Chapter Three
Obey Hades Or Else
Tyr
“It’s the end of another riding season, which means Route 66 October Biker Rally.” Seated to my left, Ajax pushed up the aviator sunglasses he always wore. He was my lieutenant and head of the club’s enforcers, and even on his worst day he was still Chicago’s biggest badass. Talking about things like parties and rallies made him look like he was suffering from a bad case of hemorrhoids. “Titan Colgrave, our president’s grandfather, founded this rally sixty years ago, and historically it’s one of the biggest biker blowouts on the calendar. We thought Hades might not host it this year since we’re at war, but last week his team put out all the info online about how to sign up for camping and RV space on the rally grounds, and all the dates and times for all the shit they claim they’ve got planned. Question is, do we even attend?”
“As far as I’m concerned, the question is whether or not the rally is just being used as a cover for Hades to bring in a mass of warm bodies to attack us.” Romeo, Vice President and Chief of Security of the Gravediggers, shook his dark head, his mouth a grim line. “We didn’t even think H was going to do the rally this year since his camp didn’t release any info on it until yesterday. Usually that shit goes out some time in August so people can make plans for it, but here we are heading into the third week in October, and they’re just now publishing the Route 66 Rally announcements. Either they’re too distracted by the war between our two clubs to be on top of their game, or the rally’s just going to be used as a cover to grow their numbers right under our noses.”
“They’re not the only club that has reserves they can call in.” I lifted my chin at Zee, my new lieutenant and the man in charge of Gravedigger membership. He was my new lieutenant because my old one turned out to be a dirty fucking traitor and wound up in the morgue for his troubles. “And hell, yeah, we’re going to be attending, and we’re going to do it with every chapter we’ve got. Zee, send the word to all our chapters, from Indianapolis to Thunder Bay—prepare for either a rally or a final battle, but both are going to be one helluva party.”
Zee’s smile was razor sharp. “Got it, boss.”
I looked to my second in command. “What else have we got?”
“Nothing alarming to report on that dust-up over at Thirsty’s Bar.” I watched Romeo’s attention bounce from his ever-present phone that held all his secrets, to the wall of screens in front of him. We used to have church meetings in the front room of the Clubhouse, or what used to be the former bank’s lobby. Not anymore. Since war had broken out with Hades, we’d moved to the soundproof vaults we’d modified to be our siege HQ. Our church meetings now took place in the room my brothers had dubbed the Situation Room, complete with eight screens showing every inch of the Gravedigger compound on the southern wall, and eight screens showing Hades’s compound and various other properties—including the large camping ground where the Route 66 Rally was always held—on the opposing wall. “According to the bar’s owner and his wife—”
“Glenn and Dora Rollie, parents of Sinbad, our newest patched-in member,” I supplied, making a “keep going” gesture.
“Glenn was there the entire night and saw the incident unfold. Two thirty-something guys came in wanting to play pool, but all the tables were occupied. The two assholes then became belligerent with some college-aged boys who’d been peacefully playing pool for the past hour before these dickheads turned up. Come to find out, the boys were on their university’s judo team and they wasted no time in dropping the troublemakers. Then they politely paid for the damages, bought a round for the house, and went back to playing pool while the troublemakers were tossed out on their asses by none other than Glenn Rollie himself.”
“Their mamas taught those boys right.” From his wheelchair on the opposite end of the table, Ashtray nodded sagely. Even sitting down, he was a bear of a man with a full beard and a wild tangle of dark hair peppered with streaks of gray. “Pay for whatever you broke, then smooth ruffled feathers with a shit-ton of beer. Well done, kids.”
“Ash, you’ve busted up more bars than you can count.” Zee looked over at the older man with a raised brow. “How many of them did you pay restitution to?”
“Since most of them called LEO on me, I usually gave them my best middle-finger salute, which was more than they deserved, the fuckers.”
“Being polite and paying for busted-up shit isn’t Hades’s usual MO.” To my left, Ajax tilted his bald head my way. Ever since Ajax’s best friend, Slash, turned out to be a goddamn dirty traitor, Ajax had been going out of his way to make sure everyone knew he was playing for my team and not Hades’s. It sucked that he was struggling, but the most I could do was show him my complete faith until he figured out that every single one of his brothers still believed in him. “But you know what they say, boss—better safe than sorry. I can run background checks on everyone involved in the Thirsty’s incident if you want.”
