Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen Luca

The doorbell ringingjars me out of my thoughts.

Looking up, I find Scar in the same position she’s been in most of the day, hunched over her laptop with her phone against her ear. Yesterday, she started working on Steel Roses reopening and has barely done anything else since. It reminds me of the days when we first opened it. The thought makes me smile.

The doorbell rings again and I curse. There’s only so many people who wouldn’t just open the door and make themselves at home. Opening the door, I find my least favorite option being the one behind it.

I grunt an acknowledgement to Charles, and open the door wider to let him in. He gives me a tight, awkward smile and nod in hello before walking past me and heading straight for the kitchen. I follow behind him, annoyance simmering at his presence. I promised to be okay with her forgiving him, doesn’t mean I have to like the guy.

As soon as he walks into the kitchen, Scar looks up and beams when she sees him. “Oh perfect timing! I want your opinion on something.”

What the fuck?

Before he can respond to her, I ask, “Do you have updates on Donahue?”

Scar gives me a cool look over her laptop before rolling her eyes. Charles rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, should we wait until everyone gets here?”

I don’t answer, instead just grunting as I pull out my phone to text everyone to meet in the kitchen. I’m not leaving them to go find everyone.

He turns his attention back to my girl, walking over to sit beside her. “I’ll give you my opinion while we wait.” His smile is soft and hesitant, like he also can’t believe her willingness to let him back in. It annoys me. Everything about him annoys me.

Scar ignores me as she points to something on her screen to Charles. “Which design do you like more?”

His brows scrunch together as he studies the screen, pressing his face far too fucking close to hers while he does.

“I like them both, but what are they for?”

She starts explaining Steel Roses to him and how we built the club up into what it is now. Noah walks into the room and comes to stand at my side. “What is happening?”

“Don’t fucking know,” I grumble under my breath. “She’s telling him about our clubs.” Even I can hear the thread of bitterness in my tone. Noah doesn’t call me out on it. He watches them just as warily as Charles laughs at something she says.

Declan comes in next, his gaze less wary and more curious as he takes in the scene on the other side of the counter. He picks up an apple from the fruit basket and takes a loud bite from it. “What are we all staring at?” he whispers sardonically.

I narrow my eyes at him but don’t even bother to respond as Charles starts explaining why he likes one design over another for our waitresses. I don’t care what he says, I vote we go with the opposite of what he chose. Not that Scar would ever let me choose something like this anyways. Why does he get to?

Ryder and Kade are the last to come in together. Kade stops mid-sentence and Ryder’s quick reflexes are the only thing that stops Kade from putting his foot in his mouth with our girl. His eyes flare in anger at how close they’re sitting together, but he also made a promise. No more punching Charles. No more being openly antagonistic toward him. For Letty’s sake.

Declan looks to me to get things started but I just grunt. Apparently, I’m not feeling very eloquent today. Much more caveman if I had to choose how to describe it. “Okay then,” he says under his breath, a slight smile playing on his lips. Fucking asshole.

“Hey, Charles. How are you?” he asks in a louder voice, calling Scar’s and his attention towards us. Scar’s gaze flickers between the five of us, a spark of amusement there, but Charles looks surprised at D’s friendly demeanor.

“Hey, yeah I’m good,” he answers somewhat hesitantly. “Just got back from seeing my father. I wanted to update you on everything.”

Scar sits up a little straighter, eagerness radiating off her in palpable waves. Charles notices and smiles down at her. “You guys are in the clear,” he cuts to the chase.

“Oh, thank fuck,” Scar curses. “I’ll be able to go see Steel Roses in person now. After talking to Tim about the renovations, I’m excited to see them in person.”

We’re all eager to get out of the house, to be able to move around freely once again. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to go about our normal routines. It almost feels like we’ve won, though we’ve only surpassed the first hurdle.

I’m not satisfied with just the outcome though. I need to know more about how Donahue reacted. I can’t trust Charles to really know if we’re truly free to move back into the open. “What did he say?”

Charles watches me for a moment. “He didn’t tell me everything. But I was able to pick up a fair amount while I was at the estate. There was something else in the house where he was keeping Romano,” he explains. I keep my expression blank. This isn’t news to us. Scar and the kid had figured that much out. Why else buy the house that had been burned?

“I don’t know what it was,” he continues, “but whatever it was, it’s held his interest more than Romano’s death. He thinks the house going up in flames has to do with whatever was already going on in that town.”

