Talking a deep breath I took a few steps away from him, trying my best not to just . . . ah. “How can someone with your IQ not have taken the initiative to learn Italian?”
“Have you seen the Sleeping Dictionary?”
“The what?”
“In the movie this Englishman goes to a foreign country in the nineteen thirties to help colonialize the area. But he doesn’t know the language so they give him this beautiful village girl whom he sleeps with and shares words until he knows the language.”
I . . . I couldn’t even. He had to be a masochist or just enjoyed fucking with me. I didn’t have the energy for this.
“Let me guess, the movie was written and directed by men. Voi tutti mi fai schifo.”20
The corners of his jaw turned up as his shoulders relaxed leaning on the front of his desk.
“So, dear wife, what shall we do about our men?”
“Tonight we go to dinner and tomorrow we prepare for camp,” I said with a smile of my own.
He stared at me as though I had lost my fucking mind. “Camp?”
“When I took over as Boss my men didn’t trust me. They didn’t think I could lead them and when I brought in new people, they didn’t trust them either. I bought a stretch of forest near Cascadia, Oregon and made it into sort of a camp. It’s their moment to let their guard down, because the place is like a fucking fort. The hackers all spend time playing with the newest toys I provide them. All I ask is that they don’t get on any FBI lists. The very fact that I have to tell them that is beyond me. The woods are filled with targets to challenge snipers. The gym is for the hand-to-hand knife nuts, and there are seven chefs there around the fucking clock to feed them. They kill things together, they eat together, and they sleep in the same houses. By the end of the week, they are brothers.” It was genius on my part, and I could see it in his eyes as well.
“One week? That’s it, and then we will be the Brady Bunch?”
“Well, they won’t be trying to kill each other as often. That’s a start.”
He shrugged. “Well, wife, to camp we go then.”
I grinned almost wanting to take more pride in his words. “No women allowed other than Adriana and me.”
“What the fuck is with this Adriana?”
“She is part of the crew, Liam, and if you saw past the physical looks, you would know that. She is a trained marksman, expert profiler, and a damn good personal dresser,” I added, pushing away from him to grab my phone off the desk.
“I still want to take out Vance’s cars.” He frowned. Men and their cars.
“We can, and we will.” I smirked, already loving the plan forming in my head. “Except this time we will have to steal it from Vance’s estate before he gets there.”
He looked at me, grinning like a mad fool, and stepped forward brushing the side of my cheek.
“Fucking perfect,” he said to me before kissing me once again, and I knew this time there was no stopping him.
FOURTEEN
“If the desire to kill
and the opportunity to kill
came always together, who would escape hanging?”
~ Mark Twain
LIAM
“You destroyed my underwear,” she hissed at me as she put her white shoes back on.
Straightening my tie, I tried not to smile, but I couldn’t help it. “Next time, don’t wear any at all and we won’t have this problem.”
My beautiful wife stalked up to me, slowly glaring at me with daggers in her eyes, and yet, it only made me want her more. I wanted to reach out and touch her.
What the fuck is wrong with me? No matter how many times I had her, it only made me want her even more.
“I don’t have a problem with that,” she said, glaring. “I’m not the one who has to sit through dinner thinking about how I have nothing under this dress, about how you could easily slip your hand underneath it and reach in me. But I think I will sit opposite you tonight.”
She backed away so quickly it felt like I’d been awakened with cold water from the loss of her warmth. That, and the fact that all the blood in my body was rushing to another part of my anatomy. Damn her.
“You’re going to sit next to me,” I demanded as she walked toward the door and, my eyes went straight to her ass.
“No, I’m not. I would rather shoot you, but since I can’t, I will sexually frustrate you instead. Do not rip my clothing,” she snapped, leaving me aching for her.
“Bitch is going to kill me,” I muttered, trying my best to calm myself down.
Staring at the file on the desk, I wanted nothing more than to destroy Vance now. I wanted to stare into his eyes as I lit his world on fire. However, I would wait. First I . . . we needed to fix the idiots under us.
The moment I stepped out of the study, Declan was already waiting.
“How long have you been out here?”
He smirked. “Long enough. I apologize because I would have waited, had I realized. She told me to calm down, it was just fucking sex. That woman scares and bewilders me all at the same time.”
Just fucking sex.
I frowned. “Try being married to her. One minute she kisses you and the next she has a letter opener to your throat.”
Declan’s eyes widened at me before he broke out laughing. “One day she may just kill you Liam, I swear it.”
“One day, she just may.” I sighed. Truthfully, I wasn’t even sure if she liked me for any other reason than the fact that we were married. I was ‘just sex’ to her, and it shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t going to change . . . that she would never care.
“So, I’m guessing you both handled the Superintendent? Or is there something I can do?” he asked, right as we stopped outside the door. I could see it in his eyes. His own bloodlust.
Declan wasn’t as much of a killer as Neal or myself. He had always been, and would always be, the man behind the computer, where I needed him to be. But when it came to the police, Declan wanted blood. It was, after all, an officer who had taken both his parents. He hated them and the code they lived by.
“If things get messy, you can personally clean it up, Declan,” I answered. “But until then, just keep a watch on our Superintendent. If he buys a home near anything Callahan, let me know.”
He nodded, and the dark look in his eyes disappeared the moment he stepped into the dining room. He stopped for a moment, noticing my wife sitting in his position next to Coraline. He raised an eyebrow at me before smirking as if he already knew the reason why. Saying nothing, I walked over to my Mel, kissing her on the cheek softly. She flinched as if I had slapped her instead.
“Evening, wife,” I said, trying to be polite while being just loud enough for everyone to hear. I knew full well it would tick her off as I took my seat across from her and to the right of my father. But I didn’t care.
She was pushing me and I was close to snapping.
Sedric was and would always sit at the head of the table. I didn’t care. It was a prop chair. It held no real power other than carving a turkey. I sat at the true head of the table. My mother sat on the opposite side and as always, they were speaking another language with their eyes. I tried to focus my attention on Mel. However, she seemed lost in her own mind. A mind I would give anything to read.
“Mel, is there a reason why you are not sitting next to Liam?” my mother asked kindly as I reached for my glass of brandy.