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man hadn’t been a father. He’d been a brute. An alcoholic, a philanderer, a wife beater—yet through it all, his mother had always forgiven him. Made excuses for him.
    She later told Sheldon that she had stayed with their father because she had wanted desperately to keep the family together. It was the kind of mistake many women make. Kids always knew when things weren’t right, and they grew up with emotional scars.
    That’s exactly what had happened with Dwight, Sheldon was sure. Though a good kid, there had always been a void in his life. Sheldoncould see this, but he had no clue what to do to make it better. In the end, his brother had looked to the wrong type of people for approval.
    Their father had died six years earlier from liver failure. He had finally drunk himself to death. When he died, Sheldon had felt a sense of loss more than sadness. Loss for what could have and should have been. But he knew his mother would finally have some peace.
    Sheldon had been living on his own at the time, something else he felt guilty about. He had been so tired of dealing with a drunk and abusive father, day in and day out, that he’d left home shy of his eighteenth birthday. Maybe if he hadn’t taken off, he would have been there for Dwight when he really needed a man. But if he hadn’t left, he had no clue what he might have done to protect his mother.
    “You have to let go of the anger,” his mother once told him. “The anger will kill you.’’
    The sprinkling of raindrops turned to sheets within minutes, and Sheldon quickly hurried back to his Explorer. He got inside and locked the door.
    He blew out a ragged sigh. He didn’t see himself as particularly angry, but he knew he had his issues. Sometimes, though he was nothing like his father, he wondered if he was capable of that kind of cruelty. If he could be with a woman, claim to love her, raise a family with her, then turn into a monster overnight.
    His father had had a streak of bad luck in life,losing a job he loved due to an injury. He’d never been quite the same after that. Sheldon couldn’t forgive him for what he’d become—but he did wonder if every human being had that fine line that, once crossed, turned him into something else.
    He knew that whatever issues he hadn’t worked out regarding his father had affected his relationship with Tyanna. Hopefully, one of these days he’d figure it all out.
     
    Sheldon parked his car alongside a pay phone at a gas station. He got out and dashed through the pouring rain into the dry cubicle.
    Inside, he emitted a frustrated groan, then tried to brush the water off his arms. Damn all this rain. He had to get used to it again, being back in South Florida in the summer.
    He reached into the pocket of his jeans and withdrew the scrap of paper on which he’d written Maria’s number. Maria had been Dino’s girlfriend for four months, and when she decided to leave him, Dino had wanted her killed. Maria had had to go into hiding. Though he’d never met her, Sheldon had been able to locate her without tipping off Dino to that fact, and had established phone contact. His interest in Maria had to do with her knowledge of Dino’s illegal operation.
    Leaning on the metal shelf in the booth, he reached for the receiver. He gave it a quick checkto see if it was decent or gross. It looked pretty clean, but still he rubbed the ear and mouthpieces on his jeans just to be sure. He took the calling card out of his other pocket and dialed the access number, followed by Maria’s number.
    A couple rings later, she answered. “Hello?’’
    “Hey, Maria.’’
    There was a pause, then, “Is that Sheldon?’’
    “Yep.” Sheldon turned around in the phone booth, leaning his back against one of the walls. “It’s me.’’
    “How are you?” she asked cheerfully.
    “I’m all right,” he told her. “Just a little wet. But happy to be back in town.” And he was. He’d been tired of watching his back at every turn,