Vicious Minds (Children of Vice #4)(96)

“I still have the gun in my hands, Liam.”

“And?” I snapped, looking back at her. “Is that supposed to be a threat? What are you going to do, shoot me again? Go ahead love, you just keep making more work for yourself while I recover.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she exhaled saying nothing and placing the gun on the side table.

“This has escalated—”

“You think?” I snapped again before laying down on the couch. She came over sitting on the edge of the seat and reached up to the napkin from me, holding it herself.

“It’s a flesh wound, you old wimp.”

“It’s a wound and it’s unnecessary, especially seeing as you know I am old, you should be more delicate—ahh…” I clenched my teeth as she pressed hard into my ear.

I smacked her ass and she snickered. “Sorry love, was that not delicate enough?”

“No, not at all, but I’ll let it go since you’re at least not glaring anymore.” I grinned when her eyes met mine. She slowly relaxed and I went on. “I know you love them. I love them too, I want to protect them too, I will help you protect them, but we cannot deny the fact that Ethan is not living up to what we have expected of him…and that might not be all his fault. Maybe we didn’t train him well enough. Maybe we left too soon. Maybe he only pretended to be strong in front of us—”

“No.” She shot up quickly, turning back to the screen, dropping the ice and napkin on my chest. Thanks, love. She got closer, taking the remote with her and rewinding. She watched him and this new woman fight in the wine cellar. She paused and went back again and again.

“Are you going to tell me what the no is for?” I asked, picking up napkin and sitting up straight. She turned back to me and smiled, truly smiled. I was a bit worried but couldn’t help but smile back. “What?”

“What if he hasn’t been pretending to be strong, but has been pretending to be weak?” She said seriously, and I wasn’t sure what expression I was making but she seemed to know what I thought of that.

“Ethan? Pretend to be weak? Mel, love, the one thing I can say about Ethan is that more than anything, he loves strength and power—”

“Then why Ivy?” she asked, hands outstretched.

“He knew her as child—”

“He knew this one too, this Calliope. They met as kids too.”

I frowned trying to remember. “When?”

“Wyatt and Dona’s 7th birthday party. Remember the girl who I asked what we should do for the next party?” She stared down at me.

I thought back and nodded. “Oh right. You said then she was just a silly girl—”

“She was.” She went back to the brown-haired woman on the screen. “She told me she was going to marry into our family and become Mrs. Callahan.”

“She did?”

She nodded slowly. “I thought she was silly because almost all children and the things they want are a bit silly. However, I remember her because she had this look in her eyes. It was one of pure determination. A few days after their birthday, she left for boarding school in Italy.”

She kept tabs on her?

“You rarely care about other people’s kids—”

“I never care about other people’s kids,” she said quickly and grimaced as if she could not believe I would dare think her circle of love could be bigger than our family.

I leaned back into the cushions and rubbed my temple. “Okay, love, explain. Make me understand how all of this relates. How does her wanting to be Mrs. Callahan equal Ethan pretending to be weak? Like I said, Ethan loves strength and power—”

“So wouldn’t he love a woman who builds her own strength and power to have him?” she asked.

“The opposite of Ivy.” She sighed and shot me look. “What? Calliope, with how quickly she wiped the floor with our pitiful family, is strong. We can see this. But we cannot forget his track record when it came to women before her. First Klarissa, then Ivy, both the complete opposite of her—”

“Didn’t you sleep with women you knew you’d never marry? They were the opposite of what you would have wanted—”

She really knew how to dig up the past. Fine. “No, I slept with any pretty face with a nice body because I was worried I’d be marrying an Italian cow—”

She moved for the gun, but I dashed towards it, putting my hand on top. She glared at me and I flashed a smile at her. “Just trying to help, love.”

“Are you?” she snapped, pulling her hand away. “Just shut up and listen to me, I need to figure this out…”

“The simplest answer…” She bared her teeth at me and I lifted my hands and sat back, but not before taking the gun with me.

“Klarissa Moretti, she came from an Italian family, but her father was trying to appeal to the other Italian families for years…”

“Should have killed him years ago…” I muttered to myself and she again faced me. “Right sorry—”

“No, you’re right.” She pointed to me.

Say what now? “Excuse me, can you repeat that?” I laughed.

She ignored me, pacing slowly in front of the television. “If it was me, if it was us and Moretti pulled any of the shit he’s pulled over the last few years, we would have had him limbless in the streets. But Ethan didn’t. Instead he dated his daughter. Why?”