe the commissioner has had any help with the courts since then.” Because they were fucking smart.
“And you both don’t want to end him?” Oh, how the tide had turned.
“And let another wannabe hero take his place? He is about to break, and when he does, his moral compass will either force him to take his life or he will just drink himself to death. Either way I don’t give a flying two fucks.” He picked a fight, and now he was going to lose.
“Bloody wonderland,” he said again with a smile. There was a knock at the door, before I could reply.
“Enter,” I called out and in walked my mother dressed in a beautiful long-sleeved, green dress. “You look beautiful mother,” I said, standing up to greet her.
She kissed my cheek. “Thank you, son. I came to tell you that there are two officers at our door. They’re asking to speak with you. I thought I would let you know personally. This is the third time, Liam. I’m not pleased.”
Rule Sixteen: Never displease your mother.
“Call my wife.”
“No need.” Melody stepped inside, making me want to drop to my knees and kiss her feet. She was an absolute vision in the long, strapless white dress she wore. She looked like a goddess or an angel, and I felt lucky to even stand before her.
“Father, Mother, thank you. However, my wife and I have some business to attend to. We shall meet you at the wedding.”
“Please send the officers in,” my Mel replied as she walked, more like glided, toward me.
Taking her hand, I kissed it once my parents were gone. “You look beyond beautiful.”
“Save your flattery and tell me we are going to kill these sons of bitches for returning here.” She glared as she fixed my hair.
There was another knock at the door, and I smirked at her.
“Let’s find out.” I grinned, walking to my desk. “Enter.” Sadly it wasn’t the commissioner, but his Smokey the Bear sidekick along with another broad-shouldered man with orange hair.
“No commissioner? I’m insulted.” I turned to Mel who only glared at them.
“The city is a bit too chaotic for him to make it,” Smokey said. “As you know I—”
“We don’t care. What do you want?” Mel asked, looking at the younger man next to Smokey.
“We’re here to wave the white flag,” the orange-haired man declared.
I felt my brow rise and a smirk curl my lip. When I looked over to Mel, she frowned. Of course she would, white flags weren’t her forte.
Stepping toward the man, I looked him over. “You’re Irish.”
“Yes, Mr. Callahan.”
“Who the fuck forgot to recruit you?” I snickered. Most of all the Irish-born natives in the damn state worked for me in some form.
He glared at me. “I wanted to be the first of my family to do right by the law.”
“Well then, as you can see, we are on our way out.”
Mel replied stepping toward me. “We will speak to the commissioner at a later time. You both found your way in, I believe you know the way out. Please give Officer Pope and his family my regards.”
They couldn’t speak and that may have been due to the fact that she looked sinfully beautiful in white, or because Officer Pope and his family were no longer alive. They nodded with rage building in their eyes. The door slammed once they exited.
She turned to me and frowned, straightening my tie again. “You know they were lying right?”
“Yes, and what do we do with liars?” I asked my hands on her hips. She smiled as well, reaching into my tuxedo jacket to pull out my phone.
“Monte, two officers should be leaving the premises. Please make sure to escort them back to the station. You and I both know how tricky those high bridges can be.” I watched her mouth as she spoke, and I wanted nothing more than to kiss the breath from her lips.
She noticed once she hung up and placed her finger on them.
“Candy store is still closed.” She glared. “After all, you want to see Vance’s face instead.”
“Lov—” She didn’t even allow me to finish speaking before she walked away. Damn it all to hell. Vance better fucking cry and piss in his fucking pants.
MELODY
“Shoot me, please.” I groaned as I watched Amory and Saige kiss. It was like they were trying to suck the skin off each other’s faces.
“Not before you shoot me,” Liam whispered back. His eyebrows wouldn’t stop twitching, and had it only been us, I would have laughed over it. However, it wasn’t just us. We were surrounded by at least three hundred of Vance’s closest “family and friends.” The wedding was so boring that Liam and I spent most of our time texting Declan and Neal for updates.
But it was game time now. Taking our seat at table five, with the rest of the Callahans, we waited for the text message signaling it was done. However, the true fireworks didn’t start until Vance got the call. I was tempted to tell them myself. However, Vance still thought I was some little lamb unaware of the world around me. He was a fucking idiot. From Saige’s letters, he must have known I was the child who was spared on the plane. However, he still didn’t see me as a threat.
“Black, Red, and White just doesn’t seem right for this time of year.” Coraline frowned as she looked around the wedding hall.
“Yes,” I replied, looking Olivia up and down. “Adding red to the color scheme was a bad choice.”
Olivia’s blue eyes narrowed on me. “So is wearing white to another woman’s wedding.”
“There are very few people I consider to be ‘women.’ Saige is a snake,” I said drinking water. “Don’t ask what I consider you to be.”
Evelyn sighed while Liam snickered. Sedric was too busy checking his watch. He was dying to see what was going to happen as well.