I nod and make a note to let the kids know of this intel. It’s the least they deserve in thanks. Somehow, I don’t think they’ll be too concerned about it. Donahue won’t be alive long enough to retaliate anyway.

“So, we’re really in the clear? Back to business as usual?” Ryder asks.

Letty shrugs. “Romano was the one who was actually after us and openly attacking us. With him cleared from the board, I don’t see why not.”

Charles looks at her appraisingly. “Don’t drop your guard completely,” he warns. “My father is still actively hunting you down, and he’s moved to the west coast now. I saw more invoices for CGK on his computer before I left.”

Scar grunts, but doesn’t acknowledge his words. The light in her eyes has dimmed though and I get a twisted knot in my gut at how quickly she falters. “Any news on narrowing down our culprits?” She redirects the topic.

Noah nods, stepping forward. “The notebook we took from Romano has helped us mark a lot of the names off our list. He also had dates next to each name indicating when they started doing business, which eliminated quite a few more. We still have about fifteen possibilities though. You and Charles can look through to pick out the most likely.”

I don’t like it. Based on Kade’s expression and the tightening of his fists, he doesn’t either. I meet his eyes. “We should go to the fights tonight. Check in on them in person. See how the new recruits are doing. Maybe Ian and Jade have made some progress in that idea of theirs.”

Anything to distract both of us. Anything to get us out of this house finally. We’ve all had brief reprieves as we prepared Scar’s surprise, but it isn’t the same. We should show our faces around town again. Make a show of our strength and that we came out of this war on the winning side. No one else needs to know our fight isn’t over. The rest of this war will be a silent one. One that never leads back to us. One that can’t lead back to us.

Scar is not The Fallen Prom Queen any longer. The notoriety of that name doesn’t need to follow her into this new life we’re building for ourselves. It puts her at risk even if we do eliminate her demons.

The front door opens and we all whip our heads around. “Hello, hello,” a warm, familiar voice calls out.

Motherfucker.

I didn’t realize Charlene was coming over today.

“Mommy,” a small voice calls out, followed by the pitter-patter of tiny feet. Scar beams as she climbs out of her chair just as Roe turns the corner and runs into the kitchen, Blu chasing her. Scar scoops our sweet girl up in her arms, and it’s the first time I’ve seen her truly radiating happiness in weeks. She kisses over our baby’s face and Roe’s giggles ease the tension out of the room.

Or most of it anyways. We all dart looks at Charles where he still sits, his eyes wide as he stares at the scene in front of him. Of course he didn’t know of Roe’s existence. This moment, more than anything else, tells me everything I need to know about Scar’s feelings toward Charles.

She’s forgiven him. Decided to trust him. Has let him back in. Fully.

Anxiety twists in my gut.

You’d think I’d be over this jealousy born from insecurity when it comes to him, but apparently I’m not.

“Yes, hello to you too, sweet baby Blu,” Scar greets the dog as Charlene enters the kitchen.

“It’s quite the party in here,” she says in lieu of hello. We all take turns hugging her and pressing kisses to her cheeks.

“I didn’t know you guys were coming,” I say after I release her.

Kade narrows his gaze at her playfully. “Yeah, and where is Joe? He better not be leaving our girls alone.”

Just then, the older man enters the kitchen, his arms laden with bags. “Oh, fuck off. You know better than that, kid.”

Noah and Ryder jump to help him with his load, stealing peeks into the bags as they place them down on the counter.

“Scar invited us for dinner,” Charlene explains.

Scar pointedly stares at the bags. “I do know how to cook, you know?”

“Of course, dear.” Charlene waves her off. “But I know how busy you are.” She gestures to the laptop and papers strewed all over the table as if to make her point. “Now you don’t have to.” She finishes with a bright smile. One she knows none of us are capable of arguing against.

“Thank you, Charlene,” Declan says before moving toward Scar and stealing Roe from her arms. New giggles erupt from her as he kisses her head. “Hi, sweet girl. Come help Daddy do some introductions, yeah?”

“Okay, Daddy,” she beams up at him, thrilled to be of help. I can’t help but smile while watching her. Even if I’m less than thrilled about who else is in the kitchen right now.

“Charlene, Roe baby, this is our friend Charles. He’s helping Mommy with some work.” Declan makes the introductions. At some point Charles got on his feet, but I must have missed it. He extends his hand out to Charlene first.

