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“I can hold it.” Dominic went to grab the bottle, but his hand was slapped away.

“He’ll learn to drink it just like you did,” Lucifer assured him, bottle propping the baby again, this time holding it steady until Matthias got in a rhythm.

Holding his struck hand, Dom used his little knees to scoot himself back to sit in front of the TV, away from his father’s grasp.

Dominic watched the fuzzy screen, seeing his favorite part was about to happen. He had seen this part of the movie about a million times and mimicked what was happening on screen as it played out. When the cowboy blew on the end of the barrel, blowing away the smoke coming out of his pistol, Dominic blew on his pretend finger gun, then placed it in his jean pocket right when the cowboy placed his gun in the holster.

“Where’s DeeDee?” Lucifer asked, intently staring at him from behind.

He shrugged. He hadn’t seen much of her since she had been here watching him. “Asleep upstairs, I think.”

“Go get her.”

He quickly got up, following the order, going up the creaky steps to find DeeDee passed out in his father’s bed. Dom shook her lightly at first, trying to wake the rough, woman who smelled like the yellow piss she liked to drink too much of. When she didn’t wake, he shook her harder and harder until she finally managed to open an eye and slur out her words.

“W-What the hell do you w-want, kid?”

“My father’s her—”

Without even finishing what he was going to say, DeeDee hopped out of bed the second she found out Lucifer was here.

Running over to the tiny attached bathroom, she threw water over her face and hacked out a thick spitball into the sink after clearing her throat.

Going down the steps, she was just as quick, with only a few missteps from the hangover. If Dominic hadn’t been walking down in front of her, she wouldn’t have been able to catch herself on his head and would have drunkenly tumbled down the stairs.

DeeDee tried her best to speak like she didn’t smoke a pack a cigarettes a day. “Yes, Lucifer?”

“Watch the twins while me and Dominic go out back.”

“All right.” She smiled, going to get a look at the babies. “They are so cute, just like their fath—”

“Let’s go.” Lucifer pushed Dom along, paying the woman no mind.

“What are we doing?” Dom asked as they headed out the back door and into the backyard that was a muddy, desolate area where grass mostly refused to grow, only yellowed-green patches here and there.

“You’re ready,” his father told him, picking up an old, slightly scrunched up soda can that littered the yard. Taking it to a stump a few yards away, he set it down, then came back.

“For what?”

Lucifer pulled the pistol out from behind his back. “To become a man.”

Staring at the shiny silver metal, he saw it glisten as the sun bounced off it, practically blinding his eyes, but he couldn’t look away. He wanted so badly to reach out and touch it, to finally touch the thing he wanted most in the world that would get him one step closer to becoming a great outlaw like Jesse James.

He’d grown out of the toy gun he’d been given at two, when he realized it was for babies because a bullet never came out. He wanted a real one, always staring at the very gun his father was now holding out to him. But he would never forget what happened when he had reached out to touch it once after Lucifer had set it down on the kitchen table.

Dominic had been three, and his father had covered his tiny hand with his own, stopping him before he could even see how it felt. Lucifer had only said one thing, “That’s not a toy for a little boy; it’s a weapon for a man,” right before he snapped his little wrist, breaking it. Needless to say, he had never reached for it again. Even now, he was sure it was a test.

“Well, take it,” Lucifer insisted, pushing it closer to him.

“For real?” Dom looked away from the gun to finally meet Lucifer’s eyes, seeing he had been serious. “I won’t get in trouble?”

“You will if you don’t take it. Now take it!” Lucifer snapped.

Jumping, Dom slowly reached for it, and when the metal fell into his hand, he almost dropped it, not expecting it to be so heavy. It felt different than he thought it would, but strangely right. When he lifted it again, he was prepared for the weight.

“Good, you’re strong enough to hold it.”

Dom wasted no time pointing it toward the soda can and pulling the trigger, only to hear it click.

Lucifer quickly snatched the gun from his hand. “Did I fucking tell you to shoot it?”