Chapter Twenty Seven
Shannon O’Malley was petite, calm and entirely unthreatening. Her eyes were dark – the same as her son’s – and she had hair the colour of coal that had been twisted in a bun on the back of her head. She wore a pantsuit made of a slightly vintage tweed style, and a pair of sensible shoes. Honestly, she looked normal. She looked like absolutely nothing dangerous or special and it was weird meeting her and having all my high expectations stilted.
The only weird thing about her was that I felt like I knew her. And sure, I could have been mistaken. But the last time I had felt that way had been when I’d first met Elaina. I’d been sure for weeks on end that I had seen her somewhere before, and though I had been wrong, I had also been valid for thinking it. Elaina looked like her sister, Luciana. And I had seen pictures of Sapphire’s mother before in photo albums and things in my house, as well as a handful of news articles. That meant when I took a single look at Shannon O’Malley and weirdly felt like I had met her before, I took it seriously.
We were hunting her sister, after all. If I felt like I knew Shannon, then perhaps it was because I had seen Cassie somewhere.
Shannon had been polite as anything when she’d come home. She’d dismissed her children – even Maddox, who she apparently had custody of, alongside his older sister who was away in university – with kind words and an order for all of us to take a seat in the living room on the various chairs. We’d been offered hot drinks, snacks and mothered a bunch as though we were guests that had been happily invited over, and not a bunch of gangsters on a mission that had simply walked through the front door after pulling guns on her son.
Eventually, though, the small talk and niceties had gone on for long enough, and my girl had explained her real reason for coming as fast and blunt as she could. But the minute she mentioned Cassie O’Malley being the one we were after, Shannon cut her off with a bright, only slightly false smile.
“I haven’t seen her in over a decade.” She said. “I don’t have anything to do with that family, especially when I owe Ford mine and my children’s lives.”
She’d confirmed that she had gone to Ford when she had been worried about her brother and his temper. The pair had made a deal of some kind and Ford had helped Shannon, her husband, and the kids escape from an oncoming brutal death at the hands of John O’Malley. But we already knew all of that, so whilst it was nice to have mine and Darius’ research confirmed, it didn’t offer us anything else that we had travelled thousands of miles to get.
Sapphire leaned forward on the pale cream couch that she sat on, me and Kody on her sides. Price was hovering on the other side of the room, Lincoln too. Logan sat on the other armchair. We weren’t exactly on guard, but we also weren’t relaxing like idiots.
Shannon was still an O’Malley regardless of her changed name and apparent dislike of her blood.
Sapphire tapped her nails against her thigh, her free hand resting on Kody’s leg. She’s done it a lot lately – touch one of us. It was like she couldn’t sit here on her own without reassurances that we were with her and that we were real. Kody had been the most frequent one she’d been near, but I understood. Sapphire was still recovering from her captivity, and she had spent the entire time thinking Kody was dead. I didn’t blame her for being clingier or needing a physical reminder that she wasn’t alone, nor had she lost him.
“I don’t think you do know where your sister is. But that is not why I come here today.” She said, as Kody rest his hand over hers, thumb stroking her and instantly making her relax.
Shannon frowned and leaned back in her chair, tucking a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. “Then what do you want? You didn’t come here for a cuppa and a chat.”
She’d been unable to sit still the entire time she’d been with us and, whilst she could have just been uncomfortable, it was making me edgy. Surely she was capable of not messing with her hair or clothes every ten seconds unless she was nervous? And if she was nervous, then I wanted to know why.
Was it regular fear about Sapphire and all of her Montana-ness? Or was it about something worse?
“To know if you have pictures of her – if you can tell us what she looks like so that we can put a face to her name.” My girl explained our predicament as I silently got to my feet, wanting to pace away my uncertainty. “We don’t know what her face is like, so it is hard for us to find her. I figure that as her sister, you would know her looks enough to help me.”
