“Thanks,” Getty mutters and accepts the pack of tissues.
“You’re welcome,” Cecilia replies, facing forward again. “Does anyone care if I lower the window?”
“Jul, just pull over,” Tye says from the backseat. “I need to piss.”
“Wait a few more miles,” I tell him.
“I need to take a leak too,” Fort says.
I sigh. Sometimes I feel like a cranky dad on a family road trip. This is one of those times.
I pull off the road and bounce a hundred yards over dirt and grass before braking. My brothers dive out of the backseat even before I cut the engine. They make a hell of a racket as they head into the brush and Cecilia looks at me.
“Are you feeling better?” I ask her.
She nods. “That was a little hectic but at least I feel sober now.”
I squint through the windshield, observing how my brothers have scattered. “They can’t have gone far. They’ll be back in a minute.”
She opens the passenger door. “Let’s wait out here.”
The moon is one tiny sliver away from being full and there’s enough light to see even with the truck headlights turned off. I turn down the tailgate and cover it with a thick wool blanket. Cecilia immediately takes a seat and modestly arranges her long dress over her legs. Self-conscious about her scars, she never allows her left leg to show.
Her fingers play with the charm at the end of her necklace as she scans the sky. “I thought I might be able to see it but I guess the time of year isn’t right.”
I take a seat beside her and look up. “What are you looking for?”
“Gemini constellation.” She holds up her necklace and I can barely make out the image on the charm. Twins embracing under a sun and moon. “Gabriel gave this to me years ago. Our eighteenth birthday.”
The way she says her twin brother’s name leaves no doubt that he means the world to her. But that was never really a question anyway. Otherwise she wouldn’t be here.
She releases the pendant and chews her lip. “I’m worried. He promised he’d call but he barely answers my texts. And Angelo is no help. If Gabe is trying to protect me from bad news, I’d rather know the truth.”
“There’s no bad news,” I say, though my opinion of her twin brother plummets even lower.
“Do you really know that for sure?” she blurts and the anxiety in her voice threatens to take me out.
“Yes, I know it for sure,” I assure her. “I promise.”
She exhales with relief. I’m glad she asks no follow up questions.
The truth is that Gabriel Grimaldi is still lounging on a San Diego beach and carelessly spending every dime his grandfather sends him. Mancini has already backed off. The word is out that Gabe has a pass for his latest misdeed. I get the feeling he’ll need another one before long.
Cecilia seems to be unaware that Gabe is free to emerge from hiding. Instead, he prefers to milk the situation and take a vacation while his twin sister agonizes over his fate.
“Thank you,” she says softly.
She shouldn’t be thanking me. Any favors I’ve done on Gabe’s behalf were entirely selfish. I feel a sudden stab of guilt about that.
Tye is the first one to stagger out of the darkness, still looking like he’s been mauled by a bear. He’s borderline drunk and he’s grinning. The truck creaks under the addition of his weight and he sits so close to Cecilia that he physically bumps into her. She flinches away from him and curls against my shoulder.
“Watch it,” I warn my brother. Reaching around Cecilia, I shove him away.
“Sorry,” he says, glancing at Cecilia with genuine concern.
“It’s not you,” she says, “it’s the blood.” She gestures to his shirt, which could double as a horror movie prop. “I really can’t stand the sight of blood.”
“Oh.” Tye yanks the remains of his stained shirt off, tossing it behind us in the pickup bed. He puffs out his muscled chest and grins. “Better now?”
