Helping Mr. Gang Leader .Chapter 57: what IS the look of love? .Gianna just wanted to go home. She wanted to go back to her apartment, back to the clinic, and back to her normal routine. Or as close as she could get with tapped ribs and an inability to bend down.“Soon,” She told Ezekiel. Then she frowned and said, “You both realize nothing is going to happen to me here, right? You don’t have to stand guard. And you can tell the twenty guys you’ve got eating up space in the waiting room the same thing.”Jovani, who almost always had a smile on his face to match his bubbly personality, said seriously, “Someone tried to kill you.”Ezekiel said sharply to Jovani, “Don’t say stuff like that!”“It’s true,” Jovani argued back. “Someone tried. But they’re not going to get a second chance at it.” Jovani told Gianna, “We’re here to keep you company. We’re here to make you less sad to be in the hospital. But we’re also here to make sure no one gets any ideas. Mariposa is looking out for y
Helping Mr. Gang Leader .Chapter 58: Had more time been stolen from her life?.Gianna wasn’t sure if Jovani was an absolute fool or the most wonderful person ever. Maybe it was best of the jury was still out on that.She slept for quite a while afterwards, which was, unfortunately, still how she spent most of her days. It had been just after lunch when Ezekiel and Jovani kept her company, but by the time she woke back up the sun was a ball of pink and orange in the horizon, low enough to indicate it would be gone completely very shortly.And instead of Ezekiel and Jovani, as promised, Gianna was looking at her brother. Rather, she was looking at her brother looking at her.With a scratchy voice, Gianna said, “I told you not to read that mindless American drivel that calls itself a book. Watching someone sleep is not romantic. Next you’ll think you sparkle in the sun or something like that.”Giovanni gave an uneasy laugh. “I didn’t actually read Twilight, okay? And I only saw like h
Helping Mr Gang Leader .Chapter 59: less than loyal source.Gianna said, “I must have reminded him of her.”Their mother.Giovanni’s fingers tightened from where they were gripping Gianna’s blanket. “That’s no excuse.”“Maybe. Maybe not.”The steady beats of Gianna’s heart weren’t nearly reassuring as Giovanni’s presence next to her.“I have to tell you something,” Gianna said finally, unable to hold back anymore. “But you’ll be upset with me.”“Unlikely,” Giovanni scoffed out.Gianna nodded seriously. “I used to see you, even up until a few days ago, as my innocent kid brother. I knew, realistically, you weren’t. How could you be at eighteen? But to me, you were this cheery, sometimes obnoxious, but good willed kid that I raised to be a pretty good example for others to look towards.”Giovanni laughed, “Not to be prideful or anything.”“I am proud,” Gianna insisted. “I’m proud of who you are, who you’ve become, and the things you’re going to do with your life. But in that store …
.Helping Mr. Gang Leader .Chapter 60: is this equivalent to a crush? .Gianna waited until Sal was out the door to ask, “Did you think I would be okay with my brother going off to torture and do worse to someone in my name?”.“To someone,” Giovanni corrected angrily, “who tried to kill you. Who nearly did!”.Gianna shook her head and shuffled her way towards the room’s bathroom, dragging her IV pole with her. “You can do what you want, Giovanni. I’ve told you repeatedly that you’re an adult and you make your own choices. But don’t you dare try to justify what you’re about to do to this person, as something you’re doing for me. If you do this, don’t you attach me in any way. I don’t want you to do this. I don’t condone it.”Giovanni asked, “So you just want me to leave this person alone? You want me to let them off the hook, give them a free pass, and let them probably try to hurt you again?”. Gianna nudged the bathroom door open with her food and called back, “You do whatever you
Helping Mr. Gang Leader .Chapter 61: are you bitter ... or jealous? .“So,” Gianna tried, “you rile me up, poke fun at me, and are a jerk at times because you like that I snap back at you? How does that make any sense?”.Rio didn’t answer, instead he hid a smile of some sort behind a hand.Eventually, Rio confessed in a strangled way, “It wasn’t a big deal for me to be there with you at the flower shop. I didn’t have anything else to do that day, and the truth is, you are one of us. You’re one of Mariposa, even if it isn’t official or anything. You take care of us, you patch us up, you cook for us and hang out with us and you’re our friend. So, me watching after you wasn’t even something that Cypher needed to ask me to do. I just put up a fuss because you were paying more attention to the flowers than me.”Gianna gave him an incredulous look. “Please tell me you’re not saying you were jealous of the flowers I was buying for the graves of my mother and sister.”Rio looked horrified.
Helping Mr. Gang Leader .Chapter 62: weakness of affection.Gianna felt the frown on her face deepening. “He didn’t drag me into this kicking and screaming.”“No,” Rio agreed. “But the blame here really goes wholly to Cypher. Because Giovanni wouldn’t have ever brought you near Mariposa’s territory. He wouldn’t have introduced you to us, or let you learn our names. He wouldn’t have taken the risks that Cypher did with you. Cypher put a target on your back. He’s the reason someone tried to kill you. And that’s why you can’t feel guilty about whatever he’s going to do. He’s just cleaning up his mistake, almost at the expense of your life.”Carelessly, Gianna called over to him, “I don’t understand why you’re so callous all of the sudden. You sound … bitter.”Rio reached or the nearby remote and flicked the TV on, immediately hitting the mute button. “I’m not bitter.”“Then what?”With an exaggerated sigh, Rio said, “I just know that if I were Cypher, if it were you and me, I wouldn’t
Helping Mr. Gang Leader .Chapter 63: Ferrari Dante is in love .*GIANNA* “But please, I’m begging you. Don’t let Giovanni be the one to end his life when the time comes. Don’t let it be my brother. Please.”Dante’s hands were big and warm at Gianna’s waist, the heat from his fingers cutting through the pajamas she wore.Dante told her, “Giovanni already asked to be the one to do it. He’s taking this more seriously than you think. He realizes now how close he came to losing you, and how it could happen again if we don’t do this now.”“Please,” Gianna begged. “Please, don’t let him. He thinks he wants it, maybe he does, but I don’t know if his soul is ready.”Dante hugged her tighter, probably as tightly as she dared. “Okay. I’ll have Sal take care of it, or I’ll do it myself. After we have all the information we need.”Uncertain, Gianna pulled back to ask, “A confession?”Dante guided her back to the bed and corrected, “I’d rather know why. Mariposa is a family. We don’t let people
Helping Mr. Gang Leader .Chapter 64: a united front.Technically speaking, she was leaving the hospital a day sooner than Maria wanted. She’d been the one to set her discharge date, and had very vocally expressed her dislike of Gianna leaving sooner than that. But truthfully Gianna felt like she could recover just as well at home now, and some things were more important than squeezing in a last bit of rest before she went back to the clinic at least part time.“Well,” Giovanni asked from behind her. “How do I look?”In the last few moments that Gianna would spend in the hospital room that had been her home for a little over two weeks, she turned to look at her brother emerging from the bathroom.Giovanni looked utterly uncomfortable in the formal black suit he was wearing, and all the evidence was there in his awkward stance and how he tugged on his cuffs.A huge smile blossomed on Gianna’s face. “You look handsome.”Giovanni blushed. “I wasn’t sure it would fit from last year.”