But even if he let Lorenzo take the fall for this, he knew his mother would blame him for it. He couldn’t chance Lorenzo being thrown in jail. Lorenzo may not have ever considered the whole drugs thing if Vince hadn’t tried it first. That kid did everything Vince did. Vince should’ve anticipated this and warned him more severely—watched him even closer.

“Why did you bring them here?” Vince’s father asked.

“I agreed to hold them for him.” Anita said firmly. “He didn’t want them around Lorenzo.”

Lorenzo frowned, but Vince squeezed his arm.

Anita turned to her father, holding her wrist. “We can work something out, Dad, please.” Her dad shook his head adamantly but did stare at her wrist. For all anyone of them knew it could be broken.

“Chavez,” Vince’s dad addressed Anita’s now. “I’m asking you man to man to please work something out without getting the law involved. I don’t want my son’s life ruined. He’s only eighteen. I’m sure there’s something we can agree on.”

Anita’s dad held his jaw, his face still a bloody mess, but even that didn’t satisfy Vince. He deserved to be beaten even more.

“My insurance is not gonna cover all this. You’ll be paying for anything I have to come up with out of pocket.” His face screwed up when he touched his nose.

“You got it. I’ll get you money,” Vince’s dad said too quickly—too desperately.

Vince nearly growled at how Anita’s dad’s eyes seem to flicker at that. “But to overlook the fact that your boy came into my daughter’s room with drugs—brought drugs around my little boys is gonna be hefty.”

Vince scoffed. This guy was now going to act like he cared about any of his kids. “The only thing you cared about when you saw the drugs was—”

“Enough Vincent!” His dad raised his voice. “Go outside.”

“Dad—”

“Outside!” his dad yelled now, “both of you.”

Vince took a deep breath, glancing back one last time at Anita. Once again without saying a single word, her eyes said it all. She was begging him to not say anything about the physical abuse.

Once out on the fire escape Lorenzo started in on him. “Really? You didn’t want the drugs around me, but it was okay to bring them around her little brothers? You know how bad that makes you look? I’m not letting you go down like this, Vince.”

“You’re not saying a word. I don’t want mom and pop knowing I knew about this and was planning on fixing it on my own. I’m already in deep shit as it is. What difference does it make now if they know it was you doing it or me?” He glanced into the room to make sure his dad wasn’t within hearing distance. “And not a word about her dad hitting her, okay? I don’t care what happens.”

“Why not?” Lorenzo looked at him exasperated. “Can’t we at least threaten him with that, so he won’t keep threatening to call the cops on you?”

“No, if dad knows, that’s exactly what he’ll wanna do. She’s this close to getting out of there without child protective services plucking those kids from under her. If that happens there’ll be all kinds of red tape to get past to try and get them back even once she turns eighteen, not to mention him fighting her for them just to be an ass**le—or for money. You saw his eyes light up in there when the subject turned to money.”

He shut up when he saw his dad’s head come out the window. “I’m going out through the front. Go back to the apartment. I’ll meet you there.”

“What’s gonna happen?” Lorenzo asked.

“I don’t know yet.” His father frowned, and then those deeply disappointed eyes locked on Vince. “I have to call your uncle.”

And just like that on top of it all, Vincent felt sick to his stomach. That was one of the things he knew his dad had to be most relieved about. The fact that it had been a while since he’d been forced to report any more bad news to his family about his trouble-making son. Everyone in La Jolla had been so proud of the change Vince had made. Even more troubling, Rose would be furious. More than furious, she’d be devastated.

Following Lorenzo back up to their room, he wondered if he should call Rose and explain before it got back to her, but then Lorenzo hit him with another bombshell.

“I need to get the stuff back to Cruz, Vince, or I’ll owe him for it. There was close to a grand worth of stuff in there.”

Vince stared at him, his mind suddenly going back to the dime bags thrown across Anita’s bedroom floor. He knew the drill. Once you had possession of the drugs, it was on you to get the money for it or return the drugs intact. No if ands or buts. If Lorenzo didn’t deliver the loot or bring back the stash, they were coming after him.

“We’ll get it back. I’ll talk to—”

The bedroom door flew open, and Vince’s dad charged at Vince slamming him against the wall.

“Is this what you want? To be a low–life, drug-dealing gangster your whole life! Is this what your mother and I have worked so hard for?” Snatching the phone out of Vincent’s hand, his dad threw it against the wall, and Vince watched it smash into pieces. Stunned, he stared at his dad whose face was inches from his now. “I will not let you throw your life away. You hear me? Do you hear me!”

“Dad!” Lorenzo placed his hand on his dad’s shoulder trying to calm him.