Chapter Twenty-Two – Lee
I settled down in the seat across from Chuck, and he leaned back and let out a long sigh.
”Well, Lee, we fucking did it,” he remarked, a grin spreading up over his face. I couldn’t help but return it.
”We sure as fuck did,” I agreed. I was still wrapping my head around the fact that Lombardi was, well and truly, wiped off the face of the map – it felt like, for so long, he was a standard part of the Atwood scene, an annoyance, and a threat we would never be able to fully rid ourselves of. But, as his body rotted in the middle of nowhere, at an ancient factory nobody would ever bother checking out, I knew he was finally done.
Which left us with a major question – what the fuck should we do next?
”I still can’t believe it,” Chuck remarked, shaking his head. ”I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop – I thought some of his guys might want to try and take revenge, but the ones we didn’t take out, they’ve scattered. Guess they were never really that loyal to him in the first place...”
”Can you blame them?” I pointed out. ”Knowing what he was into, would you expect anyone to stick around and avenge him?”
”You’re right,” Chuck agreed. ”Nobody would want to defend his legacy. And the ones who did...they’re in the same place he is.”
I gritted my teeth and nodded. He was right. Lombardi was where he should have been all along, dead and gone, lost to the world – and all the damage he had done, though it wouldn’t be easy to overcome, was starting to be addressed.
I knew the women he had harmed, the children he had trapped, and the girls he had abused and forced to work for him were finally getting the help they needed. Of course, it wasn’t just like you could snap your fingers and leave all that shit behind – they would need years of therapy and support to get where they needed to be, but the Dogs had sworn to make sure they got it. Though the authorities who provided them care were a little uneasy about having us around, they seemed to figure that it was worth it to make sure the victims felt safe coming forward. We were the ones who had saved them, after all – they needed us there to prove that they had nothing else to fear.
But that left us with a few major questions – most importantly, what the hell the Dogs were going to be in the wake of everything that happened with Lombardi. The destruction of the Kennels felt like the end of an old era, and I wasn’t entirely sure what the next one might look like.
”So, that’s Lombardi,” I remarked. ”But what about us?”
Chuck sighed.
”It’s something I’ve been giving a lot of thought to,” he admitted. ”Ever since the Kennels went down, I’ve felt like we need a new start. We spent too long being involved in the dark shit in this city, but everything that happened with Lombardi – it proved to me that we can make a difference if we want to.”
”Make a difference?” I asked, my ears pricking up. Liana had been applying to a few courses so she could start getting the qualifications she needed to pursue a career as a support worker for women escaping various forms of domestic violence and hearing her passion for her new line of work, made me want to throw myself into something similar.
Ever since I moved into the new place with Kara and Liana, something profound had shifted in me. I wasn’t the same person I was when I’d been caring for Dina, of course not – I would never be the person I was back then, not since I had lost her. The pain of that wore too heavy on my soul, and it wasn’t the kind of thing I could just brush off, and act like it never happened.
But there was a part of me that felt as though I had exorcised the need for violence now that I had gotten revenge on the man who had killed her – knowing that he was not only dead but that the sick organization he’d worked for had been destroyed too, it was like I could finally close the book on that chapter of my life.
”Yeah,” Chuck replied, nodding, locking his fingers in front of him. ”A difference. I know there’s still so much shit that goes on in this city, don’t get me wrong – I know how tough it is out there. And I know that sometimes we’ve been the cause of that for the people who live here...”
He trailed off, his brow furrowing. I could see something shifting within him, just like it had done in me. Now he was settled with a partner of his own, I was sure he could see more clearly how much harm there was around him – but that, deep down, we were capable of making a difference.
”But I think we can change that,” he replied, leaning forward, a flash of excitement in his eyes. ”I want us to move into protective services. For the people who need it. God knows the fucking cops don’t do enough to protect people; Abbey’s ex-.”
He stopped himself before he could spiral any further, taking a deep breath. I knew some of what had happened with Abbey and her ex-boyfriend, but Chuck seemed to want to keep most of it to himself. And, if he wanted to keep it a secret, I had to trust it was shit I probably didn’t want to know about anyway.
”Trust me when I say there are a whole lot of people out there who aren’t getting the support they need,” he finished up, grounding himself once more. ”Or they feel like they can’t get the support they need because of who they are, what they’ve been involved in – whatever it might be. I want us to make that right. I want us to be the ones to give them support and protection when they feel like they can’t get it from anyone else.”
I nodded.
”I like that idea,” I replied. ”You think the rest of the Dogs will get into it?”
He chuckled.
”Look, I think we’re all getting older,” he remarked. ”And this business, it’s a young man’s game. Not just because of the physical stuff. But you’re...tougher when you’re younger. More willing to put up a fight. More willing to answer everything with violence. Now we’re getting older, and I think a lot of us want to be involved in something a little more...grounded. A little more peaceful. And something that makes a difference. You know?”
”I know,” I murmured back. Ever since I had moved out of the compound and into my new home with Kara and Liana, I had been feeling the same way.Once I was out of the intensity of living under the compound’s roof, I craved some different.
”It might take a bit of time for them to get used to it, but they’ll come around,” Chuck remarked. ”Especially Ian. You know he has his daughter coming to stay with him? He’ll want to keep her away from all of this if he can. She doesn’t know a thing about what’s going on here.”
