twenty-six
“Let me do this, Callisto. I need to keep you safe!”- Leo
Saturday Afternoon…
“Callisto! Daron! Nico!” I shout, as I walk through my back door. My heart still races from my recent meeting with Peadar, but I managed to grab a few pizzas on my way home. I set the food down on the counter.
I still can’t seem to shake that jittery feeling that has taken over my entire being.
The feeling that my shaky life has finally intensified into an earthquake hard enough to turn the seismic scale to ash and dust, threatening my entire existence.
I could fall at any moment, and it’ll surely be the death of me.
“Leone?” At the sound of Callisto’s voice, I look up. He stops dead in his tracks the moment he sees me.
“What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Daron says, coming up behind Callisto. His light brown brows are creased together with worry.
It’s not often people see me shaken up, even Daron, so I can’t even imagine how I look.
Even though I am out of that office, I still can’t breathe easily.
I peek out the window and see guards standing outside.
I shake my head, walking further into the house.
I grab my phone, picking a playlist and turning it up as loud as it will go.
“Leo. You’re scaring me.” Callisto’s voice is barely loud enough to be heard over the music blaring from the speakers mounted to the walls as he looks at them in dismay.
I swallow, trying to push back the sense of panic and dread. The words 'villain’ and ‘hero’ keep replaying in my head, only now it is keeping beat with whatever song that’s filling the empty spaces of the room.
“What did Peadar say?” Daron asks, but I look at Callisto, his expression a mixture of worry and alarm.
Callisto’s story about the monster plays in my head, the way Callisto’s voice was soft and sultry as he told it while he was sitting on my dick.
I can almost hear the sentence ‘the beast was human all along’.
“Leo?” Callisto’s real voice breaks me from my memory. Callisto looks so innocent at this moment, dressed in my clothes with wide green eyes, his hair curling around his face. He’s so beautiful and trusting.
“We need to get you and Nico out of here.”
I ignore Daron’s earlier question while looking directly at Callisto, my voice unwavering and sure.
I cannot do this anymore. I cannot keep affecting innocent lives and somehow justifying it.
I can no longer be a monster. I will not be the villain in Callisto’s story.
I will not be the villain in my own story. I am human.
“What? What happened?” Daron asks, his eyes begging me to say something more.
“The conversation with Peadar didn’t go well. He said Callisto’s parents aren’t cooperating.”
I can’t say more without my stomach churning unpleasantly.
I keep replaying the meeting over and over in my head, trying to figure out what I missed.
There was something, maybe words that were unsaid that would give some clarity.
I’m missing far too many pieces to see the whole picture yet, and it is driving me crazy.
“I knew they wouldn’t.” Callisto’s voice is small and his eyes are downcast.
He looks heartbroken, as if he was hoping his family would respond.
He obviously feels abandoned and betrayed, so I know how he feels.
Callisto had said from the beginning that his family wouldn’t pay, that they didn’t care about him enough.
I want to hug him tightly and tell him that he’s wanted.
“What does he want to do then?” Daron looks at me as if I have all the answers.
I know that look so well. I’ve been getting it from Daron since we were kids on the streets, but I don't have all the answers.
I didn’t then either. I made it up along the way, but I can’t do that now.
One wrong move, and we are all dead. I’m as scared as them, but they need someone to make a decision. They need someone to be strong.
“Well, he wants us to kill Nico for starters.” I can’t look Nico in the eye as I say it. I keep my gaze trained on Callisto, whose mouth falls open in horror. I grimace, nodding to reaffirm my statement.
I don't know Nico that well. I’ve barely interacted with him, but he is important to Callisto.
He must not be that bad since Callisto has such good morals or whatever.
He definitely doesn’t deserve to die executioner-style on some shitty dock, then have his weighed-down body being thrown into the deepest part of the ocean.
“What?” Nico asks, the word high-pitched and squeaky. My gaze finally lands on Nico, his brown eyes wide and scared, mirroring Callisto’s expression. My heart hurts at the sight. Fuck. They don’t deserve this.
I am such a horrible person for ever getting them into this.
A lot of the people I have inadvertently hurt in the past probably didn’t deserve it.
How many mothers and widows have suffered because of my actions?
How many nights did they spend praying their child or spouse would come home?
The only reason why I care this time is because I’ve gotten to know my victims and am even falling for one.
What does that say about me? I can make this right, though. I can.
