Starting Over by Mia Malone

Chapter Eighteen

I will visit you in prison

Rosie

When I’d closed the call and put my phone away, I stared at Buddy, who was putting his own phone away too.

“Shit,” I breathed out. “Tony is not happy. What did Finn say?”

“They suspect that Andy Ryan could be responsible and will start looking for where the asshole lives. Someone will know.”

His words hit me, and I frowned as I filtered through my memories from when Andy showed up at Tony’s home. He’d ranted about how the Cascadia House should be his and how Tony’s house was on land that had belonged to the club. Then he’d tightened his grip, pushed my hair away, and slid his tongue along my neck. I shuddered at the memory of how he’d used the tip to tickle my earlobe.

“Rosie?” Buddy said, but I made a small huffing sound and frowned, trying to force myself to remember exactly what he’d said.

“Maybe I’d have a woman like you if I had a house like this,” I mumbled, looking down at the asphalt in front of my feet. “If I wasn’t sharing a dirty little house with three men, there would be a woman like you next to me, and I wouldn’t have to spend my nights staring at a fucking sign advertising the cheapest fucking laundromat in town.”

“What?” Buddy wheezed out.

I raised my head, and my eyes locked with his.

“Do you know where that is?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “Or, I don’t know. I grew up a block from a place that had a sign like that.” He winced and added, “It’s not a good neighborhood.”

“God,” I breathed out, blinking furiously.

Could it be that simple? My memory and Buddy’s, mingled into the exact location of where Emma was?

I ripped out my phone and called Tony.

“Yeah,” he said, and I could tell that he wasn’t happy to be disturbed.

“I might know where she is,” I said, explained what Andy had said to me and gave him the address Buddy told me, heard him call it out loudly, and then the sounds of bikes roaring. “It isn’t far from here,” I added.

“Don’t you fucking go there, Rosie,” he snapped. “Stay where you are.”

“I know a shortcut,” Buddy mumbled. “It’s less than half an hour from here.”

“I will not stay here and wait,” I told Tony. “We will be there in twenty minutes.”

“We’re on our way,” he told me, which I could hear from the sounds in the background. “Tell Buddy that we’d better be there before you.”

Then he closed the call, and we got on our bikes, but since I didn’t know the way and Buddy obeyed his president, it took us forty-five minutes. Then we stopped outside a small, shabby house. There were bikes and men everywhere, which I ignored and headed straight toward Tony.

“She’s here,” he called out. “We caught a couple of his crew, but my fucking father had his bike behind the house and got away.”

“How is Emma?” I asked and moved toward the house.

“Don’t go inside, Rosie,” Tony said and spread his arms out when I tried to skirt around him.

“Is there any danger to me in there?” I asked.

“No, but they messed her up some,” he said hoarsely. He had pain written all over his face, but it wasn’t about him right then. It was about a woman who had been roughed up by her father and his men, and I started walking again. “Rosie,” he said warningly.

“There are just men here,” I hissed.

“What?”

Shit.

I could see that he didn’t understand, and I didn’t want to explain, but I had to.

“Tony,” I whispered and felt my throat tighten. “Was she raped?”

“Don’t think so, and she’s still wearing her clothes,” he said immediately, but his eyes filled with pain so sharp I stretched out my hand to put it on his cheek when he rasped out, “I didn’t think to ask, so I don’t know.”

“It’s okay, baby,” I said. “That’s why I’m here, so don’t try to stop me now because I am going in there.”

“Rosie,” he said hoarsely. “He cut her across the face. It looks bad.”

“Okay,” I said and heard to my satisfaction that my voice was steady and calm.

My insides quivered with fear, though, and I wished there had been someone else around to take this on, but there was only me, so I focused on breathing and walked inside. Emma was on the floor in a small and dirty living room, and God. Tony had not exaggerated.

It looked awful.

Someone had sliced up a gaping wound from her forehead, across her eye and over her cheek. There was blood over her face and around her. They seemed to have done something to her hand or arm as well because it was wrapped up in a towel, but I couldn’t see any blood on it.

Finn was sitting next to her, but he moved away when I sank down on my knees and took hold of the hand that wasn’t a blue, swollen mess sticking out of a makeshift, dirty bandage.

