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That makes me grin. “I’ll give you this, kid. You’ve got balls.”
He clenches his hands. “Then give me a gun.”
“How about this? You finish school and get a proper education, and then we can talk about you joining any business.”
“Why?” His cheeks grow red. “Is it because of this? Because of where I come from? Is that why you don’t want me to be a part of the business?”
“No.” I shove my hands in my pockets, considering him with an unwavering smile.
“Why then?”
“It’s what my father would’ve done.”
He eyes me, squinting into the sun. “He made you study?”
“Yep. Until he got sick. I dropped out of school to take over the business.”
“Then you’ll let me?”
“You’re still a kid. You’re going to grow up way too fast. Believe me. I know. Just focus on being a kid for now, and when you’re an adult, we’ll do what needs to be done.”
“You mean that?”
“I never go back on my word.”
He nods solemnly. “’Kay.” His expression hardens, his jaw setting in a determined line. “I’m not going to end up here.”
“No.” I place a hand on his shoulder. “You won’t. Of that, I’ll make sure.”
The tension flows from his body as he relaxes in my grip.
He throws a thumb over his shoulder toward the cross on the hill. “I’m gonna go over there. I’ve got some shit to say.”
“Go ahead. Take your time.”
I watch him clamber up the hill, recalling the boy with the dirty face I first saw, the one who tried to sell me weed and stole my wheel caps. Little shit. He’s got more of my own blood flowing in his veins than any of my cousins. Even at ten, he’s already more of a man than Toma and Gianni put together. I guess we got that from my mother.
A small hand wraps around mine. I look down. Sophie smiles at me. Her hair grew a little longer, making wisps around her face. With her big, brown eyes and her delicate features, she’s going to be looker. I’ll have to keep a shotgun on site when she turns of age.
She hasn’t brought Beatrice, which is a leap in progress. Her scarf has come loose, hanging in a big loop around her neck.
I adjust the scarf to make sure she’s covered. “Are you cold? You can wait in the car.”
She pulls on my hand. “I want to show you something.”
She leads me over the barren earth and across the stream, using a few big rocks as steppingstones. On the other side, we climb up a hill and down a slope. A small gorge lies at the foot of the mountain. We follow the dry riverbed until it disappears in a thicket of thorny bushes. On the bend, she stops.
I pause, looking around, but there’s nothing but the yellow limestone walls of the cliffs and the reddish dust of the soil under the canopies of the trees.
“There,” she says, pointing at a fissure that sits like a gaping wound in the rock face.
I go over for a better look. Sophie scoots past me and slithers through the crack like an agile little lizard.
“Sophie,” I call, my gut tightening. “Come out of there. You don’t know what’s inside. There can be wild animals.”
Her giggle echoes from inside. “Come, Angelo. It’s bigger here.”
I shine my phone light through the narrow opening. Sophie stands in the middle of large cave.
