I am so sorry for the delay. I put this chapter in and then forgot all the legal jargon. I do not own these characters. I want to thank bethaboo for being my beta. She rocks as always. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

LPOV

The weeks went by as we all tried to figure out what to do. It was the first of July and we had spent it out window shopping and enjoying a great lunch. Rosalie stayed behind saying she was not feeling well. We were all laughing at Alice as she started snorting in the car. She was appalled at the outfit the women was wearing on the street. We came in to Rose on the floor with paperwork fanned in front of her.

"I am sorry but I had to go through this myself. I never knew how smart Charlie was. From what I can tell from everything he made sure things could be covered. I think we should finish what he started." She turned around looking back at the numbers.

"Are you high Rose?" Alice put her hands on her hips and glared at her.

"No I am not high you ass, I think whatever case Charlie was working is what got him killed. It is all here, everything he had on the person is here. We just need to prove that it was him and he will be taken down." Rose put everything back into the file and we sat down to discuss it.

"Alice I know you want to find out what happened to Charlie as we all do. I think we should do this." I put my hands in hers and waited for her to speak.

"Just how in the hell are we going to do this? How are we going to protect ourselves?" Lauren pulled her hands out of Alice's and looked at all of us.

"Bella, Charlie made sure we could take care of ourselves we just add to that. We can take self defense classes, gun classes and anything else we can find. With my connections from school I am sure we can find what we need." Rosalie was assuring and she knew what she was talking about. We all dropped it as it was like banging our heads against a brick wall to get her to agree with anything.

Rosalie passed the bar with flying colors. We were not surprised when she was offered a job for one of the bigger law firms. She was the new kid in the office and was treated thus. One of the partners treated her like his daughter and took pity on her. We all thought it was weird but she told us he was more a mentor than anything to her. She wanted us to meet him and we threw an impromptu dinner party one night. He reminded us so much of Charlie as we were missing him. The older gentlemen went on to tell us stories of the crazier trials he had been part of. He also vented that the hot shot of the office was fucking over a client and he was sick of it. He had tried to make his point clear that this client was a lamb to the slaughter and just a huge paycheck to him but they would not listen.

Rose said with a snort that the man didn't know his ass from his dick and was fucking up left and right. The client was accused of murdering her husband and was up for the death penalty. One late night at the office her mentor got to talking about the case. He handed the files over to her and said to discreetly look it over. He wanted her view point on it. Rose spent many sleepless nights going over evidence and finally decided to go meet the woman. She told Rose that she was innocent but the lawyer wanted was her money and the prestige for taking the case. He was always on television but never did what he said he was going to do. Rose was pissed off when she found out witnesses were not being called, police records were lost and the dumb fuck knew it all along. It came down that her husband's business partner was robbing him blind and he figured it out. He took out the husband and made it look like the wife did it. This way with the partner's wife in jail company standings would all go to him and he could do what he wanted. Rose brought this to her mentor and he in turn brought it to the partners. They were dumbfounded that a beautiful woman such as Rose could blow them all into the water with her brain. The firm decided to fire the hot shot lawyer and Rose co-shared the team with her mentor. This case put Rose's name in all the news papers and all over the news.

She was offered partnerships at some of the top law firms all over the world but declined them. We all thought she was crazy but she knew that something else was coming along. Rose knew that her talent was going to be needed for something special. She never said why but we all could tell that it was always in the back of her mind.

The one thing we did want to do was make Alice's dream come true. She was hell bent on opening a boutique here. We spent the next months helping Alice find the perfect building for her boutique. We scoured the entire town and every place we found Alice hated. She had this sixth sense and she knew what she was looking for. The months went by and Alice still had not found her perfect place. She always told us she would know it when she saw it. We spent these months going through the morning process. We all had our different ways of showing it. Rose kept going through all of Charlie's files one by one. Bella sulked and was a moody bitch in a box. All she did was listen to moody music and read the classics over and over again. Alice shopped until she dropped and took trips to buying shows. I tried to keep the peace and at times that was hard. We never knew when Bella would blow up about money being spent on shit that we didn't need.

It was weeks before Christmas when one of her many shopping trips Alice came upon a dilapidated warehouse for sale. She immediately called the realtor and had them meet her there. She knew when she found the building it was perfect for what they needed. Little did Bella or I know that Rosalie and Alice had plans for us all? Bella and I were being kept in the dark but it was not hard to tell what was going on in their brains.

The building was in a promanate part of Los Angeles. The company that had the building moved to a more upscale building and it had been sitting empty for a year. The deadline to get it sold was a few days away or it would be up for demolishment. Alice came skipping into Charlie's apartment and found us three drinking hot chocolate. Rose had put up a small tree even though Bella did not want a damn thing to do about the whole holiday. We were all missing Charlie but Bella was beyond being a Grinch. I knew that this time of the year he took us on a trip of a life time. This year that was not going to happen and we were on our own. Alice mentioned taking a trip somewhere we could enjoy ourselves and Bella shot that down. We all tried talking her into it but she would have nothing to do with it. Bella was being a bitch and if she didn't snap out of her fuckitude we were going to make her.

"Girls pour me a cup and boy do I have something to tell you!" She bounced right into the bedroom we all shared to put her packages down. She came out and started putting packages under the tree.

