My Cruel Salvation (Fallen Saint # 3) - J. Kenner Page 0,31
eye on that fucking target with twelve of the thirteen rounds in his pistol. The target was dead, and he’d told his father so. And earned a beating in the process.
He’d almost fought back. But he’d only been thirteen then, one month shy of his birthday. He was strong for his age, he knew that. But he was still smaller than The Wolf. Even at fourteen, he wasn’t quite ready.
But he was getting close. Bigger. Stronger. And his marksmanship was dead on. And he was working to make it even better.
“I’ll make it up to you,” he told Aurelia now. “Someday, I promise I will.”
“Big promise for a little boy.”
Alex turned and saw Marco Giatti strolling toward him, his dark black hair slicked back from his forehead. He was grinning. Unlike The Wolf, Marco grinned a lot. And he talked to Alex like a man, even when he called him boy. Told him stories about his life on the East Coast. Stories that reminded Alex that there were other places. Other lives.
“I’m not a little boy,” Alex said.
“No, you’re not. Wish you were. Growing up too fast. But you’re still just a cugine. One more soldier in the ranks. You ain’t the don yet, kid.”
And he never wanted to be. He didn’t say that, though. Not even to Marco. Instead, he just lifted his chin. “I’m almost fifteen.”
“And still young enough to be a damn fool.”
“Am not.” He felt like an idiot as soon as he said the words.
“You think it’s going to go well if your father learns you came out here? That you got all boo-hoo weepy for his goomah?”
“She wasn’t. She was his wife.”
“And you’re crying for her. Sentimental nonsense. You know he’ll think so. You think he won’t tell you as much with his fists if he finds you out here?”
Alex shrugged, feeling sulky. Marco was right. “Why are you here?”
“Because I like you, boy-o. And I don’t want to see you roughed up because you got on the wrong side of The Wolf’s temper.”
“You shouldn’t stay stuff like that.” Fear cut though him. Alex liked Marco. Liked him a lot. He didn’t want him gone, disappeared like some of his father’s other men.
“Yeah, well if you won’t tell on me, I won’t tell on you.”
Alex shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. “I won’t.”
For a moment, they both stood in silence. Then Marco said, “She was a sweet girl who grew up into a kind woman. She deserved better.”
Alex tilted his head, studying the older man. Beside him, Marco shrugged. “Just saying the truth in front of you and Aurelia and God. But it stays here, right? Just between us.”
“Just between us,” Alex said. He drew in a breath. “I meant what I said. I didn’t protect her from him because I couldn’t. But someday, I’ll avenge her.”
“And I meant what I said,” Marco retorted. “That’s a big promise to make. But I hope it’s one you can keep.” He nodded at the grave. “Say your goodbyes and get home before someone sees you. And for the record, I wasn’t ever here.”
“Okay,” Alex said. As he watched Marco walk away, he saw someone else standing behind a nearby gravestone. A short, heavyset boy he recognized immediately—Manuel Espinoza. Manny. Aurelia’s brother.
He waited, expecting Manny to come over, but the boy just turned and walked the opposite direction. Alex frowned, but brushed it off. Manny had always been a strange kid, and he seemed to have gotten stranger after Aurelia’s death. Not that Alex saw him much. After Aurelia died, The Wolf had sent Manny away to live with one of his second cousins, a quiet, skinny man named Romeo Duarte who ran “errands” with Joseph Blackstone, an ass-kissing creep who was also one of the up-and-comers in The Wolf’s operation.
Manny had cried and cried, but Alex would have given anything to move out of his father’s house. Manny didn’t have a clue that he’d been blessed with the only good thing that came from Aurelia’s death.
With a sigh, he blinked away the tears that threatened as he once again looked at Aurelia’s grave. “Goodbye,” he whispered, then added, “I’ll keep my promise.”
He would never speak of it again, but Alex knew he would always remember that promise. One he’d silently made to all the women in his father’s life. His own mother. The wives who would come after Aurelia. The girlfriends, too. Because The Wolf would devour them all.