The Untouchables(114)

THIRTY-THREE

“The marks humans leave are too often scars.”

—John Green





SEDRIC

He was twelve hours old. Smaller than the distance between elbow and my wrist, and here he was, motherless. He was suffering like Liam suffered as an infant. It had taken Evelyn over a decade to finally hold him…to love him. And every second Mel that was gone, Ethan was forced to travel the same path his father had. Right now, he was oblivious to it all, as he slept in his bassinet, lost in his own little world.

“Sedric.” Evelyn burst into the hospital nursery. “A nurse went to look for Mel so she could feed Ethan.”

“Shit.” It was only a matter of time before the police would be brought in. With the police came the media, investigations, and people digging deeper into our lives.

“Does Liam know?” I asked, pulling out my phone.

“The nurse already went to his superiors. It’s only a matter of time.” No sooner had the words left her lips, a silent red siren went off around the room. We blinked at the brightly flashing lights that were supposed to catch a nurse’s attention without waking the children.

“What do we do?” she whispered, walking over to Ethan.

The only thing we could. “We tell the truth. We left Mel to get some rest and when we came back, she was gone.”

“The timeline won’t match up, Sedric. I went to check on her hours ago. Either we tell them we knew she was missing for hours or someone has to screw with the camera footage.” It was a lose-lose situation because in the end, it would kick up more questions than any of us were ready to handle.

I couldn’t leave her or Ethan alone to prep Liam for the questions that would most likely be hurled his way. All I could do was stand in the middle of Ethan’s personal nursery as the red lights above us flashed non-stop.

“He knows.” She sighed, allowing him to grab her finger. “He knows his mother is gone. Just like Liam did.”

“Evelyn…”

“Liam and I aren’t close. It’s my fault. I left him alone for years, and when I finally woke up, he wasn’t a baby anymore and he avoided me. Not once has he come to me for advice. I know he loves me, but it’s always been you. His anger, his pain, his loneliness, are all because I wasn’t there.” She trembled in my arms as her tears soaked my shirt.

“Liam loves you, and this is completely different. Mel didn’t…Mel was taken, but she’ll be back. We’re talking about the first woman to take over the Italian Mafia. The moment she can, she will get back to us and leave nothing but a wake of blood behind her. This will be over soon.” I hoped my words would be true. Every moment she wasn’t here, Liam would spiral. I knew this about my son; he couldn’t handle being abandoned again.





DECLAN

Nothing but a sea of blue was flooding the walls, drowning out the white coats that normally infested the hallways. Cops made me sick. They were nothing but self-persevering, opportunistic leeches hiding behind shiny badges. The nurse had set us back and now the hospital was on its own lockdown, forcing us to stay in a private wing instead of searching for Mel. Liam hadn’t said a word since we took out the doctor. He sat like a man made out of marble, his head permanently attached to his hands.

“Mr. Callahan,” a short balding man said. He was dripping in medals, which he undoubtedly wore for the cameras outside.

“May I ask who you are?” I asked. “My brother is both tired and devastated, as you can imagine.” I stepped beside my brother. He looked up at me, eyebrow raised.

“Mr. Callahan, I am Superintendent Wendell Homer. I wanted to personally come down and tell you that we will do everything in our power—”

“Let me stop you here. We’re Callahans, we are used to people kissing our asses for personal benefit. So, save your words for the press hounds outside and find my sister-in-law.” As if they could. The Chicago PD were a running joke across the country.

His back straightened from his ass-kissing position before he placed his hat on.

“Has anyone received any ransom demands?” he asked and I had to fight my initial reaction to roll my eyes.

“No. We haven’t.”

“Okay, but expect one. These types of low lives always hunt for a fast paycheck. We’re going to need a list of anyone who may have a grudge against you…” He stopped as Liam laughed.

He laughed hysterically, leaning in his chair and running his hands through his hair. “Do you know how much we are worth?” he asked him. “32.7 billion dollars. That puts us between Wal-Mart and Michael Bloomberg on Forbes’ richest people list. You want a list of people who have grudges against us? Start with the whole fucking state and work outward!”