”Damn, I didn’t realize you could keep stuff like that hidden from your family,” I replied. But I intended to protect Kara from it for as long as I could – now that I was her official guardian, I wasn’t going to let anything, anything in the damn world, get in the way of her safety.
”I’m hoping that there won’t be too much to hide in future,” he remarked. ”I’m hoping...I’m hoping that being part of the Dogs is something these guys can be proud of.”
I raised my eyebrows, glancing down at the club’s symbol tattooed on my arm. Proud of? Now, that would be something. Not that I wasn’t proud to call myself a member of the Dogs, but being seen as a positive for the city was something I liked the sound of.
”You willing to give it a go?” he asked, and I nodded, a grin spreading over my face.
”I’ll give it a try,” I replied. ”Old habits die hard though, right?”
”They die in a factory outside town,” Chuck shot back, cocking an eyebrow. ”And that’s where we’re going to leave them.”
”Agreed,” I replied, and a moment of silence passed between us. After all these years, after everything that had happened, I realized I still hadn’t come clean to Chuck about what happened to Dina – and, as he eyed me from across the table, I could tell he had questions of his own.
”There’s something I want to clear up first, though,” he remarked, and I lifted my gaze to meet his.
”Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
”What happened between you and that Olivio guy?” he asked, leaning forward with interest. ”When we got our hands on him, you told me you wanted to deal with him yourself...”
I sighed.
”It’s a long story,” I offered him. He shook his head.
”You don’t have to tell me,” he replied. ”But you don’t have to keep that shit from me, either. New leaf, remember? Leave the past behind.”
I gazed down at a whorl in the wood on the table, thinking. If there was ever a time to tell him about my past, it was now. And shit, maybe he was right – maybe the only way I was going to be able to leave all of this behind was if I finally came out and told him the truth of what happened all those years ago.
And so, I did. I told him. I told him about Dina, about my ex, about the accident – about the attack I’d made on Olivio all those years ago, about how much I wanted him dead. And how I let him walk because I just didn’t have it in me. And then, when I got a second chance how I’d taken out all my rage on him and Lombardi until nothing remained.
Chuck let out a long whistle through his teeth when I was done.
”Fuck,” he muttered. ”That’s...a lot.”
”I know,” I replied, meeting his gaze steadily. ”And... if we’re going to do this, if we’re going to change things with the Dogs...I want your word that we’ll never let a crime like that go unpunished.”
”What do you mean?”
I took a deep breath.
”The cops couldn’t do anything, or wouldn’t,” I explained. ”They made me feel like a psycho for going after him at all, for wanting justice – but the Dogs, they could help with shit like that. They could make sure no other parent has to feel as though their child...as though someone close to them hasn’t received the justice they deserve. That’s what I want. That’s what I want for the Dogs.”
Chuck nodded slowly as he took in what I was saying. This moment was heavy, no doubt about it, but I needed to put the hell I had been through with losing Dina to good use – I needed to turn all that pain I had suffered into something worthwhile.
”Then that’s what we’ll do,” he promised me. ”We’ll make sure nobody has to go through that alone, ever again.”
I couldn’t smile – it didn’t feel like the time for smiles, but I was still grateful. I extended my hand to Chuck.
”Deal,” I replied, and he took it – my old friend, my boss, the man I had sworn my loyalty to. He always gave me a reason to keep believing in him. And this? This was exactly the shift I knew I needed.
I rose to my feet and headed out of the office, throwing my leg over my bike, and tearing away from the tattoo shop. It was a bright, warm day, towards the end of summer – in just a few weeks, Kara was going to be starting school. She was a little nervous about it, but Liana had promised her she was going to have a great time – and I knew she would. She had already made friends with another little girl who lived on our street, and she was going to have so many new friends when she started classes next month.
I pulled my bike to a halt and headed inside the house, where Liana was cooking, while Kara drew at the table. Liana grinned at me, and I came over to drop a kiss on her cheek.
”How was the meeting with Chuck?” she asked.
”Unexpected,” I admitted. She raised her eyebrows at me.
”Oh, yeah?” she asked. ”How so?”
”I’ll explain later,” I replied, as I dropped into the seat opposite Kara to get a look at the picture she was drawing.
”Wow, that’s awesome,” I told her, and she looked up at me, her blonde hair slightly chaotic, even where Liana had tried to pull it away from her face.
”Can I see?” I asked, and she nodded, turning the picture around so I could get a better look at it. It was a house – this house, actually, with the red roof and the light blue borders on the windows. And, outside, stood two people, on either side of one smaller stick figure. They were all holding hands.
”Is this...us?” I asked her. She nodded.
”That’s Mommy,” she told me, pointing to the woman, with her long, curly red hair scrawled around her face. ”And that’s you.”
”And this is you?” I asked her, tapping the spot where she stood on the picture. The image, though it was scrawled, had a huge smile on its face.
”That’s me,” she replied. Liana came around the table to look over her shoulder and admire the picture, and she dropped a kiss on top of Kara’s head.
”I think this one needs to go straight on the fridge,” she remarked, sliding it out and pinning it to the front of the appliance. I eyed it, taking it in – admiring not just the image, but what it represented. Me, as part of a family. Kara, seeing herself as worthy of the care and love that we could both give her. And Liana, pulling us all together, filling out our little home.
Our perfect life together.