“Emma,” I said quietly. “It’s Rosie.”

“Rosie,” she said but kept her eyes closed, and her voice was quiet and a little slurred. “He hurt me.”

“I know,” I said and clenched my jaws together so hard it hurt. I wasn’t prepared for something like this. I’d seen blood in my life, and both my daughters had broken arms and legs, but this was different. It was dirty and violent, and the room seemed to vibrate with ugliness and pain. I didn’t know what to do, but I had to do something, so I cleared my throat and said, “I’m going to tell Finn to leave us because I have to ask you some things.”

“They didn’t rape me,” she said quietly but firmly. “Sorry. Forgot to say.”

“Good,” I said, and it was.

We were in the middle of a shitstorm, but we didn’t have that complication on top of everything else, at least. I turned to Finn and bugged my eyes out, twitching my head toward the door, hoping that he understood that this meant that he should tell Tony.

“I’ll go and see where the fucking ambulance is,” he said quietly and left.

“It hurts,” Emma mumbled.

“I know,” I said. “Try to relax and just breathe slowly. The ambulance will be here any minute.”

“Is it bad?” she asked. “They won’t tell me.”

I closed my eyes briefly and wondered if it wouldn’t be entirely legal to make Andy Ryan pay for this in a way that hurt like Emma was hurting.

“Yes, Emma,” I said quietly. “You have a cut across your face, and it’s bad, but we’ll fix it.” My mind was racing as I thought about what I would have to do. “I’ll go and make some calls,” I added.

“Don’t leave me.”

Her hand grabbed mine in a surprisingly firm grip, and I squeezed it right back.

“I’ll send Tony inside to be here with you, but I need to go and call some people. The right doctors must be at the hospital when you get there.”

“Doctors,” she echoed.

“Plastic surgeons Emma,” I said and added in a voice I couldn’t quite hold my anger out of, “I will find the right doctors, and Tony will make him pay. Swear to God, we’ll fix this.”

She was quiet for a little while, but then her hand relaxed around mine.

“I wasn’t nice to you,” she mumbled.

“I’ll yell at you later,” I said with more bravado than I felt. “Right now, it’s about sorting this out, and we will. Just breathe, and the ambulance will be here. They will take care of you.”

Her lips twitched, and she let go of my hand with a mumbled, “You’ll yell at me later?”

“I might,” I said. “Tony will be here in a second,” I added and walked outside, reaching for my phone.

Finn moved toward the house immediately, but I told him that Emma had asked for Tony.

“How is she?” Coop asked.

“It hurts, and she’s scared.” I swallowed and looked at Tony’s back as he disappeared into the worn-down house. “She didn’t ask for him specifically.”

“What?”

“He won’t like the call I’m about to make,” I said, raised my phone, and turned around so they wouldn’t see the pain on my face while I listened to the signal and waited for someone to answer.

“Rosie,” Finn said warningly. “What are you doing?”

I ignored him and closed my eyes slowly when a man answered.

“Father,” I said. “It’s Rosalind. I need your help.”

***

When the ambulance disappeared down the road, I unclenched my fists and turned.

“I will visit you in prison,” I hissed.

The large group of Cascadia men standing around Tony and me stopped moving, and everything quieted down immediately.

“What?” Tony said and frowned when he saw my face.

If it showed my level of anger there was probably an ugly look on it, but I didn’t care.

“Your father is rotten to the core, Tony,” I snarled, made an effort to calm down, and went on, “He can’t be ignored.”

“I know,” Tony said.

“You need to find him, and you need to make sure he understands that this here...” I was back to shouting and swept my hand out to indicate the area and the house where Emma’s blood was still on the floor, “It will never happen again.” I leaned in closer and hissed, “And if making him understand involves doing something that will put you in prison, then I swear, baby. I will visit you every week.”

“Rosie –”

“Make him pay, Tony,” I said, all anger suddenly draining out of me. “I don’t know why he brought her to this house, but he sliced a knife across her pretty face. That’s not an assholey thing to do.” I closed my eyes briefly and had to stop my right hand from going to my hip. “It’s evil, and you have to make him pay.”

