POV: Rowan Collins
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The past four months have actually been pretty peaceful. We've all fallen into a sort of routine of spending most of our free time together. From school to everyone just kind of walking into my house. My dad wasn't too pleased with the house now being chock full of teenagers but he got over it eventually, though I'm pretty sure he complains to Andy all the time.
Not much has happened besides some people's birthdays, in February we had a party for Candy's birthday. Luke planned most of it and got her a really sweet gift, it was a stuffed animal that looked like the dog she had as a kid.
Lee's was after that in March and on the threat of bodily harm he made the time to visit so we could all have dinner together before he had to get back to the shipments. I wasn't expecting Tino to visit for his birthday but on April fools we were all watching a movie and when Linc went to the fridge to get a soda Tino jumped out and nearly gave him a heart attack.
The party we threw for Luke a little more than a week after Tino's and may have gotten a little out of hand. A little out of hand being Matty and Jack got high off their asses and tried to jump from the roof and into the pool. Thankfully they didn't miss, though I think they wished they did after Mira and Maya were done with them.
Now we are in May and Justin has requested that we not throw some big party, he just wants to hang out and eat takeout Chinese food out of paper boxes. That's how we all ended up sitting in my living room with mass amounts of Chinese takeout watching Netflix comedy specials.
As usual, we were all piled in the living room on the couches and on top of each other. Unsurprisingly Candy and Luke were on the love seat being a little more cuddly than usual. Justin was sitting on one end of the couch with Maya basically in his lap and Matty next to her. Alex was on the floor at their feet with noodles hanging out of his mouth as he laughed.
I was at the other end of the couch laying across Jack, Linc, and Cameron. It was their own fault, I got up for five minutes to pay for the food and get it from the delivery guy at the door and the three of them had moved over to take my spot. So I decided to just make them my seat.
I was in Jack's lap, leaning on Linc's shoulder, and my feet were in Cam's lap. Mira was now lounging in the other loveseat alone after Linc had abandoned her to steal my spot. Mal and Char had gone out with some friends to go see a movie so they weren't here.
On the tv, the comedian made some sexist joke about women, when Linc opened his mouth I quickly slapped his chest lightly and he closed it. Over the last four months, I continued with my new year's resolution and trained Linc to be less of a man whore.
I followed him around with the spray bottle for a whole two weeks, wherever he went I went, and anytime he did something man whoreish he got sprayed. Eventually, the number of comments and random hookups decreased and I stopped carrying the bottle. Now whenever I catch him staring at a girl's ass or know whatever is about to come out of his mouth is going to be sexist I slap him.
Scarlet and Jacob were in Texas visiting their mom, and Danny and Crystal had been sent to one of Justin's clubs in New Orleans to oversee some problems. So we were missing some people but we were still having fun.
We had gone through about three comedy specials and I was now laying across the three guys' laps almost asleep. Jack was playing with my hair and it was lulling me into a sleep, which in these last few days had become a problem.
Everything had been calm but a few days ago I received an unmarked envelope at my club. When I opened it I found a letter with a treat from the red roses. The note basically said that they knew that I was looking into them and trying to find them and if I didn't back off I would regret it.
After Candy had made me tell Luke about the Red Roses we began an actual investigation to find them. We brought in Zeke, who was one of my more trusted people in the lower circles of the gang. We also decided to tell Tino so he could also start an investigation on the west coast.
About a month ago when we had finally caught a trail on a member of the Red Roses that was in a casino in Las Nevada that Linc's family happened to have hotels in we decided it was time to tell the boys. We had all become so much closer in the last months and if we really wanted to have a full-out search for these people we were going to need all the help we could get.
Though I haven't actually told anyone about the threat yet, not even Candy. I know that if I tell them they would freak the hell out and that's not something that we need right now. I was just about to fall asleep when my dad walked into the living room and stood in front of the tv.
Maya booed and he didn't even give her a look, which was unusual. He cleared his throat and Jack lifted me up and sat me in his lap to try and wake me up. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes slowly and brought my hand up to rub my eyes, "What do you want dad? I was trying to sleep."
"I could see that. But I need you to come up to my office with me, Elliot's on video call and is asking for both of us. He says that there's a problem."
The word 'problem' caught my attention and I stood, stumbling a little as my legs were still tingly. "What kind of problem?"
He shrugged, "That's the million-dollar question, just come with me so we can see what he wants, then I'll let you go back to sleep."
Slowly I got up to follow him upstairs to his office, but before we left the living room I gave the boys a look that said not to follow us the second we were upstairs. Once we got to his office I could already see uncle Elliot's face blown out on the dropdown screen that my dad had Candy install.
