“FUCK YOU!” I hollered out, watching as her leg buckled and she fell forward, muted whimpers the only thing coming out of her mouth, but he caught her and held her tight to him.
“Ha-ha!” He laughed, stomping his foot into the ground. “This is great! I was planning on waiting till you both went to bed before killing you all, but this…this is so much better. Who would have thought I’d get a front row seat at your own undoing, first the mistake, then the temper tantrum, the shaking, now this…watching you as you watch me slowly kill your beloved childhood sweetheart. All your big talkin’, all your planning, and this is how it ends. How does it feel to be the dumbest man in the room?”
“Hum…hah...” Ivy laughed gently in his arms. “It’s funny because I was just going to ask you that same question.”
“You must have lost your—”
Before he could finish she brought her free hand up, holding a shard of something I’d broken, and swiped it across his face, over his eye as quickly as she could. “I have long arms, motherfucker!”
“AH!” He let go, his hands going to his face, causing her to slump onto the ground. The moment she was free I lunged from the window over the couch, tackling him on the ground, my fist colliding with his face.
“YOU LITTLE—”
BANG!
I froze on top of him and glanced down at the blood now staining my shirt.
“ETHAN!”
I gripped his neck and reached for the gun with the other hand, tossing it to the side. I squeezed, and he punched the wound over and over, both of us now struggling on the ground.
“Ah!” I hissed when he managed to get another punch in, rolling onto my side. I gripped my side, the blood warm over my arm. Ignoring the pain, I rose to my feet just as he did. The slash across his face was bleeding a deep red. His good eye shifted to the gun and when he made a run for it I kicked his head into the wall and took the gun, pointing and firing, but there were no bullets.
“It just ain’t your day!” He laughed and then charged at me, my back hitting the back beam when he moved to strangle me. My head hit his, causing him to back up before I punched his jaw.
“JUST DIE ALREADY!” he yelled, grabbing a shard of broken glass.
BANG!
“Fucking shit—” he cried out, grabbing on his shoulder.
“Hurts like a bitch, doesn’t it?” Ivy said, pointing the pistol at him. He froze, staring at her. “You’re right. I’m a little insane. You shot me and my husband, Elroy. You threatened to rape me…IN OUR FUCKING HOUSE!”
“Cousin—”
“SHUT UP!”
“Run,” I said to him.
“Ethan—”
“Run. Let’s call this one a draw. Head down the stairs, to the basement, get out through the window. None of the cops will get you. This is between us men. You really want her to kill you? Go. And pray we don’t meet again.”
“ETHAN!” Ivy screamed.
“Ivy, do not shoot him!” I snapped at her. “He’s mine to kill.”
He snickered and walked backward, Ivy still pointing the gun at him. “Until next time, Callahan, then.”
“Watch to make sure he leaves,” I said to her, reaching into my pocket for the phone. She limped backward, carefully scanning around her, still holding the gun tightly before lifting the phone. She glanced down a few times before finally relaxing.
“Lock down the house,” I said to her.
When she did, the bars extended over the windows, and she turned to me. “I wanted to kill him. I could have killed him.”
“You only had one bullet,” I reminded her.
“What?”
“You cleaned the gun last night, remember? And only put one bullet in. Didn’t want to come down to get the rest, remember?” I snickered lazily and looked at her. “If he realized he would have kept attacking and I’m—”
My legs buckled under me and I slid onto the ground, staring at my own blood in my hands. Today really wasn’t my day.
“Ethan!” She ran to me, taking off her shirt, ignoring whatever pain it may have caused her, and placed it over my wound. “Put pressure on it! I’ll get—”
“G…et…get Wyatt…no one else.”
“Ethan, he could be anywhere right now. You need to go to the hospital!”
Putting my hand on her cheek, I brought her forehead to mine. “Wife, I need you first to keep calm, go upstairs, clean up as best as you can—”
“Ethan!”
“LISTEN TO ME!” I yelled more because I hated the way she said my name, with fear, with pain. “We are Callahans, baby, we do not fall and we do not show weakness. All eyes are on Boston right now. I cannot be wheeled out of here on a stretcher. You can’t run out crazed screaming for help. Half of our power is perception. I’d rather die here than look weak out there.”
Tears fell from her eyes. “You’ll bleed out.”
“Then stop arguing with me.” I smiled, bringing her forehead to kiss it. “Go. Wyatt is out there somewhere. My brother pretends he doesn’t like the madness, but the truth is he became a doctor so he could always be in it and still act innocent.”
She kissed my lips. “If you die I will kill you!”
“Noted.” I smiled, relaxing against the beam. “Go.”
My vision was starting to blur and I didn’t want to pass out in front of her. Luckily she was already moving. The truth was, there was a high chance I’d bleed out before she made it back. I was sending her to the only person I trusted to get her out of the city into safety if needed.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, knowing she wouldn’t hear…I’d broken my promise. I’d manipulated her again.
TWENTY-SIX
“Family is family, and is not determined by marriage certificates, divorce papers, and adoption documents. Families are made in the heart. The only time family becomes null is when those ties in the heart are cut. If you cut those ties, those people are not your family. If you make those ties, those people are your family. And if you hate those ties, those people will still be your family because whatever you hate will always be with you.”
~ C. Joy Bell C.
IVY
Be calm, he said.
How, I should have asked him.
My heart was on fire.
I was scared. I was scared because I didn’t realize how much I loved him until that moment. How much I couldn’t live without him now. He was…my whole world now. I’d go anywhere. I’d do anything for him. Which was why I stepped out the front door without looking back, worried if he didn’t answer I’d break down or he’d waste energy telling me to go once more and I’d let him down.
I’d pulled my hair into a side ponytail over my shoulder just in case the padding there didn’t hold and blood stained it. My leg was in so much pain each step I took outside made it burn, but I just imagined Ethan’s pain and kept walking. The black pantsuit I wore made it look as if I were one of the many reporters on the scene. Southie had become hell on earth, the sky filling with thick clouds of orange and gray smoke piping out of the car and the house it had crashed into. I didn’t know where to look. There were far too many people, EMTs, police, the FBI, medics, each one running from fire trucks, squad cars, or ambulances. In the back of my mind I felt the ever-present threat of time working against me.