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.

That demand caused Charlie to quickly turn to face Aro and with much hatred in his voice he simply answers, "I am that person."

All heads of the Cullen and Volturi family members jerked in Charlie's direction.

CHAPTER 31: REVENGE

"Charlie?" Was the only word that Edward was able to articulate since he, like everyone else, was still in shock over the little bit of information that had just been revealed. Each of their minds are nothing more than a bunch of jumbled up scenarios of how Charlie Swan could be involved with mafia and how deeply?

Charlie looked at Edward and simply asked, "What?" Charlie knew what was being asked but wasn't ready to give up that information unless it was necessary.

Silence hung heavy until Sean O'Connor and Marco Martinelli stepped forward to have a quiet discussion with Charlie. A word here and there was heard by the others, but they had no idea what was under discussion between the three men.

The fact that Charlie was associating with two of the most notorious known mafia families without any hesitation raised a lot of questions in the minds of both Cullen and Volturi families. Charles Swan was a lawman and sworn to uphold the law. How could he be involved with the mafia? Of course, the Cullens didn't stop to think about the fact that Charlie had been associated with them because of the marriage between Edward and Isabella.

Just how could Charlie know the two strangers and their families as well as he seemed to? Someone had a lot of explaining to do as far as they were concerned.

When the private consultation between Charlie, Sean and Marco was finished, Charlie turned to the others and told them, "You better get on with asking your questions because I'm not going to hang around here forever waiting for you to get your heads out of your asses."

That seemed to wake everyone up and they moved over to the two drums, but it was Caius who was the first one to ask his question. "Where is Irina and how badly have you treated her?"

Aro just stared at his brother but refused to answer him. Caius drew in a breath and repeated his question once more in a harsher tone. But when Aro refused to answer once more, Caius drew his gun and pointed it directly at his brother's head. "Aro, I'm not going to ask a third time, answer me or die a slow death."

After making his final statement Caius looked at Charlie and his two companions in utter frustration, especially since Aro still remained silent.

So, Charlie moved forward with one of the lids for the drums in his hand and acted like he was going to be putting it on the drum as Sean and Marco, each moved forward with a clear bag in each hand that was full of cockroaches and worms.

Aro seeing what was about to happen, or so he thought, he suddenly yelled, "The damn bitch is dead. She died without revealing a damn thing that was useful to me."

The shock of that information caused Caius to react without thought; he grabbed the lid and the bags the other two had in their hands and tossed it all into the drum with Aro and then closed the lid. The hard impact the bags met with landing on the packed soil caused them to burst open releasing their contents as Caius slammed the lid onto the drum and locking it.

Caius's action cut off all verbal abuse that Aro was uttering just before the lid was put into place.

The suddenness of Caius's action stunned everyone including James. But that was all it took for James to start spilling his guts. He couldn't speak fast enough; his words were coming so fast that at first it was hard to understand all that he was saying.

He gave up the names, dates and incidents of all his associates that had been involved over the years with his different assignments, being precise in who did what. He told of how things had been planned and executed by everyone; nothing was left out or unsaid.

"James, you were assigned to guard my daughter but instead you used her to try to accomplish your own means and to put you in a position that would never have rightfully belonged to you.

"Next, you broke a code that you don't take any action against women or children. You endangered my daughter by your actions and even kidnapped the grandchildren of one of the bigger families in the United States.

"Thirdly, you were working with federal agents to betray other members of not only my family but also against other families as well; again, to be able to assume a position that wasn't rightfully yours and never would have been." Marcus paused in the charges he was stating against James and before he could possibly continue Sean stepped forward to make a statement.

"You, sir, have no idea what you did when you took the grandchildren of Charlie Swan and Carlisle Cullen. You nearly started a family war that would have gone global." Sean paused as Charlie stepped forward and motioned for Sean not to say another word.

Charlie took a few moments to inform James that he would be informing the necessary agencies about the individuals that had been acting against policy and working with a rogue person that was trying to start a war amongst all of the active families by participating in committing criminal acts. And, as he finished stating what he would be doing about the information that James had revealed he added his final statement, "Now, I'll leave it as to how quickly you do die to all of these gentlemen since they have a saying into your punishment the same as I've had."

Sean and Marco looked over to Marcus, Caius and all the Cullen men in a manner of asking what their suggestions were as to how slowly or quickly James was to die.