“What do you think I’m doing?” Romeo wanted to know, staring at him. “My team and I have got that angle covered, Ajax.”
“Still, it’s better to have two pairs of eyes on it—”
“No, you were right the first time, Ajax. This doesn’t sound like H’s way of doing things,” I cut in before Ajax’s insecurities landed him in a world of hurt with Romeo. I didn’t have time for stupid in-fighting. “I’m not even sure our club’s affiliation with Thirsty’s is commonly known.”
“Our affiliation with The Last Stitch strip joint is well-known, since we took it from that shitty little mobster who kidnapped Loki’s woman a few years back,” Romeo went on, once again consulting the notes on his phone. “The manager at The Last Stitch reported an incident that happened overnight that caught my attention, and I’d like your take on it.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“At around midnight last night, a man came in, walked up to the bartender and asked where the payphone was.”
“Payphone?” Zee muttered almost to himself, looking perplexed. “Shit, what even is that?”
Romeo nodded. “Exactly. Since payphones have gone the way of the dinosaur since the advent of cell phones, the bartender told him he was basically shit out of luck. The man then asked if he could use the bar’s private line. There’s a decrepit old landline in the back, but since patrons aren’t allowed back there, the bartender said no. That was when the man whipped a crowbar out of his coat and began wailing on the bartender, who has a broken arm, wrist and cheekbone for his troubles. The attacker then hopped onstage and went to town on the exotic dancer, who tried to run but got tripped up by her heels according to the reports, and he basically destroyed her. She’s currently undergoing surgery to relieve the pressure in her swelling brain. No one knows if she’ll make it, or what condition she’ll ultimately be in if she does.”
“Motherfucker.” Lasso, Misty’s man, former Montana rodeo star and head fabricator and designer at Ride Or Die, spoke for the first time. The look of profound disgust on his lean, clean-shaven face didn’t surprise me; violence against women was a sore point with him. “Please tell me someone got that spineless little bitch.”
“I’d love to tell you that, but I can’t.” Romeo’s mouth twisted as if the words he spoke left a bad taste in his mouth. “There was only one bouncer on duty—the second guy who was supposed to be on-duty never showed, so I’ve got people combing the city looking for his sorry ass. Long story short, the bouncer did get a hold of the asshole with the crowbar. But then he let the fucker go when the guy bit off chunks of his face, including the bouncer’s nose.”
That got my attention. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah, I’d probably let the dude go too, all things considered.” Zee couldn’t seem to get the look of disgust off his face. “Was the bouncer able to give a description of the attacker?”
Romeo nodded, and sent a grim look around the table. “He said his attacker’s teeth were all filed down to make points.”
The news hit the room like a bomb.
“Piranha.” I said what we were all thinking, and watched Ajax pound the table with his fist. “Gotta be. No one else is that fucking weird.”
“I’ve put out alerts to all our business interests throughout Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee and Indianapolis,” Romeo went on, once again scrolling through his phone. “Everyone needs to assume Hades and his crew are going to hit where we’re vulnerable, which would be our legit business fronts. Hitting us there calls unwanted attention to us and our other endeavors that we need to keep under the table. News of a half-cannibalized face of a security guard and a helpless, comatose stripper could bring a whole host of media attention down on us. If that happens, we’re really going to be hindered when it comes to moving against Hades at a moment’s notice.”
“Standing orders,” I said, shooting Romeo a hard glance. “As of now, double our security for the softest targets we have out there. If something feels off to the people on the ground, they need to report back to you immediately, rather than wait for the shit to hit the fan. Also, I want the security footage of both incidents at Thirsty’s and The Last Stitch before the end of business today. In fact, from now on I’ll want to see whatever footage we’ve got coming in from any suspicious incidents happening on Gravedigger property.”
“Got it,” Romeo said, typing furiously. “Okay, security footage should be hitting your inbox… now.”
That’s what I liked about my second in command. Efficient as hell. “That’ll do for now, my brothers. This church meeting is done and dusted, so get out of here and get to work. Romeo, hang back a sec.”
Romeo lifted his chin at me as everyone headed for the exit. “What’s up?”