“It’s so nice to meet you,” he says genuinely. I kind of hate that he seems like an okay guy. I definitely hate when Charlene pushes his hand away and gives him a hug, easily accepting him. And I fucking loathe when my baby girl mimics the handshake and sticks her hand out to his.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she copies, a proud smile on her face. She’s so goddamn adorable. He doesn’t deserve all that cuteness directed at him. I watch as he studies her appraisingly, shaking her tiny hand in his much larger one.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, Roe. I love your name,” he compliments.

Her smile grows even wider, and even Scar is smiling as she watches them. “Thank you.”

I walk up to them and pull Roe out of Declan’s arms. “You gonna say hi to the rest of us, sweet girl?” She giggles as I carry her away, turning my back on Charles and heading straight to stand at Kade’s side. Noah tries, and fails, to suppress a grin and Ry doesn’t even try.

I don’t care if I’m acting like a child. He said hi, that’s more than enough.

Noah pulls Roe out of my arms to give his own kisses and as he passes her off to Kade, my eyes harden on the way he’s still smiling. “That paperwork filed yet?”

He chuckles and I consider punching him. “I knew you loved D,” he taunts. I shake my head and push him away. He just laughs harder. I should have punched him. “Yes, I’ve gotten it all taken care of,” he finally answers.

“Good.”

Charlene clears her throat and draws our attention back to the kitchen counter where she’s unloading the bags. “Roe baby, go get cleaned up for dinner while your daddies help your momma get this mess sorted so we can eat dinner together.”

“Okay, Grandma,” my little girl chirps happily as Kade sets her on the floor. There’s something in Charlene’s tone that says there’s something she needs to say away from little ears. My spine snaps straight and I click my tongue ring against my teeth in agitation.

The front door opens and Roe halts in her tracks, her gaze swinging back to her grandma. I raise my brow at Letty but she shrugs. Charlene claps and Joe rolls his eyes. “Perfect timing. Roe, go grab those boys and send the adults in here please.”

“Yes, Grandma,” she agrees as her excited feet carry her out of the room, the house already four times as loud. At least we know who our unexpected guests are.

Charles looks at Scar. “I can go help?” he offers sheepishly. “Keep them distracted so you have a chance for,” he hesitates gesturing to Charlene’s bags, “whatever this is.”

I open my mouth to tell him to fuck off but Charlene is already clapping her hands together in delight. “That would be lovely, Charles. I need to talk to all the parents.” He rushes out of the room, following the tiny voices, before I even have a chance to argue. Not that any of us can really rise against Charlene. I cross my arms over my chest and lean against the counter.

It’s not sulking if you could kill a grown man with your bare hands.

Holden, Ian, and Jade all walk into the room with matching bewildered expressions on their faces. “Roe is really starting to take after her momma,” Holden says wryly in greeting.

Jade snorts. “What he means is the girl is getting bossy as fuck.”

“Sounds like Scar,” Ryder laughs, earning a smack to the chest.

Charlene waves away their banter, pausing in her dinner preparation to pull out stacks of paperwork. “Hush up now,” she scolds. “We only have a few minutes before poor Charles loses control of those little hellions.” I scoff at describing Charles as poor but the warning look Joe gives me is enough to keep my mouth shut.

Letty enjoys the silent smackdown as she smirks at me from across the counter and I narrow my eyes at her, promising retribution at some point in the near future. I can think of a few ways to get back at her.

“I’ve left this for as long as I possibly could, but you all really need to be making a decision now. We’re almost out of time.” She sets about organizing the stacks of her papers into smaller stacks and putting them in front of different people. “Lucky for you lot, I covered all of our bases so all you need to do is make a decision. But I still need to prepare different things based on your choice. So chop, chop.”

Letty’s eyes widen as she stares down at the paperwork put in front of her and red rises on Jade’s cheeks while she looks at hers.

“What are you talking about, Charlene?” Kade asks, rubbing his hand over the scruff on his cheeks.

“Kindergarten!” she exclaims dramatically and all of the air is sucked out of the room.

There ain’t no way in hell it’s time for our baby girl to go to kindergarten.

“No.”

Charlene rolls her eyes. “You can’t say no, Luca,” she chastises, smacking me over the head with yet another stack of papers. There’s no way kindergarten requires this much fucking paperwork. We could save an entire forest with all the fucking paper in this kitchen right now.

