“Papa. No sleeping.”
“No sleeping,” I agreed. “This is a game.”
“Game?”
I nodded. “Whenever you hear fireworks, but don’t see me or Mommy, you have to come here and wait until we find you.”
“But I see you, Papa.”
I smiled hearing the door open behind me again. “I know. Today is just practice. So, you are going to get to stay here with Nana and your cousin, wait for me to come back, and then we get to play whatever you want.”
Because she was my daughter, she was smart, and from the way she looked at me and crossed her arms, I could tell maybe her mother had done this, too. “How long.”
“How long?”
“Do I have to wait here, Papa?”
Yes, Calliope had definitely done this before, and definitely left her in here longer than she liked.
I lifted my hands up. “Two movies and one story.”
“A story?” Her eyes lit up. “Mommy’s story?”
“Any story you want, my sweet.”
“I want the Little Mermaid,” Saura said as she jumped on the bed. She, too, was used to coming in here…all Callahan children were. Whether for practice or…the real thing.
“I know the Little Mermaid,” Gigi said, moving from me over to Saura.
With her now distracted, I rose to my feet. My grandmother stepped up beside me. “Go, I have them. I’ll teach her about this room…just like I taught you.”
“Some things never change and somethings will.”
She turned her back to them to look me in the eye. She was full of the coldness and darkness she only ever bought out in moments like this, when someone tried to swipe at this family. “One of the things that can never change is the respect owed to this family.”
I said nothing.
I was walking out towards the exit when Gigi called out to me. “Two movies and story, Papa!”
I smiled the best I could before walking out, the bulletproof steel door sealing shut behind me before the wall moved back in place.
Out in the hall, I exhaled, lifting my head to the ceiling, doing my best to try to keep calm. This was not the time to lose my temper. The Rocha? The fucking two-bit, half monkey-brained Rocha, tried to do a drive-by at my house? At my motherfucking house? The White House would make more sense than my damn motherfucking bloody house!
I knew where the rest of my family would be waiting. I walked down the hall, taking the stairs before turning to go towards CAIN. However, before I made it far, Greyson rushed up the stairs two by two.
“Boss!”
“The Rocha did this?” I asked him.
“They looked like a bunch of new recruits. All the city is talking about how Miguel Muncha took out the city government. Some young bloods want to prove themselves—”
“Did you capture any of them?”
“They fired from their cars and drove off. We got eyes on them all over the city. They are from the 15th block of Ballico. We got a name already ‘cause one was hit and dropped off…well, pushed out of the side of their car at the local emergency care. No one has moved yet. What do you want us to do?”
I stared at the video footage of that piece of shit in a gorilla mask being shoved out of a black Ford and on to the corner before speeding off. The clinic staff rushed to help. They had no idea that with a snap of my fingers I could call an army to wipe them off the earth. But for some reason, right now that didn’t feel satisfying enough.
No.