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It’s said in an attempt to drive a wedge between them. Seth is out cold, hanging by his wrists to his left and the woman who has been sent to torture them, interrogate them, uses it because she think it will drive a wedge between the Gecko brothers and bring down their new control over Malvado’s territory. It’s supposed to set them at odds and have him questioning his brother’s loyalty and it might have but Seth wakes up and he’s pissed and things move pretty quickly from there and it isn’t until later when they’re home, back at Jed’s, when her words and the images she forced into his head come back to him.
Do you know what your brother dreams of every night, Richard Gecko? What he sees every time he closes his eyes?
Seth’s gone to bed, cleaned up and more than a little annoyed that his easy job turned into something a little more difficult with a lot more violence and death, but otherwise, it’s an ordinary night for Seth and so he’s out for the night not realising anything has changed. Not realising the seed that was planted in Richie’s mind while they were locked in that room with the crazy culebra bitch who wanted to torture them a little and maim them a lot.
Richie’s not even sure why those words have hit him so hard, he’s not sure what it is that makes these words so different from all the other things people have said to try and come between them, but they stay with him and tug at something he’s not sure he knows how to explain. It’s not guilt, not exactly, it almost tastes like shame and it forces him to pay attention, to notice things he wouldn’t have noticed before and assign reason to actions he would have dismissed before.
Do you know what he longs for? What you took from him?
When a song comes on the radio, one that Richie knows for a fact that his brother used to love, Seth changes the station with a smack and a curse under his breath about shitty music. Richie frowns at him, ready to make a comment, remind his brother how many time Seth once forced him to listen to that very song but Seth’s wearing that steeling expression that says not to push him.
So Richie doesn’t. He doesn’t question it but he does wonder.
Its been a really long fucking night, they’re both starving, Seth’s got a bullet hole in his shoulder and Richie has a dozen in his suit that used to have matching ones in flesh but they’ve already healed. Seth’s in pain, he’s exhausted but he needs food and so they stop on the way home and in his half asleep, pain blurred daze he starts to order something Richie has never once seen him eat. He seems to realise half way through what he’s saying because he barks at the teenager through the window to forget it and orders the same burger and fries order he always has.
He does it with a few choice words and a clenching of his fist and Richie narrows his eyes, wondering what the fuck that was about. He’s tired too, though, and it’s mostly forgotten about until a full ten days later when they’re back at the same joint, with Scott riding the backseat that it clicks for Richie. Nobody says anything, but when Scott offers up his demands for a specific flavoured shake and his eyes meet Seth’s in the mirror and a look passes between them that Richie knows.
Do you know what he gave up?
There’s a woman who makes a habit of coming in to Jed’s at least twice a week, just, as far as Richie can tell, to make eyes at Seth and make it obvious for anyone looking that she’s his for the taking. It always makes Richie grin because the woman is skinny and dark haired and she’s exactly his brothers type, like a less crazy version of Vanessa and Richie appreciates the less crazy part even if he’s amused that his brother is falling back into old habits and he has doubts about it ending well.
Only, it doesn’t even start. Kisa’s back one night, passing through on her way to do something, Richie doesn’t ask what, just makes a point of reminding her she’s always welcome, that she can stay – she doesn’t. But she is witness to Seth’s fan and the way she leans against the bar, obvious in her willingness, shirt pouring cleavage over the bar at his brother.
It completely takes Richie by surprise when Kisa slides along the bar and forces her way into the conversation. There’s nothing subtle about her contempt for the woman and Richie is so surprised by her interference, Kisa doesn’t exactly hate Seth anymore but he never would have pegged her for the kind of woman to get revenge by ruining his sex life.
It doesn’t play out that way, though. Try as he might, over the music and the atmosphere he doesn’t here what she says to the woman, only sees the glare she tries to shoot Kisa’s way in response, the pleading look she send to Seth, like she’s asking him to stand up for her. Richie only sees the way Seth smiles back at her and he knows that smile, it’s his brothers uninterested one.
He doesn’t hear the words Seth says to Kisa when the woman is gone but he’s close enough that he hears the end of Kisa’s response. ‘She’s not your type.’
The wry grin Seth sends Kisa and the strange look of pity he sees on her face has that strange feeling rearing up inside Richie again.
Do you even know, Richard Gecko, how broken he is?
Its not a word he’s ever really associated with Seth. He’s always known there’s a certain level to Seth’s attitude that is an act, he’s always been able to tell when things are going bad and his brother is pulling at all of the rules that Uncle Eddie taught them. He’s always been able to tell when the mask of that code, the gentleman thief code, slides into place to mask the fury and the violence – sometimes the insecurities and the fear – of a job going sideways.
But Richie has just watch his brother let Kisa send away a woman who is attractive, smart, funny and just the right amount of morally ambiguous to fit his brother and he’s forced to consider that maybe he doesn’t know something, maybe there’s a weight to those whispered words.
Maybe there’s a truth to those things he saw.
Do you understand now, Richard, what you did to him?