“I enrolled all four kids into the top three private schools in Southern California, as well as the several public schools closest to us here. But some of those schools start next week and we need to prepare.”

Scar rubs her face with her hands. “Why can’t she stay at the preschool?” she whines.

“Yeah,” Jade agrees. “I thought they did Kindergarten there.”

Holden sighs, looking through the paperwork with a gleam of guilt in his eyes. “They do, but not first grade.”

Ah. It all clicks. Trevor is a year ahead of the other kids in school. He’s already been through the Kindergarten program and will be entering first grade.

“I completely forgot to even get him enrolled somewhere else.” Holden’s shoulders slump forward and a heavy sense of parental guilt coats the room. None of us have been the best parents as this whole mess has gone on. It’s been out of a sense of love and protection, but I don’t really know if that’s enough to justify the balls we’ve let drop.

Jade squeezes Holden’s thigh in comfort and he rests his hand over hers as Charlene kisses his cheek. “This is why you all have me. Don’t feel guilty for making this town a safer place for your kids.”

Easier said than done.

Declan stands from where he was sitting at the counter, leaning over Scar to grab some of the papers. “We can’t change the past, so instead of wallowing, let’s move on to the next step.” He pins his attention on Charlene. “What are our options, Char?”

She claps her hands together in excitement as she gives us a rundown on all the schools she picked out. It’s instantly clear she’s already done all of the leg work, putting a lot of time and effort into looking at each option for our kids. There’s no bad choice, but I instantly don’t like the options that take the kids far out of the city. Even if they are the best schools on this coast.

Based on the dour expressions on everyone’s faces, I’m not alone in the sentiment.

Letty clicks her tongue. “We’re making this city our own, are we not?”

Joe nods. “We sure are. Ain’t no one in this town who will think to cross a Rose.”

She shrugs as she throws the papers back down on the counter. “Then there’s nowhere safer for a child of a Rose to be. The kids don’t need the glitz and gore that comes with the price tag of these private schools.” The second half is said with a derisive sneer.

Declan tilts his head as he reads something on the papers. “Scarlett is right. There’s nothing these private schools can give the kids that we wouldn’t be able to provide. I vote keeping it closer to home.”

Ian folds his hands, pushing away the papers as he does, stopping only to trade looks with an overwhelmed Jade. Secretly, I think we all feel the same as her, but are better at hiding it. “You said you chose several public schools?” he asks.

Charlene nods her head. “I wanted to make sure not to rule any out in case you all liked a certain one.”

Panic flashes over every face in the room except for Joe and Charlene, the former looking openly amused at the rest of our options.

Declan clears his throat. “Do we all agree to stay in St Graves?” he asks carefully.

Everyone in the room nods eagerly, almost too much so. I add my own quick affirmation and Declan sighs in relief. “At least that’s the first step.”

Charlene starts to launch into the pros and cons of each of the elementary schools in our neighborhood but more than one adult in the room looks like they’re going to be sick. Ryder stands and walks over to Charlene, patting her on the shoulders.

“What if we let the expert choose?”

Sighs of relief come from every corner of the room as the bobbing of heads starts all over again. Chalrene looks around confused, opening her mouth to question but Ry cuts her off. “We trust you more than ourselves with the kids,” he explains simply. Pulling a wry chuckle from not only me. Truer words have never been spoken.

“You know far more about this than we do and have already done all the work. We trust you.”

Charlene beams. “Well, good. Cause I was really going to push for Bayview Elementary school. They get good funding, are known to have a very active PTA with a lot of parent involvement in the school activities, and lower student to teacher ratios. They even implemented some new teaching programs to really help the outlier students succeed as well. I was very impressed with what they’ve managed to do as a public school.”

Joe nods and pats Ryder on the shoulder. “Good call, you all were going to end up at this decision anyway,” he whispers. “You just cut out her having to lead you to it.”

Charlene rolls her eyes. “I wouldn’t have been upset by those private schools if that was what they wanted. They’ve just fought so hard for this town. It’s only right to treat it like home.” Scar and Jade both hug her and place kisses on her cheeks as they thank her for doing the leg work. None of this would be possible without her holding the fort down behind us. Keeping the home and family for us to come back to.

“The kids will start in just about two weeks then,” I hear her explain and my heart drops to my feet. My panic at making the right decision made me completely forget what we were actually discussing.

Roe baby is going into Kindergarten.

Holy fuck.