“I left your city! I LEFT! I—”
His head snapped back the moment I connected with his nose. Blood poured down into his mouth, his nose cut open, and he stumbled back. He held on to his face with one hand and held the other up to me.
“Whatever you want! Whatever you want I’ll give—” I didn’t wait, I couldn’t stop myself. Over and over again I punched him, blood splattering into my face, covering my hands. When he fell to the ground, I lifted him by the collar and beat into his flesh more. Bones cracked, teeth fell from his mouth, and still I could not stop. My vision was completely red.
How dare they? “How fucking dare you!” I screamed. His body limply slumped over. “No, you don’t get to die, not until I hang you up by your balls and you beg, until you and your little bitch of a sister are begging me to die, then I will cut off your heads, do you hear me? YOU DON’T GET TO DIE! You haven’t suffered nearly enough!”
“Liam.”
When I glanced up, Melody stood at the doorway. She didn’t say anything, just stared at me, and the more she did, the more my mind cleared up. When I looked back down at him, I couldn’t even see his face anymore. Just blood, flesh, and drool. I let him go and he fell back onto the ground like a broken doll. Rising to my feet, I stepped back, wiping the side of my face as I took a deep breath.
“Your hands.” She finally spoke again, lifting my hands up between us; the brass knuckles had dug into my own so badly that when she slid them off, a bit of my skin went with it.
“I’m fine, you should—”
“If you tell me to rest one more time you will look worse than our guest here.” She grumbled, taking the second pair off my hands. “I knew you were holding back, but if you don’t control yourself, he’ll die and we won’t get answers.”
Part of me didn’t want the answers; I just wanted them dead.
“Declan,” she called out and he, along with a doctor—I wasn’t sure how he was already there—came in. Declan handed her a first aid kit as the doctor moved over to the pile of shit bleeding on my floor.
“Sit.” Melody snapped at me, reaching up and tilting my head to the side so I could and would only focus on her. “Now, Liam.”
Sighing, I followed her direction, moving to sit back on the chair I had left my jacket and coat on. Kneeling in front of me, she took out the cotton balls, drenching them in alcohol before placing them on my knuckles.
“Ouch!” I hissed at her.
“Oh boo hoo, you big baby,” she muttered under her breath but dabbed lighter on the second knuckle. There was nothing else either of us could say so I just sat there, letting her treat me as we waited for the fucker to come back…
And waited.
And waited.
And motherfucking waited until I was ready to smack him back to life. Two hours we waited until he was drugged up on so much morphine he was able to sit up and talk…somewhat.
“Give us the room,” she said to me, and the look in her eyes was the only reason why I didn’t argue, stepping out to join Declan and Neal watching through the mirror.
“Tell me everything about your sister and Emilio,” Melody said to him, calmly. He could only open one of his eyes. He swayed side to side almost imperceptibly, trying to stay alert. She placed her hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry this happened to you,” she added, and I almost had a fucking heart attack.
“What?” Neal gasped in shock, the rest of us far too stunned to speak.
Mel? My wife? The woman with not a single apologetic bone in her body, had said she was sorry? Either I was dead or she was on some hell of a drug…
“Liam Callahan is dangerous. He will keep you alive to torture you for as long as possible.” What is she doing?
“Why…why do you care?” he managed to say.
“I care because I know this isn’t your fault,” she whispered. “And you had nothing to do with any of this. You are just as much a victim as I am. I don’t know what you heard about me, but it’s not true, and I don’t want to see any more people hurt.”
“Liling says….” He took a deep breath. “My…sister…she says you’re a…a monster…a liar.”
“Your sister killed children. Innocent children. I may not be a saint, but I’m not a monster or a liar.” She was lying; she was both of those things. “Liam listens to me because I’m smart and he loves me.”
“She couldn’t pass up the opportunity to flatter herself.” I rolled my eyes and both Declan and Neal snickered.
“If I tell you, he’s going to kill my sister—”
“Ruò Jiàn?” She took a towel to wipe the drool coming from his mouth. “Your sister didn’t just kill children, she killed your father. She and Emilio don’t care about anyone but themselves. How did you think you got here? They didn’t protect you because they didn’t care. It’s time for you to take care of yourself. Join hands with Liam. I’ll make sure he hears you out. You should be the head of your family. You should be the leader of the Tàiyáng triad, not your sister, not some outsider. You. Liam can make it happen, you just have to tell him what you know.”