The Untouchables (40 page)

“This,” I pulled on the chains, “is not good for me. But, if you’re not full of shit, unchain me, hand me a gun, and I’ll believe you.”

She frowned, taking the wine to her lips. “You don’t want to hear this. This layer of anger and sarcasm, it’s just you trying to block me out.”

“No, it’s me, still hormonal and in a shitload of pain because of you. But please go on and tell me how I’m so fucking wrong, Aviela. Tell me your entire sad, pathetic life story. I will try to hold back my disgust. But while you speak, know that I’m going to be thinking of ways to kill you.”
While I try to deny how badly I wanted to know the truth.

“You’ve always liked to test me. Whatever Orlando told you were lies, Mel bear.”

“Were you poisoning him for years?”

She said nothing, staring out at the dark seas thousands of feet below us.

“Point one for Dad.”

“Orlando…all the damn Giovannis are monsters. He killed my uncle, my brother, my fucking mother.”

Point two for Dad.

“Women like us, Mel bear, serve the men above us to survive because we are warriors, and until we get our own army, we do as we are told.” She spoke in a hushed tone, her eyes glazed over. “If Orlando told to you to kill Liam slowly and painfully, you would have done it. I regret nothing. The Giovannis, they are the reason why my father was the way he was. I couldn’t wait to kill him for the suffering he made me go through; kill Orlando, then get out. But you came and I didn’t want you to come into this life. But Orlando just didn’t know when to die and forced you into this trap.”

“So what you’re saying is that you’ve always wanted me dead.” I wished Orlando had taken her out the moment I was born.

“NO!” she snapped, slamming her hand on the table, spilling her wine across it.

Good ole Nelson was there in a flash, cleaning. She didn’t even look fazed.

“I’ve always tried to save you, Mel bear. I knew he would take you and form you into a monster just like him. Just like my father had done to me. But then I had you, and I never wanted to leave you. For years, I stayed in hell for you. To watch you, until one day, I couldn’t take anymore. I took my chance. I got you and I planned on leaving, disappearing to where Orlando and Ivan couldn’t find us. We were going to be happy and free. But Orlando came looking for you, and my father for me. I knew Orlando would turn you into a monster but Ivan—his granddaughter, a Giovanni?—he would have thrown you with snakes then sent your body to Orlando. I chose the lesser of two evils.”

“So you’re telling me that Ivan didn’t know I was alive all this time? I doubt that. From what I can tell, he knows everything about all the families. So why now, mother dearest?”

“He let you be because I took my punishment and he figured you wouldn’t be able to make it once Orlando died.” She smiled, reaching over the table to take my hand. “But you did. You overcame it all and you fucking showed him how stupid he was to underestimate my daughter.”

“You’re not my mother. I’m not your daughter. Let go of me and finish your fairytale. What was your punishment?” I pulled my hand back.

Her hands clenched together as she readjusted herself. Unbuttoning her shirt slowly, she opened it, and everywhere were scars and dozens of small brown circular wounds that looked to be cigar burns. They littered her pale shoulders, stomach and I knew it reached her back. The distance between knife scars and burns was short. Luckily for her, none of them looked new. If I wasn’t chained to this seat, I may have felt bad…maybe.

“When he was done and satisfied, he let you go, not caring what you did. Orlando was destroying his himself and his “empire” was beyond repair. But I watched you. Your first kill was Atticus Flanagan, an Irish mutt who stalked you down at the seaport. You surprised him and he ended up face down in the lake. You were, fourteen?”

“Thirteen.”

“You sold your first kilo at—”

“I was there. I know, Aviela. Why are you fucking with my life now?”

“Because you stupidly laid down with the mutt and his dirty little family. Ivan wanted you dead instantly, but I convinced him that he couldn’t take out the head of the Italian mafia. Imagine all the chaos. All the wars as people tried to replace you. He thought I cared about you, that’s why I shot you. I needed him to believe that I could kill you if I wanted to. Ivan is all about balance, about keeping the underground
under
ground. But you are my daughter. You had to reach higher, you had to control the president of the United States. You reached a little too close to home for him.”