He was looking a little worse for wear, there were bags under his eyes, and he just looked stressed. I took my regular seat in one of the leather chairs in front of the desk, throwing my legs over the side. While my dad shut and locked the door behind us and sat at his desk turning to look at the screen.
"Can you see us, Elliot?"
"Yeah, I can. Thanks for getting her."
I looked up from my nails at the screen ready to get this over with and go to sleep. "So what's the problem? Is something wrong at the company?"
My uncle was shaking his head before he was even talking, "No, no nothing like that. The company is fine. This is something more personal."
I raised my eyebrows at that and motioned for him to continue. "we've been having some issues with Levi. He's been getting involved with local gangs in the area, ones that aren't associated with the North or Eaglesview. And apparently, he's been going around bragging to these people that his cousin is a big-time gang leader."
"Maggy and I have tried to discipline him, ground him, anything, but nothing works. He's sneaking out of the house, running around with gangs, and who knows what else. He just won't listen to us and we... I don't know what to do, I need help."
My dad went to open his mouth but Elliot beat him to it, "Not a word out of you brother, or your lovely daughter will hear the story of how you begged Amanda to..."
My dad all but lept out of his chair, "Okay, okay I get it. Shut up."
I smiled at the both of them, not nearly seeing enough of the brotherly bickering. "I know what you mean. Recently Malcolm's been giving me shit about everything and refusing to listen. He thinks he's this indestructible sixteen-year-old and that he can handle himself."
He just offered me a smile, "Do you think it would be possible for you to come here and help somehow? Maybe having you here will scare a little sense into him."
I took a moment to think everything over and run through my schedule on my phone. "Yeah, of course. I'll schedule the flight with Ben tomorrow and I'll be there on Tuesday."
He released a breath and smiled, "Thank you, really. Also, why don't you bring Char, Luca misses her."
"I will. I'll see you in a few days, Elliot."
"Bye sweetheart."
Then the screen went black and my dad pressed the button to retract it back into the ceiling. When he got up to head for the door I jumped up to stop him. He gave me a questioning look but I just went to lean against the side of his desk.
"There's something I need to tell you about, and I need you to not interrupt me and remember that I am old enough to fight my own battles."
He gave me that weary look again but sat down in the chair I had just been in, waiting for me to speak.
"I found the people that killed mom." With those first seven words, he flinched and all the color drained from his face, but he didn't speak.
"I had Candy look into it and she found them, a group called the Red Roses. There is a smaller gang but Candy says that they must have had someone that knew tech to be able to interrupt the security camera and delay the alarm."
"I had her track them and it was like they dropped off the face of the earth after the attack, but then she found the security footage, which I didn't even know about, and I was able to identify the one that killed mom. He had a tattoo on his wrist that was peeking out between his glove and shirt."
"And from that Candy was able to find a lead on a member, not the one that killed her but someone that is in the gang. She tracked him to a casino in Las Nevada and he's staying at one of the McBride hotels. Originally It was only me, Candy, Luke, Tino, and Zeke that knew but after that I decided to bring in Justin, Lincoln, and Cameron."
"We've been tracking his movement to see if we can get him to lead up to the rest of them but so far he hasn't left Vegas. And I'm thinking of calling Anthony to have him and Madelyn look into if any of them tried to hide out in Mexico."
We stayed there in silence for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes. He just sat there pale as a ghost staring at me.
"How?" His voice was hoarse and his eyes had a gleam of silver in them.
"How what?" I was finding it hard to look him in the eyes.
"How do you know which one of them killed A... Her" His voice broke as he tried to say my mother's name, but the question is what made my chest cave in.
I was silent for a long time trying to control my breathing, "W-when the alarm went off I saw that man with the tattoo run out of the parlor before I found her body and Andy found me." The words tasted like poison in my mouth but I got them out, if only for his own sake.
He blinked a few times and then got up to leave.
"There's something else. Something I haven't even told Luke yet."
At my words he stopped and turned to me, waiting.
I took a deep breath, "I got an unmarked envelope at the bar yesterday addressed to me. And in it was a threat from someone, most likely the Red Roses, saying that they know I'm searching for them and if I don't back off that I'll regret it."
He didn't say anything as he went for the door again, and I didn't stop him. But when he opened the door standing behind it with shocked faces were Cameron, Linc, Justin, and Jack. He didn't even acknowledge them before walking right past them and to his room.
We stood there staring at each other and I knew they just heard everything I just told him, including the threat.
"We are going to Washington with you"
I went to argue with Linc, to say that I could handle myself and I didn't need protection. But the look that I was getting from all four of them told me it was a losing battle.
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