Luca removed his jacket, leaving it on the empty chair. His shirt was bright white in the darkness, the tattoo around his neck almost glowing. He started to roll up his sleeves, lifting his eyes to meet mine—our eyes were the same. He nodded once. He wanted me where I stood.
“Even when I am not around you, my son, my shadow will be,” Luca said.
Something about his voice sounded off. It sounded like he was trying to tell me something—maybe he wouldn’t be around anymore?
Justin started talking again. He went off like he had an explosion inside of him. He started going on and on about all of the wrong things he had done. Confessing, like when Ma’s old aunt went to church and talked to the priest. Then he started crying about all of the things he nevergotto do. He started talking about his daughter, not being able to watch her grow up.
Justin lifted a hand to me. “You have a kid! You should understand!”
Luca looked at me. “My son is not a child. He is a man.”
I knew what he meant. Once he killed this guy, I’d be a man in his eyes.
“This is ridiculous!” Justin shouted. “All I did was touch her ass! And I get capital punishment for it? I don’t know how things are done inyourcountry, but here…that’s not even worth jail time!”
When Justin shouted, the pigs went a little crazier, squealing like the butcher was coming for them too.
“This is the problem with boys,” Luca said in Italian. “They do not understand the consequences of touching what belongs to someone else.” He eyed me for a moment. “Tell me what belongs to you, my son. What would you kill for in this life? Sacrifice your soul for?”
“Nothing, Father,”I said in Italian.
“Yet,” Luca said and nodded. “There are two types of men in this world. The ones who double-cross us in business, and the ones who make it personal. We show mercy on the ones who attempt to double-cross us in business. It is only money, and money is the root of all evil. However, to make the grievance personal, a war is raged on our flesh, blood, and bone.
“Give it time, my son. When a woman finds you, the one worth sacrificing not only your life but also your soul for, you will understand. You will treat her as though her skin is made of gold, and for another man to touch her flesh is for another man to make an imprint. Tell me now, if you claimed a woman as yours, and another man touched her, his handprint forever marking her, would you kill for the grievance?”
Luca stared at me, his eyes hard. I stared back.
“Sì,Papà,” I said, being honest.
If I called her mine, no one would touch her. If they did—I looked at Justin and nodded once.
“A man has boundaries, my son,” Luca continued. “If he does not, he is not a man, and better off without a heart. What good does it do him if he lies, steals, and cheats? If he allows another male to infringe on his territory and to tarnish what is his? He is a coward with testicles only for foolish decorations. We do not fear death, my son, not like this sniveling boy. We fear nothing because we are men. Men who do not allow others to take what belongs to them, or to even touch and tarnish.” He balled his fist and touched his heart. “We are men with passion. Our word is as good as our blood.”
Justin became quiet as Luca continued to speak to me about what it meant to be a man. His eyes kept looking toward the door, but his face never moved. He was going to try to make a run for it. If he did, Luca would get more excited about the hunt. Like any good monster, he liked to fight for his food.
He told me that once. He didn’t lie.
A shadow moved by the door, and Justin narrowed his eyes. Maybe he finally noticed the Italians. His face went completely white.
“Stand,” Luca said, motioning him up. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows. His veins ran underneath his bronze skin like snakes.
Justin tried but couldn’t. Luca had to yank him up the collar. He stumbled and landed in mud and pig shit and whatever else. Luca summoned him up again, saying, “stand like a man or die like a coward”in Italian. Justin finally stood, but his legs didn’t seem steady. He kept moving from left to right like he was on an unsteady boat. Then in a flash, Justin removed a knife from his pocket. It seemed like the kiddie kind.
Luca slapped it out of his hand, sending it flying through the air. Even if it was the kiddie kind, Justin had gotten a slice in. I saw the blood bubble to the surface of Luca’s skin, close to his wrist. “Fists or—” Luca looked at the knife and grinned “—sword.”
“Neither!” Justin shouted. “I don’t want this situation, sir! I’ll tell the entire world that she’s yours! I’ll warn all the boys!”
“This is not for the boys,” Luca said in Italian. “This is for her, my heart. She has to know what she has done to me by inviting another man into her bed.” Then he gave Justin a second before he said in English, “If you do not choose like a man, my son will decide your fate like a man.”
Justin looked at me but only for a second. “Fists,” he said, and I heard him swallow. Then I smelled something other than pig shit. It smelled human. “But don’t I get last words?”
Luca’s eyebrows pulled in. “Last words.”
“Yeah, can I at least speak my last piece?”
Luca made a motion that meantgo aheadwith his hand.
“You don’t want to do this in front of your ki—man—I mean, son! He’ll never forget this.” Justin was talking so fast it was almost hard to understand him. “YouItalians are superstitious—I mean religious, right? I mean, an eye for an eye, and the sins of the father will fall on the son and all of that.” Justin looked right at me. “Maybe not you or your son, but his kid! Your son’s kid will pay the price for what you’re doing to me! I’m somebody’s baby! My mother is—”
