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“Sometimes you feel like what?” I whispered, taking a step forward.
“Like I’m still running across Europe, still fighting for my life. I wake up sometimes and I have to sit and hold myself together. There are other times that I remember things and my skin burns, my veins feel as though they’ve been lit on fire, and I have to cool down,” she confessed. I found myself speechless.
How in the hell had I missed that? She was still fucking suffering? Jesus Christ.
“Mel—”
“Do not look at me like that, I’m handling it. I just need time, okay? You haven’t caught me before and they’re becoming less frequent. It’s only when I’m stressed—”
Wrapping my arms around her, I held her close.
“I don’t need a hug.”
“Mel, shut up and just stand here with me.”
“Liam—”
“You’re still talking.”
With a sigh, she stood in my embrace, tense and annoyed, but soon her body relaxed and she laid her head against my chest. A few moments later, she wrapped her arms around me.
“You should have told me, Mel.”
“There’s nothing you could have done,” she whispered.
“I can be there. Why is it so hard for you to let anyone be there for you?” It always came back to the same issue.
“I’m trying, Liam. You have no idea how hard this is for me. It’s always been me, it’s going to take me time, but you can’t treat me differently or pity me.” She pulled away from me. “I can still do my job, and that includes seeing our son before we go.”
I let go of her as she grabbed a pair of pants and one of my dark t-shirts.
“What are we planning?”
“Tonight, we’re going to stalk Avian.” She donned her boots before she pulled out not one, but two guns, and threw them to me.
“Stalk him or kill him?” I was fine with either option.
“For now, stalk. We’re going to the White House tomorrow and I’m sure he’s going to try to kill us again. Change your shoes, we might be running,” she demanded.
“Don’t we have men for this?”
“Wouldn’t you rather make sure it’s done properly? Or are you above all this now, Mr. Callahan?”
Rolling my eyes, I checked the chamber of the gun. “Remember when all we used to do was handle drugs? I miss that.”
“We can get back to that the moment we kill my dear grandfather. But until then, we do whatever we need to, even if that means jumping across buildings.”
“Why the hell would we be jumping across buildings?”
She grinned. “Just think of it as my version of a date.”
“You’re enjoying this?” What the fucking hell?
“I used to do this for my father. How did you think I stole that red diamond when I was eighteen?”
My brain worked overtime to follow her logic.
“So what you’re saying is, if our dates were more Mission Impossible, and less candlelight, you wouldn’t bitch so much at me?”
Her eyebrow twitched. “I’m going to see Ethan now, get ready.”
“Yes, ma’am, would like to me to roll over too?” I was starting to enjoy pushing her buttons.
“Perché non basta giocare morti, ass.” she snapped at me.
“Why don’t I play dead? Ora che non è cosa piacevole dolce.”
She looked at me in complete surprise as I grinned. “Five months in the joint, I had more than enough time to learn your language.”
“Firstly,” she said a little too seductively, “never say joint. Secondly, you said ‘Now that is not nice thing sweet’ but good try.”
She winked before she turned and walked out.
Damn I loved her.
It was moments like these that make up for everything else.
MELODY
I took a deep breath as I stepped out of our bedroom. I was torn between smiling at the effort he’d shown, and slapping myself for allowing him to worry. I’d never wanted him to see me like that. I don’t know what happened, one moment everything was fine, I was checking over my plans for tonight, and the next moment, I was standing in the shower. I hadn’t lied to him, over the last few weeks moments like that had all but faded away. I just needed to be with him and Ethan. When I was, the rest of the world seemed to drift away…I’d been feeling so unlike myself, and truthfully, I liked it.
I headed down the hall towards the back door, Evelyn had taken Ethan out to sit under the stars. The whole back yard was surrounded by high hedges to block any line of sight in.
They’d thought that we were insane for blocking the view of the city when we’d had the hedges planted. But my gut told me to be mindful of snipers. All of Ethan’s clothes, including his beanie hats, were custom made with Kevlar. If I could, I would’ve placed Ethan in a safe room until this was all over.
When this was over, I needed to spend more time with him.
Reaching the back of the house, I stopped at the glass doors where Olivia stood. Her arms were crossed and her face displayed no expression as she stared at Ethan in Evelyn’s arms. She wore a floor-length red gown that had a slit that ran up to her thigh, and white heels. From where I stood, she didn’t even look like she was breathing. It was haunting, in an odd way.
“Can I help you with something?” I asked, as I walked up beside her.
She said nothing for a moment before she wiped away a single tear.
How sad.
“I was good to him,” she whispered, without looking at me. “While you were gone, I made sure he wanted for nothing. I sat by his side, I read him to sleep, I cried with him when he had his ear infection. I was there and then you came back and you do what you always do. You treat me like shit. Why?” Finally, she turned to me. “Why do you hate me so much?”
“Because you are a liar, Olivia.” I took a step towards her. “You want things that are not yours. You are a spoiled child. At first I thought the problem was your morality. You go on and on about how horrible Liam and I are. How horrible this family is. You almost had me believing that you didn’t want this life. If that were the case, I think I could have almost come to respect you in time. But sadly, it isn’t.”
Again, I stepped towards her and she flinched, but didn’t move back.
“Instead, Olivia, every time you told me how horrid I was, you were trying to convince yourself that you did not want to be me. For some reason, you can handle men being in control, but you have to outdo all the women in your life. It’s why you tried to keep Coraline below you, and why you cozied up to Evelyn. I’m guessing it’s the rape, they broke you and you chose not to fix yourself. Instead, you married into a big, powerful family and hid behind Neal.
“You thought that was strength. But I entered your life and I shattered your pathetic little world. I tried to make you stronger, I helped you get your revenge, but you resent me, not because you disliked it, but because I gave you that power. I have the child, I have the family, and I have the power. My hatred for you is a direct consequence of your lust for what is mine, even those shoes,” I said and pointed to the white shoes that she wore upon her feet. “You started a war. So don’t cry because you’re losing.”