“Ivan is in the White House?” Shit.

She didn’t answer. “I told him you wouldn’t win and street wars weren’t worth killing you. I made sure to kill the President just to secure his wife. She would have the pity vote, yet you still out-played me. So like I said, you’ve made my life so much harder than it needed to be. This is the only way I know how to protect you now. We’re going to have a do-over. We’re finally going home.”

“I have a family, Aviela. A son who he needs me! I won’t fucking run from a fight and I sure as hell won’t run from him. ”

“You’re not in a fight. You never even got in the damn ring. Ivan has you. He’s the only untouchable one in this game. In an instant he can take your son and burn you like he burned me. He would kill Liam. But this is a win-win. He gets his balance, the Italians will break away, leaving Liam less powerful. Liam will be devastated, but live for your son. He won’t even be able to control President Colemen. Once that man gets power, he will block out your husband. Your son will live, and because you’re like me, you can watch from afar and learn to be okay. Your child will be okay, Mel bear. He’s alive because you loved him enough to stay away.”

She’s ri—

I pushed that thought out of my mind, and leaned against the chain so she could see my eyes.

“I will get out of this. I will kill you, and I will protect my family the same way I always have. I’m Melody Nicci Giovanni Callahan, I don’t run away. I destroy everything in my path, which includes you.”

She smiled as she lifted her red stained book. “That’s why I brought the chains. You will learn, and when you have, I’ll let you see him. Pictures, videos, maybe a few of his old toys over time.”

I felt my heart stop. I didn’t want her anywhere near Ethan,
my
Ethan. How would she be able to get videos and pictures? The mole. But who would Liam let close enough to our child for that?

“Olivia. Olivia is the fucking mole.” She hated me enough. She wanted me gone…

“Try again.” She flipped her page, but I couldn’t see who else. It couldn’t be Coraline, she was just too sick, Evelyn…hell no. Neal? No, he craved Liam’s love. None of the family would betray us like this. But, who the hell would be that close, Fedel, Monte, Antonio… the only other person would be…

“You know, don’t you?”

“Adriana.” I hit my head against the seat.
Fuck
.

“To her credit, she’s willing to do anything for you. All I had to do was tell her the truth and she realized what you cannot. You’re not safe. She was starting to withhold information, so I reminded her who she worked for. So sad her love had to die because she got cold feet.”

This was my fault. How could I trust her? Orlando had always told me humans were liars by nature, that friends were foes in disguise and to never make it personal.

How dare she?

“You’re hurt.”

“No, I’m enraged and looking forward to putting a slug through her ungrateful little heart.” Leaning back, I knew I wouldn’t be able to relax, but my body couldn’t take any more right now. All I could do was close my eyes and plan. Nothing she said had changed how I felt about her. The moment this plane landed, I would have to act. Fast.

THIRTY-FIVE

“Imagine trying to live without air. Now imagine something worse.”

—
Amy Reed

MELODY

“Five days ago, my wife Melody Giovanni Callahan was kidnapped only hours after giving birth to our son. I want her back. My son and I need her. My family and I are offering one hundred million dollars for her safe return. Mel, if you’re watching, I’m not giving up. I won’t ever give up until I have you back. Our son and I miss you and love you so much…”

“I think that’s enough for now.” Aviela’s voice grated on every nerve in my body.

My hatred for her continued to fester each moment spent in her presence. She turned off the television, and rushed from the kitchen to place a plate in front of me. “Giant meatballs and spaghetti. Your favorite, right?”

I just stared at her, doing nothing to hide my hatred and disgust for the woman who gave birth to me.

“A hundred million? You should be insulted.” She took a seat at the other end of the luxurious dining room table before spreading her napkin and dropping it on her lap. She had chained me to every fucking chair until we reached this place, which, from what I could tell, was on the edge of a beach. Then, I was upgraded to a wheelchair. The last two days had been more of the same rhetoric about how she was trying to save me, how she only did this to protect me.

I didn’t know who she was trying to convince.

