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“Believe me, I’ve spoken to Max and I got his side of the story,” Bricker replies tightly. “And he’s been blaming himself for decades.”
Fabi turns those cold eyes on me. “Oh, yeah. He looks like he feelsrealbad, sitting there in his thousand-dollar suit.”
“This isn’t about him,” Bricker insists. “I only want to understand.” His voice softens. “Help me understand, Dad. Please. You’d agreed to walk away. What changed?”
Fabi’s stony expression falters at the plea. He looks down at his scarred knuckles for a long moment before responding.
“It’s not something youcanwalk away from,” he says gruffly. “There’s nothing like it, Bricker. Nothing like that feeling. I wanted to settle down with you, with your mother, but…” He trails off with a frustrated huff.
“But it was boring.” I can’t stop myself from interjecting. Fabi and I never saw the jobs the same way. He lived for the thrill.
Me? I just wanted to make a living.
Fabi turns on me, eyes blazing. “Don’t you sit there and judge, you son of a bitch. You took everything from me! My money, my freedom...” He sneers. “And now my son. Right?”
“Idoregret how things turned out for you. But you made your choices, Fabi. I’m done carrying the guilt for your decisions.”
“You put me here, and now you’re trying to wriggle out of the blame?”
Bricker leans forward, whispering angrily as the guards nearby start to look over. “That’s out of line. Max didn’t put you here—you managed that yourself.”
Fabi just sounds more outraged. “You’re gonna let this smug bastard talk to your old man like that? Let him poison your mind, erase me from your life?”
“What the hell are you talking about, Dad? Max is the only reason I’m here seeing you right now. He saved my life!”
“Hey,” a nearby guard says in a low voice. “Keep it cool.”
Bricker sits back in his chair, but his voice is no happier when he says softly, “You made your choices—no one forced your hand.”
Fabi rears back and jabs a finger at me, face mottling with rage. “You dare defend him after all he’s cost us? I knew you were soft, but whoring yourself out to my backstabbing ex-partner? You got no shame at all, boy?”
“That’s outta line, Soldano,” I say sharply, but Bricker still has things in hand.
“You’re trying to lecture me about shame and respect?” he says. “You showed neither with the way you treated me and Mom. You could’ve given the job away. You could’ve been with us, not shut away in here.”
“So you spread your cheeks forhimout of spite? Become his bitch just to shame me?” Fabi spits the words out, but it’s the way Bricker flinches that breaks my resolve to be calm.
I surge up from my chair. “That’senough.,” I should. “Speak to your son like that again and I’ll—”
“Max,” Bricker hisses, grabbing my wrist and yanking me back. But it’s too late. The guards are coming over. But when I glance apologetically at Bricker, I can see the flash of hurt is gone, replaced by something harder. Something resolute. He turns back to Fabi. “Well, I came here for answers, Dad, and I guess I got them.”
Fabi trembles with fury. “You want to stick with your sugar daddy? Fine. Consider yourself cut off, boy. You’re dead to me, you hear?”
Bricker stands at once. “Works for me. Let’s go, Max.”
I follow him at once, turning my back on Fabi’s snarled curses. Bricker doesn’t look back, not even once, not even when we walk back out the gate and head toward the car.
But this calm facade of his worries me more than any outburst. “Hey,” I say, catching him back for a moment just before we reach the car. “Bricker—listen—I’m sorry about that.”
“Sorry?
“For losing my temper. Making a scene.”
He actually chuckles. “I’ve never seen you like that before,” he says, looking down between us. “You have nothing to apologize for, Max. If anything,I’msorry.” He looks up again, eyes sad. “Sorry I dragged you in there just to hear those ugly words.”
My heart clenches. “Nothing he said changes how I feel about you.”
His mask finally cracks. “Christ, why did I think he’d ever change?” He drags a hand over his face. “What a waste of goddamn time.”
