Luca's a planner. He's always adamant about being prepared for any situation that could come up, no matter how crazy or unlikely. His back up plans have back of plans, and most of the time, it was irritating to me that he couldn't ever just go with the flow. Not tonight though. Not as I sat on the floor of our bedroom, hours after he'd been taken away in handcuffs, looking over the list he had left me for this very circumstance. My ever prepared husband had sworn up and down he would never go to prison, but had given me step-by-step instructions just in case.
It had been over three hours since they had carted Luca out of our house in handcuffs, and I was no closer to finding out what was going on than I had been when it happened. The very first thing on my list was to call Angelo and Marco, but neither one of them had called me back. That wasn't a good sign. I could count on one hand the number of times that they hadn't answered when I called, and to not call me back within 10 minutes was unheard of. I wasn't sure exactly how long it had been at this point, but it was at least an hour since my last call and desperate voice message. Stone wasn't answering me either, and that made me even more uneasy. Was he running into issues getting Luca out?
I had checked on the kids a few times and tried to calm their nerves as much as possible. I couldn't even fathom what it would be like to watch your father be arrested and have their entire lives violated like they had this afternoon. It broke my heart for them, and I had no idea how to help. Luckily, they were pretty resilient kids and seemed to be doing okay for the most part. I knew it would help tremendously when Luca was home, or I at least had a better idea of when that might be. My conversation with Layla hadn't been great. It took everything I had to convince her to stay at school, and in the back of my mind, I couldn't help but wonder how much of this had to do with that new boyfriend of hers. I didn't want to just right to that conclusion, but it couldn't just be a coincidence.
I was more in a state of shock than anything. This had loomed over us for almost our entire relationship. I knew the threat of Luca being taken into custody and investigated by police was always there, but it wasn't really going to happen, was it? I could hardly even wrap my brain around the reality of the afternoon and the harrowing possibilities of what was to come.
His arrest had broken the flood gates, and now anything was possible. It was hard to keep my mind straight and not focus on what was the worst of those possibilities in my mind. Luca spending the rest of his life in prison and everything that came with that. Living without him for the rest of my life. Having to explain to our children why he wasn't coming home. Watching them graduate and get married and have children of their own without Luca by my side. It was suffocating.
I wiped a tear off of my cheek right as there was a knock at the bedroom door.
"Char?" Marco peeked around the corner.
"Thank God, I've been trying to call you!" I let out a heavy sigh of relief. "I was worried they arrested you, too."
"Not me, but Angelo." Marco's face was defeated. "I'm sorry. I came as soon as I could. I've been trying to get things in order with the group since I found out."
Stress radiated off of him, which was no surprise. With both Luca and Angelo arrested, everything fell onto him. Marco enjoyed being a part of the business, but he liked being a capo to Luca—not the one making the big decisions. He would voice his opinion on things, but generally left it to Luca and Angelo. I was sure Luca had left him a contingency plan just like he had done for me, so we could be sure all loose ends were tied up.
"Can I help at all?" I offered, realizing there were quite a few things on my own list I hadn't done yet.
Marco shook his head, offering his hand to help me off of the floor. "No way. Are you serious? I'm here to see if I can help you. I can't even imagine what a giant cluster fuck that must have been this afternoon. Were the kids home?"
"Yes. And they had to watch the entire thing. They were actually here by themselves when they first showed up with the warrant."
"I'm so sorry. I can't believe this is happening." He ran his fingers through his hair in desperation.
"Have you heard from Stone? I can't get ahold of him either. He followed Luca down to the station, but that was hours ago and now I'm worried."
"I haven't heard anything, but I'm sure everything is fine. Those things take time." He picked up the piece of paper I had been staring at off the floor. "Is this the list he left for you?"
I nodded. "I got all of our accounts closed and the money moved to my Italian account, but that's about as far as I got."
He glanced over at it. "We'll get the gallery accounts separated tomorrow so they can't come after that, but hopefully, none of this other stuff will be needed. I bet Stone has him home by midnight." He tried to reassure me, but we both knew he was worried that wouldn't be the case.
"Why don't you come downstairs? Hailey and the girls are here. We brought pizza. Let's get you something to eat and then you and I can figure out what we're going to do."
