Apparently they were doing well.
“I’m not sure. Boss?” He turned to me.
Rolling my eyes, I shook my head, knowing they would not be happy with where we were going to be staying.
There was silence throughout our large cabin. We were only three hours into an eight-hour flight to Dublin, and I knew I was going to lose my mind.
I should have gotten a larger plane.
After Colemen was president, I was taking Air Force One, damn it.
“Liam,” my mother said slowly, breaking away from her private conversation with my father to address me.
“Don’t tell me…” Sedric trailed off, straightening his tie as he glared into the side of my skull. I could feel the rage he was trying to bottle up.
“Don’t tell him what?” Coraline glanced between us, as if she was seeing two very different outcomes of my answer.
Declan glared, his eyes narrowing, body stiffening, but he nodded.
“Liam…”
“We’re staying at Shamus’ house in the village,” I snapped, pinching the bridge of my nose. For the love of Christ, why couldn’t they shut up?
“Shamus’ house?” Coraline repeated softly. “As in, Shamus, who’s everyone believes was murdered in our house, the man who lives in the hills of Ireland with his men…his very loyal men.”
I glared at her. “No, Coraline. I mean Shamus, the ghost of mafia past. What the fuck?”
She frowned, leaning back into her seat, causing Declan’s eyebrow to twitch as he stared at me.
However, there was a small snicker from the woman in front of me. Glancing at her, I noticed she hadn’t been sleeping like I thought.
“I didn’t know you were awake.” I sat up, grabbing her hand.
She rolled her eyes at me. “Who could sleep with all the noise you people are making.”
“My pregnant wife could.” I replied, causing her to pinch my wrist. Taking her other hand, I kissed them before sitting back.
“So, Shamus’ house…” She smiled, leaning back as well. “A bit morbid, don’t you think?”
I couldn’t help but groan, hearing a few ‘thank-yous’ from the peanut gallery that was my family.
“Not you too, wife.”
“Morbid, but not bad. After all, the Romans killed and made it their own home—”
“Yes and the Roman Empire fell,” my father cut her off sharply, causing the smiles on both of our faces to drop as we turned to him.
My mother shook her head at him, flipping through her magazine as if there wasn’t a possibility that I would take a dagger to the side of my own father’s face.
“Yes,” Mel stated, her eyes cold. “The Roman Empire did fall, and yet we Italians still have all the glory. The very suits you wear, the shoes on your feet, are made from where?” she trailed off. “You are not powerful unless you have something Italian.”
I rolled my eyes. “Your ego right now—”
“What was the name of that car you were trying to buy?”
“Ferrari En…” Declan trailed off when my father smacked him in the back of his head for me before returning to his book, not saying a word.
“It’s not ego when you state the truth.”
Mel smiled as she lay back in her chair. She rubbed her temples and closed her eyes once more. The headaches were becoming more and more frequent with each passing day.
It had taken us another week after Harvey’s death to finally get everything ready to leave. It would have taken only three days had I not forced my wife to see a doctor. I was damn near ready to give her a CAT scan myself. I needed to know she was okay. That this was just a phase. It was only after I had brought the doctor to our house that she finally agreed.
She and the baby were fine, he had said. I shouldn’t worry according to him. But how could I not when the woman I barely ever saw grimace couldn’t even hold her head up after a few hours?
“Stop looking at me like that. I’m fine, I saw your damn doctor. Your kid is just fucking with my mind before it’s born,” she said with her eyes closed.
I snorted. “How did he become mine all of a sudden?”
Her eyes snapped open. “He? I’m sorry, did you and God have a private conversation without me?”
“There was no need. God knows there is no way in hell I could mentally handle a girl right now. Nor does he want to watch the chaos that would unfold when I’m unable to tell a small girl no,” I replied as my father and brother laughed.
“You’re a narcissistic asshole,” she snapped at me.
“You knew that when you married me.” I winked at her.
“Well, aren’t you both cute?” Declan snickered under his breath, causing both Mel and myself to freeze, however, for two completely different reasons.
She stared at me and I could feel her blood boiling.
“Your cousin just called me ‘cute.”
Here we go.
Grabbing her water bottle, she threw it across the aisle at his face.
“I’m going to go lie down before I kill you and drop you somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.” she barked in his face, trying to stand quickly only to stumble forward.
Both my father and I stood at the same time, reaching to grab hold of her. But she pushed us both of away.
“URGH! This kid is trying to kill me! I can’t walk straight. I can’t think straight. I have no control of my own damn body! And now I have people calling me cute. Like I’m a fucking puppy!” she sneered at me, pushing me aside in order to continue on her way. “I am Melody Giovanni Callahan, cute is not the adjective used to describe me!”
And with that, she slammed the door to the room. Leaving everyone else but my mother and I a little confused.
“This is why we can’t fly commercial,” my mother whispered, shaking her head at us.
“What did I say?” Declan asked, making me want to smack the fucking shit out of him.
“You called one of the leaders of the Irish and Italian mob cute,” my mother informed the stupid fucking idiot that was supposed to be my older cousin. “While she’s pregnant. Mel doesn’t want to be treated differently, nor does she want to lose the respect just because she’s sharing her body. She’s going to torture you for this.”
Not only him.
Part of me was enjoying my soft wife. Melody seemed relaxed and the fact that she was almost always in the mood for sex, which wasn’t really different from when she was cold, was a plus. We even cuddled. She told me she loved me before going to sleep. She was being sweet to me, and the family. To the rest of the men, Mel was kind of a raging hormonal bitch though. They never knew if she was smiling because she was happy or because she was planning to cut off a man’s thumb.
“Should I check on her since Adriana isn’t here?” Coraline asked, looking at the door.
“Yes, because my wife would love to be ‘checked up’ on.” She liked Coraline, but she may shoot her one day.
Shaking my head at her, I looked towards the man who stood slightly in the corner in front of the mini bar. He didn’t seem shocked at the insanity that was our family. Mel had told me his name, but I kept forgetting he was even around…I didn’t trust that.