All this time I thought she was some cold-hearted mastermind, always plotting, always one step ahead of us because she was just that good. But I was wrong. She was delusional; I wasn’t even sure if she really understood what she was doing. Part of her still saw me as that little girl she left in the middle of the ocean, while another part of her understood I was grown.

I thought she was strong; I’d admired her tenacity and her tactics in getting what she wanted done efficiently and effectively, but the moment she spoke of her father, Ivan, she became weak. Whatever he had done to her had broken her. She was at his beck and call—his lap dog—and it disgusted me. She was no better than the low-level sycophants that worked for me.

Every day she washed and combed my hair and even dressed me, all while keeping me chained. She treated me like I was her own personal doll. The second day I tried playing nice, today I tried not speaking. There was something seriously wrong with this woman.

Despite my tactics to evoke a reaction from her, she acted as if nothing fazed her. The only time I got a response from her was when I “misbehaved.” Other than that, she gave no indication that she was here in this space other than physically. I needed to get out of here but I didn’t even know what country I was in.

“Do you need me to get someone to help you, sweetheart?” she asked, cutting into her food with her finely polished silverware. She nodded over at the soon-to-be dead rat’s rail thin frame at the door. Nelson came over, and like a robot, he cut into my food before bringing it to my lips.

I guess even sycophants can have sycophants.

Opening my mouth, I took the food into it and chewed it briefly before I spat it into his face.

“MELODY!”

He took a step back as Aviela walked forward. Nelson wiped his face slowly before glaring at me.

Aviela grabbed my face, forcing me to meet her eyes. “I am trying here, Melody. I want you to be happy with me, okay? I love you, but you have to let go of him and that child. They are your past, a past you would never have had if we could’ve been together. I love you, so please behave, because I don’t want to hurt you.”

“The only thing stopping me from snapping your fucking neck right now are these damn cuffs. So fuck y—”

She slapped me so hard my teeth cut the bottom of my lip. Licking the blood off, I looked up to her, smiling. “You’re a horrible mother, always have been… always will be.”

She slapped me twice, then a third time before she pulled back.

“Stop making me hurt you!”

My face burned and I knew without looking that my cheek would have an imprint of her hand on it.

I laughed without humor, and wondered briefly if her brand of crazy was infectious or hereditary. Banishing the thought from my mind, I focused on the woman breathing harshly before me.

“Is that what dear old grandpa used to say to you?”

“You know nothing.”

“I know enough. This isn’t helping. You think you are, but you aren’t. Let me go, tell me who Ivan is and we can all be free of him.”

She shook her head, running her hands through her short hair. “No, no. You don’t know him. You don’t know anything. Just let me protect you, sweetheart. You can’t beat him, no one beats him. It’s okay…”

“You, me, and Liam, we can take—”

“NO! I said no! I’m going to protect you, okay?
Me
, your mommy. Not Liam, not anyone else. You’re gone now. Ivan won’t bother your family. Just be good, Melody. Be good for me, okay?”

It was like trying to reason with a child having a tantrum. “Ivan is just a man.”

“ENOUGH!” Taking a deep breath, she smoothed out her expression. “You’ve ruined a perfectly enjoyable dinner. You were so well behaved when I was raising you.”

“You never raised me, Aviela.”

She looked me in the eyes then and they seemed flat; there was no depth to her, just a hollow shell of the woman that was once my mother. Standing up straighter, she walked over to the fireplace that was situated under a painting of a younger version of herself. Pulling a syringe off the mantle, she sighed before turning to me.

“Aviela,” I hissed, knowing what was coming. I tried to back away from her but she just kept coming.

She brushed the side of my face, and if it weren’t for what she was about to do, I’d think she was attempting to be tender. “This will help your pain.”

“AVIELA, DON’T!” She pushed my sleeve up my arm and I tried to fight her off but the robot came to her aid, grabbing my shoulders.

“No,” I said as the needle found my vein.

“You know what’s ironic?” Aviela asked. “I bought this batch from your dealer.”

“Mom,” I whispered as everything spun in colors.

“Shh, sweetheart. We will try again tomorrow, okay? You will be good for me later. Everything will look and feel so much better. I promise, okay baby? I promise.”