“There is no hope for you two is there?” Evelyn asked Olivia and me.
“Not if she keeps harming my husband and then forcing him on assignments when he should be by my side,” Olivia said.
“Olivia, snap at me again and you won’t have a husband. In fact, I would just as soon kill you and move on. You’re not worth anything anyway, so do us all a favor and sit in the corner like a good little trophy.” I rolled my eyes at her as Liam’s phone went off.
Tilting it to me, I watched as a very expensive looking house, along with one too many cars went up in flames. The cameras caught every angle of the house, including two women banging on the door trying to free themselves.
“And they are?”
“Apparently Vance and Amory shared two special friends.” Liam snickered, and I could see the reflection of fire in his green eyes.
“That’s disgusting. Saige should be thanking me.” The thought made me want to puke in my mouth.
“She’s calling someone,” Sedric said. Liam and I looked over at him and tried not to laugh. He had switched seats with Evelyn just to see the fucking phone. Evelyn looked to me and winked, drinking her wine.
“I think I know who,” Coraline said, causing us all to follow her gaze to Vance who was in the middle of giving his son a speech. He glanced at his phone for a moment before going on.
“. . . it is for this reason I would like to welcome my daughter Saige Valero to the family. May she and my son make us all proud.”
Everyone but us applauded loudly. When Vance gave the microphone to Jane, I believe her name was, Saige’s maid of honor, he went to answer his phone. Sadly, it was too late, because Liam and I could see that the woman had passed out, probably due to the smoke. Putting his phone away, Liam took my hand and kissed it as we watched Vance listen to his messages. His back was turned to us but the moment he hung up after placing another call, he turned to us, his eyes were wide and deadly. All the “emotion” he had during the wedding was gone, and all that was left was this monster. It looked like he’d squeezed the phone so hard the screen cracked. Liam smirked and gave him a short nod as if they were friends.
“Do you think he is angry?”
“One can only hope, love.”
“Entertaining indeed.” Sedric smirked, leaning back into his chair.
“That was only the first course father.” Liam grinned, and I couldn’t wait for dessert.
LIAM
I didn’t make a habit of smoking. However, this damn wedding had gone on for far too long. Amory was now fully aware, which had to mean his new wife was as well. The tension between us, as we pretended to be nothing more than guests, was boiling under the surface. Even the way Saige cut her steak, which was so rare it looked like it was dripping blood, seem to antagonize us. She glared at Mel with so much hatred even Olivia had to look away. My Mel smiled at her as if she hadn’t noticed. I knew she had though. The clicking noise under the table as she loaded her gun with one hand was proof enough.
So I took a small smoking break inside the bathroom stall like I was still in high school. Neal and Declan had been my role models until the point my mother found them and beat their asses so badly that they couldn’t sit. That was the last time either of them smoked. I, on the other hand, had never been caught.
Maybe Mel could beat it out of me?
“Did you see Callahan’s bitch?” a voice called out from the other side of the stall.
“The Italian wench in white?” another replied, and I felt myself freeze.
“What I wouldn’t give to fuck the shit out of her tight pussy. I would ride the fuck out of her until she broke down like a good little cunt whore. Then—” He didn’t get to finish for the simple fact that I stepped out of the stall and put a bullet in the back of his friend’s head.
The body fell onto the urinal he was pissing in. The man beside him—how dare he call my wife a whore, cunt, and bitch—stood with his pants down in shock. I knew him. He was Amory’s best man, Alex.
He turned to me, opening his mouth to speak, but I took the liberty of grabbing him by his hair and smashing his head against the marble above the urinal.
“That Italian wench is my fucking wife!” I yelled, using his head as a hammer against the wall.
“You don’t talk of her as you piss.” Slam.
“You don’t talk of her, period. You don’t call her anything but fucking Mrs. Callahan.” Slam.
“And you sure as fuck don’t talk of her with your fucking hand on your dick.” Slam. Slam. Slam.
Releasing his head, which was covered in blood and brain matter, I watched as his body fell to the ground. He most likely died after the first two hits into the wall, but all I could fucking see was red. I wanted his head to come off his fucking shoulders. Sighing, I turned to the mirror to find my suit covered in blood.
With a groan, I reached into my jacket and pulled out my phone. “Eric, I need a new suit as fast as possible,” I told him as I washed the blood from my hands. Looking down, I noticed the blood spreading across the marble floor and onto my fucking shoes.
“Damn it. Get me new shoes as well.”
Hanging up, I dried my hands and stared at the bodies around me, just as another fool stepped in. He froze, looking first at the blood and then to me.
“Anger issues,” I said to him reaching for my gun. “Step into my office.”
He tried to turn and run but I shot him right in the spine, and his legs gave out.
