I Lie Well

“Vincent DeVito, put that gun down!” The chief of police was standing with his unit behind Vinnie, their weapons drawn.

“He killed my brother, and he is getting away with it! I will not put my gun down.” Vinnie spat at the cops.

“I will not warn you again, son,” Officer Daniels said.

Matt was no longer paying attention to the situation at hand though, which in retrospect was very dangerous. But he couldn’t help it. He could’ve sworn he’d seen her walking through the crowd of people gathered around the court house. Her hair was different and she hadn’t even stopped long enough for Matt to get a good look at her, but he knew it was his wife.

He stood up quickly, despite Zack’s efforts to keep him low to the ground and tried to run after her. But he was stopped by a shooting pain in his shoulder. He felt the pain before he even registered the fact that he’d heard a gun shot. But more gun shots followed. Matt turned in time to see Vinnie DeVito get shot in the stomach, before everything went black.



The next time Matt opened his eyes he was in a hospital bed. Jimmy, Johnny, Zack, and Brian were sitting in the room. To anyone else it would’ve looked like his friends were sitting around waiting for him to wake up, but in truth, they were all on high alert, standing guard in Matt’s room.

Whenever one person in their tight nit unit, especially the leader, was injured or in a vulnerable situation everyone else stood guard.

“What the fuck happened?” Matt asked. “And how long was I out.”

“Only a few hours,” Brian said.

“You ran, and DeVito shot you.”

“I did not run.” Matt said. “What I mean is, I wasn’t running from him. I saw something… Someone, in the crowd.”

“Who did you see?” Jimmy asked.

“Beth.”

Jimmy rolled his eyes. “God dammit Matt! When are you going to let this shit go?! She’s fucking dead! You’re never going to see her again!”

Matt was taken aback by Jimmy’s outburst.

“You’re out of line,” Matt said.

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Jimmy said. “You have to let her go.”

Before Matt could even say anything else, Jimmy left the room. Matt couldn’t believe what had just happened. Jimmy was always someone that Matt could trust. But that trust was running thin these days. Matt also didn’t like that Jimmy had said, ‘You’re never going to see her again!’ instead of saying, ‘We’re never going to see her again.’ Because, no one would see her again after all; she was dead.

“What happened to me?” Matt asked.

“You were shot in the shoulder,” Zack said. The tension in the room was thick now. “It had to be removed from the shoulder but luckily didn’t damage any of your muscles or nerves. You’re arm is immobile for a little while, but besides that you’re fine.”

“And DeVito?”

“Died on the way to the hospital.”

“Well this is sure to start some trouble.” Matt said, and he wasn’t happy about it.



Matt and Beth sat quietly in Matt’s car as he drove her to get her own car.

“So why was your car in the shop?” Matt asked. He wanted to make some conversation with Beth. After today, he knew Jimmy would do his best to keep him away from his twin sister.

“It needed an oil change. And I may have gotten into a little accident.”

“Oh?” Matt asked.

Beth sighed. “Some idiot slammed on his breaks in front of me, and I rear-ended him.”

“Ah, that sucks.”

“Tell me about it Not only did my car get messed up, but my dad was about to kick my ass.”

“Yeah, one time I got into an accident like that too. But my dad did kick my ass.”

Beth giggled, and Matt knew he was hooked on her. He could listen to her laugh forever.

“I always see you and your friends coming over,” Beth said. “And I know Jimmy thinks he’s protecting me by keeping me away from all of you. But sometimes, I could just strangle him. You all seem nice, and I haven’t got many of my own friends. It’s hard to make friends outside of the business my father is in, and him and my brother make in impossible for me to have friends that are inside of the business. I guess what I’m trying to say is, thank you for offering to take me to get my car. It’s really nice spending time with someone who isn’t my brother or my parents.”

“It’s my pleasure,” Matt said. “I think my sister feels the same way sometimes.”

“You have a sister?” Beth asked.

“Yeah. She’s a couple of years younger than me. Maybe you guys could talk sometime. I’m sure she’d love to have another girl to hang out with.”

“Does she hang out with you guys?”

“Sometimes.” Matt said. “She’s usually bored by us.”

“Jimmy is impossible.” Beth said. “He never lets me do anything, and my dad always takes his side. My mom won’t ever go against what my dad says, so I’m pretty sure I will never have any friends except for Jimmy. Which sucks. It’s like I’m his baby sister instead of his twin.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry Matt. I really didn’t want to spend this time complaining to you about my life like an annoying little girl.”

“Don’t worry about it,” He said. “That’s what friends are for.”

Beth glanced over at Matt and smiled. He felt his heart skip a beat. He had never felt like this before. He was used to girls throwing themselves at him, and he’d fuck them and then never call them again. He’d had a serious relationship or two before, but he’d never really been interested in long term. But when he looked at Beth, he could see himself with her sixty years from now, and it scared him. For one, he barely new her. And then there was the fact that Jimmy would probably cut his balls off if he knew what Matt was thinking about his sister.

“Thanks.” She said quietly.

Not too long after that, they reached the mechanic shop that Beth had said her car was at.

“Thank you so much Matt, I really appreciate this!” Beth said as she was getting her things together.

“I’ll wait here, just incase you need something,” He said, not wanting to let her go just yet.

As she turned to leave the car, Matt pulled out his phone. The owner of the shop was a close friend to not only Jimmy’s family, but Matt’s too. He sent a quick text to the shop owner, asking him to tell Beth that her car wasn’t ready yet.

Matt sat at the desk in his office, staring at the computer screen in front of him. He had a lot of e-mails that needed to be answered, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. His shoulder was really sore, and he just couldn’t get his mind off of Beth. He knew he’d seen her at the court house.

A knock on his offie door, stopped his thinking. The door opened slowly, and Jimmy poked his head in.

“I called you a couple of times, but you didn’t answer so I just headed over anyway. Your front door was unlocked too. That’s probably not a good idea.”

“You’re right.” Matt said, and that was it.

“Look man,” Jimmy said. “I’m sorry about how I freaked out on your before.” Matt noticed what looked like a red hand print on the side of Jimmy’s face.

“You okay?” He asked.

Jimmy’s eyes went wide for a moment before he straightened his face out. “Yeah, I’m fine. Leana and I got into a little bit of a fight earlier.”

“Sorry to hear that.” Matt said sincerely.

“I’m sorry for stepping out of line today,” Jimmy repeated himself. “Sometimes when you talk about Beth, it hurts me so bad that I can’t take it anymore. I know you lost your wife, but I literally lost my other half.”

Matt frowned. He’d been so selfish since Beth died that he hadn’t even thought about how it had affected other people. “I’m sorry too.” Matt said. “I don’t really mean to keep bringing it up, but it consumes my thoughts ninety percent of the time. I don’t even notice I’m talking about it and I am.”

“I understand.” Jimmy said. “I know she was the love of your life.”

“She was my life, Jim.” Matt felt tears prick his eyes. If he’d been with anyone else in this moment he would have fought them off. But Jimmy was his best friend, and he didn’t care. “I’m so lost without her.”

Jimmy clapped Matt on the shoulder. “It’ll get easier I’d imagine,” He said trying his best to support his friend; his brother. “But we have to look ahead. We have a lot of shit going on right now and we can’t afford to be distracted.”

“You’re right.” Matt said again. “We need to get this shit straightened out with the DeVito’s.”

Matt was relieved that him and Jimmy seemed to have come to some sort of silent agreement about Beth and her untimely death. But what Matt didn’t know was that right now, his truce with Jimmy could only be temporary.