“I don’t know!” Callista said. “He just said he was going to finish what you couldn’t.”
My blood boiled, and I feared I might catch fire. All I could see was Denise’s beautiful face flashing across my brain. The thought that Arturo might hurt her made me want to pull out a gun and fire at anyone who got in my way until he was in front of me. When I got my hands on him, I was going to put him in the ground.
“I know where he went,” my dad said. “Give me your keys.” I fumbled around while getting to my keys, but eventually, I fished them out and tossed them to my dad. He took them, shoved them in his pocket, and then pulled out his own. He looked at Callista with a piercing expression. “Keep him here.”
“Wait. What?” I reached for my dad, but he shoved me down to the ground. I clawed behind me to fish out my gun, but Callista leaned down and snatched it out from my waistband and pointed it at me. “You fuckingbitch!” I screamed. My dad rushed into his car and shut the door, and he was off down the street a minute later, my keys going with him. “You had best fucking believe—”
“His car is bugged,” she cut me off. “Dad’s is. The cops will be right behind him.”
“What?”
She dropped the gun, turned it away from me, and handed it over. “Dad’s car is bugged. Cado will move the second dad’s on the move. We’re never gonna make it to Denise like that.”
“Do you know where Arturo went?” I asked.
“No, but if I tell Cado not to arrest him, we can tail them.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t want the cops involved. Fuck.” I looked up at her. “I need you to do something for me without asking any questions.”
“Okay,” she said with a clear nervousness in her voice.
I stood up and brushed myself off. “I need you to take me to the Costas.”
“Ash, that isnota good idea,” Callista said.
“Callista.” I stared at her, through her, with the most pleading expression I could muster. “Please.”
She stared back at me with just as much pleading for a moment, but then she let out a sigh of defeat. “Fine.”
There was no hesitation in my movement as I rushed toward Callista’s car and climbed in. Callista ran around to the driver’s side of the car and got in, quickly starting the car and screeching as she pulled out of the driveway.
“You can tell dad and Art that I made you,” I said as she pulled out onto the main road, driving as fast as she could without raising suspicion. “Tell them I overpowered you, pulled a gun on you, whatever, just—”
Suddenly, Callista pounded her fists on her steering wheel. “I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself. I’m not a child, nor am I weak.”
“I know that,” I replied. “Do you?”
“It’s just like dad keeping me under lock and key. Why…” Her voice trailed off, and she sighed. “Why do you think I rolled over? I was losing my mind, Ash. I needed a way out, and Cado, he offered it to me.”
“Wait…” I recognized the sweetness in her voice. “Are you involved with Detective Alvina?” Her grip on the steering wheel tightened a little bit, and my stomach flipped over. “Isn’t he married?” Again, Callista didn’t respond. “Good god, Calli. You take ‘go hard or go home’ to a whole new level. So, what, in exchange for hooking up, he doesn’t bust us?”
“No! It’s… He…” She tried a few times to start her sentence but failed each time. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that this got way out of control. It was never supposed to be like this. He was supposed to give me a way out, but instead, he just twisted me into it more and more until I couldn’t breathe. Now I don’t know what to do.”
The thought of cutting my losses with my family suddenly seemed much harder. My impulse was to stick around and make sure that I could see Callista safely through the situation she’d gotten herself into. The reality of it was, I didn’t know what that looked like, and now that I had Denise to think about, too, it was difficult to determine which path would be the right one to take.
“We’ll figure something out,” I said, even though I wasn’t sure. “Just…” I put a hand on the back of her head and rubbed gently. “We’ll figure something out.”
We reached the Costa estate after what felt like way too much time. The estate was gated and guarded, but we wouldn’t be rivals if we didn’t know a few back ways into the estate. Callista was already preparing to pass the front gates when I touched her arm gently.
“Drop me at the front,” I said.
“The front! Are you insane? They could kill you on sight.”
“They could. They might. Honestly, they’d be dumb not to, but I don’t want to sneak in. I want them to know that I’m here.”
Callista looked hesitant, but in spite of that, she brought the car to a stop in front of the estate, and I got out. After I shut the door, Callista rolled down the window and leaned over to look through it at me.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked.