That, and Widow had suggested a rather foolproof way to confirm who Cassie was when we had suspects by testing everyone’s DNA. And despite saying it would be a long shot and probably not work, Mom had given Sapphire a bunch of needles and blood storing jars, and explicit instructions on how to draw some of Shannon’s blood, so that we could get it tested against anyone we thought might be guilty. It was brilliant, really – DNA couldn’t lie. The menace of a stalker wouldn’t be able to hide who she was when we had scientific evidence to prove it and I was glad Widow had thought of such a cool idea.
Shannon shook her head. “I have nothing from my old life beyond my family. I don’t even look the same.” She waved at her face. “I had a nose job, filler, laser eye surgery, and dye my hair. There is nothing near me that could link back to the O’Malley’s, so sorry, but there are no pictures.” She paused a second, licking her lips. “I do know of a handful of safe houses my dad owned that may still be in the O’Malley name, if that is of any use to you. They’re good places for hiding people and secrets.”
Sapphire flinched a little at the reminder of the type of place she had been, but she shook it off and nodded. Kody handed over his phone, getting Shannon to write down each address she knew, and whatever else she could think of that would help. And though it wasn’t as good as we had been hoping for, it was nice that our visit wasn’t entirely a waste. Not just because one of the addresses Shannon listed was the one where Sapphire had been held, but because one of the other places had been busy rather a lot in the last handful of weeks. So though we didn’t know where the stalker was, within a handful of minutes of passing the information over to Beau and Darius, we discovered one brilliant thing…
John O’Malley and his Vice King scum were more than likely holed up in a mansion, only a few miles from my own home, back in Diamond Grove.
As everyone else kept talking, I wandered the room some more, staring at all the pictures dotted about and finding nothing suspicious. They were showing a large and loving household, not too dissimilar from my own. In fact, the only thing that wasn’t entirely a waste was when I glanced out of the window, spotting Delilah climb out of the car. She took a handful of steps away on her phone, and I could see her face quickly scrunching up with what looked like annoyance. But other than that, which was entirely irrelevant until we could ask her what was wrong, there was nothing in the house itself to give me any reason to find Shannon suspicious or strange.
She was a normal O’Malley — a non-evil, regular woman.
I turned my attention back to the conversation as Sapphire narrowed her eyes.
“I presume you do not touch the money my daddy give to you either, for some reason.” She said. “Or at least if you do, then you spent it all years ago somehow.”
Shannon snorted. “I used enough to get us set up as cheaply as possible, in the worst neighborhood I could find. There was no chance John would come looking for me here, even if he somehow found out I wasn’t dead.”
My girl nodded. “So where does your money sit?”
“In offshore accounts for my children. They get it when they marry or hit thirty.” Shannon explained. “I figured by the time they were old enough for both John would be dead and it would be safe.” She sipped her tea. “So if you are thinking about trying to bribe me for information, it’s pointless. And not just because if I wanted to be rich, I would. But because I truly have nothing to offer you.”
“Is there anything you know about Cassie at all? Things that are like important or could tell us why she does these things to my family?” I could see Sapphire getting more frustrated with each passing second.
I got it. Even if there wasn’t a promise that we could have gotten any information here, it was still annoying to confirm we had mostly wasted our time in our travels, and that we were still exactly where we had been for weeks – absolutely nowhere.
Shannon nodded as she finally gave us a little piece of information that would help our search. “Cassie went through a bunch of horrible stuff when she was young, and she developed something called D.I.D. She had to take meds for it to keep her other personalities in check.”
There was a creak on the stairs and a soft voice called out as Shannon startled.
“Dissociative Identity Disorder.” Hades padded down the stairs, a pair of boots and a backpack in her hand. “It’s a rare condition in which two or more distinct identities, or personality states, are present and can control someone. Some people describe it as an experience of possession.” She sat down on the stairs, stuffing her feet into her boots without a care for the fact her mom was a little freaked. “It was called multiple personality disorder up until the mid-nineties, when the name was changed to reflect a better understanding of the condition—namely, that it is characterized by fragmentation or splintering of identity, rather than by proliferation or growth of separate personalities.”
I grinned at her. “It’s entirely separate personalities, each one as different as you or I.”
She nodded and glanced at her mom. “The personalities will have their own likes, dislikes, and emotions. One could love the taste of citrus, the other could despise it. It’s very interesting to study, even if I’m not sure why you’re talking about it.”
