He pauses and I know he’s trying to decide what else to say, so I wait and eventually more comes.

“They’re addicts, like my dad, but harder stuff,” he mumbles. “Been gone for a few years now. His brother stepped in like he was being noble, doing what was right and all that other showboat shit, but he only wanted what his mom tried hard and failed to get after their sisters’ accident.”

“What was that?” I ask quietly.

His chest inflates against my back, and he holds his deep breath in for a long moment.

“A little bit of hope his granddad left them,” he tells me. “It’s not a lot by the standards of people here, but for them, it’s more than enough, just like it was enough to get big brother to pretend to play nice for a minute.”

My chest aches.

Money is the devil of this world, and power is its son.

Beretta’s chin falls to my head, and he speaks below a whisper, just in case. “His sister...she’s alive, Trouble.”

I tense, my hands coming up to grip his forearms. I’m tempted to look over my shoulder, but I’m not sure I can look at his face right now.

“But you said... or I thought...”

“She’s partially paralyzed now, and in a home,” he murmurs. “It’s really hard on him, but he’s helpless right now, at his brother’s will. It’s tough, seeing him fall apart. She’s been the most important person in his life since I’ve known him. It’s not for me to say how he’s feeling, but he’s not the same as he was. He tries, but his world is different now.”

How could he not be forever changed?

The weight of his words is too heavy, and my body sags against Beretta’s and he gladly accepts the burden, his stance widening in the sand to hold me up.

“His brother’s a piece of shit, parents are who knows where.” He’s quiet for a long moment before he adds, “He has no one, Trouble, just us.”

I pull in a lungful of air. “Maybe that’s enough.”

He shifts, leaning over slightly so he can meet my eyes, a sorrowful look in his. “No,” he says. “There’s still something missing.”

We hold each other’s gazes a long moment.

“The blackouts, the hiding in the dark,” I mumble. “How you guys hid in the corner of my dressing room that day...”

“He gets in any trouble and it could ruin things for him, his brother will only make his life harder, send him back to jail.” He nods, a somber look in his eye and I know there is more than he is sharing. He grins suddenly. “What’s that Cardi B song say, ‘no face, no case’?”