Death.
Ethan, at this very moment, was all of those things, personified in silence, as we, and everyone else within the neighborhood and beyond, stood outside, watching as the Boston PD and the FBI raided my former childhood home alongside that of Cillian and Elroy. The whole place looked like the ending to a Christopher Nolan action movie. Helicopters hovered in the air as their spotlights beamed down on the street below, camera crews and reporters recording from off to the side, cops putting up yellow tape, dogs sniffing around the houses…and like the movies, no crime scene was complete without a body. There were a few in the street, people who’d supported Cillian who’d chosen to go firing at the police. Some were young, probably teenagers, teenagers who so badly wanted to have a purpose and be rich. Most of them were older, around Cillian’s age…all of them following him…straight to the grave. Who’d killed him, no one was saying, not with the feds all over the place, at least.
“Thank you, Cooper,” a female reporter spoke loudly into the light and camera in front of her just off to the side of us. “Right now, I, along with many other reporters, are standing at the home base of the notorious ringleaders behind the infamous drug known as the Cocktail. Shortly before five forty-six this morning, the DEA, FBI, and the BPD descended on South Boston where a shoot-out between the Boston police and the assailants occurred no less than a few feet from where we are standing. Another one of the attackers drove right into a yard of bystanders in the neighborhood, leaving multiple dead and injured. The whole area is on high alert. There has been no word yet on who has died and if this puts an end to the deadly drug. But we will not be leaving until we find out what exactly happened here.”
He took it all in. His gaze shifted from the reporters to the police, the dogs, the burning car crashed into the house next door, everything…until he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He pressed only two keys before putting it to his ear.
“Enjoy this moment, Takahashi, burn it into your mind, because when I find you, you’ll never show what is left of yourself again. You are the mayor of nothing and no one now,” he said, hanging up and heading into the house quickly.
He walked into the living room and waited till the door closed before he grabbed the fire poker and began to destroy any and everything.
“FUCKING SIMPLETONS!” he roared out, swinging into the television set, shattering the glass. “I BUILT UP EVERYTHING AROUND THEM AND YET NO ONE LISTENS!” He shattered the coffee table. “THEY CALL ME A GENIUS FOR PLANNING. DON’T THEY HAVE BRAINS? CAN THEY NOT FUCKING THINK?”
He hammered into the wall, breaking the wood.
“GET POWER! GET RICH! STAY POWERFUL! HOW? HOW?” He swung at the lamp. The bulb exploded on impact and there was a giant flash before the light went out. “THEY DON’T FUCKING KNOW HOW? THEY ARE GREEDY MOTHERFUCKING COCK SHIT!”
Nothing left to break, he threw the bent, deformed fire porker to the ground. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he rubbed the corners of his eyes.
“How many people died in the street?” he asked, and I wasn’t sure he was talking to me or himself. Dropping his hands, he looked at me. “Thirteen, correct?”
I nodded.
“Plus Cillian. Makes fourteen.”
I nodded again.
He paused, tilting his head to the side. “Which means Elroy escaped.”
I didn’t know the answer to that question, so I didn’t move at all. He didn’t seem to notice or even care. He was thinking quickly.
“There was no word, no chatter of the raid, which means my people in the department either didn’t know until the very last moment or all communication was shut. If I didn’t know, then how the fuck did Elroy escape?” He paused again and looked up at me, but the way his green eyes looked through me was eerie. “He didn’t escape. He betrayed Cillian. Cillian was going to bow, surrender to me. At least for now to get me to leave. Elroy’s pride wouldn’t have it. He killed Cillian, took whatever money there was, told the men outside to stand watch and then left. No.” His eyes shifted back and forth as he pieced it together. “They both could have escaped, if that was Elroy’s end game. Cillian wanted to wait to strike…Elroy wanted to fight. Which means—IVY!”
He tried to reach for me, and I didn’t know why until a gun was pressed up against the back of my head and his eyes went wide.
“Damn, you really are a slick one, Callahan.” Elroy laughed behind me, gripping onto my arm. “You figured me out…just a little bit late. Ain’t that a bitch.”
ETHAN
When I’d heard the sirens and the gunfire we left the house, but didn’t close the door behind us. While we were watching his house and the police, he’d snuck in and waited. Trapping himself in the safest location possible, the one place where my guard was down, and holding the weapon he could kill me with…her.
“I was kinda expecting this place to be more…luxurious, you know?” He looked around the shattered room, his grip on Ivy tighter, tapping the mouth of the gun on the back of her head over and over again. She didn’t look bothered, just stared at me blankly. “I mean, a little paint could have gone a long way.”
I said nothing and didn’t dare look away from her. “You’re going to be all right.”
“Maybe you don’t understand the situation here!” he yelled, and I still didn’t look at his face.
BANG!
I flinched, for the first time since I was a child when he shot into her shoulder. She bit her bottom lip hard, swallowing her screams and her pain. The blood soaked through her blouse.
“LOOK AT ME!” he hollered, and I did then, unable to stop my hands from shaking. “That’s right. I’m in charge. Disrespect me again, I’ll shoot other body parts. How much can you take, Ivy?” he asked, squeezing her jaw. She pulled away, turning her head to spit the blood out of her mouth. “A little warrior, ain’t she? She’s always been like that. Getting into fights, not letting people see her cry or weak. She’d just run. But I gotta say, if you weren’t my cousin I’m sure we could have put on a nice show for your hubby here.” He stroked her neck and brought his nose to smell her hair. “Such a shame…but.”
“Let. Her. Go,” I said through clenched teeth.
“He speaks!” He guffawed, rolling his eyes. “But that sounded a little disrespectful to me, didn’t it, Ivy?”
“Don’t!”
BANG!