“I will,” he said calmly. “He wanted to trade Emma for ownership of the Cascadia House.” He shook his head in apparent disbelief. “The old fool must have been delusional, but one of the men told us that’s what they were planning. Coop has called in markers all over the area, and we have a lock on where he’s hiding. Heading there now.”

“Good,” I said and raised my chin slightly. “I want to be there to watch so fucking bad, but I know you don’t want me to, so I’ll head over to the hospital. Katie and Milo are on their way?”

“Yeah,” he said, caressing my cheek with the back of his hand. “You okay, baby?”

“No,” I answered honestly. “But I’ll manage.”

“I know.” The skin around his eyes crinkled slightly, and it looked like he wanted to laugh suddenly. “You’ll visit me in prison?” he asked teasingly. “Conjugal visits every week?”

“Daily if they let me,” I said flippantly, making it into a joke but meaning every word. “Now go deal with him and call when you can. I’ll text news about Emma as I get them.”

“Okay,” he said and started to move but turned back. “I love you so much, Rosie,” he murmured. “More than I think you know.”

“Love you too,” I said. “Please be careful, Tony. I will visit, but I’d rather visit you conjugally elsewhere.”

His eyes lit up with a flash of humor.

“We’ll get to that, baby,” he said softly. “Gotta go.”

I got up on my toes and brushed my lips over his.

Then they started up their bikes, and I stood there watching Tony turn the corner, followed by Coop, Finn, and a long line of bikes.

***

You called your fucking asshole of a father? Tony roared.

“Yes,” I said because I had indeed done that, and someone had apparently just told him.

This was surprising because a week had passed since that day, and he hadn’t said a word about it. I assumed he knew but suspected that he still was unhappy and hadn’t brought it up either. My startled gaze met Coop’s whose eyes were filled with held back laughter, and his left eye twitched with a faint wink.

Before I could figure something out that would deflate the situation, Tony threw both his hands in the air and growled.

“Why the fuck would you do something like that?” he barked.

We were in the Roadhouse, surrounded by our friends, my daughters were standing next to me, and I decided that enough was fucking enough.

“Tony,” I snapped. “He was a world leader in skin graft research who moved to Romania, turned to plastic surgery for the money, and then lived in Brazil for years before he moved home to become one of the top plastic surgeons in North America. He’s retired but called in a friend who did a fucking amazing job on your sister’s face, so Emma will have a scar, but it will fade. The medical community has unanimously assured me, her, your mother, and probably the whole fucking universe of angry biker-type men who descended upon the hospital that it will be noticeable but not much.” His brows went high on his forehead, but I’d had it with just about everything, so I hissed, “That’s what I care about. I don’t care about him because he’s still nothing to me. That call won’t cost me one minute of sleep.”

That wasn’t exactly true, but I didn’t think it would be good to tell him how my gut had churned while I talked to my father. It would be even less good to share that I’d met him for a few minutes when he showed up unannounced at the hospital.

“Rosie, for fuck’s sake,” he said, but his voice was suddenly soft and felt like a caress. “It’s me you’re talking to, so I know how hard it was, but also that you won’t lose sleep.” He sighed and pulled a hand through his newly cut hair. “What will it cost you?”

“What?”

“Babe, a man like him won’t do this unconditionally because he’s an ass, and he doesn’t understand.”

“Understand what?” I said, stalling because he was right, but I didn’t want to explain.

At least, not right then and absolutely not in front of my girls.

“He doesn’t understand that when you’re family, there are no checks and balances. You’re supposed to give everything you’ve got without conditions because if you do, you get everything back for free, and that’s fucking beautiful. You and I both know this, but he doesn’t.”

“God, Tony,” I said. “You’re so frustrating sometimes, and then you say something like that.”

“Pussified, I know,” he said with a grin. “So, what did he ask for?”

I glanced at Chrissy and said, “My mother was unhappy about what I said at the funeral. He wants to meet the girls.”

“Fuck no,” Tony barked. “That’s not gonna happen.”

“I told him it was up to the girls to decide,” I said and looked at my daughters. “There’s no need –”

“Fuck no, that’s –”

I was interrupted by Tony, who immediately was cut off by Charlie.

