WRONG DECISIONS
Disclaimer: The Cullen's, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's beloved Twilight Saga, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she brought them to life and allows us to play with them in our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.
The awesome and talented dowlingnana searched out my errors and corrected them.
Just as Edward had gotten through telling his family about Charlie's coming to join them his phone dinged with an incoming message. Edward opened his phone and saw the message was from Charlie. "Your family can handle anyone else that you wish but the leader is mine and mine alone. He had better be alive and waiting for me when I get there."
CHAPTER 29: CLEANING UP MORE OF THE MESS
Edward showed the message to the others, and they all wondered what it was that Bella's law-abiding father was planning to do to James. This was a very unexpected development.
"Edward, just what do you think that Bella's father knows about our activities?" Carlisle asked his son with some trepidation being very apparent in his tone of voice and facial features.
"Dad, all I can do is repeat, if you need me to, what he told me about the background check he did on me and the family. I have no idea what he found, how much he has guessed, or from what source he would have been able to get any information. But I can tell you that he is very much aware of what we are doing with our businesses now.
"Once he gets here, I suppose you could always ask him and hope that he gives you the answers that you're wanting." Edward finished as he looked at Carlisle and then at Emmett and Jasper.
"You're right. I'll just have to wait until he gets here to get my answers." Carlisle responded. It was then that Carlisle stopped to ask, "Do you have any idea where he is planning to meet with you?"
"No, but from what I've learned about Charlie Swan is that he'll let me know when he's ready to do so."
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Charlie didn't even take the time to tell Bella about his plans or that he was going to Seattle. He had left without giving any of that a single thought. His reactions were prompted and fueled by anger along with the demand for revenge for putting his daughter and grandbabies in danger.
It had been a long time since Charlie had given his past any sort of thought. He hadn't always been a lawman, his path that he had been walking in his youth was very much more on the gangster side. Although, he had distant cousins in Ireland that were part of the Irish mafia and of the Italian mafia with his grandfather being Irish and his grandmother being Italian.
His father had been trained to deal with the family business in the States and then Charlie had received the same training. He made his first kill at the age of eight years old as a man was attacking his mother and was trying to rape her. However, as the years passed Charlie became reluctant to become part of the family that was involved in criminal activities, although from time to time he did participate in some of the activities. He was known for being deadly with any weapon he chose to use. His number of kills was low compared to anyone else because he just didn't have the heart to walk the path his father anticipated for him to travel to take over the family business when the time came.
When his grandfather passed the torch on to Charlie's father upon his death and when Charlie turned sixteen his father was murdered one night. Charlie's mother quietly moved herself and her son to Forks, Washington where they began a new life away from all of the havoc that had been such an upheaval in their lives. This was because they didn't want to be a part of all the illegal deals and deaths that would be demanded of Charlie.
As time passed Charlie joined the Marines when he turned eighteen and then straight out of all of his training, both basic and specialized, he was sent overseas and did two tours of duty. All the skills that he had learned earlier in his life combined with his specialized training had made him an exceptional asset to the Corps. His marksmanship, stealthiness, ability to read situations and make quick decisions made him an outstanding leader. He earned the respect of his men no matter who he served with.
It was these qualities that caused the FBI and the CIA to approach Charlie to try to get him to work for them after his return from his second tour of duty. Charlie had chosen the FBI, and it was during his time with them that he was able to get his history buried and a new background put in its place. The old background had never shown up during the check the FBI did on him, and this was because of his mother moving them from their old hometown to Forks when he was younger. So, no active connection was ever made to any other location other than Forks. It seemed that his mother also had a way of burying information of their past, but it wasn't known that until she confessed it on her deathbed.
It was after he had left the FBI that Charlie had returned to Forks to begin working on the Forks Police Force that he met and married Bella's mother. But after time passed, Renee was feeling too tied down to a small town to want to stay, especially after she became pregnant and had Bella, so when Charlie refused to move, they divorced, and Bella was raised by her father. When Renee left, she never looked back.
At no time when anyone has ever done a check on Charlie and Bella's background had they been able to connect them as being connected to either the Irish or Italian mafias.
No one had been able to find the distant connection to the O'Connor and Martinelli families. Cullen's distant relations to the O'Connor's and the Volturi's being a very lowly distant relation to the Martinelli's.
Charlie hadn't made any definite decisions as to what he would do to the leader that had taken his grandchildren but all these years later he felt like he was being pulled back, almost, to his roots.
That was when Charlie made the decision to combine all that he had learnt from his early childhood and his time in the Marines to be able to extract his revenge without spilling any blood.
It was with that thought that caused Charlie to pull over onto the side of the road to make a phone call.
Of course, he was questioned as to why he was ordering such items but Charlie refused to give a reason or to say another word.
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Marcus sat in his office considering all that Tori had told him and the fact that she was correct about the time factor. Time was indeed short for the woman that Caius had fallen in love with. Something needed to be done now, so he was trying to think of how to approach a solution.
He did wonder if it would do any good to try to reason once more with Aro, or would he just be wasting his breath as usual?
