He pinched the bridge of his nose. “You let the girl live.”
Sitting up straighter, I glared back. “She wasn’t home, and I wasn’t going to hunt her down. She is six fucking years old.”
“Then you should have waited until she was home,” he hissed, moving to the edge of his chair. “I don’t care if she was six or twenty-six. She is his family and therefore should be dead—”
“You make it seem like that one girl has any power,” I snapped back at him. He needed to calm the fuck down before I stabbed him here and now.
He stared at me as if I had lost my mind. “She is the daughter of a cop, a blue blood. She isn’t a threat now, but what about in twenty years when she is out of the academy? She will be like a bloodhound looking for revenge. Children grow up, and unless you know something I don’t, we are going to be around in twenty years. I will not have the past bite us in the ass. After all, look at you. You were six once, and what happened to you then changed your life forever. You are the last person I thought I would ever have to explain who we are or what we do.”
He stood up and kissed me on the side of the check harshly for those who might still be watching, before whispering in Irish, “Stay here, my mother has arrived. I will take care of it.”
He fucking sounded disappointed in me. Who does this motherfucking bitch think he is? Did he just sit me? I was the fucking Boss, and I sure as hell didn’t take orders. Coraline, Olivia, and Evelyn walked in with a whole group of other charity woman before I could beat his head in. Each one of them smiled and laughed as though they were breathing a different sort of air.
“Ladies, isn’t my youngest, handsome?” Evelyn said, giving Liam a big hug.
Liam laughed but it was his fake laugh, the one he did for crowds. “The most handsome, some say.”
They all laughed at him while I eyed his skin, wondering where would be the best place to impale him.
“The cockiest as well.” Evelyn grinned.
“I shall take that compliment.” He winked at a few of the older ladies, forcing me to act like an embarrassed wife and smack him in the chest. I was not in the mood to play this stupid game.
“We’ve had our breakfast. Honey, don’t you have business to take care off?” I dug my nails into his skin but the bitch didn’t even flinch.
“You all had breakfast already?” Coraline asked us, looking to our table as waiters cleared it and added a new table to make room.
“Sorry, ladies, only God knows when I would see her again after she disappears with you all. I had to at least start my morning with her.” Liam charmed is way into the cougars’ arms. They eyed him like he was a god himself. Both their facial expressions and his words made me want to puke.
“Young love.” Olivia laughed, causing me to glare at her.
“Goodbye, Liam.”
“It’s already begun.” Liam laughed, kissing my hand. “I know when I’m not wanted.”
The women aww-ed as he left, and I tried my best to actually look flattered, but my face just wouldn’t have it. Evelyn, Olivia, and Coraline all seemed to notice. Smiling at them, I took a seat as the other women all took theirs.
“Ladies, welcome to the Seventeenth Annual W.E.W.—Women Empowering Women,” a peppy blonde announced once the ladies were seated. “I would like to thank Mrs. Coraline Callahan for once again hosting us all here. Thank you so much for everything you do.”
I glanced at her, but she didn’t meet my gaze. Two steps forward, six steps back, for Cora.
“How often do they hold these meetings?” I whispered to Evelyn as everyone clapped.
“First Saturday of every month. You’ve missed quite a few,” Olivia replied before Evelyn could speak, and right on cue the peppy blonde turned to me.
“Please give a W.E.W. welcome to the newest member, Mrs. Melody Callahan. We all know how that first year of marriage is.” They turned to me, and I forced myself to smile and blush at the plastic army in front of me.
“Be happy you missed so many,” Evelyn whispered, causing Olivia and Coraline to snicker.
It took a while, but finally, all the women were so caught up in their conversations that I no longer had to force myself pay attention. They had to be the saddest and most desperate women I had ever met. None of them cared about the charity. They only cared about upstaging each other in who had more money to give, just to prove how rich they are. None of them could hold a candle to any wife of a Callahan. However, they all wanted to come in second place. So if they had to feed the starving villages to be thought highly of, they would do it.
Coraline shifted for the nineteenth time since she sat down, causing me to look her over quickly. I could tell a lot had changed in her. Her arms and legs were more toned, and she seemed much more alert and capable now. She had even cut her hair down some more, but despite all that, she still looked beautiful, almost had a movie star kind of beauty.
“Are you ready to be working with me next, Coraline?” I asked her softly. Her eyes went wide and grinned.
“Are you serious?” she asked, because she obviously didn’t know who I was. I didn’t joke around with things like that. I rarely joked at all, in fact.
“Adriana said you are getting too used to her. So, yes, I am serious.”
“Yeah, first I would have to talk to Declan—”
“What?”
“Declan,” she said again with a frown. “When I told him, he kind of laughed it off, and we haven’t talked about it much. But I think that’s because he doesn’t see Adriana as anything to worry about. You, on the other hand—”
“I’m something to worry about,” I added, placing Declan on my Callahan ass-kicking list. “Have you tried making him listen?”
She looked at me like I was crazy.
“You do know you are a woman, correct?” I smirked. “Grab handcuffs, make him hard, tell him what you want to tell him, and then leave him there to think about it.”
“I could never do that, Declan would be so—”
“Horny, which you can use to your advantage. You are a motherfucking Callahan woman. You do what you want. If you want to train with me, you train with me, and if Declan doesn’t like it, remind him of the days when all he had was his hand.” I was dead serious, even though Olivia was laughing beside me. For all the improvement Coraline was enjoying, I was shocked she was still hiding behind this shell.
“Mel, I’m not like you—”
“No one is like me, but that’s not the point,” I interrupted, and I would keep interrupting until she found the balls to stop me.
“It’s just that I don’t know how to be this strong person. Declan means the world to me, and I don’t want to hurt him or lose him,” she whispered, and I was tempted to drown myself in my soup.
“If you keep focusing on how lucky you are to have Declan, then you’re going to forget how lucky he is to have you. Imagine you’re a princess and then demand to be treated like one,” Olivia replied, and I was a little confused. Since when did I get on the same page as the blow-up doll?
“All my sons need to be knocked upside their heads every once in a while.” Evelyn gave one of her motherly smiles.