Caleb's POV:
I sketched my Mom as she cooked dinner. "Oh my God. Where is Peter and Angel with the rest of those weapons? They left two hours ago." Dad said, as he paced back and forth. "Maybe Angel got sick along the way. She has been throwing up all night." Skylar said. "Whoa." Riley said. We all looked at her. "What is it Riley?" Ramón asked. "There was a terrible car accident earlier. Look the damage to this car." Riley said.
She turned her phone around so we could see. We all groaned as we saw the car. "That car is totaled. Ain't no salvaging that." Kyle said. "That car is all twisted up. No way the passengers survived that." I said. "Dang. That's terrible." Skylar said. Suddenly, the front door flew open. Guards walked in with a bloody guard. "Rico? What happened to you?" Dad asked. "He has her." Rico said, weakly. "Who has who?" Mom asked.
He coughed up blood. "Gustavo has Angel." He said. We all gasped. "What?!" I cried. "His men crashed into us. The car was twisted up. They took Peter and Angel. They...they took us to the Russian Mafia's mansion. Gustavo killed Peter and Angel's brother and sister." He continued. "Andre and Nya are dead?!" Skylar cried. Rico nodded. "Gustavo took Angel to a dungeon." Rio continued. "Let's get him patched up." Dad said.
We all went downstairs to the basement. Doctors and nurses worked to get Rico fixed up. "Rico what else happened?" I asked. "Yes. We need to know. Where is Angel?" Dad asked. Rico coughed and shook his head. "No no no. Gustavo plans on using Angel as bait to lure you or Caleb out. He's gonna kill Caleb if he comes to get her. He said that he was gonna leave town with Angel. I tried to help her but they shot me. And the car accident didn't help. Gustavo is not gonna stop til Caleb is dead." He said.
"Good job Rico. Rest up." Dad said. I paced back and forth then smirked. "Dad. I have an idea." I said. He looked at me. "I like that smirk of yours. What is it?" Dad asked. "We do go Angel but we use someone as bait. Gustavo is not dumb. He won't fall for just anyone. We need to use someone he knows we know. We set that person up. Gustavo won't resist to kill that person. He won't do it himself but he will kill them." I said. "Wait Caleb. What about Angel?" Riley asked.
I smiled. "Gustavo won't leave her behind. If he really wants me out of hiding, she'll be with him at all times. Angel will probably in a car or somewhere nearby. She'll just be out of sight." I said. "So you're saying we give Gustavo a target, he'll kill them, we pounce on them, take Angel, and we'll be home free?" Kyle asked. I nodded. "Caleb no offense man but that plan sounds really weak. It's too simple. Gustavo is not a simple man." He said.
"He's right son. Gustavo won't fall so something like that so easily. He'll be on his guard." Dad said. "Look we use one of us as bait to draw him out. He won't be able to resist our bait." I said. "Whose gonna be bait?" Ramón asked. I looked at Skylar. She stared at me and shook her head. "Hell no." Kyle said. "Yeah I'm not doing it." Skylar said. "Oh com on Sky. Gustavo won't be able to resist a former model. He'll go for you because you're small." I said.
She scoffed. "I'm the same size as Riley and Angel." She said. "But Skylar, you do seem like the weak one out of all three of you." Ramón said. She scoffed. "I can't believe this." She said. "And don't worry Kyle. Riley will protect her." I said. "How am I supposed to protect Sky when she'll be out in the open? Gustavo will take us both out." Riley said. I grabbed both of her hands. "You have ice powers. You'll create some sort of ice shield." I said.
"Yeah. I've seen her do it before." Dad said. "Okay. We got the bait lady out of the way. Now where do we set them up at?" Mom asked. "Someplace Gustavo goes to." I said. I looked at Dad. "Dad, you know him better than any of us. Where does he like to go?" I asked. "There used to be this old baseball field he goes to with Wanda." He said. "So we go there. We sent Gustavo a note, telling him to let's settle this whole mess. He meets us but we know he won't be alone." I said.
"So what, I'm plopped right in the middle of the battle?" Skylar asked. "Riley will use her ice powers to run a shield up to you and protect you." I said. "Caleb man you better be right about this." Kyle said. I didn't say anything. I wasn't too entirely sure of this plan myself. It sounds good in my head but when I say it out loud, it just sounds like I'm setting Skylar and Riley up to die. Hopefully they don't. "So we go to this baseball field?" Mom asked.
I nodded then picked up a large piece of paper. "We go to the baseball field, Skylar will be here in the middle. Gustavo and his men arrive on the other side. In case he tries to come from behind us, we'll have guards approximately two hundred yards away from each other. They'll let us know if Gustavo is coming from behind us. Skylar is in the middle, Riley will be in the ground, already having a trail of ice a few yards behind Skylar." I paused.
