"Morning girls." I smiled, sauntering into the kitchen and kissing the top of Lucy's head.
"Good morning, dad." She smiled, lost in whatever book she was reading at the moment. The girl went through them so fast, I couldn't keep up anymore. It looked like this week she was rereading Harry Potter—one of her very favorites.
I made my way around the island to where Char was standing and pressed a deep kiss to her sweet lips. "Good morning, beautiful."
Char smiled, deepening our kiss. A soft moan escaped her lips, quiet enough for only me to hear. I smirked as a sheet of crimson washed over her cheeks.
"Get a room, you two." Leo chuckled, flying into the kitchen and grabbing a banana out of the fruit bowl. Cole was close behind him.
"Aren't you two late?' I eyed them carefully. Since the two of them were both at the high school, Leo usually drove them while Charlotte or I dropped off Lucy.
"Extremely." Cole rolled his eyes. "But it's this asshole's fault."
"Hey!" Charlotte scolded. "Enough with the language."
"Sorry, mom." Cole gave her a charming smile. "Would you prefer moron?"
Charlotte rolled her eyes towards me as if this was somehow my fault. I had to chuckle because it probably was. Especially as the kids got older, I didn't pay much attention to my language. I couldn't be all that mad because he had learned it from me.
"Don't give your mother a hard time." I narrowed my eyes at him. "And seriously, watch the language."
Leo smirked, nudging Cole with his shoulder, gloating that he wasn't the one in trouble for once. In reality, the boys were cut from the same cloth; so much so, they could have been twins. Not only did they look identical, but their mischievous and confident personalities were exactly the same. They both caused their fair share of trouble and most of the time had Charlotte pulling her hair out. It reminded me so much of Angelo and I growing up that sometimes I found it hard to even be the parent without being a total hypocrite. Luckily, Charlotte and I made a great team.
We all said our goodbyes and headed out for the day. Charlotte was due in court this morning with one of the victims she counseled. She hadn't gotten into specifics, but it sounded like this poor girl had been through the ringer. No family, no friends. She'd come to New York for an acting opportunity and found herself working for tips in a strip club for a manager who had a serious mean streak. Char had been working with her for the last several weeks trying to help her get the courage to testify and if all went as planned, everything would come to fruition today. The work she did still amazed me. She had taken to it so easily and was the most sought after advocate in all of New York. Unfortunately, a lot of her strength came from personal experiences, but I was so damn proud of her for spinning it into a positive the way she had. Our girls had the most incredible role model to look up, and I would be forever thankful for that.
When I got to the warehouse, Axel and the other guys were already waiting for me.
"Luca! How the hell are you?" Axel threw his arms around me and developed me in a tight hug.
"Good to see you, man." I grinned, sitting down between Angelo and Marco. It had been years since I had seen Axel, but I was still keeping him at an arm's distance. We'd mended the fence after the night I threw him out of my house, and everything had gone down with Nico. Even I could admit that was a little exaggeration, but I'd never fully trust Axel. He always had some kind of ulterior motive.
Angelo and Marco were even more cautious than I was. They weren't his biggest fans from the beginning, but I knew there had been some kind of altercation while I was away at Nico's. I didn't know the finer details, but whatever had happened, it had led to Angelo punching Axel. And I'd always back up my boys.
"How are the kids? Charlotte?" Axel rested his ankle on the knee of his other leg and leaned back in the chair.
"Everybody's good." I nodded. "Not much to report, just busy." I shrugged.
"So, what brings you to New York?" Marco asked, cutting right to the chase. He agreed that Axel's being here was suspicious. We'd worked together so long it was like our thoughts were intertwined.
"Well, I'll be honest. I wish it was better news." His face fell a bit. "Do you remember that case I had you help with me with a few years back?"
"A few?" Angelo arched his eyebrow.
"More like thirteen, fourteen years ago, I guess. Right after everything went down with Niko. You guys consulted with me on a string of sexual assaults in New Orleans. Remember that?" He clarified.
Of course, I remembered. Axel and his team were supposed to be infiltrating a sex trafficking ring, and he wanted our help. The only problem was, it was after I told Charlotte I was stepping away and that I had handed the reins over to Carlo. Somehow, we let him convince us to go with him for the weekend. Just Angelo and me though, Marco hadn't come.
We told Charlotte and the girls we were just going on a guy's trip, but in reality, we'd consulted on the case. While we were down there, we found a young girl who'd been brutally beaten and assaulted and mutilated. Even thinking about it now made me sick to my stomach. It was one of the worst scenes I had ever encountered and within the mafia, that's saying a lot. We hadn't been able to do all that much, because Axel's team was dismantled. Something about funding or needing other resources and the whole investigation was called off. They never even found her attacker.
I never spoke a word about it to Charlotte, and she never knew I'd gone back during that time, even if only for a little while.
"Yeah, what about it?" Angelo said.
"Well, it's been rejuvenated. The grandmother of the girl is harassing the police department for answers. The cops are digging around and trying to solve the case again."
"And what does that have to do with us?" I asked, rubbing my chin. I didn't like where this was headed.
"Your names came up in the investigation." He frowned. "And the cops are starting to..."
"What the hell do you mean our names came up?" Angelo shrieked. "We were only there for two days."
"I know, I know." He held his hands. "But I was on a short leash then, and I had to write you down on consultants on the case. They know you were with me when I found the body. I just wanted you to be aware in case they wanted to speak with you about it."
I hesitated for a second, trying not to lose my cool here. Was he serious? Having our names in any kind of investigation was dangerous and something we take all the precautions to avoid. It just made things cleaner. So bullshit like this didn't come up. "You knew we never would have agreed to go with you if we'd known that."