I waited until the door closed behind Ashtray’s wheelchair, no doubt heading toward the elevator we’d built just for him. “I thought we had eyes on Ginger.”
Romeo’s brows shot up. “We do.”
“Tell me about it. Tell me about all the ways we’ve got her covered.”
“Did something happen?”
“Tell me, Romeo.”
“Two hi-def cams at Vixen’s Den, one inside the main showroom and one covering the back. A third dedicated cam covers the front of the store, and that cam is on our property. We have a log of everyone coming and going from her shop. At her warehouse, we’ve got motion-sensitive cams on all three points of entry.”
“What do we have on her phones, both work and personal?”
“Nothing.”
I reminded myself that he was good at his job, so I probably shouldn’t murder him. “What do you mean, nothing ?”
“You said you wanted her watched, not listened to or spied on. Watching over her and monitoring her safety is what you said you wanted. That’s exactly what we’ve been doing.”
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me . “I want both her phones cloned today . I want to be able to track those phones so I know her location with a touch of a button. And I want a tracker on her car so I can see where she is at all times.”
Romeo flipped through screens on his phone, then started typing furiously. “Understood. Has Hades threatened her?”
“Also, I want the interior of her warehouse wired for audio-capable cams, even her bedroom. How difficult would it be to get a camera inside her car without her noticing?”
Romeo stopped typing and frowned at me. “You want me to bug where she lives?”
“And don’t forget her computers, both at work and at home. Every click she makes, every email she opens or sends, I want to know about it.”
“Tyr, what the hell happened?”
“Did you know she stepped on a nail?”
Romeo stared at me. “No. Is she okay?”
“It happened a year ago when she was installing those fancy lit-up shoe shelves in Vixen’s Den. It happened, she got hurt, and you didn’t know about it. That means I didn’t know about it, and I don’t fucking like not knowing important shit like that.”
Romeo continued to stare. “Ohh-kay.”
“And last week, you know what she did?”
“I’m sure you can tell me.”
“That woman went on a goddamn date with the ridiculous asshole who moved his shitty little tattoo parlor next door to her shop. I didn’t know about that, either.”
“Technically speaking, you did know about the guy who moved in, since the Gravediggers own that property under Blue Horizons, LLC. You knew we were getting a new tenant.”
I tried killing him with a glare. “I’m talking about their fucking date , Romeo. I didn’t know about that until Misty mentioned it to me. You wanna explain to me why I didn’t know about it?”
“Because I’m not under orders to report about every new person that shows up in Ginger Sisko’s life.”
“Well, now you are. I don’t know jack-shit about this guy, except that his first name is Draco, but that could be a fake name or a road name. It’s possible he could be one of Hades’s soldiers masquerading as Mr. Nice Guy Next Door. I want a full background check on him, ASAP.”
“Tyr.” Finally the uncompromising tone from my V.P. penetrated, and I found him watching me like I was frothing at the mouth. “What the hell is going on?”
“What do you mean, what’s going on?” I shot back, scowling. “I’m giving you orders, and I’m expecting you to follow them.”
“I’m talking about Ginger. We’ve already got her covered.”
“Yeah, and that coverage is shit. She almost had a head-on collision this morning.”
“It was a near-miss, which was reported to you seconds after it happened. If you want me to assign a security detail to be with her wherever she goes, I can do that with one phone call.”
“I’ve already tried that. It didn’t go well.” Actually, she’d somehow stolen the clothes of the prospect I’d assigned to her, threw them onto my desk and told me to shove both the clothes and the idea of a security detail up my ass.
Because Ginger.
“Well, then, short of kidnapping her or putting her in a medically induced coma, I don’t see how anyone can stop random things from happening, like stepping on nails or dates with the next-door-neighbor.”
“She’d never allow herself to be drugged, not after what happened with her mother.”
“Dude, I was kidding.”
Lost in contemplating how I could kidnap Ginger without her noticing, I looked up and saw him frowning at me. “Romeo, in case you haven’t noticed, we’re locked in a cold war, and I know how my uncle’s mind works. He has a gift for hitting where you’re most vulnerable in the same way that the devil has a gift for being evil.”
“And Ginger is a vulnerability to you?”
“Do you know what a whipping boy is?” I asked without answering.
