“We should have used condoms,” she whispered, placing her hand over mine.

“Not today. Not fucking ever.” I didn’t want anything between us. “You don’t want a child?”

“Kids are smelly and loud. You never know what they want because they can’t talk. Their heads are way too big for their bodies, which means if you drop them, they’re going headfirst. They’re like little aliens.” She sighed, and I tried not to smile. She was scared and worried about being a mother, and because she was my Mel, she would never just come out and say it.

“Only in the beginning—”

“Yeah, because they transform from aliens into monsters. First, little monsters who cry and throw tantrums, then to sex-crazed teenagers who think they are smarter than everyone else. That’s going to be the next eighteen years, Liam. I’m not like your mom. My patience will run out, and I am going to say or do something—”

I kissed her. “There were days my mom was even scarier than my father . . . a lot of days, actually. However, my parents made it work, and we turned out fine.”

“You’re a sex-crazed, closet smoker, who sells dope, crack, and smack for a living. Not to mention a murderer.” She rolled her eyes at me before laughing.

“Like I said, I turned out fine.” Honestly, the worst thing was the murder, but that wasn’t my fault. People thought they could steal from us, threaten us, and I made sure that wasn’t tolerated.

“I’m a planner Liam,” she said, sighing. “I like to know how I’m going to approach things, or kill them. This, our kid, isn’t part of my plan. We have Saige and Amory to deal . . .”

“Don’t stress, love. I can handle—”She pulled a knife from under the pillow and held it to my throat. Pushing me back, she took a seat on my waist once again.

“If you try to put me on the bench, Liam, so help me I will start cutting body parts off. I may be pregnant, but I am still Bloody Motherfucking Melody. I can destroy anyone I want. I’ll chalk it up to hormones.” She glared, and I could see the same woman who shot me in the thigh.

I felt my dick rise at her words and her position on top of me.

“Bloody Motherfucking Melody, indeed.” I snickered, rubbing against her. I watched her eyes glaze over as she let the knife drop to the floor and kissed me.

When our phones rang and she pulled away, I felt the need to snap whichever fool thought to call us at two in the morning.

“Speak,” she said into the phone as I kissed her legs. “We will be right there.”

No, we’ll be right here! My mind begged.

Hanging up, Mel jumped out of bed, leaving me hard as a fucking rock in bed.

“Amory and Saige burned down my fucking house,” she snapped angrily as she stomped into the closet.

I groaned to myself. “Damn them all to hell.”

“Liam, get your horny fucking ass out of bed and help me kill a bitch!” she yelled.

Oh, I was going to kill them all right.

MELODY

I leaned against the car, watching as the Giovanni Villa burned to the ground. The fire department was trying their best to control the fire, but a deadlier one was burning inside me.

Fedel ran up to me. “There was a note on the gate, ma’am.”

I saw Liam reaching for it, but I snatched it before he could and glared at him. He was not going to treat me differently. I wouldn’t have it.

You burn my shit, I burn yours. All is fair in war. Congrats on the baby. Such a happy time for you both.

XOXO

A&S

Liam grabbed the letter, his nose flaring with just as much rage as mine was.

There was only one other person who knew I was pregnant.

I roared into Fedel’s face. “Find Dr. Anderson, now!”

Liam turned to me, his eyes still hard. “Everything is different now.”

I nodded, opening the car door and taking a seat. Everything was different. I was now a bigger target. I was always a target, but now so was my child—the next leader of our empire—and because of that, I was going to have to change. Not into Evelyn or Coraline, but a different type of leader. I was going to have to figure out how to be ruthless and pregnant. Amory and Saige picked the wrong motherfucking family to mess with.

TWENTY-SEVEN

“He pulls a knife,

you pull a gun,

he sends one of yours to the hospital,

you send one of his to the morgue . . .”

~ Al Capone

LIAM

“What’s a five letter word for mortality?” I asked the man in the hospital cast in front of me.

He said nothing, but that had to be due to all the morphine. Smirking, I snapped my fingers and filled in the spaces of the newspaper crossword.

“That’s right, death,” I said to him. “It seems even God is mocking you Commissioner . . . ex-Commissioner now, right? People don’t like suicidal cops.”

He just glared as I continued with my game.

“Seven letter word for ineffective. Don’t tell me, failure. Seriously, this is today’s crossword. Can you believe it? It’s like they made it about your life.”

“Is that why you’re here, Callahan, to kick a man when he is down? I’m not shocked,” he hissed out, but I wasn’t sure if that was due to the pain or because he was ticked off.

“I don’t kick a man when he is down. I put a bullet in his skull. You should know that.” I sighed, placing the paper down.

“Then kill me already,” he yelled, making me want to roll my eyes.

“Not until you answer a few of my questions,” I replied, rising to my feet. I reached over and grabbed his oxygen mask.

Taking it off his bruised face, he took a deep breath before it turned into short gasps for air. He reached over for the nurse call button so I pushed it for him. Once, then twice, and then a few more times for the heck of it.

“This side of the hospital has been cleared, so let’s chat.” I grinned, giving him a few seconds of air before pulling the mask from his face again.

“Go to hell,” he breathed out.

“My wife is a raging homicidal hormonal pregnant woman. I sleep with hell.” I sighed, giving him air again.

“Give me a second to shit bricks of sadness.”

And I laughed, too, before grabbing the pillow from behind his head, pressing it against his face.

“I’m not in the mood for a smartass,” I snapped at him. When I took the pillow off his face, he coughed like a dying chain smoker.

He held on to my hand as I fed him his air. “Let’s start with something simple. Why did you jump out of your hotel room? That could kill, you know.”

He tried to hold on to the air but I simply ripped it from him.

“You burned down my house.”

“I wasn’t charged, tried, or arrested for anything.”

“I know it was you! You Callahans destroy everything.” His voice broke, and again, I rolled my eyes. “But you warned me and I should have . . . you warned me and so it’s my fault they died. That little girl, you sick mother! I told you about her! It was me. I-I—”

“Please don’t get emotional, that was only my first question.” I needed him alive right now.

“No games, what do you want from me? You have taken everything.” He coughed, leaning back on his bed.

“I want to know everything you have on the Valero.” He laughed liked a mad man, and when he did, I held the pillow to his face again. He struggled until he was too weak, and it was then that I let him go.