Shannon sat up straighter. “You were meant to stay upstairs, my love. We’re just talking nonsense.”
Hades pouted and she tugged at her shirt as she sassed her mother. “I have my piano lesson shortly. Maddox said he would walk me down to my tutors and wait until I’m done.”
“I forgot about that. But okay – we’re just finishing up here.” Shannon bit her lip and once more I was curious about what her problem was.
“You wanna come help me wash up these mugs? I don’t know how to use your tap – it’s got two separate handles, not just the one.” I moved towards the mostly empty mugs on the sleek wooden coffee table, trying my best to offer a distraction to Hades so that Sapphire and Shannon could keep talking without fear, and partially so I could attempt to quiz Hades about what she knew.
If she had such an excellent memory and was smart, my logic was she might know more than her mother, even if it was a long shot.
“Sure.” She nodded, and happily helped me carry the dishes into their small but clean kitchen, decked out in orange woods and colourful tiles.
“You wash and I’ll dry?” I asked, as she turned on the taps and made the water warm enough to let out steam.
“Fine with me.” Hades instantly started soaping up her sponge, as she pointed me to the towel I could use to dry with and I debated my best route to starting a conversation with her, eventually settling on what seemed like a hobby she had.
“I like your shirt. Are you into science?” She’d swapped her pyjama’s out and her new top had a cartoon picture of the Earth on and the phrase round earther emblazoned on it.
“Yeah.” She smiled. “But I’m not allowed to do it much anymore, so I have to live vicariously through my clothes and homework.”
“How come?”
“Mum got a visit from the police last year because they were concerned I was building something dangerous.” She rolled her eyes. “They didn’t seem to appreciate my craft and so I’ve been banned from doing anything outside of school until I get older and can learn the difference between fun and danger.”
“Did you try to build a bomb?” It was the first thing I could think of that would warrant such a reaction from the people around her. Plus, I knew it wasn’t that hard to do it.
Logan had done it once in high school, just for fun.
“Nothing so simple.” Hades sighed. “It was basically a high-powered laser. I was trying to harness the power of the sun to set stuff on fire with a ray gun of sorts.” She shrugged like it was nothing and missed the look of surprise on my face as she stared into the soap bubbles, like they held the meaning of life in them. “I like fire and it seemed fun to try and make myself a gun to burn stuff with when I get mad. Maddox said it sounded cool too, and Ares found it funny. Only mum and dad were worried about it.”
The fact the police had come around to speak with her told me that she hadn’t been unsuccessful with her test. Or at least if she had, then she was close to figuring it out.
I was both terrified and in awe.
“You’re smart.” My head bobbed as I carefully dried a mug.
“Smartness is subjective, so I don’t know about that.” She corrected. “When it comes to facts about stuff, then I’m good. But with everything else, like people, I’m not so great. It’s why Ares always hovers around me and beats up the mean kids at school.” Her eyes rolled. “They say I’m weird, but that’s fine. They think because they’re less intelligent than me that somehow makes them inferior, but I’ve never said it, so it’s their own thoughts that they hate me for.”
Even though I had pulled her into the kitchen to sneak some information from her, I felt bad. She seemed like a nice kid, and I was never a fan of anyone being picked on, least of all for something that wasn’t even their fault.
“I was never that popular in school, either. People liked me, but I was always boring compared to my brother or my friends. I know if I didn’t have them, then I would have wound up bullied.” I replied, doing my best to be kind. “My boyfriend Price was notorious for kicking ass. I’m ninety percent positive he did it on my behalf on more than one occasion until people stopped messing with me. Either way, I got the last laugh in the end – none of them have done anything with their lives so far. And I’m sure the people who are mean to you will go the same way.”
Though I wasn’t a spiteful person, a part of me was spitefully happy. The kids I knew would have loved to laugh at me for being what they thought was weird, had done nothing much with their lives already. Most worked in minimum wage jobs and none of them had gone to college or had plans to learn a trade. They had no partners or future prospects of anything remotely important, and would no doubt stay in Diamond Grove until they died. It was hard to feel sad about anything that happened to me in high school when I’d already done a thousand times more than they ever would and I was only just twenty, and school had led me to meeting both Price and Logan.
