Page 101 of The Saint

I stared, my gaze fixed on my uncle. On his finger dropping from his ear. On the smile upon his face. On the gleam in his eye that said, “That isn’t enough.”

As if to prove that, his smile grew, and he shifted in his seat. Not like he was uncomfortable being subjected to my watchful eye, but as if he were excited to tell me more.

Then, “Before you try to object, I want you to know the money has already been transferred for her first year’s stay. It’s non-refundable, so you can complain all you want, but it’d be wasteful. And pointless, considering Penny has already agreed.”

Beside me, my father chuckled, and he gave my shoulders a squeeze. “You can blink, you know.”

Mom’s other hand joined the first on mine, and she whispered, “But you might want to hold on. I know that look on my brother’s face. He’s got something up his sleeve.”

Zio’s phone chimed, and he dug it out of his pocket, nodding once before setting it down on his lap. “The wire has been initiated.”

“Initiated? I thought you said the year was already paid for?”

Instead of answering, Zio took a drink of his coffee. “I hear Tyler enjoys playing basketball.”

My brow furrowed at the shift in conversation. “Yes. He’s been playing for years.”

“In the same camp you went to when you were young, I hear. And he wants to be a basketball star like your friend, Tyrone Martin.”

I dragged my hand through my hair, though I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. “Yeah. Wants to be just like him when he grows up.”

“Well.” Zio paused, sipping at his coffee like he had all the time in the world. Like it wasn’t killing me to know what the point of this conversation was. “In case his basketball career doesn’t pan out, I think it would be wise for him to do what Mr. Martin is doing and go to college.”

I shook my head. “Penny doesn’t have the money for that. He’d have to take out loans, work odd jobs that would cut into his study and practice time. He—”

Something stirred around in my brain, shifting as if there was something in there, pushing things around and trying to make itself known.

Tyrone.

Tyrone didn’t come from much, just like most of the guys at the park. Yet he didn’t have multiple jobs to make ends meet, to save up for expenses he was sure to have in college, regardless of his scholarship. He was at the park every day, playing ball, working on his shot.

Acting like money was the least important thing in the world.

The scar on my chest pulsed, reminding me of the scars that littered Tyrone’s stomach. He’d gotten caught in the crossfire of a gang war and was only alive today because Zeno had been there to save him.

To take care of him.

To take care of him.

My gaze dropped to Zio’s phone, then raised to the ear he’d touched just moments ago. I’d seen that gesture before, from my cousin, Queenie, and her boyfriend. I saw it earlier with Jael in the park, when she was listening to whatever was being said in her ear.

Shaw.

The computer hacker who’d come into the family business this past year, but it turned out she’d been there all along.

It was her, working in the background, transferring funds to pay for Mrs. T’s stay at the nursing home. It was her doing whatever it was my uncle wasn’t telling me about.

“What did you do?” It wasn’t accusing, those words, but a plea for him to tell me. To explain what he’d done for Tyrone. What he was going to do for Tyler.

“College can be very expensive,” Zio said with a shrug. “Sometimes those who show promise need a little help to get them to the starting line, so they can compete based on skill and not be excluded because life dealt them a shitty hand. I’ve always felt I should give to those who need it most; those we’ve come to love like family, or those who our family has affected in adverse ways.”

He didn’t need to say more, it was all right there in what he’d left unsaid.

Tyrone Martin, caught in the crosshairs of a shootout between my uncle’s syndicate and one of their enemies, was given the help he needed to seek his dreams.

Tyler Turner, great-grandson of one of the best friends I’d ever had, was being given a leg up, an opportunity to use his skills to become the best he could be.

Their financial burden was removed so that they could have a chance to make something of themselves.