Chapter Eight
Callum
Callum stood once again in the small room above the factory, unable to control his trembling.
Tom had tried to convince him not to come back. And in his mind, he had told Tom he was right. But he had pictured the girl sleeping in the spare room, and when he had asked Tom how he planned to keep her safe, Tom couldn’t give him an easy answer.
So Callum’s mouth, which apparently thought he was much braver than he actually was, had answered for him. Helplessly, he had listened to himself saying that he would go back to his father, and do what he could to help Tom and Leila, and hope that no one suspected his role in the escape.
His mouth was an idiot.
“Explain yourself,” his father commanded from across the room.
He wasn’t using the accent. Callum wanted to tell himself that this was a good sign, but he knew it was only that his father was so angry that he had forgotten how to speak in any other style than the one he was familiar with from his teenage years. He was no stranger to his father’s temper, but he had only seen him this angry a handful of times.
Callum looked to the empty chair in the corner of the room. Alec wasn’t here to defend him this time. Not that Alec had done all that much to defend him last time.
“It could have happened to anyone,” Callum began. “There were too many—”
His father strode across the room to slap him across the face. H’s head snapped to one side, and he cried out as his lip hit the sharp point of his tooth. He braced himself against the wall to keep himself from falling.
“Don’t lie to me.” His father, still standing much too close, crossed his arms in front of his chest. “The guards told me you left in the middle of the night. What did you do, go home and take a nap? I gave you a simple job, a job any trained dog could do, but no, my son doesn’t even have the brains of a dog. My son is so lazy that even watching a door is too much effort for him.”
Callum’s eyes widened at his father’s words. His father didn’t suspect him. He thought that the girl had escaped because of Callum’s incompetence, not his betrayal. For a second it seemed too good to be true—and then he understood. Of course his father didn’t suspect him. He had never seen him as brave enough or capable enough to pull off anything like what he had done last night.
Maybe he could use that.
“I went to get food,” he said, trying to make his voice sound just a little whinier, a little duller. “I was hungry. It was the middle of the night—the girl was sleeping. I came back just in time to hear gunshots, and see them climbing the fence. If you want to blame somebody, blame the guards. It’s their job to keep anybody from getting inside.”
He braced himself for his father’s next blow. The pain would be worth it if it helped keep Leila safe.
But his father was more interested in information. “Describe the men you saw,” he ordered.
The hot glow of triumph filled Callum’s chest. This was why he had come here—to send his father in the wrong direction while Tom got Leila to safety. “They were with the Italians—they had to be. I recognized two of them. They were Marino’s men.”
His father made a skeptical noise. “What would they want with one girl? Hardly worth the effort.”
“Maybe they wanted something else they thought you had in there.” Callum’s heart beat wildly in his chest. He had never tried to lie to his father before—not about anything this big. Surely his father would see right through him.
His father considered for a moment, then hmphed. “That would be just like Marino. Shoddy information gathering. He thinks all you need are muscles and guns. No understanding of planning, or of subtlety.”
From what Callum had seen, his father tended to rely more on muscles and guns than planning and subtlety as well, which was part of why he had never risen higher in the Syndicate, but Callum knew better than to open his mouth.
After another moment of thought, his father nodded, more to himself than to Callum. “This is fixable,” he said. “We will track her down.”
“Do we even need to do that much?” Callum asked hesitantly. “It’s like you said, she’s just one girl. Is she worth the effort?”
His father fixed him with a look of deep contempt. “And you think it will take less effort to undo the damage if she escapes from their incompetent hands and tells the world where she was? Or if the ones who took her decide to spread the word about how easily they were able to break into our factory? No. We minimize the damage, and we show the Italians and anyone else who is watching that stealing from us is unacceptable.”
“You’re going to kill them.” It wasn’t as if it surprised him. His father had killed for much less. But the image of Tom lying dead on the cold concrete wouldn’t leave his mind. And Leila… he couldn’t even let himself go there.
“Only the ones who took her,” said her father. “And whoever helped them get inside. The girl, we keep. We can still go through with our original plans for her—why waste a valuable resource?”
Callum swallowed. “Let me help her get her back. I’ll find her for you, and figure out how this happened. I’ll make up for what I did.” If his father thought he was on the task, maybe he wouldn’t assign anyone else to investigate, and it would take longer for his father to realize that he had been misled. He would figure it out eventually, of course, but hopefully Callum would be long gone by then.