The plan was actually starting to sound good. "Ramón will be up in the trees behind her. Kyle will be near him. The guards will be surrounded our half of baseball field. Then we wait for Gustavo to arrive with Angel. We shoot them til we have Angel back. Then we leave the country." I said. "Wait why do we have to leave the country?" Mom asked. "Gustavo will comb their whole city, probably this whole state til he finds us again." I said.
"He's right. Gustavo is relentless." Dad said. He looked at me. "Okay Caleb. We're going with your plan. I'm gonna go check out that baseball field and set up perimeters." He said. We searched online for the abandoned baseball field. "Wait that's abandoned baseball field?" Riley asked. "Yeah why?" Dad asked. "My brother and I used to play there all the time. But we were scared off these Russian dude. I'm guessing it was now Gustavo." She said. She chuckled.
"My grandpa told me that there was this rumor that there was something hidden underneath the field. He said it was mines but I don't think it was something that deadly or else he wouldn't have told us to play there." She said. "Well let's hope for Skylar's sake that the rumor isn't true." Mom said. "I still think this is a bad idea by the way." Skylar said. We spent the next few days finding the baseball field and setting up.
We had to be precise if we were gonna take down Gustavo and the Russian Mafia. I knew this would be no easy game. Gustavo is smart and cunning. My Dad sent off a messenger to Gustavo and he said that he would be here. He said that he'd be happy to finally see my head in a spike, mounted up against the wall. I was still pissed at him for kidnapping Angel. I couldn't believe he's taken her again.
I guess he's upped security since she escaped last time. I looked around at everyone else. We waited in the trees and bushes. We waited for two hours for Gustavo. Then we saw lights in the distance. "Alright everybody get ready." Dad said. Cars pulled up and parked. None of us moved. I looked over at Skylar. She stood in the middle of the field far away from us. The car doors opened. Gustavo stepped out. He chuckled.
"Really Calvin!! This is it? I would've thought you'd put more effort into giving me a presentation." He yelled. "I don't aim to please you Gustavo!" Dad yelled. Gustavo laughed. "But I do got something that does please me." He yelled. He looked at me then reached into his car. I gasped when he pulled out Angel and threw her to the ground. She was tied up. "That something that interests you Caleb?" Gustavo asked.
I didn't say anything. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction. As much as I wanted to go get Angel, I stayed put. Angel looked up at me. "Gustavo you honestly shouldn't be doing that to a pregnant woman." Mom said. Gustavo looked down at Angel then back at me. "Well congratulations. Caleb!! I didn't think you'd have it in you to finally have kids. I'd always thought Loren would be the one you'd skip up in." He said. That's it!!
I pulled out a gun and shot him in his arm. He pulled out his gun and shot at me. I immediately ducked down. Gunshots rang out as empty gun shells fell to the ground. "Caleb!!" Gustavo yelled. The gunshots ceased. We all slowly peeked out from the cars. "Caleb this your last chance. I'll give up Angel and you give yourself up." He said. I looked at Angel. She shook her head. "Gustavo listen to me-" he cut me off by shooting me.
I got him in my arm. I could barely raise it now. "I'm not looking to talk Caleb!! Do you want Angel or your life?" Gustavo yelled. Think Caleb think. I looked over at Skylar and smiled. "I know I can't blow Angel's brains out but I can lit her ass up." Gustavo said. I motioned Skylar over. She made a copy of herself and made that Skylar stand in the middle of the field. "Make a copy of me." I said. She nodded and crafted up another Caleb.
"Okay Gustavo!!" I yelled. The copy of me mindlessly walked out into the open. I backed up into the woods. I climbed up a tree a so I could see. The copy of me made it over to Gustavo. Then he shot him in the head. "NO!!!" Mom and Dad cried. Gustavo cackled. "Yes!!! Suck on that Calvin!! You took away my daughter, I take away your only child. Now we're even." He yelled. He grabbed Angel and got in the car. The cars all drove off.
"Oh my baby!!" Mom cried. "He's not getting away with this!!" Dad cried. I jumped down. "Mom, Dad, calm down." I said, walking over to them. They immediately hugged me. "But how did-" I cut Dad off. "I had Skylar make a copy of me." I said. They sighed in relief. "Oh. That's good then." Mom said. "But he still has Angel." Riley said. "This whole thing didn't go according to plan." Kyle said.
"You guys underestimate me so much, it's insulting." I said. I ran to the cars and got in. "We follow them back to their hideout." I said. They all stared at me. "Hurry before they get too far!" I said. Everyone all got in the cars and drove off. We followed the Russian Mafia through town and to their hideout. We had to blend in with the cars in town. We had to keep our distance though. If we got too close, then it'd be all over.
