“I was too traumatized not to. I bet she just sold it on eBay.” Mosh laughed hard, then wiped his eyes. “Look at this dump! This is my life now. As soon as I make a dime somebody else sues me for it, and all I can do is say yes, you’re right, no contest, Your Honor, because if I don’t, if I tell the truth, then the MCB shoots me. You don’t know what it’s like. I had everything! Nice house, nice cars, beautiful women. Everything.”

“So they took your Ferrari—”

“It was an Aston Martin!” he corrected me quickly. “It was a Vanquish and it was sweet.”

“And you can be a big crybaby about it and drink yourself to an early death or you can cowboy up and move the hell on.”

“Up yours…Move on, doing what? You trying to recruit me again?”

I shrugged. “Why not? It’s important work. You know what’s really out there now.”

“I wish I didn’t.”

“If wishing worked, you’d still have your Aston.”

Mosh picked up the remains of the broken guitar. “I’m not like you, Owen.”

“No, you’re not. First off, you’re better looking. But really, Dad taught you the same things he taught me. Hell, Mosh, my current teammates were a high-school teacher and a stripper. Growing up in Pitt family boot camp makes you Chuck Norris in comparison.” That was a complete lie, since Holly was the hardest mortal human I knew and Trip was as reliable as the sunrise, but I was trying to build my brother up, not tell him that my teammates would eat him for breakfast.

“You were the tough one, not me.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. “I’m the one that fell into line and did exactly what Dad told me to do. You’re the one that had the guts to do your own thing. That makes you brave. I didn’t stop listening to him until after you’d told him to get lost and followed your own dream. Standing up to Dad? Screw fighting monsters. That’s tough.”

Anger temporarily spent, Mosh seemed deflated. He returned to the couch. “It’s been one hell of a year.”

“I can’t argue with that.” And now here comes the hard part. “Speaking of Dad…”

He knew the basics about Dad’s letter and his cryptic warnings, but not the specifics. Mosh was suddenly suspicious. “What? Is it that thing in his head?”