Chapter 23
Found You
WES
“Ilike it better when we get to use pie,” I say calmly. I feel like I always have to remind him that my way is the better way.
“You’re obsessed with your pies.”
“Yeah, and?”
Noah looks at me and shakes his head. “You’re fucked up. Let’s go.” We cautiously make our way out of the alley, keeping our balaclavas on and ensuring no one is around.
“I’m sorry, I’m fucked up? You just stabbed a guy twenty times in the gut without blinking an eye.”
“We can’t use poisoned pie very often.” Noah ignores my observation. “Otherwise we’ll be known as the Mince Pie Killers or something stupid.”
“I like the sound of that.” My thoughts have already returned to Callie, waiting for me at the apartment. I need to decide what I’m going to say to her. Not the truth, obviously, but it can’t be nothing or she’ll never trust me.
“You would.” Noah shakes his head, like that is the thing that makes me messed up.
“But it’s been ages.” We only use pie when we’re positive the body will never be found.
We shoved Chad Smith behind the dumpster, so he’ll be discovered eventually.
Otherwise, it’s too unique of a way to die.
I pull out my phone and stop short. There’s a ton of missed notifications from the security system at the apartment.
“Oh, fuck.” Adrenaline spikes in my veins. I urgently click and skim the video until I’m sure that no one got in.
Confirmed.
But she got out.
“What?” Noah says with a sharp edge. “Let me guess. Callie.”
“Yes.”
Callie left the apartment, and when I pull up the map, I swear. She’s only a few blocks from here. I curse and start to jog, and Noah growls and follows. We’re close to the blue dot. Is she running? Riding in a car? Trying to escape me?
But the dot isn’t moving.
“She must’ve followed us.” Fuck me. Did she see us take out Chad Smith? Callie’s been okay with me stalking her, tracking her, obsessing over her, but I’m not sure she’ll be okay with me killing people.
“Obviously.” Noah’s voice is exasperated and sharp. “But the question is, did she see what happened?”
“What if she did?” I challenge. Noah follows as I jog across the street and down another alley that’ll cut through to where Callie is.
“I don’t know, Wes, then what?”
“Then nothing. I’ll talk to her.” I focus on my breathing. “We don’t murder innocent people. Especially women. Especially Callie.”
I glance over at Noah, and he returns my look and nods.
“Obviously.” Then he swears under his breath. “We’d never hurt her, Wes.”
I dip my chin. But I’m terrified for what this all means. Callie’s seen a lot of things in her lifetime, so I don’t think she’d turn us in, but I don’t know. And I’m dreading the way she’ll look at me when we find her.
“She’s down here.” I point up to a better-lit road. Noah and I pull off our balaclavas in case we run into people.
I see Callie from half a block away. She’s sitting on the stoop of a dark row house, shivering. Not even trying to run.
“Calliope.” My stomach twists as I stop in front of the stoop and take her in. She’s been crying. Her eyes are red, her hair mussed as if she’s been running her hands through it.
Callie definitely saw us kill Chad Smith.
She looks up, a despondent look on her face. “What the fuck, Wes?”
Noah steps close to me and turns his head, speaking directly into my ear. “Do you need me?”
“No. Thank you,” I say quietly. “We’ll meet you back at the apartment.”
Noah nods and strides away without a backward glance.
I step close to Callie, only five feet away now, testing to see how close she’ll let me get. She looks up with wide, vulnerable eyes.
“Can I sit?” When she nods, I sink down next to her. “Did you see?”
“Yes.” A violent shiver shakes her body. Sitting on this cold concrete step in early March in Boston is not the best choice. Or is her shiver from fear?
“Do you have questions?” I hope she asks the right ones. I hope she doesn’t freak out. I hope she doesn’t run.
“How did you know?” she asks after a minute.
“Know what?”
“That those girls would need saving?”
I blink and try to process what she’s asking.
“And you guys—you killed him. Noah stabbed him. You held him still.” She whimpers and covers her face with her hands. I slide my arm around her shoulders.
“Shhhh, it’s okay, Calliope. I’m sorry you saw that.” She leans into me, and I’m encouraged by the action. “He was a bad person. We knew that. And Noah figured out he’d be… out and about.”
“How did he know that?” Callie looks up at me. I reach over with my free hand and wipe a tear from her cheek. Her eyelids flutter.