We followed them to a black mansion. We parked in front of the gates and got out. "Whoa." Riley said. "I know. It's so eerie being back here." Skylar said. "Well now that we're here, let's take em out." Riley said. "Hang our Riley. A out of our guards got injured. Now that we know where Gustavo lives, we came come back. Caleb is bleeding and half of my men are badly injured from the shootout." Dad said.
We got back in the cars and went home. I got patched up first. Then the guards did. I sat back and looked around at everyone. I remembered what Gustavo said. I looked at Dad as he was talking to Mom. I walked over to him. "Dad can we talk?" I asked. "Oh boy." He said. We walked over to the stairs and sat down. "Dad what did Gustavo meant?" I asked. "Meant what?" He asked. "That you guys were even. That you killed his daughter." I said.
He sighed. "Oh. Your remember that?" He asked. I nodded. "It's pretty fresh in my mind." I said. He sighed. "I don't know if you remember but back when you were in day care, you got into a fight with his daughter." He said. "I swear I thought she was a dude." I said. "Anyways, me and Gustavo decided to settle things. He came over while you and his other daughter played in the next room." He said.
He chuckled. "We couldn't talk in front of you because you were at an age where you repeated what you hear. Anyways, me and Gustavo agreed to squash our beef. I went to get you kids and I found his daughter choking you. So I shot her and killed her. I was so scared for you Caleb because you wasn't breathing. But I only shot her out of instinct. Gustavo ran in the room and saw his dead daughter." He said.
Oh wow. "Gustavo....He wasn't too happy that I shot and killed his daughter so he tried to kill you. He said he was only right that he gets even. I don't know anyone who thinks it's okay to let someone kill their child. It didn't mean to. It was an accident. It was just a reflex. I didn't mean to kill her. I just wanted to protect you. I tried to talk to Gustavo and try to make things right with him. But he wouldn't listen." He said.
"To be honest, I don't blame him." I said. "Neither do I. Do I regret shooting his daughter, yes I do. But there's nothing I can do to bring her back. So ever since then, we've at each other's throats. I tried to talk to Gustavo but all he cared about was getting even. He told me that I could always have more kids. That's what he did. But with you Caleb...I mean you are my son. You look and act just like me. Every day, I see a little bit more me in you." He said.
I nodded then scrunched up my face. "Let me rephrase that but that sounds disgusting. You started doing things that I would normally do. Caleb, even though I could've had more kids, I didn't Gustavo to target them next if he did get even. So when Gustavo wanted to kill you, it was my instinct as a parent to protect you. That's why I'm so hesitant about you going anywhere. Even now, Gustavo has his sight set on Angel just to get to you." He paused.
"Well now that he thinks you're dead, he still won't let Angel go. A part of me knew he wasn't gonna let Angel go but I just hoped he would because Angel literally had nothing to do with this." He said. "Exactly. When Angel first told me she was pregnant, I was pissed. But now that I've accepted it, I want nothing more than to protect her." I said. "That's good." He said. "Shit!!" Riley yelled. We looked at her. A gas grenade was thrown in the room.
Then more. Then windows all broke. A guard ran into the room. "Don!! They found us!! The Russian Mafia found us!!" He cried. Then we heard someone yelling in Russian. "Everybody move NOW!!" Dad ordered. We all ran out the back door. We ran underground and down the dirt halls. We came to the tornado hatch and went out. We ran to the cars and got in. The we quickly sped off. I looked back at the house.
The Russian Mafia was everywhere. I shook my head. This cannot be happening. "Calvin we are running away from our home!!" Mom yelled. "Of course we're not." Dad said. He pulled out his laptop and began to type on it. The house suddenly shifted. "What happened? What did you do?" Ramón asked. "I just made the best purchase of the century. I'm about to blow their minds." Dad said. He pressed a button on his laptop.
Suddenly a ringing noise sounded. It was loud. We covered our ears. I looked at the Russian Mafia guards. Their heads all exploded one by one til their bodies dropped. "Whoa." Kyle said. "Oh my God." Skylar said. She and Riley both threw up. "Oh not on my vinyl!!" Dad cried. We went back over to the house. Dad has guards record him kicking over the dead bodies. "You see Gustavo? You are no match for me. I'm coming for your ass." Dad said.
I looked around at the house. Every one of our rooms had dead guards in them. I sighed. "Everyone pack your things. We can't stay here." Dad said. "Calvin what did I just say?" Mom said. "Hailey we cannot stay here. Gustavo will send more men and there's no guarantee that we'll be fine afterwards. Our luck might run out one day." Dad said. Mom nodded. "Fine." She said. Everyone packed up their stuff and put it in the trunks of the cars.
I looked out at the window as we rode to our next destination. Don't worry Angel. I'm coming back for you babygirl.