Page 57 of Loving Smoke

“Ha, yeah, right, until she did something he could never forgive.”

“What are you talking about?”

“When will you finally start seeing him for who he is?”

“I’m well aware of who our father is.” The last thing I needed was a lecture on family from my brother. Especially when he was already on his second beer.

“I know you think I’m stupid and I’m wasting my life, but you just don’t get it.” He took a drag off the blunt and blew the smoke toward the sky.

“I never said you were stupid, but I do think you’re wasting your life with this playboy attitude of not taking anything seriously.”

“You ever think why I don’t take anything seriously?” He huffed out a rough laugh. “Of course, you don’t because you are so enamored by our father’s presence, so caught up in his bullshit and lies you can’t see the truth.”

“I’m not caught up in anything, but what I don’t understand is how you don’t want justice for our mother. That you don’t want to avenge her death and make the people who were responsible suffer.”

“And you think you can do that?”

“I can try.” Smoke’s face popped into my brain.

“Well, I hate to tell you, but you’re blaming the wrong people.”

“What do you mean?”

“The only one responsible for our mother’s death is him.” Manny jerked his thumb toward the house.

“I agree, the people he does business with are brutal and vindictive, but it was the Royal Bastards who pulled the actual trigger.”

“You really believe that, huh?”

“We were both there. You saw what happened and you saw who did it.” A spark of doubt crept through me as I recalled Smoke’s words of denial.

“Or what you think you saw.”

Today wasn’t the day for Manny’s introspection on life or his abstract weed-driven philosophy.

“I just know I want to be a part of taking down our mother’s murderers.”

“Then I suggest you get a gun, barge into his office and shoot the bastard.”

“You can blame him in theory but?—”

“You’re such a little fool.” Manny averted his gaze to the pool. Drew deep on the weed, then faced me. “He hired the guys who shot Mom.”

“What? Why would you say that?”

“Cause it’s the fuckin’ truth.”

My heart pounded hard in my chest, and my lungs contracted to the point of pain. I braced my palms against the lounger.

“He told me months ago before you came home. In his twisted mind he thought he was justified since she betrayed him, so he came clean and told me the truth.”

“What truth?”

“He returned home early from a trip to South America and he caught Mom screwing one of the bodyguards.”

“No. That’s not true. She would never do . . .”

“She knew what he was about and she knew he had other women.”

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