"I found my building! I couldn't wait for you all to see it so I called the realtor on the spot." She blew carefully on her cocoa as not to spill on her white blouse.

"Alice are you fucking insane and looking for a death wish. What if this person had been a murderer or something?" Rose was not one to mince words when she was pissed off.

"He was harmless besides I had the taser gun you gave me for Halloween with me." Rose thought she was funny giving us all taser guns so we could protect ourselves. Rose knew that with Charlie gone we had entered a world we knew nothing about.

"So tell us about the building! I want to hear all about it!" I took a drink of my cocoa and watched Bella put her head in her hands. Little did I know this was just the beginning of things to come.

"It is in the neighborhood I wanted but it's not a normal store it's a warehouse! I can easily put in bay windows in the front of it. The main part is huge but has lots of possibilities to show what I want to carry. The back is huge! It has a huge storeroom and three huge offices. For it being and old building it was really taken care. It has a tin ceiling, huge sculpted columns and the best part is it has a huge loft apartment on the third floor. It must have been all women living there because there are four huge bedrooms each with a bathroom and closet to die for! There is a huge basement with room for parking too! It needs updating but we won't have to live any where else!" She was just humming from all the excitement.

I saw Alice and Rose exchange glances with each other. Something was up in their brains of theirs and I knew there was going to be a death march if Bella found out about it.

"Alice I think that is great. Did you make sure it will have an inspection and all that?" Bella went off saying how important it was and blah blah blah. I tuned her out.

"I hate to break your protective bubble but I already bought the building. We have had this fucking cat fight for the last time. This money is just as much mine as it is yours. The grant I received won't cover everything. I am doing this as much for myself as I am all for the all of you. We need a change and this is perfect. Just think how much fun we can have? I am going to take you over there tomorrow to see it. You will love it!" She was bouncing again and Bella was fuming. I was shocked instead of getting ready to tear apart a fight once again, Bella put on her sweatshirt and left. The door shook as she slammed it behind her.

APOV

"That went over well like a nice pile of hot shit." Rosalie was never one to mince words.

"The building is perfect and I am sure Bella will love it too once she sees it. It is not healthy for her to stay here anymore. All she does is eat and sleep. Her ass is going to be so huge we won't get it out the fucking door. Plus her mood swings are making me fucking hate her right now. I know she is missing him but hell we are all missing him." I was right and they knew it.

I knew Lauren and Rosalie would be on board with me from the get go. They knew my vision of this business. Bella was so lost in her sorrow of losing Charlie that all she saw was abysmal darkness. I got up and started making us some dinner. I was hungry and I knew everyone else would be too. I actually did ok not setting the kitchen on fire for once. I dished us all out a bowl and left some for Bella to enjoy when she got home.

"Dinner is ready ladies. Nothing like lips and assholes with macaroni and cheese." I heard a huge groan come from Rose.

"Oh hell no Alice you have a sick obsession with that damn movie and it has gone to far this time." She pushed the bowl away and crossed her arms fuming at me.

"Rose these are the organic hot dogs the ones you rave over. So quit your bitch fest and enjoy." I took a mouthful and started chewing. She knew I was right and started to dig in. Lauren just rolled her eyes at me and finished her bowl without a word.

I cleaned up my mess and we all sat down to watch a movie. Bella was still not back yet and I was getting worried. It was after 9pm and she was not one to be out late like this on her own. That came from her fear inducing father. I kept looking at the clock and noticed everyone else was too. Rose got up and I noticed her punch in the numbers to Bella's cell phone. She slammed it down and said it would not pick up. Now it was time to hit the fucking panic alarm and figure out what the hell happened to her. We all knew not to go out alone so we decided to see if we could find her.

"If I find out she has put her cell phone on silent and is ignoring us I am going to kick her bubble ass." Rose was pissed but worried too.

"Maybe Charlie's death was affecting her more than we thought. I think she should get some counseling when we find her. I also agreed to kick her ass as I may gain a few grey hairs from this." Lauren and Rose in cahoots with each other was not a power to be messed with.

"I think one of us should stay back just in case she calls or comes back. " I grabbed three straws and figured out the shortest one would stay.

Rose pulled a long straw first. Lauren then went next to pull the short one. She was not amused to stay behind but at least someone was going to be here. We put on our shoes, grabbed our cells and coats and walked out the door.

We got to the bottom of the steps and noticed the car was still here. Fuck she was on foot and it would make it a lot harder to find her. Rose had her hands on her hips and was looking around. We knew we should not separate so we went slowly down the street hopping we would catch her coming back. Rose went ahead but I kept her in my site. We were getting farther and farther away from the apartment. I could feel the acid ride up into my throat as things were not looking good. Where the hell had she gone and where the fuck was she?

"Alice….hurry….I found something." I could hear Rosalie screaming and I found her in a small alley way that lead to another street.

I looked down at her feet and saw Bella's sweatshirt. I knew it because I had such a damn time finding it for her last Christmas. Next to it was a pool of blood and it was fresh. Rosalie had the look of fuck on her face and I knew Bella was hurt or worse dead lying somewhere without us. The shitty alleyway was littered with used condoms, drug needles from past binges and dumpsters that smelled worse than death on a good day. We didn't know where to turn and that's when we heard the moan.