I don’t know what to do here. I think I have to tell her. Because if not, she’ll just guess anyway.
“Noah and I, we—” I breathe in deeply and her eyes open again. Waiting. Watching. Her breathing has calmed down. “We take care of bad people. Very bad people.”
“What does take care of mean?” Callie whispers.
Uh oh. I sigh.
“We find individuals the world would be better without. Guys who like to fuck young girls. Guys who kill them, rape them, destroy them. And we destroy those guys.”
Callie swallows, and I watch her throat move. Not long ago I was kissing that throat, and while she hasn’t pushed me away, I’m not sure we’ll get to that point ever again. I’m already mourning the us that never was. She was special. She is special, but she’ll never be mine. Not now. Not ever.
“Why do you do that?” Callie sits up straighter. I keep my arm around her shoulders, as if it’s a weight holding her down from flying away.
I’ve never spoken about what happened to my family to anyone. Not since we took out their murderer. Not since Noah realized he liked killing, and I couldn’t let him do it alone.
But I want to tell Callie. I want her to understand that I’m not a monster. Or maybe I am, but I have my reasons.
“Ten years ago, our parents and little sister were murdered.”
Callie gasps. “What? Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” She turns to me and slides her hands onto my thigh, scooting closer.
“And before he killed Ivy—” my voice hitches “—he raped her. She was fourteen years old.” The words are so awful. So much worse out loud than in my head.
“Wes, that’s horrible. That poor girl.” She’s crying again and gripping my thigh.
I nod, my eyes fixed on a lamppost across the quiet street. “The cops weren’t getting anywhere. They had a list of suspects, but it was slow, and they kept messing up, and looking in the wrong fucking places.”
I shake my head, remembering how furious we were. Me, Noah, Sia. Sia, my twin, who was just as devastated, just as upset.
“So Noah and I did something about it.” I shrug. We had to. We couldn’t go on while our family’s killer walked free. “We asked around, followed people, did research. I hacked into phones and systems until we figured out who did it. Then we found the guy and ended him.”
“Holy shit,” she whispers.
“It was bad and messy. We were horrified at what we’d done, while also feeling like we got vengeance for our sister. Not that it would ever bring her back, nor change her devastating final moments.”
Callie takes in a ragged breath, and I look at her. Tears stream down her face. She grabs my free hand with both of hers and squeezes.
“My twin—Sia—found out what we did. She was horrified. She wanted us to turn ourselves in. She said she couldn’t.” I shut my eyes, her horrified face always in the back of my mind. “We didn’t, of course. And we kept going. Finding the worst of the worst and taking care of them ourselves.”
“Your tattoo.” Callie turns and wraps her arms around my waist. “Ivy.” Surprised, it takes me a few seconds to turn toward her and return the embrace. She buries her head in my chest and cries. “I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry for what? You didn’t do anything.” I rest my cheek against the top of her head, then kiss her gently.
“I’m sorry for your sister and your family and you and Noah and your twin. It’s all so awful.”
“It’s why I watch out for Noah so much. I can’t lose him, not after losing the rest of my family. Sometimes he can be reckless. I make sure he’s safe.”
“That’s beautiful,” Callie says, a hitch in her voice.
Callie’s crying for us. Not running screaming because of what she just witnessed.
“Hey, it’s okay. It was a long time ago.”
“It is not okay, Wesley.”
“Hmm.” I shut my eyes. She’s right. It’s not. It never will be.
“You know what?” She looks up sharply. “I’m glad you guys got the man who killed your family. And I’m glad you did what you did tonight.”
“You are?”
“Yeah.” She nods. “Before I realized what was happening, I was hoping someone would help that girl. The first one was so scared, and so was the second one. You and Noah did that. You saved them.” Callie nibbles on her lip.
“Who knows how many other people you saved by getting rid of that guy tonight.”
She fucking gets it? She gets it. My chest aches with emotion.
Then she leans in and kisses me, sweetly at first. I lift her up and settle her on my lap, straddling me. Our tongues mix together, and she arches against me, rocking back and forth as if it’s enough to fuck me through our layers of clothing.
“Callie,” I say, pulling her mouth off mine with regret. “We can’t stay here. As much as I’m enjoying this. I shouldn’t be out, not after—”
“Then take me back to the apartment.” She slides her hand between us and rubs my cock through my jeans. “And hurry.”
Fuck, yeah, let’s hurry.