Page 7 of Desperate Needs

Balor

Ready, Boss?

Me

Get the car. Change of plan. I’m taking her out today.

Baylor

On it.

Balor was a good man. A genius, really. Plus, he was family.

Ever since I started this campaign to bring my family name back to its former, and possibly even further, glory, I’d hand selected those I wanted working in my inner circle.

Of course, there were some I couldn’t get rid of. Uncles and cousins who were stuck in the old ways. But they were family, and hadn’t I made a promise to them all when I took a seat at the head of the table?

Yeah, I was still working to lift us all out of the muck my father buried us under when he ruined the Callahan name.

But I was doing it my way. No more petty crimes. No more running numbers, guns, and women. The world was way too small for that kind of shit these days.

With CCTV, advanced forensics, digital footprints, social media and a million other modern technological reasons, why even bother?

So instead, I turned our focus to protection. It was a long road, but fifteen years was a long time, and we’d built a nice name for ourselves.

Nice, but I was not finished.

I was looking for total redemption for the Callahan name.

And this was how I’d get it.

Chapter 3-Clementine

I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the door, almost falling on my face when it was shoved open right after me.

“Ouch!” I mumbled and turned around to glare at my cousins, Michaela, Lucy, Andrea, Elena, and Merida.

The latter two were Andrea’s little sisters, all three of them belonged to Uncle Andres and Aunt Ellie. Lucy was Aunt Destiny’s and Uncle Marat’s daughter. And Michaela was the woman of the hour, snuggling her little precious baby to her chest.

“Move over, lady with a baby,” she groaned and pushed her way through the throng.

She sat down in the chair against the wall so she could breastfeed, and I just sighed. So much for having a moment to myself.

Of fucking course, they followed me.

What did I expect, though? We were pretty much inseparable, despite the age differences between us.

“Okay, spill,” demanded Lucy.

“Should I even start or wait for everyone else to come busting in?” I was going for sarcastic, but the door opened again and Michelle Davis, Michaela’s BFF came in.

“Sorry I’m late!”

“Shelly!” Everyone squealed and hugged.

I just stood and waited for them to settle down.

Thank goodness Uncle Adrik and Aunt Sofia had outfitted the restroom with multiple stalls and a lounge area. With all the females in our family, it was really just out of self-preservation, since, of course, as it normally happened with women, we always had to pee at the same time.

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