“He’s protecting us,” I whispered.
“Yeah,” he said.
“He’s a drug dealer.”I was still whispering.
“Yeah,” he grunted.
“He had a scholarship to Yale,” I told him.
“Yeah.And it takes four years to get through college, andeven longer to get sorted in life.And he might have had a scholarship, but hisdad hadn’t been allowed to live a long enough life to set up his family likethey needed if he wasn’t around.They didn’t have the money to send him toYale, because you can have a full ride, but it still takes money to be acrossthe country at a university.They also didn’t have the money to continue tolive the life they’d been living.Darius had to step up.Darius had to lookafter his mom and sisters.He was a teenager.He got offered what he thoughtwas an easy way to do that, and he took it.I don’t blame him.Straight up, inthat situation, I can see myself doing the same damned thing.”
Straight up, I could too.Tony.Me.Anybody, really.
You didn’t have the luxury of defending the high ground whenfood needed to be put on the table.
I looked away and took a sip of my wine.
“Lee Nightingale got honorably discharged.He’s back intown.”
My head whipped around to him.
“And Eddie Chavez is a maverick cop, but he gets the jobdone better than nearly everyone.It’s all rumors, but those rumors say he’sgot an inside guy.This puts Darius out there, but it’s himdoin’the right thing.”
“They’re trying to pull him out,” I breathed.
“They’re trying to remind him who he really is.Lee in townagain, I don’t think it’s gonna take very long.”
Oh.My.God.
“What I’msayin’ is, don’t losehope, Malia.Let the man do what he’s gotta do.If I had to steer clear of Toniand Talia, it’d kill me.But if it meant it kept them safe, I’d suffer athousand deaths.It’s killing him, but he still isn’t dead.You get me?”
I nodded.
I got him.
He took me in, decided I did indeed get him, then he got upand moved to the armchair.
After he settled in, he shouted, “When’s dinner?I’mhungry!”
Talia toddled out and shouted back, “Daddy!”
Tony grinned and winked at me.
I didn’t have it in me to smile back.
I was holding on to hope.
With everything I had.
I opened my front door and stopped dead.
Someone was in the house.
And I could smell…
Paint.
My heart tripping in my chest, my mind whirring, I forgotall about grabbing the book Liam called to tell me he forgot for school andmarched up the stairs, straight to my son’s room.