A solution came to him that might be in time to help the woman and to rein in Aro but the only one he could come up with was to approach the Cullen's and to ask them for their help. So, once again he pulls his phone out of his pocket and dials the number that he has been using a lot lately.
When Carlisle answers Marcus is quick to explain why he's calling and asks for a meeting. Hearing the answer yes, Marcus calls for Victoria and tells her they have a meeting to attend without delay.
She does ask what the meeting is about, which her father tells her that he'll explain on the way.
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Caius finds Aro home and is quick to demand the return of Irina, but the answer is no. "I still haven't gotten the information that I need yet."
Aro feels no guilt with that reply since it was the truth. 'The bitch surprised him with her determination to not give him the information that he was seeking. She took it all to her death.' These were the thoughts that passed through his mind as he continued to look at his brother.
"Aro, I demand to know where she is and that you let her go."
"You demand?! What gives you the right to think that you can demand anything of me?"
"You had no right to take her, and you know it. I told you how important she was to me. How I felt about her and that should have made her off limits to you but no you only worry about your own interests, wants and needs and to hell with everyone else. You care about only yourself." Caius spoke in anger as he reached out and grabbed Aro by his shirt as he was uttering his statements.
Aro jerked Caius's hands off him as he said, "How dare you treat me in such a fashion. If not for the fact that you're my brother, you would already be dead. However, disrespect me in such a fashion again and you won't have to worry about the bitch because you will be dead." With his remarks delivered with deadly utterance.
He shoved Caius back with enough force that Caius had to fight to maintain his balance as Aro turned and marched out of the room. And he could be heard shouting to some men to remove his brother from his house immediately.
So, without hesitation two men appeared and tossed Caius out without ceremony as if he was no one of importance.
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"Edward, Emmett, Jasper, come on we have a meeting to attend. Marcus is needing our help urgently."
"But, Uncle, what about this mess?" Emmett asked as he indicated the men they had confined in the warehouse.
"Marcus's men are ordered to help handle these no-accounts. We shouldn't be long." Carlisle remarked as he was walking toward the door to leave.
As Carlisle had finished speaking and Edward had made the move to leave his phone rang and he saw that it was Charlie calling once more. After listening to what the man wanted him to order and have delivered for him the others saw a look of surprise and puzzlement on Edward's face.
"What was that about, son?" Carlisle asked.
"To be honest, I'm not quite sure but Charlie wants me to order a large upright container along with some soft soil, with a couple of other things."
"What the hell? Has the man lost his mind? What does he want with all of that and why have you order it?"
"The simple answer is that he's still on his way and about halfway here but doesn't know where we are to order things and have them delivered himself. And to answer the rest of your questions I have no damn idea."
"All right go ahead and place the order to have it delivered immediately but as you're doing that let's go to meet Marcus."
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After being thrown out of Aro's home, Caius ran to his car and called Marcus. With no answer on the house phone, he called his brother's cell phone before pulling out of the driveway.
Marcus answered after seeing who was calling and listened to what Caius had to say. "Okay, right now I'm on my way to a meeting with someone that can help us, so why don't you meet us there." Marcus told him and then gave Caius instructions to where the meeting was taking place.
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All the different parties arrived at the meeting about the same time. It surprised Caius to see that Marcus was associating with the Cullen family and that all of the womenfolk were allowed to be present during the meeting as well.
"Marcus, what is going on here? Why are we meeting with the Cullen's? Why are the women being allowed to be here during this meeting?" He demanded to know while sounding a bit unsure of what he was seeing.
"I helped the Cullen's with a problem they had in Seattle and now I'm asking them to aid us in our problem with Aro."
"What problem?"
"That isn't anything that you need to know about, so Marcus what is it that you're needing our help with? Also to clarify something for your brother before we get started; we allow our women folk to participate since they are just as able to handle themselves as well as any of our men." Carlisle asked and answered Caius's rudely phrased questions a bit impatiently.
Caius looked around at the women once more as if asking why they were still present for the men's discussion. And when it seemed that no one was leaving he turned his attention back to his brother and Carlisle.
Marcus quickly explained that Aro was getting out of hand and then told Caius to tell them what the current situation happened to be.
"So, you're telling us that your brother Aro is trying to get his hands on my children and that he has Irina?" Edward angrily asked.
"Yes." Caius uttered a single answer.
"Damn. Dad, we don't have a choice in this matter." Edward said as he turned away to walk out onto the balcony of the hotel room to try to calm down.
Everyone else was quick to agree with Edward's statement. At that point a discussion began about what might be the best way to go about handling things without raising any alarm bells with the authorities.
Suddenly, Edward speaks up and makes the suggestion that they wait until Charlie gets there and he might be able to come up with some very good ideas that would keep them all out of the attention of the law.
AN: We have some background information concerning the Swan family which has been buried so deep that no one is able to locate any connections. Aro is really getting out of hand and now the Cullen's have their attention turned in his direction.
Lastly, what is Charlie up to with the items he has told Edward to order for him?
