Chapter 64 Dom
Charlotte flies through the door so fast that she almost takes me out.
"Sorry, Dom!" she shouts over her shoulder without slowing before disappearing around the corner and down the hall.
That girl is late for everything.
I follow behind her at my own pace. It serves her right for almost plowing me over.
"Where's Jade?" Charlotte asks the second I walk into the room.
"Nice to see you too, kid," I say, shaking my head at her as I lean against the doorjamb. Half a second later, she's throwing her arms around my neck, slamming into me hard enough that I stumble back a step.
"Hello, Dom. Happy now?" she asks with a teasing smile before she pulls away and heads into the training room, where Jade and she meet once a week.
"Jade went with the guys to pick up Leo and Hazel from the airport. She said she already told you you needed to reschedule this week's lesson."
I chuckle, watching her eyes widen in understanding before she smacks her hand to her forehead with a groan.
"She also said to make sure I was here, because she knew you would forget," I say, enjoying it just a bit more now that she had been a brat moments ago.
"Crap, she did say that. I totally forgot between packing and school ending and everything else."
I watch as she plops down on the floor, pulling her phone from her bag with a sigh.
Charlotte is a perfect example of why Jade decided to put herself on the line for all those years.
She's just like every other twelve-year-old.
She can be sweet or snotty, and often the two emotions follow one another.
She plays sports, loves to draw, and is thriving in school.
Jade trains with her once a week to make sure she's safe, and every holiday she helps us out at the shelters we've opened around the city.
She's a good kid, but beyond that, she's just a kid. Her biggest concern now is forgetting something on her ever-growing list of normal things.
It's all Jade ever wanted: to give the girls in those rings a better life.
Charlotte is only one example of that, but she's a good one. She and Jade are so close that she might as well be our little sister at this point, and for as crazy as she can drive me some days, I can't deny seeing her enjoy the life my sister fought and was willing to die for is amazing.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Charlotte asks, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"You got dirt on your face," I tell her with a wink before I turn around and head back down the hall. I know she'll follow. She always does. It's impossible for her to let me have the last word, and honestly, that's half the fun of it.
"Liar!" she shouts a moment before she jumps onto my back, clinging to me like a spider monkey and attempting to put me in a chokehold.
She's not bad at sparring for her age, but for her, it's fun, not survival, which means she has a long way to go before she can handle the guys, let alone me or Jade. But that's okay. With us around, she'll never need more than that.
I tickle her leg, and she shrieks, loosening her hold enough for me to breathe, but she doesn't let go.
"Okay, okay, I give!" she shouts between fits of laughter.
"Come on, brat, I'll take you home," I tell her, flicking the lights off in the gym.
It's Jade's newest project. She wants to teach girls in the city self-defense.
The building is in a shit neighborhood, but that's not a big deal.
Vengeance runs the entire city, and with backing from the Bratva and the Italians, there isn't much Jade can't do.
I'd follow her wherever she wanted to go, and so would the guys, and now she damn near has an army that will, too.
She was born to lead. I knew it when she was five years old and convinced our father to let her train to join. And I knew it again when I saw how far she came despite life trying to keep her down.
"Let's get ice cream!" Charlotte yells, jumping off my back and running for my Jeep that sits alone in the lot, smiling back at me when she hops up in the passenger side.
Ice cream it is.