Children of Vice (Children of Vice #1)(51)

FIFTEEN


“The road to hell was paved with the bones of men who did not know when to quit fighting.”

~ Paulette Jiles





ETHAN


“The list you wanted,” I said, handing her the tablet as I read the messages coming in on my phone. In the chaos of the previous day I’d almost forgotten I’d given her my word, and I was a man of my word. Not feeling the weight lifted from my hand, I paused, looking over at her, thinking she’d fallen asleep. However, she merely stared out the window as we drove toward the house.

“Ivy,” I called out to her.

Silence was what I got in return. And I was sure she’d heard me because she shifted even more so toward her door and away. I hated many things, but nothing pissed me off more than being ignored.

“Mrs. Callahan,” I called out to her again.

This time she merely wound down the window, taking a deep breath of the cold air, her gold-blond hair blowing all round. Part of me thought to leave her alone but…

“Wife!” I snapped at her.

And she snapped back, not in words. She grabbed the tablet from my hand and flung it out the window. Sitting up, she tapped Toby on the shoulder.

“Yes, ma’am.” The bastard was a little too happy.

“Can I get a phone?” she asked him softly and her face was far too close to his for my own liking.

“And who are you seeking to call?” I asked her.

Still silence.

“Toby, I don’t need to call anyone, just so I can listen to music and get Internet, please,” she said to him then sat back, closing her eyes.

The corners of his mouth turned up into a small smile and I had half the mind to beat the shit out of him. However, knowing him, he’d only laugh outright seeing me get worked up over a woman. Fine. She didn’t want to speak. I wouldn’t speak to her then.

“Toby, get her whatever she wants. One less thing I need to concern myself with,” I muttered, putting the phone back into my coat jacket and leaning back into the seat as well.

The car was silent the whole way back to the house. And no sooner had we gone through the gates and pulled up at the door, the butlers already waiting, had she jumped out on her own, slamming the door behind her as she stomped away, like a child. Rolling my eyes, I stepped out and rounded the car, stopping right beside Toby, again with that ill-advised look of humor on his face.

“Next time my wife refuses to speak with me and thus addresses you…your next words should be ‘You’ll need to speak with your husband, ma’am.’ Understood?” I didn’t wait for him to reply and walked up the stairs into the house myself. Taking off my coat and handing it to the butler, I prepared myself for our most likely fight. I highly doubted she’d be able to keep her anger bottled inside for long.

When I got to our wing, she was pulling the doorknob to her former room in confusion. Hearing my footsteps, she glanced up at me as I already began to take off my cufflinks.

“We were attacked. The house is still on lockdown. Only a Callahan’s fingerprints and voice can open the doors till I unlock everything…like this.” I grabbed my doorknob of my door. “Ethan Callahan.”

The door beeped before opening. She glared at me and lifted up her middle finger, only her middle finger, to show me her wedding ring.

“Right, you’re a Callahan now.” I smirked. “Whenever you’d like to be added to the system, let me know. Until then you can either come inside before I close the door, or you can sleep in the hall, like a dog not a wife.”

She cracked her jaw to the side, and I waited. When she glared at me and didn’t move I shrugged, walking into my…our room, closing the door behind me.

Insane woman.

Pushing her out of my mind, I walked to my closet, throwing my coat onto the couch and pulling out my pistol. I thought back to my mother’s gift to her. It was just like her. If there was anything my mother loved, it was a good gun. If there was anything my father hated, it was my mother with a gun, most likely because she’d end up shooting at him. She’d actually shot him twice.

Wait… Taking out my phone, I called my aunt.

“Ethan?”

“Make sure no one ever tells my wife that my mother shot at my father. I’d rather that tradition die with my mother.”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart, but what’s spoken between the Callahan women are secrets even to their husbands—”

“I bet he’s regretting that food comment now.” I heard my uncle Declan snicker over the line.

“Tell Uncle I don’t have regrets,” I said.

“Tell him yourself,” she said. I heard her hand him the phone.

“Ethan.”

“Uncle.”

“I’ve always wondered what I’d say to you when this day came,” he said as I put my ear piece in my ear and threw the phone to the side.

“And what day is that?”

“Your wedding day. Well, I’m a little late on account of the fact that you threw that wedding without much warning, but luckily good advice never expires.”

“And how are you sure it’s good?” I asked, taking off my shirt.

“Because I’m happily married. So was your father and so was your grandfather. Obviously we got it right.”