Edward quietly listened to the discussion but his feelings of anger that he had managed up until that point to keep under control were beginning to burst loose. He quietly moved away from the group and while no one was paying attention to what he might be doing he picked up the bags of roaches and worms that had been left to use for James. Then he walked over to pick up the lid.

Edward approached James, placed the two bags into the drum and said between clenched teeth, "You dared to take and put hands on my children." And with that said the sound of Edward slamming the lid down on the drum and locking it into place drew the attention of everyone else.

"Edward, what have you done?" Carlisle asked his son.

"I think that it should be evident, I dealt with the man that took my children and tried to use them for his own unscrupulous means. You know as well as I do that there would only have been one outcome and that would have been their deaths. We were told that fact by Marcus Volturi, himself, after we had finally retrieved his daughter who heard James stating that out of his own mouth. He planned to kill her and the twins, so don't act surprised by me taking the actions that I did against the asshole.

"No, Dad, so if any of you had any other ways that you wanted to deal with him too bad. He doesn't deserve any consideration for the crimes he committed against my family, my family, Dad, MY FAMILY." As Edward was replying and explaining his actions to his father and everyone else his anger was showing through as with each word spoken, he got louder and louder.

Jasper walked over to Edward and laid a hand on his shoulder and said, "That's okay, man, we all understand and feel the same way that members of our family were treated in such a way that was insulting to them and to the family. None of us fault you for your feelings or your anger."

Emmett and Carlisle didn't waste any time confirming that they felt the same way as Jasper; he had every right to act the way he had.

Marcus felt the same way as the Cullens did because his daughter had been caught in the same trap. He was just thankful that she had been able to get herself and the Cullen children away from James before anything terrible happened to the three of them.

However, he didn't say anything as he walked over to Caius who seemed to have withdrawn emotionally from everything that was going on around him. He appeared to be drowning in his depression over the loss of the woman he loved at the hand of his older brother.

"Caius, do you remember who was with Aro when he first took Irina from you?" Marcus quietly asked his brother and received a nod from his brother.

Carlisle overheard Marcus's question to his brother, so he walked over to the two and told them both, "Let's go get the information from the ones that know where Irina was held and questioned. Together we'll deal with the men that were involved with her loss of life and then give the young woman the tribute that she deserves."

"Why? Why would you and your family be willing to help me like that in such a manner?" Caius asked with his voice showing his sadness as well as his puzzlement that the Cullen family would want to help since it had been his brother that had brought them misery. "You're not family." He said to no one in particular.

Marco had been quietly listening to the exchange along with Sean but when Caius asked Carlisle his question, he had to say something. "They may not be family but I'm distantly related and it seems to me that you need all the help you can get now. Your lady was ill-used and treated badly in a way that no lady should be subjected to.

"Her death is a tragedy that cries for revenge. Also, she was considered member of the family by both the Swan and Cullen family, so that makes it our business."

Charlie had stayed to one side listening and knew that he needed to offer what help he could because Irina was, as Marco had stated, a part of Bella's household as well as a friend. So, he spoke up to say that if the group would round up all that was responsible then he would arrange for the law to handle the matter with charges of murder being filed against each and everyone that had killed or helped in a manner that had led to Irina's death.

"I want them all dead; not a single one of them is to be left alive." Caius declared.

"Young man, the person that murdered Irina personally has been dealt with, so all the others are just accessories to what happened. So, they will be sentenced to life without parole. However, whatever happens once they are in prison is out of everyone's control. All of you will be innocent of what happened there." Charlie tried to patiently explain to the distraught man.

Marco pulled his phone out of his pocket which got the attention of everyone present as guns were quickly drawn, but he rapidly explained that he was calling in his cleanup crew that had been on standby. "We have other things that need to be taken care of at the moment and we need to have someone that specializes in doing cleanups of this type to take over." So, with that explanation he made his call and then hung up only to say, "Okay, let's go and finish clearing up the trash."

AN: Charlie didn't use mafia methods to get answers but instead drew up his observations of how information had been gathered from when he was in the Marines. Edward took care of James and Caius took care of Aro. Now, everyone is moving forward to retrieve Irina's body and to clean up the left-over mess at that location.

This is the last regular chapter for this story and all that is left is the Epilogue to tie up all loose ends.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the story.