“Huh.” Hades said. “I didn’t realize you were homosexual. I thought you were in love with Sapphire based on how much you stared at her and the widening of your pupils when she looked back at you and smiled earlier. Plus, you’re nothing like how Ares acts with boys, even if I can’t use my brother as a big enough sample size for evidence.”
There was no hostility in her tone, just curiosity. But I rather liked it. It was fun talking to someone who had no filter and said whatever came to her mind. Even more so if it widened her horizons on how non-straight men acted, other than her brother.
I smirked, cheeks burning. “I’m dating both Price and Sapphire. It’s a long story.” It wasn’t that long, but I wasn’t entirely sure speaking about my dating life with a barely teenage girl was a smart move.
Hades nodded. “You like men and women, I see.” She thought for a moment. “According to a government survey done last year, there are approximately seven-point-two percent of Americans who classify themselves as belonging to the LGBT-plus identification bracket. So the fact that you found Price in your friend circle of majority straight males is rather sweet if you think about it. Like fate or something, if such a thing exists.”
“I’m lucky.” I grinned at the idea of fate working to bring Price and me together. “Am I’m pretty sure you have a highly superior autobiographical memory, right? You show a lot of the signs for it.”
I didn’t know much. Tech was more my thing over science. But I knew enough to recognize the signs Hades had a wicked memory that not many people around the world would be able to match. I was almost jealous. My IQ had been tested, and I knew I was very intelligent – not in a cocky way – but I was sure Hades was twice as smart as me, maybe more. It was seriously cool.
“That’s what I’ve been told.” She finished washing the mugs and dried her hands on a spare towel hanging on the oven door. “I remember things I see, and read, and I like to read a lot.” She paused a moment before muttering to me in a hushed voice, as though she wasn’t sure if she should say anything. “I don’t know if this is helpful, but I was listening to your conversations on the landing. And basically, I was with mum at work one day last year that this woman that I think you’re looking for came in. I remember seeing her before mum refused to speak with her, and she left. But she fits the profile of who you’re trying to get information about, and I understand she’s a criminal of some kind, so I would prefer she was caught.”
I froze, the towel slipping through my fingers onto the countertop with a slight thud. My quest for information had hit gold, even if I was a little surprised it had worked at all.
“What did she look like?” I asked, glad to have had my suspicions about Shannon proven, even if it meant she had lied about not knowing anything about her sister.
“Like my mum, but shorter. She also had a terrible gray wig on that was blunt to her chin. I remember she kept itching at it as though she was uncomfortable.” Hades recalled. “She had small feet, was quite petite, and she was pretending to be English. It was what first drew my attention to her even before she got mad that mum wouldn’t see her.”
I yanked my phone out of my pocket, typing up everything Hades said so I wouldn’t forget a single detail. “How did you know she was pretending?”
“Because her vocabulary was off. She mentioned having trouble in the parking lot and asked for creamer in her coffee when the receptionist offered her a drink. Nobody English says parking lot, and we don’t have creamer here either. Most English people wouldn’t even know what it is.”
My head bobbed, fingers flying over the keyboard. “Would you recognize her if you saw her again?”
“Yes. So if you manage to get pictures of suspects, then I would be happy to take a look at them for you.” Her brows pulled a little. “But don’t tell my mum. She refuses to talk about her family and her life in America where she can, and I don’t think she would enjoy it if I got involved. And whilst I disagree with her logic, I will respect her opinion as my mum.”
“How do you know anything about her family, then, if she doesn’t like to talk about it?” I was curious even though I was sure Hades had probably either guessed, or simple found it out for herself.
She shrugged. “I enjoy listening to other people’s conversations. And my parents showed enough signs of suspicious behaviour over the years that I came to the assumption that they were either criminals or hiding something of a similar calibre. So I investigated and found their old passports and things like that, and confronted my mum with it because I dislike secrets and being lied to.”
“She told you the truth, then?” I asked.