“We’ve already met them,” she said calmly. “Stiffs.”

I blinked and looked at my grinning daughters.

“Stiffs?” I echoed and felt inappropriate laughter bubble up through my throat at this apt but unexpected description.

“You raised us to pay our debts,” Chrissy said, and Dagger slowly wrapped an arm around her waist. “It was fifteen minutes of our lives and we made it clear that it won’t happen again.”

“Debts?” I echoed, shook my head to straighten out the confusion, and added, “It wasn’t your debt.”

“Mom,” Charlie said indulgently. “Your guy is standing here spouting romantic words about being family, so don’t give us that crap. We didn’t like Emma, and the whole fat-shaming and skanky ho situation was pretty bad.” She giggled when everyone stared at her in stunned silence. “She’s still family.”

I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times, my eyes burned a little with pride, and I didn’t know what to say.

“Who told you about Lilyanne?” Tony asked silkily.

He was glaring at Dagger, but I’d recognized the words Charlie used, and Dag Hagen was kind of metrosexual, but there was no way he would describe Lilyanne as a skanky ho.

Those words would have come from Adeline Dawry, so I glanced over the bar at her, and Tony noticed.

“Addie,” he barked. “For fuck’s sake.”

“Wasn’t me,” she said.

“Yeah, that was me,” Finn muttered. “Shitty situation but...” he paused and glared at Tony, who was growling weirdly, “in a family, you share those too.”

Tony made a visible effort to keep his temper in check, and said in a voice that was deceptively calm, “I’d like to have a word if you don’t mind, Finn.”

“I won’t mind at all,” Finn said sourly.

“But –”

Tony turned toward me, barked a rude, “Shut up,” and moved a few steps away.

Then mayhem erupted.

Tony and Finn were yelling and had started shoving each other. Chrissy decided to get involved and was sharing loudly that they did have a right to know. Tony snapped at her to walk away but did this using a few f-bombs, which meant Dagger was suddenly in the middle of things. Charlie was laughing so hard she had tears on her cheeks, and Chao was leaning on the bar, hiding his face, but his shoulders shook, so I assumed he was laughing too.

“Well, this escalated quickly,” I said to Momo, who was watching the spectacle with me.

“Yeah,” she said. “God, I love your girls.”

Eye and Samantha appeared next to us, and they stared at the group for a fraction of a second, and then Eye said something under his breath and marched over to them.

“Cut it the fuck out,” he yelled loudly.

He was usually low-key and thoughtful, and I’d never heard him sound like that before. Everyone froze, and I relaxed, thinking that the unexpected roar had done the trick, which it had, at least partially.

“Jesus, Eye,” Dagger said dryly. “You sounded just like dad.”

Both Tony and Finn stared at him and then at each other.

Then they both started laughing loudly, albeit briefly.

“Yeah,” Tony said sternly, looked at Eye but pointed at Dagger and Chrissy. “That might work on those two, but it won’t work on us.”

“Fuck no,” Finn grunted and gave Tony a shove with his shoulder. “You can’t –”

“You heard him,” I said with the snap I’d learned from Nana in my voice. “Cut it the fuck out.”

There was a short silence, and then Tony sighed and rolled his eyes.

“That one works on you, though,” Momo said as if it was a done deal, which it was. “I’m hungry. Chao, have you ordered our burgers?”

“I want a burger too,” Charlie said. “I want to try the new one.”

“The Greenbean?” Addie asked. “Who else wants one?”

Hands went up around the group, and then we had dinner. It was happy and loud, and when Hilt joined us with a plate, it got louder, mostly because of the hilarious look on his face when he realized the meal he’d praised so profoundly was vegan.

***

Tony

Coop got back inside and tucked his phone away, made a slight movement with his hand to indicate that he had something to share, and walked over to a corner table where Blue was sleeping soundly on the floor, completely oblivious to the noise around him.

“Sit,” Coop said, and both Tony and Finn did.

The look on Cooper’s face meant they were about to receive bad news.

“Andy was found dead.”

The words sank in slowly, and Tony struggled to process the fact that his father was gone.

