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I nod. “I can’t believe all of this.”
“It wasn’t easy to say,” Vinnie says.
I press my lips together. “I’m so naïve and innocent I didn’t even know what you were talking about. But Falcon, you did.”
He nods. “Naïve and innocent are two things that don’t serve you well on the inside.” He turns to Leif. “Or on the battlefield, I imagine.”
“No,” Leif says. “You learn quickly that man is the most dangerous animal out there.”
My heart thrums wildly. “Thank God you guys rescued me from Miles.”
“What the hell did he do to you?” Vinnie demands.
I look at Leif, who shakes his head slightly at me. He didn’t tell Vinnie.
I clear my throat. “He was about three inches away from raping me.”
Vinnie’s cheeks turn red. Then he rises, bringing his fist down on the table.
“Easy,” Leif says.
“Let him get it out,” Falcon says. “I had to. God, the thought of it…”
Vinnie nods. “I did my share of smashing my fists into walls while I was away. Especially when Mikey died. Fuck. I’d smash a wall right now, except this isn’t my place.”
“Smash away,” Leif says. “I get it. Trust me.”
Vinnie breathes in slowly and lets it out. “I won’t. I will bathe in my anger, and I will put my aggression to better use than taking out a wall.” He breathes in again. “You think for one minute I haven’t thought daily about the shit our own flesh and blood pulled? About what I went through, what I know Mikey went through? What I assumed you went through, Sav? It eats away at my soul. Every day. I can choose not to take part in it. I can choose to run from it. But that doesn’t change this part of me.”
I rise and walk to Falcon, wrap my arms around his neck, and look into his eyes. “For me, Falcon. Please. Do the same as my brother. Take that aggression, that anger, that rage, and channel it into something productive.”
“Anything for you, Vannah.”
Vinnie rises as well. “That’s what we’ll both do, Sav. I should’ve come back long before now. Hell, I should’ve never left, but I was a stupid kid. I wasn’t thinking of you or Mikey. I was thinking only of getting myself out. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized what I had doomed the two of you to. But by then, it was too late to do anything about it.” He grabs my forearm. “But I swear to you, Sav. I’m going to do something about it now.” He looks to Falcon. “I meant what I said. I’m all in.”
“Man,” Falcon says. “I got put away for killing someone. I was innocent, but I lied to save someone else. I served my time, but now, I’ve actually taken a life.”
“Abel wasn’t your fault,” I say.
“Doesn’t matter.” He looks to the floor. “He’d still be alive but for me. The man’s a psycho, and I won’t mourn his loss, but I did do it, Savannah. And I’ll do it again if I have to. I’ll spend the rest of my life behind bars if I have to, if it means making things right.”
I shake my head. “Falcon, I need you. And Vinnie, I just got you back. I don’t want either of you going away, especially not because of our corrupt grandfather.”
“And he is still your grandfather,” Leif says. He nods to Vinnie. “Yours too. I’ve ended lives too, when I was on tour in Afghanistan. You learn to live with it. You learn to deal with it because you didn’t have a choice. But this? Your own flesh and blood? I don’t recommend it.”
“I don’t care,” Vinnie says. “I wish I had come back sooner. Wish I’d had the strength to?—”
I wave my hand to stop him. “No, Vinnie. I remember myself at eighteen. I wasn’t in any position to do what Dad asked of you. What Grandpa asked of you. You were right to run. I’m glad you did. I wish Mikey had run too. Maybe he’d still be alive.”
Vinnie simply shakes his head. “Maybe I wasn’t wrong to run,” he says. “But I was certainly wrong to stay gone for so long.”
“Dad and Grandpa looked for you,” I say. “How did you stay so far off the radar?”
“I had documents.”
“Where did you know to go for those?” I ask.
“I had money,” Vinnie says. “When I turned eighteen, I got partial control of my trust fund. I cashed it out as soon as I could, purchased forged documents, and left. I moved around a lot at first. I was in Poland for a while. I wanted desperately to go to Italy, but that was a little too on the nose. So I ended up in Spain, since my documents had a Spanish name.”