“A whipping boy,” Romeo repeated, squinting at me as if that would help him see what my point was. “Yeah, some poor kid back in medieval times who was raised with royal children and made to feel like family, only to be savagely beaten if any of the royal brats stepped out of line. What does that have to do with—”
“Ginger was my whipping girl. Long ago, before you and I met and Ginger and I were just kids, Hades would hurt her in order to keep me in line.”
“Holy fuck.” Clearly stunned, Romeo blinked. “I didn’t know that.”
“We don’t exactly advertise it.”
“Jesus.” He shook his head. “That’s almost too twisted, even for Hades.”
“No, it’s exactly who he is. Making Ginger hurt is his go-to play because at his core, that bastard is the world’s biggest coward. He was too scared to go after me directly back in the day, and I can’t imagine he’s any different now. I’ll bet every dime I have that he’s going to fall back into his old habit of gunning for Ginger in order to get to me.”
“Fuck me.” Looking like he didn’t know whether to simply shake his head in shock or put a hit out on Hades, Romeo’s expression hardened. “Behavioral patterns like that are things I need to know about, so I can anticipate where he’s going to strike next. I need specifics. What would Hades do when he targeted Ginger?”
I had to consciously unlock my jaw to answer. “There was that time I was sent to deal with some working girls H had stabled in the Barracks back in the day, when it was still a no-tell motel. I laid down the law, loomed a lot, and in my opinion I completed the task. The one thing I didn’t do was take a hand to any of them, because I’m not a weak-ass limp dick who hits women. So when we got back, Radar ratted on me—”
“No surprise it was Radar, the cocksucker,” Romeo muttered.
I nodded. “When he ratted on me to H, my uncle brought Ginger in. For some reason I remember she was still clutching a chemistry book because she’d been quietly doing her homework, not bothering anyone. He went right up to her and without any warning, he showed me how to ‘properly’ hit a bitch. He did it so hard he knocked her front teeth out. She was sixteen.”
“Motherfucker,” Romeo snarled. It summed up my own feelings perfectly.
“Ginger doesn’t like blood for a reason,” I went on, hating how looking back into the past had opened a floodgate of hellish memories I couldn’t stop. They were drowning me, and I had no fucking way to stop it, except maybe to run to Hades’s compound and burn it all to the ground. “Something happened the night before Ginger’s mom OD’d, something that changed everything. By this time, you and I had finally met, and I was starting to think I needed to break away from the Chicago Gravediggers and make my own chapter. It was becoming obvious Hades wasn’t going to let anyone survive if they showed any sign of being strong enough to overthrow him, so that put a target on all our backs.”
“I remember Hades didn’t want to let me join the Chicago Gravediggers, because I was ‘too famous’ and would bring unwanted scrutiny to the club.”
“You weren’t that famous, or that fast.” Actually Romeo had never lost a race from the time he’d been a little kid on a baby BMX bike, which meant he’d been born with mad skills and nerves of steel. Exactly the kind of charismatic magnet Hades would have hated having around.
He gave me a mild glance. “Says the second-fastest guy in the room.”
Yeah, yeah . “To this day, I don’t know if Uncle H heard about my plans to form my own chapter, or if he just sensed I’d been pushed so far I was ready to either kill him or jump ship. All I know is that Hades summoned me to the clubhouse one night. Before I left the house I told my brother and sister that if I didn’t return by morning, Loki and Hel had to get themselves out of Chicago and not stop running until they hit ocean. But once I got to the clubhouse, everything seemed chill. Hades and I had a relatively civilized conversation about how grateful he was for my presence in the club, because I had a way with calming the troops.”
“I smell a setup.”
And that was why Romeo was the Gravediggers’ chief of security. His suspicious mind was usually right on the money. “He walked me into the Rumpus Room, and there was Ginger and her mom, Audrey.”
Romeo’s let out a low growl at the mere mention of the Rumpus Room. That had been the same room where his ol’ lady, now his wife, had been tortured by Hades’s son, Marvel.
I nodded, no doubt confirming his worst fears. “For once Ginger’s mom wasn’t nodding out on heroin. She was jittery, verging on dope-sick, and terrified out of her mind because she was tied to a chair. Ginger was also tied to a chair. Unlike her mother, though, it was like she’d turned to stone. She was absolutely silent, not moving a muscle, but her eyes… When Ginger looked at me when we came in, it’s like they were screaming at me to save them.”