“Are you sure?” Finn asked.

“Without a doubt. He was still in custody, and they found him in his cell. A buddy in Seattle PD called me unofficially, so technically, you don’t know yet.”

“Did I kill him?” Tony asked, which was a relevant question, although it would be surprising since more than a week had passed since he made his father pay with blow after satisfying blow.

“He was pretty roughed up, and the five broken ribs bothered him some, but the bruises had started to fade, so no, you didn’t.”

“Okay,” Tony said with a sigh. “There’s no way that ass killed himself, so what did?”

“They’ll do an autopsy, but they seem to think he either had a stroke or a coronary, or some other natural cause.” Coop narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice to a quiet murmur. “My buddy said that the strange thing is how he’d somehow managed to hurt himself in the cell. He had a cut across his face, from his forehead, over his eye and cheek.”

Coop slowly pulled his finger, exactly where Emma had the pink and raw scar she still covered with a thin bandage when she left Katie’s house, which was rarely.

“Do they know who did it?”

“No.”

“Do we know?”

“Could be anyone,” Finn said with a shrug. “Plenty of people hated the fucker.”

“Not anyone,” Coop said. “Someone with enough connections to get past a whole fucking precinct and also handles a knife.”

“Dagger?” Tony asked because Finn’s second was an absolute wizard with his throwing knives.

“Nah,” Finn said. “He’s too young and doesn’t have the network to pull something like that off, as far as I know.”

“Then there’s only two I can think of,” Tony mumbled. “Milo or Gee Hagen.”

“Yeah,” Coop agreed. “Could be either, but it’s probably one of them.”

They watched each other in silence for a while, and then Tony nodded.

“He’s gone, which is not a bad thing. No need to know more.”

“Agree,” Finn said. “You know what they say about sleeping dogs.”

“That they fart?” Cooper said.

“What?”

“Man, you have got to take him outside because I’m dying here.”

Tony looked down on the large black animal who had raised his head and was watching him calmly. He should feel something about the fact that his dad was dead, but he didn’t. There was no anger, or sadness, or even relief.

He truly felt absolutely nothing at all about Andy Ryan’s surprising demise.

“Yeah,” he said and leaned down to scratch Blue in the soft, curly fur behind his ear. “We’re leaving soon anyway.”

“If the girls keep visiting, you’ll have to sort out a shower on top of the garage,” Coop said.

“Yeah,” Tony agreed. “Charlie would probably appreciate a shower, but Chrissy only pretends that she’s with us.”

“She’s with Dagger?”

“Yeah.”

“He grumbles some about long-distance and fucking complicated women who won’t obey his every order.”

Tony chuckled at the thought of Rosie’s daughters being anything but headstrong and complicated.

“You can’t tell him, but Chrissy told Rosie that she’s thinking about working freelance.”

He grinned because of how Rosie had squealed but also because it was fucking fantastic as far as he was concerned. It still surprised him how much he enjoyed spending time with Rosie’s daughters. He’d never wanted to be a father and wasn’t one to the girls. They met Richard frequently, and he might not have been a fantastic husband to someone like Rosie, but he loved the girls and seemed to be a good dad. Pussified but good. So, Tony wasn’t a father to them, but they were interesting and challenging, and they had fun together.

“Freelance?”

“Yeah. Asked if it was okay that she spent more time with us.”

He raised his hands to twitch his fingers, emphasizing the word us.

“Air quotes. Really, Tony?” Coop snorted out.

“Yup.”

“Okay. Let’s see who’s first then,” Coop said with a smirk.

“First?” Finn asked.

“Both your girls are in relationships with Black’s offspring, and I’m pretty sure they take after him, so yeah. Let’s see who makes you a grandfather first.”

Tony stared at a laughing Coop and heard Finn push out air in a huff.

A grandfather? Well, sort of, anyway?

He’d never wanted children of his own, but he liked kids and loved Rosie and the girls.

Being sort of a grandfather didn’t feel half bad, actually.

“My girl is dating the horndog, and Finn’s girl the quiet, thoughtful one. I bet I’m gonna win,” he said dryly and laughed out loud when he saw the surprise on his friends’ faces.