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I grab his biceps and give him a little shake, the sweat on his skin making my fingers slip. “Caplan, I need you to take a breath and tell me what happened. Breathe. What did you do?”
His blue eyes meet mine and sweat drips from his hairline, down his forehead, and he wipes it away. “I only wanted to help. I only wanted to make things better for us. I know how bad things are. I know we are struggling. You work your ass off here and for what? It isn’t fucking right, Rosie. You deserve more. You kill yourself for this store and Mom and Dad don’t seem to care, but I do. I care. I wanted to take care of you, and I can’t do that when I’m making minimum wage.”
I bring him in for a hug and he grips me tight as if he isn’t ever going to see me again. “Caplan, it’s okay.” It feels good to know he sees how hard I work for them, but I don’t ever want him to get in trouble. “Listen to me, I don’t care how bad things get, you aren’t to put yourself in harm’s way for me, for this store, or for our parents.”
“What about you? You have put your life on hold for too long for us. You need to get out there and see the world.”
“Stop changing the subject and tell me what you did, Caplan.”
He runs his hands through his hair and shakes his head. “Fuck, Rosie. It’s bad. It’s real bad.”
“I can’t fix it if you don’t tell me what happened.”
“Don’t hate me,” he whispers, taking a seat on one of the benches we have had for sale for ages.
I sit next to him and take his hand. “Caplan, I could never hate you. I’m worried about you. You are bleeding, you look like you got your ass handed to you, and you won’t tell me what happened.”
“I stole something,” he admits, his leg shaking with anxiety.
I let go of his hand and rub my palms down my jeans. “That’s okay. We will give it back. We will explain you meant well, but we will give whatever you took back.”
“I can’t give it back. If I do, I’m dead.”
I stand, crossing my arms as I stare at him. “What is it?”
He digs into his jean pocket that’s stretched out with something round and pulls out a huge black gem. I’m not sure what kind, but it’s pretty. I’ve never seen anything like it before, but it has to be worth a ton.
“Oh my god, Caplan. You robbed a jewelry store?” I pluck the stone from his hand and notice it has a good weight to it. “You will take this back right now. We will not make our way in life because you stole this. It isn’t right, Caplan.”
“Haven’t we paid enough? Haven’t we suffered enough? They don’t need this. They have plenty of money.”
“Who?”
“Bianchi.”
The stone almost slips from my fingers when I hear the name. I lean against a shelf, my anxiety heightening. “You didn’t. Please, tell me, please,” my voice breaks with fear. “Please, tell me you didn’t steal from one of the most powerful men in the city. Please tell me you didn’t steal from the fucking mafia!” I scream at him, shoving him in the chest. “Tell me you didn’t paint a target on our backs because you weren’t thinking.” I poke his forehead with my finger, giving it enough pressure that I know it's uncomfortable. “Tell me.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. One of the guys that works for Bianchi confronted me. He wanted me to push some drugs and I said no. He roughed me up a little and I fought him back. This fell from his pocket. I don’t know what it is or why he had it, but it has to be expensive. Men like that don’t carry cheap shit, Rosie.”
“It’s a stone of some sort,” I sigh. “It’s probably worth more than our lives combined which is why you’re going to return it. You’ll say sorry and you’ll even offer to run whatever drugs they wanted you to.”
“If I do that, I’m as good as dead. Rosie, I don’t want to run drugs.”
“What other choice do you have?” I yell at him, shoving the gem in his face. “This is life or death. You return it, you’re dead. You keep it, you’re dead. You only have the option to compromise at this point. If you want to live, it’s the only option I can think of.”
“No, no, no, listen, Rosie.” He grabs the gem and holds it to the light, staring at me with this newfound hope that I haven’t seen since he was a boy, staring up at the moon thinking it was really made of cheese.
That was a horrible truth to break to him.
“We can sell it before they find out. I can deny it. I can say it wasn’t me. Imagine the life we can have, Rosie. We can finally have money. We can catch up on bills. Mom and Dad will be taken care of.”
I groan, lifting my hands in frustration at him. “Deny it? Deny the fact that you have been beaten up and you were the last person seen with the guy who had this gem? Yeah, that will go over really well. Especially if we suddenly are living a life of luxury, Caplan. It isn’t smart.” My brother means well. He always acts before he thinks and I’m always the one left cleaning up the mess. “It’s fine. I’ll fix this, Caplan. It will be okay.”
“No, it won’t be okay!” He shouts at me, and I rear back, shocked.
He never yells at me.
“We are one day away from being kicked out of the apartment. Mom and Dad have given up. The store is drowning in debt—”
