"And I'm assuming my father did it… whatever it is."
"Well, that's definitely the assumption."
"I'm surprised he let anyone find him," Matty said. "When someone disappears, they usually stay gone."
"Tell me about it. Took us all by surprise. Happened weeks ago… about two months, actually, right after you left town. They dumped him out on Primo's front lawn."
Matty cringed. "I'm assuming they've had a funeral."
Gavin stabbed his plate of food with the fork. "Not yet."
"What are they waiting for?"
"Him to die, I guess."
It took Matty a minute. An entire fucking minute. Those words bounced around in his mind as he watched Gavin casually eating, something about them just not wanting to sink in. But then he got it, after those sixty seconds. "He's not dead."
Son of a bitch.
"Not yet," Gavin said again. "Although, if you ask me, it won't be long."
Matty ran his hands down his face. "How bad is it? Coma? Brain damage?"
"Worse."
"What's worse than that?"
"He's a fucking cocksure jackass," Gavin said. "Even more so than before."
Matty's eyes opened, his gaze going straight to Gavin. "What?"
"He's got no sense of self-preservation. He's out there playing fast and loose with his life."
"You're telling me he's alive?"
Gavin looked up, brow furrowing at Matty's incredulous tone. "We already said that."
"We said he wasn't dead yet, not that he was alive," Matty said, his voice grave. This was the last thing he expected to hear. "That's a big difference, as far as the damage my father inflicts in concerned."
"Yeah, well, don't get me wrong here—Uncle Bobby got him good. Him being alive is pretty much a miracle. And it's not going to last, at the rate he's going. He's mad at the world and it shows."
"Does he know about us?"
"He just knows what everyone else does—car went boom and you two got ghost. I think he's too wrapped up in the 'who did what' to go any further with it, but he's smart. If he lives long enough to start using his brain, he'll ask questions. He knows better than anyone right now that just because someone vanished doesn't mean they're not still out there."
"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit."
"Tell me about it," Gavin said, continuing to eat.
"What are we going to do?"
"I'm not going to do a damn thing," Gavin said. "No more than I've been doing, anyway."
"Well, what am I supposed to do?"
"I don't know, man," Gavin muttered. "You can be like me and keep your mouth shut, act like you know nothing, and let it all play out. He'll probably get himself killed before anything comes of it. Or you can tell your girlfriend—"
"Wife," Matty chimed in.
Gavin faltered. "No shit? Mr. Ice Princess now? Congratulations."
Matty's lips twitched, itching to spew a comeback to that, but it wasn't worth it. There were more important issues. His eyes darted to the clock—ten minutes until his shift was over. "Or I can tell Genna her brother is back in New York, alive and well."
"I don't know that I'd say he's well," Gavin said. "But he's alive, and he's back, and she deserves to know. But it could change things. She might want to see him. Probably wouldn't want him to think she's dead, especially since thinking she's dead has him acting like a miserable jackass. So if you tell her, you'll probably end up back in New York, back where you started, with people trying to kill you both for stupid shit."
"So I either keep it from Genna and let Dante get himself killed, or I confess, maybe spare him, but in the process risk her? Those are my options?"
"Yep," Gavin said. "Sure glad I'm not you right now."
"You're an asshole." Matty ran his hands down his face as he leaned back in the booth. "I take back everything I've ever said about you being my favorite cousin."
"Oh, speaking of cousins, I almost forgot the best part."
Matty glared at him through his hands. "There's more?"
"Yeah, you remember Gabby? Alfie and Victoria's girl?"
"Of course I remember Gabby. What about her?"
"She figured out the truth," Gavin said. "Which wouldn't be such a problem if it weren't for the fact that she has, for some inexplicable reason, decided to take up with Dante."
"What do you mean take up with him?"
"They're, uh…" Gavin waved his fork around in circles before stabbing the air with it. "Well, they're fucking. I don't know how else to describe it. He's sticking it to her on the regular."