Do not help a gang leader again

Helping Mr. Gang Leader

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Chapter 5:

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“Talk,” Gianna demanded, and she wasn’t going to let Giovanni go until she had all the answers.

“You’re not going to like it,” Giovanni warned.

Gianna told him plainly, “Somehow, I already figured that.”

“Don’t you think instead we should talk about how you almost had a heart attack tonight?”

Gianna narrowed her eyes at her brother. “You’re attempting to distract me.”

But then she wasn’t so sure, because Giovanni looked absolutely serious and worried as he insisted, “Oh, we can talk about all the things you want to know in a second. I’m fully prepared for that lecture, I have readied myself. But Gia, you almost … it looked like …”

“Your friend,” Gianna said tersely, “the one with the gun, he startled me.”

“We almost lost someone we’d do anything for.”

Gianna sighed. There was never an excuse for bringing a weapon into a house of healing.

But instead of fighting the matter, she told her brother, “I can tell all of you care very much for each other. I believe you when you said your …. friend pointed that gun at me out of desperation.”

Angry, Giovanni said harshly, “He still shouldn’t have. I told him the only person here at this time of night was my sister. I told him. He knew it was you. He could have shot you. Your heart could have…”

“It doesn’t make me weak, you know,” Gianna pointed out calmly.

“I saw you on the floor, gasping for air. I thought you needed an ambulance.”

Gianna shook her head. “I managed to find my medication in time.”

“It’s my fault you needed it!” Blinking slowly, Giovanni inferred, “It’s getting worse?”

“Who are they?” Gianna asked one more time. “Obviously they’re a gang of sorts. I’m not an idiot. But what I’m asking is which of Sangrid’s many gangs have you brought into a house of healing?”

Voice strained, Giovanni said finally, “Mariposa.”

“Jesus.”

Gianna felt like crumpling. She folded forward, bracing her forearms on the table, and demanded harshly, “Are you an idiot, Giovanni?”

“You probably think so.”

“I’m starting to know so.”

Mariposa. More specifically, the Mariposa Mafia. The fucking mafia.

“Mariposa,” Gianna said again, as if she could barely believe her brother’s stupidity.

“They’re not that bad!” Giovanni said defensively, and Gianna wanted to reach across the table and slap the back of his head.

Gianna said in a pointed, sharp way, “They are a gang of hoodlums. Hissing quietly at her brother, Gianna asked, “Do you even know whose territory you’ve brought Mariposa into? Do you know who runs these streets here?”

Giovanni gave a shaky nod. “The same people who shot Cypher, beat the crap out of Jovani, and told Zeke that they were going to drop him in the river with cement shoes.”

“Right.” Gianna nodded sighing softly. “And you still brought them here?.”

Giovanni said softly, “Mariposa really are different.”

Gianna wanted to believe him.

And the way the gang members had talked to each other, looked at each other, and worried after each other, did seem to indicate a sense of selflessness and maybe even family.

And Dante...

But a gang member was a gang member, and illegal behavior was illegal behavior.

With a little more seriousness, Giovanni said, “I went down into Mariposa’s territory about eight months ago. I knew graduation was coming up, and I only had a little time before it happened, and before dad figured out quickly enough that I wasn’t going to college like he thought and I’d said. I wasn’t looking to join a gang at the time, Gia. Stop looking at me like that. I was looking to get a job in freight.”

Feeling flushed with shame, Gianna asked, “Didn’t you think you could come to me with this?

“I didn’t want to put you in a bad place between us. I didn’t want dad coming down on you, too.”

“Hey,” Gianna said, and now the urge to smack her brother had passed, and all she wanted to do was hug him. “You are my baby brother. It’s my job to protect and shield you however I can, and I’d do it gladly. You can always come here, Giovanni. You will always have a place with me. You don’t need to join a gang.”

“Gia, I couldn’t be a part of something that hurts people. Even if you can’t believe in Mariposa, can you believe in me?”

This wasn’t something Gianna could support. She couldn’t possibly support the idea that her little brother had gotten himself involved with a gang and essentially painted a target on himself.

And their father hadn’t even found out yet. It would be a thousand times worse when he did.

But neither did Gianna think she could control Giovanni. Her little brother was his own man now, and that simply meant accepting and respecting his choices.

“I’m going to check in on Dante.”

“Oh, wait.” Giovanni caught the sleeve of the shirt she’d put on to replace the blood stained one. “Can you … maybe you shouldn’t call him that.”

“His name”?” Gianna raised her eyebrows confused.

“It’s not … he goes by Cypher for a reason.”

“Who am I going to tell?” Gianna asked with a grin. “Don’t worry.”

“I do,” Giovanni said honestly. “I worry a lot.”

After a moment of hesitation, Gianna nodded towards the door. “I’m serious. Just go relax.”

“Looks like it’s just you and me,” Gianna told Dante as things fell silent again.

She dragged the chair at the desk nearby to the side of the bed and sat on it gingerly. Gianna reached for the nearby tablet she’d abandoned when she’d heard the alarm first go off, and despite her heavy eyelids, started back up reading the article where she’d left off.

***

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Gianna jerked awake sometime later in a panic. Something was buzzing nearby, the bed next to her was empty, and it was still dark outside.

So Gianna was inclined to believe that they’d all left of their own accord.

Sighing heavily, She slotted her key into the front door and pushed it open.

Then she promptly froze.

Someone was in here.

She walked downstairs slowly leaving her one room apartment.

She knew for a fact that as they had left, being the last people out of the clinic, Giovanni had set the alarm again. She told him to do that. He must have punched in the buttons correctly before pulling the door closed behind him as they left.

So why wasn’t the alarm going off now to signal the perimeter had been breached.

There was no alarm and that was a problem.

With shaking fingers Gianna reached for the light switch on the nearby wall. And she was blinking sharply when the reception area lit up.

There was a lump in Gianna’s throat at the truly terrifying sight of a half a dozen men filling her waiting room. And they weren’t Mariposa.

No, this was something much worse.

One of the men got to his feet with a sweeping, graceful kind of way. He stretched in an exaggerated show, drawing out the tension, and then cocked his head towards Gianna.

“It’s not the first of the month,” Gianna said quickly, hating how uneasy she was immediately.

“Oh, that,” the man said, and the others were rising from their chairs in an intimidating way. “That’s not what I’m here for.”

“Then …”

“Doctor Gianna,” The man said, taking several steps forward. “We need to talk about the company you keep.”

Gianna pressed back against the door feeling trapped.

“Or rather,” The other man said, “the company you help.”

“Help?”.

The man took a few more steps, and then Gianna was almost nose to nose with Hagrid, Infinite’s enforcer who went by his work gleefully while he broke noses and snapped fingers.

“We need to have a little talk,” Hagrid said, and he reeked of danger in the way that Gianna feared most of all. “You’re going to tell me all about the late-night visitors you had last night, and then I’m doing to decide what to do with you.”

“I don’t know--”

“Don’t,” Hagrid said sharply, his tone becoming much more threatening, “think about playing me for a fool. I know who was here last night. Now I want to know why. Because I think you know full well where your loyalties ought to lie, and what will happen if I think for a second they don’t.”

Hagrid pressed further into Gianna’s personal space and Gianna had no idea what would happen next, only that it probably wasn’t going to be good.

Whenever anyone from Infinite came around, it never was.

“I assume you’ll answer my questions now?”

Gianna breathed in deeply, then gave a nod.

A dubious smile stretched its way out across Hagrid’s face. “Good. Very good. Let’s get started.”

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TBC