“Yeah, he found out that you’re just Callisto’s assistant. I don’t know how, though. The only people that knew were us, Fletcher and Evan. I guess he could’ve had someone else check. I think he’s suspicious of me,” I respond, trying to think of someone else Peadar could have asked to check.
“Fuck. What does he want to do with Callisto?”
Daron asks, pulling me out of my paranoia.
I had forgotten that I hadn’t even told them the full plan.
I start, but stop, the words dying on my lips.
I can’t even fucking say them. Daron, Callisto, and Nico are all looking at me expectantly, so I take a deep breath to steady my shaking body.
I lick my lip, recalling what Peadar had said.
“Tomorrow night, he wants to strap a bomb vest to Callisto, then hold a gun to his head in order to get into his family home. Once in, he wants to tell his dad that if he doesn’t give us money and certain art pieces, we will detonate the bomb and kill everyone in there, after we leave of course,
” I recount, my voice hollow as I try to distance myself from the situation.
I tell the story as if I am someone that just witnessed the conversation, not a part of it.
Not as if I have any kind of investment.
It’s the only way I can get it out without panicking.
I can’t have a panic attack in front of Daron and Nico.
I’ve already done it in front of Callisto, and that was something I’m not ready to think about.
“We won’t do it,” Daron proclaims, looking at Callisto with kind eyes. Daron warned me not to get attached, but at that point, it was already too late. Now it’s definitely too late, after what had occurred last night. I am attached. To Callisto.
I do wonder if my attachment may be the reason why I think that Peadar hasn’t told me the whole plan, that there’s more to his plan that he is letting on. Am I making excuses just because I don’t want Callisto to leave or maybe I think I can somehow keep him for myself.
But my bad feeling is coming from the words that were left unsaid during mine and Peadar’s conversation.
The secrets hidden in the inflection of our dialogue.
I can’t shake the feeling that there is more.
That Peadar has something else he’s doing, so I don't think it has anything to do with my own desire to keep Callisto to myself, even though he doesn’t belong in my world.
I’m not even sure if I belong in it anymore.
I certainly don't belong in Callisto’s world, though.
“I didn’t mean ‘we’ as in ‘you and I’. It’s going to be me and Peadar. He wants to accompany me on this mission,” I clarify, shaking my head at Daron.
My friend’s eyes widen at that, the importance of what I had told him sinking in.
Nico and Callisto look confused at Daron’s reaction, their brows creasing together in an identical manner.
They look so similar with their facial expressions, they could be related.
It would be comical if the situation wasn’t so dire.
“If he’s going with you, it’s either important or–” Daron starts.
“Or he doesn’t trust me,” I cut in to finish. “It could go either way, but I’m going to bet that he doesn’t trust me. It could also be both, I suppose. For some reason, Callisto has always seemed important to him–”
“If he doesn’t trust you, then why would he let you go in the first place? Why not take one of his other cronies?”
Daron asks, and this time it’s his turn to cut me off.
I rack my brain for an explanation because it’s definitely a good question, one that I hadn’t even considered.
I go through all possible motives in my head but can’t come up with any.
Maybe I am being paranoid, and Peadar doesn’t have any ulterior motives.
“I don’t know…” I begin, my voice sounding defeated, but then an answer dawns on me.
“It could be to keep an eye on me, to see where my loyalty lies.”
It’s plausible and definitely something Peadar would do.
I am one of his best and most loyal men, so it would make sense as to why Peadar wouldn’t want to cut me off so abruptly.
He would want to give me a chance to redeem myself and prove my loyalty to the organization once again.
“Fuck,” Nico says, shutting his mouth abruptly and looking at Callisto guiltily. I grin because Callisto can’t say shit anymore about cursing. Callisto pats Nico on the shoulder as if to say ‘don’t worry about it’, and Nico looks relieved.
“How are we going to get out of this?” Daron asks, his voice hesitant as if the very question is laced with poison and putting it in the air will kill someone. I have been running the exact same question through my mind since I left the meeting, and it hasn’t killed me yet.
“I’m not. You all are,” I start, the words leaving my mouth on a sigh.
Daron and Callisto both look like they are about to say something, so I quickly continue with my plan, “Take Callisto and Nico to your safe house. Give them new identities and names, passports, the whole nine. Go to Kiki and get my money, so they can use that to start new lives.”
“What about you?” Callisto asks, already shaking his head at my plans, dark curls flying around his head with the momentum.