His father let out a low laugh that sounded genuinely amused. “You think I would trust you with this? We wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for you. I gave you the chance you begged for, and this is what you made of it. I will assign someone I know I can rely on. As for you, there will be an ocean between you and the problem you’ve created. You’re going to London. Tonight.”
He tried to look suitably frightened. Inside, he was smiling. He hadn’t been able to convince his father to let him search for Leila, but he hadn’t really expected to. His father had believed his lies, and that was all he had hoped for. And there might be a plane leaving for London tonight, but Callum wouldn’t be on it. Yesterday the thought of running had seemed impossible, but now it would be the least terrifying thing he had done today. And he wouldn’t just be hiding, the way he had always imagined. He would have a purpose. He would go report back to Tom, and he would use his knowledge of his father’s methods to help him and Leila however he could. The thought of helping them, of being useful, made the idea a little easier.
His father was talking on the phone in a low voice. He hung up and faced Callum with a smug glint in his eye. “That was your brother. He’s waiting outside. He will take you to the airport and make sure you get on that plane.”
The smile inside Callum died as he watched his chance of escape shrivel and disappear.
“Can’t I go home and pack first?” he asked, trying not to sound too desperate, knowing that he was failing. If his father let him go back to his apartment, if he just got a few minutes to himself, maybe he could still get back to Tom.
His father shook his head. “There’s no need for that. Felix will provide for you.”
Callum had still given Tom a head start against his father. That was worth whatever was going to happen next. He kept reminding himself of that as Alec strode into the room.
“Let’s go,” Alec said to Callum, not unkindly. He held out his hand, as if they were kids again, walking to school together. After a second of hesitation, Callum took it.
They walked out of the office together in silence, and down the stairs that led past the factory floor. Only when they stood outside the building did his brother speak again. “I really am sorry about this. I hope you know that.”
“Not sorry enough to stop it,” Callum couldn’t help saying.
His brother shook his head. “I don’t have nearly the influence over him that you think I do. He likes me, and he listens to me, but that doesn’t go as far as it looks like. In the end, he does what he wants, and what he thinks is best.”
“Do you think this is best?” Callum still remembered what Alec had said yesterday, when his father had first told him about his plan.
“I think you need to learn how to be strong,” said Alec as they started walking toward his car, “and how to stand up for yourself. And I think this is the best way for you to do that.”
Callum wondered what his brother would think if he knew what he had done last night. Would he think more of him then, or still dismiss him as weak and useless? “I’ll die there, you know. Or turn into someone I can’t look at in the mirror anymore.”
His brother squeezed his shoulder. “You think too little of yourself. You’ll grow into the person you were always meant to be, and someday you’ll come home and I’ll see a man looking back at me.”
So even his brother didn’t see him as a man. He pulled away from Alec’s touch.
They reached the car, but Alec didn’t get in. He hesitated, looking into Callum’s eyes. “I’m going to miss you.”
Callum didn’t know how to respond. The thought of leaving Alec, the one person who had stuck up for him since he was a child, hurt almost as much as the thought of what awaited him at the other end of his flight. But Alec hadn’t even tried to help him this time. And as much as he loved Callum, he still saw him as a child.
Alec studied his face. “You really don’t want this, do you?”
Callum shook his head. “This life has never been for me, and you know it.”
But Callum could tell even without looking at him that Alec didn’t understand. He never had. This was the divide that had always been between them. Alec fit neatly into the life that had been set out for him, and he had always thought that it would be the same for Callum if he would only try a little harder. Callum knew better.
Callum reached for his car door. It was time to get this over with.
But his brother didn’t move. He closed his eyes, brow furrowed, the way he always looked when he was trying to make a difficult decision.
When he opened his eyes, his jaw was set with new resolve. “I’ll drop you off wherever you want to go. I’ll tell him you ran off.”
Callum’s throat closed with emotion. “He’ll be angry with you,” he managed.
Alec shrugged. “Maybe. But only for a little while. He’ll put most of the blame on you—he always does.”
For a moment, there was silence between them as they acknowledged the way things were between their father and the two of them. Callum knew that Alec was right.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” asked Alec.
And for a moment, Callum hesitated. It would be easy, in a way, to go along with his father’s plans for him. He would get on the plane like his father had told him to do, and on the other side he would do whatever Felix wanted. He would follow the path that had been laid out for him until it ground him away to nothing.
And meanwhile, Tom would be waiting for him to come back, wondering what had happened to him. He wouldn’t know what Callum had told his father, or what to do to decrease their chances of being found.
He nodded in answer to his brother’s question. “I’m sure.”