10:40 am
The Farm
Dante was hanging upside down from a rope he had secured in the rafters of the large barn. He spent a good amount of time up there, working things out in his mind. He liked the peace and had always enjoyed climbing. He found the skill worked well in the situations he found himself in with Simon on their missions so he stayed in practice. This morning, he was texting back and forth with Eve while she and Nikki were out running errands. He heard the barn door open on it’s well oiled hinges and Simon walked in and stopped in the middle of the floor directly below him. Without looking up, Simon sat down on the floor and then laid back, looking up at Dante. Dante secured his cell phone and waited. After several long seconds Simon finally said,
“I have been selfish with you Dante. When I first met you, I saw the skills that you had and I just went about making you better so you could help me. I justified doing so for the wrong reasons. What I should have done is taken the time to find out more about you and found a way for you to make a life that didn’t put you in harms way all the time.” Not liking the way this conversation was going, Dante nimbly unwound the line wrapped around his legs and quickly descended to the floor next to Simon. Before he could reply, Simon held up his hand and continued,
“I know what you are going to say Dante and I understand. It’s the only life you know, but it’s the easy way out…for both of us. You have so much more to offer the world than working with me, possibly, hell, probably, getting yourself killed in doing so. In the last several months, you have been shot and now you were just tortured.” Dante opened his mouth to argue when Simon added, “Eve took a bullet as well Dante. Is that the life you want for her, could you really live with yourself if something happened to her because she wanted to be with you and put herself in danger? How about if something happens to you, where would she be then?” Those piercing gray eyes cut right through to Dante’s core and he just blinked back at Simon, knowing what he was saying was the truth, but feeling like his guts were getting ripped out at the same time. Dante studied the floor for a few seconds as the silence hung in the air between the two men and then he looked up at Simon and asked,
“What am I going to do, this really is all I know? And besides, who is going to watch your back?” He pinned Simon with his questioning stare. A small smile crept up Simon’s face and he said,
“You don’t have to worry about me and you know it. Besides, I have Dead and Lee if I need them. What I don’t have is another one of you. If something happens to me, I need to know that Eva and Nikki will be taken care of and I know I can trust that you will take care of them. You need to be out of this life to be able to do that.” Dante let the words sink in, still reeling from the conversation. He shook his head and asked again,
“What am I going to do?” Simon studied the young man for a few seconds and then said,
“Go to school. You have an incredible talent with your art and you also understand computers and programming more than half of the college graduates out there. Go to school and refine those skills and find a way to help others with them. Maybe you can help kids that got sucked into the gang life like you did. Nikki has been spending a lot of time with Eve and found out that she would love to go to college and study journalism. She has a passion for writing and she has some real talent. She has spoken with some of her contacts at her college and after reviewing yours and Eve’s transcripts” a smile overtook his face, “they have agreed to let you start working with one of the professors for the rest of this semester to bring you up to speed and then you can start taking regular classes this summer.” He finished and then let Dante process what he said. Simon could see the conflict in Dante’s eyes and added,
“If I get into a situation where I need your unique skill set, I will call you. I also spoke with Rob McShay and once you complete college, you could go to work for the FBI if you have the desire to do so. They aren’t all door kickers, there are specialists for every discipline imaginable.” He put his hand on Dante’s shoulder, gave it a squeeze and stood up. He walked to the door and paused with his hand on the handle and said,
“Think about it and talk to Eve. If this is something you want to pursue, we need to get you up to the school shortly. Oh, by the way, you do realize it’s Valentine’s Day right? Did you get something for Eve?” He turned the handle and walked out the door. Dante was just standing there in the middle of the barn staring at the door. What just happened….. Valentine’s Day, holy crap, he totally forgot. He quickly put his gear away and went running out the door toward the car.