Axel dropped his head. "I couldn't tell you, Luca. I needed to get you guys down there. I was sure it was a mafia hit and that you would recognize it immediately, and I didn't have a choice but to lie."
"You motherfucker." Angelo ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "We had nothing to do with that and if this comes back on us somehow, I swear to God..."
"It won't come to that, I promise." Axel tried to reassure, but it fell on deaf ears. His promises meant less than nothing to me now. All he cared about was his own agenda.
"Axel, I think you need to leave." I said, standing up and opening the door.
Axle nodded reluctantly. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry. I never imagined your names would ever come up."
I shut the door on him and paced back and forth.
"So what exactly are we going to do about this? We can't just..." Marco started, but I cut him off.
"We're not going to do anything. Have either of you been contacted by anyone yet?" I asked.
They both shook their heads. "Okay, then we're going to wait. Maybe Axel is blowing this out of proportion and they won't even need to question us."
"We found a body, Luca, of course they're going to want to question us," Angelo scoffed. "I can't believe that asshole."
"That's all we did, Angelo. We found that girl in the river bed and you and I got the hell out of there. Axel was the one who moved her. He was the one who led us right there. Obviously, it's inconvenient to have the eyes of the police on us in any capacity, but it's not like they're going to find anything."
Angelo sighed heavily. "I guess you're right. But I'm still going to get in touch with our contact down there and see if he can tell exactly how our names came up in all of this and what the plan is."
"That's a good idea. And in the meantime, Marco, let's scale back distribution a little. I don't want to do anything that would draw attention to ourselves for a while." I let out a heavy breath. We needed to take a step back here. Even though it was an irritation to be on the police's radar, we'd done nothing wrong and we weren't connected in any way.
"You're right." Marco nodded.
"This will all blow over in a few weeks. No sense in getting everyone stressed out." I said, sitting down at my desk.
"How was the trip?" Angelo asked.
"The trip was good." I said. "We did some sightseeing and got to visit with Charlotte's friends. Pretty low-key but we had a good time." We'd had an incredible time, actually. Mostly because we hardly left the hotel room. I was growing hard just thinking about our escapades and had to change the subject.
Right then, my phone rang. I immediately recognized it as the high school. Marco got a call about the same time, too. Vivi was in the same grade as Cole, and they all went to school together.
Angelo chuckled. "I guess I'm off the hook. None of mine are old enough to be at the high school."
"Hello?" I answered, just as Marco stepped out to answer.
"Mr. Catalano? This is Principal Galloway. I'm so sorry to bother you at work, but I haven't been able to get in touch with your wife."
"She's in court this morning. Is everything okay?" I frowned. It was never a good thing to get a call from the principal.
"We have a bit of a situation at the school with your son Leo, and I was wondering if you could come by for a few minutes?" She said.
I rubbed my forehead. This day was shaping up to be lousy. What could he possibly have done now? "Of course, I'm on my way."
A few minutes later, Marco and I were both headed to the school. I tried to keep an open mind and not immediately jump to conclusions, but I figured Leo was in some kind of trouble and had gotten Vivi into it as well. Marco had to go to another part of the office to meet, and I made my way to the principal's office.
I knocked on the door and opened it to find Principal Galloway sitting behind her desk and Leo in one of the chairs on the other side. His eyes widened when he saw me. "Where's mom?"
I glared at him, knowing he had probably told the principal to call Charlotte so she wouldn't be as mad at whatever had happened. Clearly, he was in trouble. "What's going on?"
"Mr. Catalano, please sit down." Principal Galloway stood up and smoothed out her skirt. I wasn't oblivious to the blush on her cheeks when I entered the room, but I ignored it.
"What's going on?" I repeated.
She hesitated. "Were you aware that Leo hosted a party at your house this weekend?"
I let out a heavy sigh, rubbing my forehead. So much for the quiet weekend they had tried to convince us of.
"I wasn't aware. My wife and I were out of town. But I can assure you, we will handle that at home." I narrowed my eyes at him, but he refused to look at me. "I don't see why this is any business of the school, though."
"Well, unfortunately, some of the people at the party posted online." She pushed an iPad towards me. "See for yourself."
She pressed play on a video. I recognized my kitchen and several other kids in the house. Many of them held red solo cups and beer bottles and there was Leo, right by the counter, handing out beers to some others. I sucked in a sharp breath, shoving the iPad away. I had seen enough.
"So you can see our dilemma here. When there is drinking involved, and things like this are posted online, the school must get involved." She explained sympathetically.
Leo was completely silent, not even trying to explain what had gone on, probably because he knew he had been caught and there was no use in talking himself into even more trouble.
"I see. So what exactly is his punishment?" I gritted my teeth. I had a whole slew of ideas myself.
"We so appreciate the support of you and your wife, Mr. Catalano, and we don't want to bring any unnecessary attention to this unfortunate situation." Basically, the school didn't want the publicity and Charlotte and I donated enough money to handle this quietly. "Every student involved is being dealt with on a personal level. We've determined that Leo will be suspended for three days, as well as be placed on suspension on the school's football team. It will be up to Coach Hackett if, or when, he is reinstated. None of this will go on his permanent record, and it will all be kept confidential, but you must understand the severity of the situation."
Honestly, I felt like Leo was getting off pretty easy. A three-day suspension for getting caught on camera drinking and handing out beers to your friends was pretty lenient. I knew he would take his football suspension the worst, though. He lived for that sport and had been their starting quarterback since he was a freshman. This would mean losing that spot and having to work to get it back.
"I understand, Principal Galloway. Thank you for your discretion in handling this." I let out a heavy sigh. "Is there anything else?"
She shook her head. "He can come back to school on Thursday and as long as there are no other infractions, all will be forgiven."
I turned towards Leo. "Get your stuff."