“She told me off for snooping.” Hades snorted. “But then she said her family was not very nice, and that she had escaped the country to get away from them. She explained that her brother had killed his wife and been horrid to her since childhood. And that if he knew of my existence, he would love nothing more than to kill me, too. Seeing as domestic and familial violence are common occurrences, she seemed genuinely terrified, and I had no reason to assume she was lying, I let it go after that.”
Before we could continue the conversation that was almost bordering dangerous territory, there was a shuffling of bodies and a padding of feet, and I heard my girl saying her goodbyes. And seeing as I didn’t want to get Hades in any trouble, I whispered that I would be in touch soon enough, took her mobile number, and then hurried to talk about random science things again until we were joined in the kitchen by her mother.
Shannon pointed to the side where the clean dishes lay, her smile just as false and tight as earlier.
“You’re a good lad.” She breathed as she eyed up the clean dishes. “Your ma must have done a good job raising you to be so polite.”
I blushed a little as I joined the others after bidding Hades goodbye and thanks, and hurried toward the front door. As everyone put their shoes back on, Shannon squeezed past me to unlock the door, but paused a moment, only a few inches of sunlight peeking through the gap.
She turned to me.
“Listen.” She said, voice low. “Regardless of what happens in your quest for Cassie, I want your word that my children will be safe. I want you to promise me you will look out for them.”
I wasn’t sure why she thought we would do anything to bring harm to the twins, or why Cassie would suddenly come after them, but I was happy to offer assurances to ease her mind, regardless.
“Of course we will.” I promised. “Sapphire would never-”
“I don’t mean her.” Shannon cut me off. “I mean you, Misha. I want you to promise to keep my kids safe.”
I frowned. “Why me?”
“Because as nice as she seems, Sapphire is still a Montana. And I can only trust a Montana so much.” She swallowed hard. “And seeing as my sister doesn’t sound like she wants to hurt you; you feel like my best bet.”
It didn’t matter that I was confused about her words, or positive that she had lied about not knowing anything about her sister. I was happy to promise whatever she needed to hear because it was true, anyway. Neither Sapphire, nor I, would hurt the twins or lead them to John or anything so heinous. They were innocent and we wouldn’t bring them into our mess.
“I promise I’ll look out for them.” I whispered.
She smiled sadly, eyes almost burning with tears I couldn’t understand.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Misha. You seem like a nice boy and I’m sorry for how things have played out. It was never meant to go like this.”
And with that she opened the door, bidding us goodbye as we all shuffled out into the street, turning down the path toward the two cars we’d arrived in, and Widow, Delilah and the friend of Ares who’d been waiting with them.
Except… they weren’t there.
The empty car was parked up like normal, but the car holding the others was gone. Only one thing remained. That instantly told us that Widow and Delilah hadn’t gotten bored and run off for fun. Beni, who was lying on the sidewalk, resting against a garden fence in such a way that I instinctively rushed toward him, Logan following me first. The kid had a bump on his head and droplets of blood dancing down his dark face and though he was breathing; he didn’t look great.
All of the guys pulled their guns out; on high alert.
“What the fuck?” Sapphire glanced around the area as Logan and I bent to the kid, finding nothing that would need a doctor even if he was out cold. “What happened?”
Before any of us could even think of a theory, Sapphire’s borrowed phone rang. She yanked it out of her jacket pocket, frowning harder when she saw the name on the screen and hit the loudspeaker button.
“Widow? Where are you?”
“Saph.” Widow’s voice was rough, his words broken. “I’m sorry – I didn’t have a choice.”
“What are you on about hermano?” Sapphire snapped. “What’s wrong?”
“I had to help her.” He breathed. “I had no choice but to help her.”
“Help who?” Sapphire asked.
Widow didn’t say a word before a single gunshot echoed throughout the air. The blast of a shotgun – one close enough that we could almost feel it shake our bones, but far enough away that it wasn’t being shot at us even if we all flinched.
It came from inside the house we had just left.
The same house that a blood-curdling scream emanated from a second later. Followed by a single word being sobbed and yelled by a young girl with utter agony and terror in her voice that chilled me to the bone.
Mum.
The End.