Read Online At Risk of Being a Fool by Jeanette Cottrell - Free Book Online

wasn’t so good. Quinto can tell you if he wants, I won’t. You can guess, usual stuff: Mom on the stuff, no Dad that I could see. But the gang, that was good. I had a place to belong, people to back me up.” His voice dropped further. “Guys I really cared about, you know.” He glanced around, meeting one look after another. “Only, the gang, it’s a dead end.”
    Ricardo slipped into a natural cadence, the swing in his speech like Tonio’s, but with higher hills and lower valleys. “You got to get out of there, to have a good life. You don’t got to leave your friends. What you gotta do, you gotta drag ‘em along with you. That’s what I’m trying to do here.” He nodded at Tonio, and cuffed Quinto on the shoulder. “Detention facility is the pits. You know, you’ve been there, right? Prison’s worse. The older you get, the more they shove you into the adult courts. And no matter how much I love my homeboys, I ain’t going to spend the rest of my life in an eight-by-ten cell staring at ‘em. ‘Sides, they don’t stick you with your homeboy, you know what I’m saying?”
    Dillon snorted. “That’s the fuckin’ truth,” he said. “Talk to my Dad, he’ll tell you.”
    Ricardo nodded. “Once I was in the Dandridge craphouse, like my bro here, I got to thinking it through. I seen it, then. It’s one side or the other. Me, I want a nice car, a nice house, and money enough to go party when I feel like it. I don’t want to be watching the door, keeping my head down, wondering who’s coming through next. Get it? Maldonado, the son-of-a-bitch—”
    Quinto let out a laugh and stifled it, with a guilty look at Mackie. Mackie flipped her hand, dismissing it. He relaxed.
    “He done a good thing along with all the shit. He hooked me up with Mackie there. Mackie got me a couple jobs, and when I got my GED, she called a buddy or two in retail, and got me in with a national department store. I do promotional stuff, community relations, advertising layout, like that.”
    “They’re real happy with him,” Mackie confirmed. “Speaking Spanish, especially. Of course, he had to clean it up first, and drop the cuss words.” Mackie and Ricardo grinned at each other, old friends.
    The door swung open, and a burly man put his head through the door, wearing a hesitant smile. He was a homely-looking guy, his coarse black hair sticking out from under a baseball cap. His big, broad face wore the familiar crumple of the outdoorsman, with a sag around the eyes from squinting in sunlight.
    Quinto jumped out of his seat, his face alight. “Mr. Rivera! You come to get me? Let me go back to work now! Huh?”
    “Hi, Quinto.” Laughter shot through the booming voice. “Hey, who’s that I see?” At Mackie’s welcoming wave, Danny strode into the room, exuding energy.
    Ricardo grinned and held out his hand. “Danny Rivera, hey, like old times. Good to see you, bud. Quinto told me you got stuck with him. Still into the mentorship deal, huh?”
    Danny Rivera pumped his hand. “I see Mackie pulled in our favorite success story. Quinto tells me you’re hot stuff these days, Ricky.” He glanced at the others, nodding to each. His smile faded a little. “Hey, Dillon, doing okay, are you?” Dillon examined him, cold-faced.
    Quinto romped around them, an eager puppy with muddy paws. “So, am I back on the crew? Huh, huh? God, I’m sick of the House, let me come back, okay? I do good there, you know I do, I’m a good worker.”
    “You’re a good worker, Quinto. Even Bryce said so.” Danny’s face sagged. “God, what a thing.”
    “Mr. Wogan?” said Quinto respectfully. “How’s he doing, huh?”
    “Yeah,” said Mackie. “Sit down, Danny, tell us how Bryce is getting along. Ricardo, Bryce Wogan’s the foreman at Danny’s site. He got hurt, pipe bomb left at the site last Saturday. Touch and go, there, for a while, but last I heard, they thought he’d make a comeback.”
    “Well, he’s a tough bugger,”