you're the little thing, my saving grace

Chapter 10

"Vegas, you'd better sit here," Pete asks the kid to move between him and Vegas Senior, when the kid initially sits on the edge.

His adult namesake grins, but silently lets the kid into the seat between himself and Pete.

Pete exhales when the trailers start. Next, little Vegas glues his eyes to the screen, but Pete feels the gaze of big Vegas on him. Without turning his head, Pete speaks in a low voice:

"You asked to watch a cartoon with us — so watch it. They don't show cartoons on me."

Vegas giggles and puts a handful of popcorn in his mouth. Pete smiles and stealthily begins to glance in his direction. By the middle of the action on the screen, Vegas really seems to be engrossed in watching. Together with the kid he laughs joyfully at the funniest moments, eats popcorn with pleasure, and generally behaves very naturally. And if Pete hadn't known that the heir to the formidable head of one of Thailand's most influential mafia clans was sitting across the chair from him, he would have mistaken Vegas for an ordinary young guy, perhaps even an older brother, who brought little Vegas to a cartoon on a weekend.

But this is not the case. And Pete can't forget who Vegas really is. If he had been asked how easy it was for him to forget his past life when he worked for Kan, he would have had to lie something. Because he hadn't forgotten anything. And a little boy living as a weed in his own father's house, too. Only now this little boy has turned into a real adult man, in whose arms Pete recently almost forgot what is allowed and what is not.

"Okay, we're going to the restroom now, then we're leaving. Good luck," Pete nods to Vegas.

"Then - back home?"

Pete shrugs uncertainly, and the kid tugs on his arm:

"I don't want to go home! Mom hasn't arrived yet, let's go for a walk!"

Adult Vegas asks Pete:

"Where do you usually walk?"

"Just around the town. You won't be able to walk around much here."

"Are there any places nearby, a short drive away? We could go for a walk there together, what do you say?"

"There is a park area with tea plantations near the village. There's also a golden lion statue in the center. One brewing company has set up its territory."

"I've never seen tea plantations in person. Let's go?"

Little Vegas's eyes light up. Pete, of course, concedes, only says:

"We came here on foot, I'll go get the car now."

"Don't," Vegas is playing with the keys, "I'll take you. Is Vegas already eight years old?"

"Yeah."

"Then a three-point seat belt will do. Everything is fine. We can go."

Pete watches with some annoyance the delight with which his son climbs inside the hatch Ford Mustang shade of "Berlin azure". Of course, once upon a time, for saving his son, he received from Kan an amount that could have been used to buy a car and more expensive, but Pete decided to invest most of the money in his own business, and save the rest for the future education of Vegas.