“Do I? You’re probably right. Doesn’t make what I’ve said any less true. We have all found women who needed saving.”
“Corinne didn’t need saving and…” I let my eyes finally meet his. “Your Gretal sure as hell didn’t stick around after you got her out of the Candy House either. Gretal doesn’t need anyone.”
Hansel flinched back like I had punched him in the gut. Almost instantly I felt like an asshole.
“Hansel, sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I know Gretal was important to you.” That was kind of the understatement of the year.
Gretal hadn’t been important to him, she had been his whole world. And she had left him anyway. She had made him think they were finally going to get the future they had dreamt about as kids, and then got on her bike, literally, and drove out of his life forever.
She had left Hansel damaged beyond repair.
“It’s ok, Gretal was always too good for me. I always knew that; it took her a few years to catch up.” Hansel’s voice was rough, like a man trying not to show any emotion whatsoever. Emotion meant weakness for men like us.
Or at least I used to think so.
Still, he had a point, recently at least we had all been drawn towards women who needed rescuing in some way. Was there an underlying reason for that? A hero complex, or was it something darker? Did we want them indebted to us in some way?
“So, The Family isn’t involved?”
I knew Hansel was changing the subject but I wasn’t about to bring it up.
“I can’t see how they are. Gypsy has been going through this for years, long before she met me. She might be on their radar now, but she wouldn’t have been back then.” At least I hoped she hadn’t been. “Why do you ask?”
Several long minutes went past with him staring into his glass, his face creased into a frown.
“Hansel, whatever it is fucking tell me.”
“Giovanni.” There was a pause. “Wants a sit down with you.”
“Gio wants a sit down with me? He's about twelve.” I had never heard something so ludicrous in my entire life. As the youngest son, Giovanni had absolutely nothing to offer me.
“He's the head of his family now since Havoc took out...” Another shrug. He didn’t need to say the words out loud, I knew what he was referring to. But even at the clubhouse it was dangerous to openly admit that one of our members had shot and killed someone. Especially the head of a feared and notorious crime family.
“He had two older brothers and a sister if I recall.”
What he was saying couldn't be true. Little Gio as the head? The Family was as good as finished if that was the case. The boy was nothing but a young naive pup. He didn’t have the balls to run the organisation like his father and older brothers did.
Which was good news for me. There would be so much in-fighting for control that they would forget all about me.
Except that wasn’t entirely true. Someone had shot up my compound, they had injured The Judge.
Although he had a lot of enemies himself.
“One brother got shot a while back, they kept it quiet.”
“He died?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Worse, but he's in no fit state to run The Family, and the other hasn’t been seen in over a year. No one knows where he is. Probably lying in a shallow grave somewhere. The sister can’t run the family business, so it’s left to Gio.”
Jesus, I was out of the loop.
“And he wants to meet me? Why would I do that when it’s likely a trap?”
“I don’t think it is, Fang. I think he genuinely wants to put this whole mess to bed. Everyone knows his father was a tyrant, Gio is...” Hansel seemed to be searching for the right word. He thought so hard about it that I could almost hear the cogs moving in his brain. “Gio is a businessman, and a war with us isn’t good for business.”
I thought about it for a second.
Trap or not it was too good an offer to let slip between my fingers. I would have enough on my plate making sure Gypsy was looked after, the last thing I needed was to be looking over my shoulder forever as well.
