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“Fuck you, asshole. I’m a goddamn angel and you know it. That kid would be lucky to have me as a dad,” Texas argues.
Powerhouse saunters up to us, plopping down and joining our conversation. “Salem is a big advocate for keeping kids together. She wants me to consider taking the cousins, Tala, Trayton, and Tanner into our home… when we get one,” he mutters. “Her place is okay, but it won’t be big enough for us if we do this.”
“What are you saying, Powerhouse?” I ask, wanting him to clarify it so I’m not jumping to conclusions and taking action if it’s just a passing thought. “Are you offering to parent these kids?”
“That’s what I’m telling ya,” he states, his eyes boring into mine.
“Then consider them yours,” I avow, glancing up and noticing that Julius is honed in on our conversation. He nods his head in approval letting me know he’s onboard with my promises. I return the gesture with a bob of my own, thankful that he’s not upset that I’m making certain assurances that I won’t have to go to bat for. Because I would have, with my Louisville slugger swinging if it was needed.
We’re all about family, and with us taking in some of these tossed away kids, we’re strengthening ours. Just the idea of kids being easily discarded, has me stumped. The convent has spread the word that you can drop kids off at their doorstep, no questions asked, and they’ll take them in without contacting social services. Now, we know why that is and it makes my blood boil.
No more. This is the end of their duplicity, they just don’t know it yet, but I can’t wait until I watch the walls crumble around them. That’ll make my day.
* * *
Julius is currently on an international call with Shayne’s Nonno. He’s giving the Fitzgerald patriarch the low down on our situation, and future mission, he’s given us his family’s support. He’s going to chip in some funds to help our men create homes big enough to house these kids, and he has a few members that would be willing to take in some of the children too… as long as they don’t have any issues relocating to Italy.
Julius has promised that if some of them are willing, he and Shayne will escort them overseas. We’ll have to get crafty since they don’t have passports, but with our and his connections, it shouldn’t be as hard as if it’d be if we had to get them through the black market—that shits a bitch.
“Shayne’s Nonno is going to send over his private jet. His men are loyal to a fault and won’t report unsanctioned passengers. Since he has his own private hangar not too far from here, where he keeps his plane, all he has to do is log the flight, and he’ll manipulate the passenger list. He has twelve families that’ve been turned down through various adoption agencies, he knows they’ll pitch in financially, as well as donating materials such as clothing and furniture. Now, we just have to get all of our ducks in a row and take that goddamn monastery down to its concrete slab. I’m thinking about purchasing the property myself and turning it into a school for our club kids.”
“They’d all be safer out of the public school system,” I say, agreeing, and stroking my chin while thinking over his plan. “We could keep them protected better if we were in charge of things. Security and administration wouldn’t need an overhaul if we were the ones constructing it from the ground up.”
Julius straightens in his chair and insinuates, “And it’d be a ‘forewarning’ of sorts to others of the same likeminded as the nuns are that we’re the ones that ended their little operative and decimated it. I want it known worldwide that if word gets to us that someone else has started something like this up, we will destroy it.”
“I’ll make sure it gets told to the right people so it can be spread around,” I inform him, knowing exactly who I’ll go to in order to get the word broadcasted on the streets. I’ve been helping out a street rat, one who’s too damn headstrong for his own good, who refuses to accept financial help from me unless he’s doing a job. This is something that’s right up his alley and I know he’ll get it out where I need it to be. “I’ve got someone who can take care of that for us.”
“Good to know,” Julius chuckles, then says, “at tomorrow’s meeting, we’ll pick a day of attack, then you get your person on it. I want it spread like wildfire to all of the criminal groups by the end of the week.”
“That won’t be an issue, Julius.”
“Knock, knock,” Charlee calls through the closed door before twisting the knob and coming in without waiting on her dad to call her in. When Julius gives her a scathing look, she gets a confused one on her face. “What? I knocked this time.”
“Did I say you could come in?” Julius questions, harrumphing. “Knocking does no good if my meeting was one that didn’t call for prying ears.”
Charlee seems perplexed. She doesn’t understand the scruples behind our business. She’s been spoiled and hasn’t been put in her place by her brother. Gunner’s gonna need to step up his game where his sister is concerned.
“You’re wound up too tight, Pops. Should I go run you a bubble bath so you can relax a bit?” With a girlish pep in her step, Charlee skips through Julius’ office without a care in the world, and comes up behind him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, pecking him on his cheek. “Missed you, Pops.”
Julius sighs, but a pleased smile spreads across his cheeks even though he’s irked with her. She’s his baby, his pride and joy even if she drives him to drinking nine-tenths of the time. “Missed you too, baby girl.”
Feeling like a third-wheel, I clear my throat and interrupt them. “Was there a reason for your intrusion, Charlee girl?”
“Oh, yeah,” she says with a teasing smile aimed my way. “We’ve compiled a list of kids and connected the ones that’ve been claimed with the intended parents. It should make things easier to find the others that’re unclaimed homes.”
“Do y’all have any indication of what kids would blend and fit in best with which potential candidates?” I ask, leaning over intrigued about what she and the other women came up with.
“Kinda. There are still a few kids we’re up in the air about. Mostly, because they’ve been adopted and returned to the monastery for one reason or another. Nearly all of them are bullshit excuses for why they couldn’t keep them, but nonetheless, several of them have abandonment issues,” Charlee explains.
“What type of excuses could a parent have for giving up on their kid?” Julius asks, his brows drawn down in exasperation. I’m encountering the same sort of distaste—my mouth is soured with it.
Charlee snorts then begins speaking, “When I say stupid shit, I mean stupid shit. The list is ridiculous. Here are the claims; they don’t clean their rooms as soon as they’re asked to. They’re argumentative. They lock doors behind them so the adults can’t get to them. They steal food between meal times. They go outside and get dirty then track mud into the house. Those are the only ones I memorized because they’re reminiscent of mine and Gunner’s childhood.”
“What the actual fuck? Please say you’re joking with me, Charlee girl,” I growl, my body temperature rising.
“Wish I was, uncle dearest. But it’s marked in their charts as the reason they aren’t allowed to meet future candidates. It basically makes them unadoptable, and they’ve been placed in that column.”
“Bullshit. It’s complete, and utter bullshit,” Julius says, glowering. “We need to get them out of that shithole sooner rather than later.”
