“Who?” Lucius kept his voice level, a low, dangerous calm settling over him. “Who did this to you, Blake?”

His son’s eyes filled with tears he was too proud to shed. “Guillermo. We got in an argument about the game Saturday. I talked back, and he… he grabbed me, shoved me against the wall. Said I was disrespectful, that Mom lets me get away with murder, that someone needed to teach me discipline.” Blake’s voice cracked. “I pushed him back, just once, and he… he lost it.”

Lucius felt his blood temperature drop to somewhere near absolute zero. This was what the old guys called combat calm – that crystalline clarity that came right before hell broke loose.
The Threat and the Promise“Where’s your mother?”

“She was at her sister’s. She doesn’t know yet. Guillermo told me if I said anything, he’d make sure I never saw you again. That he has friends in family court, that he could prove you’re an unfit parent because you’re never around.”

Lucius pulled his son into his arms, felt the boy shake against his chest. This was the weight he’d carried since the day Blake was born – the absolute responsibility to protect this life he’d helped create.
“Did you hit him back?”