Chapter 37

Shaw

       I still wasn't happy Dad let two of my cousins join in our plan to take down Roman. I didn't want anyone else to be dragged into this mess, but Dad kept getting more and more people to join.

       Now it was seven of us and not just two.

       Neither of us had thought of any idea how we could expose Roman and it was starting to stress me out. Every time I saw him in the village, I got really angry especially when he flashed me a smirk.

       And every time I got angry, I wanted to have a drink. I never did because of the one time I had to watch my kids. I missed seeing them every other weekend. I missed babysitting them when Kendra was at work. And if I wanted to see them again regularly, I had to stop.

       I needed something to distract me so I went to the store to get some groceries. Anything that would take all my focus away would work.

       While I was in the store, I ended up in the alcohol aisle. I didn't know how I ended up here. I was like my feet had a mind of its own.

       I didn't even want to buy any alcohol. I tried telling myself to get out of this aisle but I couldn't.

       "Shaw?" a voice suddenly said from behind me. I turned around to see none other than Kendra. "What are you doing in the alcohol aisle."

       "Nothing," I said. Out of all people, it was her I didn't want to see right now in this aisle but I was actually glad to see her because it finally gave me the willpower to walk out of the alcohol aisle to continue shopping.

       Kendra decided to follow me into the next aisle. "When I dropped off the kids, Holden said you hadn't had a drink for ten days. I hoped you hadn't forgotten about those ten days and went back to alcohol."

       "I haven't," I said. "I'm fourteen days now."

       "And you were in the alcohol aisle because?"

       "Because nothing. You don't see any bottles in my basket, do you? I'm able to resist cravings, you know. Actually, you wouldn't know since you refuse to talk to me ever since you found out I was drinking again."

       "That's not true, Shaw," Kendra said. "I just want what's best for our kids and I don't want you around them when you're recovering. You can last out at any given moment and it won't be safe for them."

       "I would never hurt them," I said. "I'm not even violent anymore."

       "Then how come you were arrested not too long ago for getting into a fight?" Kendra asked.

       "You heard about that?" I asked.

       "It's a small village, Shaw," Kendra said. "People talk so of course I'm going to find out if the father of my children got arrested for getting into a fight. You're going back to your old ways and I don't know if I ever want you around the kids again."

       Kendra turned around to walk away, but I gently grabbed her arm to stop her. "Let me explain that, please," I said.

       Kendra sighed but she faced me anyway. "Go on."

       "The man I got in a fight with was Roman," I said. "The same man who kidnapped Holden and Mercy and is getting away with it."

       "Okay, as much as I want him to be arrested for what he did, you can't go trying to fix the problem on your own," Kendra said.

       "That isn't why I got into a fight with him," I said. "He was harassing Holden's best friend and I saw it happened so I tried getting him to leave her alone but he wasn't listening so one thing led to another. I promise you I'm not going to go back to my violent ways. He's just trying his hardest to ruin my life and everyone around me."

       "How come he wasn't arrested then for harassing Holden's friend?" Kendra asked.

       "Because believe it or not, he has Viola wrapped around his finger," I said. "They're dating now."

       "Are you kidding me?" Kendra asked. "She's willingly dating him when he kidnapped her niece? Now I do understand why you got into a fight with him. I mean, I'm not condoning your violent behaviour at all, but after everything Roman has been doing to you, I don't blame you for losing your temper. But please, for the sake of your future, be careful, okay?"

       "I will, I said. "I promise."

       Even though I had no idea if I could while I was trying to get Roman to be arrested for what he did.

       Kendra was about to walk away, but I stopped her yet again. "Is there anyway I could see the kids this weekend?" I asked. "Please?"

       Kendra was silent for a bit before giving me an answer. While it was not one I wanted to hear, it was still better than her flat out refusing. "I'll think about it."

       She walked away and I finished grocery stopping feeling a tiny bit better. It may not have been a yes, but at least it wasn't a definite no.

       While I was walking home with the groceries, Calvin saw me and hurried over. "So, how would you like some information on Roman's life that may help with the situation?" he asked.

       "It depends," I said. "What exactly do you know about him?"

       "Quite a bit now," Calvin said. "He usually works at the bar, Wicket and Thorn, Tuesdays to Saturdays and when he does work there, he gets off around five. Though Fridays and Saturdays are until eleven. When he's not working, he either walks around the village or is with your sister, sometimes at her house and sometimes at his."

       "How on earth do you know about all of this?" I asked.

       "I know everything in Spruceworth," Calvin said. "There's a lot more. He has a younger sister, not Cassidy, who doesn't live in Spruceworth. She lives in Vancouver with her parents and she's seventeen but word is that they're all thinkng about moving here at the start of August."

       "That's in a few days," I said. "If they're anything like Roman then it's going to be a lot harder, especially if they'll want a vendetta against me as well."

       "I know, which is why the next piece of information is very crucial," Calvin said. "So you know exactly what he's capable of. He killed someone."

       I stopped walking in my tracks. "Wait, what? He killed someone too?"

       Calvin nodded. "Yeah. He killed some guy he used to work with. That was a few years ago and his lawyer was able to pull it off as self-defense when it wasn't. I'm honestly suprised he hasn't taken things that far with you yet."

       "Because if he kills another person, the person who just so happened to kill his sister, it's obviously not going to go well for him," I said. "He's a smart guy, I'll admit. He knows how to get away with things. And now I have to talk to my dad after I drop these groceries off. I can't have him adding more people to our plan."

       "I'll come with you," Calvin said.

       We went to my house and thankfully I didn't have any groceries that had to be put in the fridge so I was able to quickly drop them on the kitchen counters before leaving my house and heading over to my dad's place.

       I knocked on the door and once he opened it, Calvin and I walked inside. "Dad, Roman is capable of a lot more than we think," I said, closing the door behind me. "We need to leave Letizia and Ender out of this."

       "Awe," my cousin Ender's voice came from nearby, so I looked over at him and his twin sister. "But we already have a lot of plans for him."

       "Yeah," Letizia said. "How does this sound? We dig a ditch, push him in, and bury him."

       "No, not happening," I said. "We just need to get him arrested, not kill him."

       "Who said anything about killing him?" Ender asked. "We just want to leave him in a ditch at the side of the road."

       "See? They're trying to think of something," Dad said before looking at my cousins. "But Shaw is right. We're not burying him."

       "You call it bury, I call it shovel," Letizia said. "Two very different things."

       "Still not happening."

        "Lame."

        Dad chuckled and looked back at me. "So what exactly is Roman capable of?"

       "Killing," Calvin said. "He has killed someone in his past. If we got too far with things, he could take it to extreme measures."

       "Then we beat him to it and, like we said, push him in a ditch," Ender said.

       "Again, not happening," Dad said. "Think of something else before I take you out of it entirely."

       "Fine," Letizia said. "We'll go with our plan B. That may or may not involve a shovel."

       "And a ditch?" I asked.

       "Not this time," Ender said. "Trust us, our plan B is definitely going to work."

_____________________

i love these letzia and ender characters oof

the spacebar on my laptop keyboard is getting a lot more annoying. it got so annoying it got up to the point where i couldn't write on it anymore without it becoming so loose, so i had to switch to my tablet. i hope the spacebar can get its act together soon. :/

lol WHO'S READY FOR THE FALLLLLLL?