"You and I?" I arched my eyebrow.
"Fuck yeah." Marco let out a sharp laugh. "I'm a little more open to you being involved than your husband is."
"Good." I smiled as much as I could. Just having Marco here immediately made me feel better. I didn't feel so alone anymore.
Marco and I headed downstairs, and when we got into the kitchen, my heart nearly burst with appreciation for Hailey as well. She had all the kids sitting down and eating and acting as if everything was normal—something that was nearly impossible for me right now. In times like this more than ever, it amazed me what incredible friends we had.
We ate quickly and the kids all took off for a movie, leaving Marco, Hailey and me alone.
"Anything from Stone?" Marco asked, checking his phone as well.
I shook my head. "There must be some kind of trouble."
"Let's not jump to conclusions yet, Char." Hailey reached for my hand. "He's probably trying to get both Luca and Angelo released, and I'm sure there is a lot of red tape."
"She's right. They'll make it hard on him, but it doesn't mean anything. He's good at what he does." Marco assured me. "Let's just focus on what we need to do around here. I've already got several surveillance groups posted around the neighborhood. It's just a precaution, but we never know what other groups might do when they see us at a weak point."
An attack from another group right now hadn't even occurred to me, but it made sense. We'd be at our most vulnerable with not only Luca in jail, but Angelo as well. That was just the cherry on top of all the other things on my mind.
"Thank you, Marco."
"I'm going to call Julia and make sure they're doing okay." he stepped out into the dining room, leaving Hailey and me on our own.
"Are you doing okay?" She asked, squeezing my hand.
"I will be. I just want this nightmare to be over." I fought back tears as best I could. "I don't even know what to say to the kids right now. I left them alone most of the afternoon because I was so disoriented myself. I told them everything would be okay and Luca would be home in a few hours. I hate lying to them."
"Char, you did the very best you could in a really fucked up situation.We don't know much of anything right now, and telling them that is going to do is scare them more. All we can do right now is make things as normal as possible until we know more about what's going on."
"You're right." I wiped a tear off of my cheek, trying to focus on what I could control about the situation. "This has got to be so much pressure for Marco."
"He can handle it, and he's got you and me to help him. We'll get it figured out. I promise."
"I can't tell you how thankful I am for you guys. I would be in a heap on my bedroom floor if it wasn't for the two of you."
"Well, that's not true." Hailey rolled her eyes."You're one of the strongest people I know, and I know you would do the same thing for us if we needed you to."
"Okay." Marco came back into the kitchen and sat back down. "They're hanging in there. Angelo's brother and his wife are over there helping with the kids. Now, Shar, you said you moved all of yours and Luca's money into your Italian account. How quickly can you get cash out if you need to?"
"Within a day or so, why?"
"Look, I have every hope that Luca is going to come walking back through that door tonight, but if he doesn't. We're going to need bail money. I think we have enough cash in our reserves, but I just wanna be sure we're covered."
"Oh, right," Of course, we might need bail money. "I can probably get to 10, maybe 15 million within a few hours. The rest might take a few days."
Marco nodded. "I don't anticipate us needing it, but good to know it's there just in case."
"What about the gun? We still don't know how it got here." Hailey asked.
She was right. Getting Luca out was only the beginning. I had no idea what they had on him, or thought they did.
"It had to be Axel. Maybe that day he came over to talk to you guys?"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, girls. One step at a time." Marco sighed. "We get them home first, and then we can figure the rest out."
Marco was right, but I had never been very good at waiting around. "I'm going down to the station. I can't just sit around here and wait for Peterson to call."
"Char, I don't know if that's a good idea." Marco tried to deter me. "You won't be any help, and it might just make things worse."
I ignored him as I grabbed my purse. "Are you coming with me or not?"
Marco rolled his eyes. I knew he was. He'd never let me do something like that alone.
"Thank you again for dinner, Hailey." I gave her a quick hug. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate you just being here."
"Of course." She gave me a tight squeeze. "I'll hang out until you get home and make sure the kids are okay."
"If we're not back in a few hours..." Marco chuckled, shaking his head. "I don't know what to do then. Call Seth, I guess."
"We're not going to get arrested." I glared.
"Famous last words." Marco shrugged and headed out the front door.