“Guess you won’t be stepping anywhere, huh?” I asked him before blowing a hole through his face. Again, the blood splattered onto my hands, and I couldn’t help but groan once more.
“See what you made me do?” I asked the dead man before locking the door and rewashing my hands.
The worst things happened when you smoked. But thank God for silencers, I thought to myself.
MELODY
When Liam sat back down, he kissed my cheek. I looked him over quickly and something didn’t seem right.
“Did you change?” It looked like the same suit but only fresher, like he hadn’t been wearing it all day.
“Why would I do that?” he asked me, but there was a glint in his eye.
“Don’t play coy with me.”
He smirked, kissing me once more and whispering, “Later, love.”
“So what’s next on the menu?” Sedric asked as he wiped the corners of his mouth.
Evelyn smacked on his chest. “Will you stop? You’re like a child at Disneyland.”
“Bloody Wonderland, actually.” Liam smirked. I wasn’t sure what that meant but Sedric did, and I guess that was all that mattered.
“Liam and I have to say hello before any more excitement occurs.” I smiled as Liam and I stood.
Saige and Amory must have had the same idea because they were walking right to us.
We met them in the middle of the dining hall.
“Mr. and Mrs. Valero, congratulations. You and this wedding were beautiful.” I smiled reaching out for Saige’s hand.
“Thank you, Mrs. Callahan.” Saige smiled back, shaking my hand. “And kudos to you for wearing white and not caring what people think of you.”
“My family’s opinion is all that matters to me.” Which was bullshit because only my opinion, and sometimes Liam’s, mattered to me.
“Yes, our apologies about your father then.” Amory bit his lip at me with lust in his eyes. He reached over to shake my hand, but Liam grabbed his wrist and forced him to shake his.
“I’m quite possessive,” he told him. “I’m sorry about your best man.”
I looked to him confused for a quick moment before Amory and Saige scanned the room quickly.
“What did you—?”
“Thank you so much for the lovely evening. However, Liam and I aren’t fireproof,” I interrupted and Saige turned to me, confused once more.
“What?”
“Fire!” someone yelled behind us, and sure enough, flames were breaking out above us.
“What a shame, you should try to save your gifts. The big one is usually a blender.” Liam grinned.
The room broke out in panic. The people looked like animals trying to leave a watering hole. They tripped, pushed, and pulled at one another to make it out the doors.
“You want war! I will fucking give your war!” Amory roared at us.
“It’s always been war. Don’t cry because you’re losing.” Liam grinned.
“I’m going to fucking kill you!” Saige yelled at us.
“We’re looking forward to seeing you try.” I smiled. “By the way I lied, your dress is hideous and this wedding . . . well it sucked so badly even a blind man couldn’t stand to look at it.”
“You little bitc—”
“Ma’am we have to go!” A guard of theirs yelled as she pulled them away. Liam and I stared around as the fire spread.
“Have you both lost your minds?” Olivia screamed over the chaos of the room. So many people, so few doors.
“Liam!” Evelyn and Coraline yelled while Sedric watched in glory. He knew we wouldn’t be stupid enough to trap ourselves.
“Enough,” Liam snapped at them, and I saw the flames in his eyes again. It turned me on. I couldn’t deny that.
Taking my hand, we nodded at them to follow us. Everyone was so busy trying to run to the front door that they didn’t even notice us. Liam pushed opened a small part of the wall we’d had installed after discovering the wedding location.
The moment it opened, Declan and Neal stepped through. Coraline and Olivia both ran into their husband’s arms, and I felt tempted to roll my eyes. We had called them back just in time to pull this off correctly.
“Save it, let’s go.”
The men being . . . Callahan men . . . made sure we girls went through the new tunnel first, however I waited at the door for Liam. He was the last to exit, and as we closed the door, we met the eyes of Vance as his men tried to pull him away. I smiled at him before giving him the middle finger just as Liam shut it completely. Turning back to me, he grinned.
“So mature.”
“You’re jealous you didn’t do it.” I smirked as we walked through the underground tunnel.
“Next time. I really hope he doesn’t die.” He pouted looking back as we reached the lake. There was a boat waiting for us.
“No, he isn’t going to die. He’s too big of an ass to die so easily.” I smirked as he helped me onto the boat.
“I swear you’re both pyromaniacs.” Declan laughed as he handed us a glass of champagne.
Looking back over at the mansion behind us, I couldn’t help but agree.
“Where to sis?” Neal yelled from the steering wheel. Olivia hugged him as he moved us further and further away from the home.
“The city,” Liam and I said together. Everyone broke off into their own private conversations giving me time to turn to Liam.
“It’s later.”
He rolled his eyes. “There was a little hiccup in the bathroom. It got messy, I killed two . . . three men and had to change. Nothing major.”
“You need to control your temper.” I leaned in to kiss him.
“One of these days I will . . . maybe.” He kissed me back.
Motherfucking day made.