“Jesus,” he said faintly. “What’d you do?”
“What do you think I did? I tried to save them.” I felt my mouth twist bitterly as the night unfolded in front of my mind’s eye. “I swung at Hades, thinking that if I could put his lights out fast, I could get Ginger and her mom out of there before anyone grew a pair big enough to stop me. But then Marvel and one of Hades’s lieutenants by the name of Popcorn jumped me and forced me to watch as Hades crossed to Ginger. He untied her and pulled her to her feet so that she stood in the middle of the room. I could see she was shaking. Then he gave her this pearl-handled straight razor and announced we were going to play a game called Obey Hades Or Else.”
“That piece of shit.”
My sentiments exactly. “Since Popcorn and my cousin Marvel had me, I couldn’t do anything but throw cuss words at him, so that’s what I did. That was when my uncle gave Ginger the order to choose.”
“Choose what?”
“Someone had to be punished for my insubordination, but since I was seen in the club as such a great guy—Hades’s words, not mine—he couldn’t punish me directly. But my insubordination still had to be punished, so he told Ginger that she could either cut herself, or her mother, thanks to my bad behavior.”
“That is so fucked up,” he snarled, looking as furious as I’d felt all those years ago. “H had already tied them up long before you cussed him out. This was just Hades being fucking evil for the sake of being evil.”
“It served a purpose, at least to an extent,” I couldn’t help but point out. “If he hadn’t pulled this stunt, I probably would have hit the eject button on the Chicago Gravediggers a helluva lot sooner than I did. As it was, another year or more went by after that horrible night before I felt strong enough in my power base to get out from under that madman’s rule.”
Romeo took all that in before nodding. “What happened with Ginger that night in the Rumpus Room? I’m guessing she refused to make a choice?”
“Oh, Hades had that angle covered.”
“How so?”
“Remember, H brought Audrey into the fold as his ol’ lady when Ginger was only four or five years old. He knew how stubborn Ginger could be. He knew she’d tell him to go fuck himself with his so-called choice. So he told Ginger that if she refused to choose, he’d cut off one of her mother’s fingers. Audrey began to scream.”
Romeo cursed.
“I remember yelling at Ginger to run before things got any crazier, but Marvel went and snagged up Ginger’s hair that she’d had in a braid, and told her that it was finally time for her to recognize she wasn’t a real person with rights and shit. She was just a bitch on their leash like any other whore they owned, and she wasn’t running anywhere.”
“I really wish I could kill that shitbird again,” Romeo growled, grimacing. “What happened next?”
“Ginger made her choice.” I didn’t pause or close my eyes or let anything I felt show. But the rage that lived inside me from that night to now burned all the way down to the very core of my being. “She cut herself, because in spite of everything Audrey put her through, Ginger still loved her mother, and because Ginger thinks she’s somehow indestructible.”
Romeo’s hands curled into fists. “How long did this psycho game last?”
“Three cuts.”
“Jesus fuck .”
Yeah . “After the first cut—a horrible gash that opened the top of her forearm—I threatened H. Told him I was going to follow the path of my grandfather and father before me, and beat him to death with my bare hands. Fucker just laughed and called me a slow-learner, because threatening him broke the rules of Obey Hades Or Else. That meant Ginger got punished again with the same choice—cut herself, or her mother. At this point, Audrey was whimpering, but Ginger didn’t even look at her as she switched the razor to her other hand and cut the top of her other forearm. She went deep on both cuts, probably because she knew Hades wouldn’t settle for anything less. Blood poured down her arms and off her fingers. Within a minute it looked like she was wearing red gloves.” I had a hard time thinking about that night all these years later, watching her blood pour off her fingers to pool at her feet. No wonder she had trouble looking at her injured hand today.
“I’ve seen the scars on the tops of her forearms, but I never thought to ask where they came from.” Romeo’s expression was a masterpiece of rage for Hades and pity for Ginger. “If Hades had insisted she slice the inside of her arms, that would’ve been the end of the line for her.”
“The final cut almost came to that. Though to be fair, Hades wouldn’t have wanted to lose his whipping girl and all the leverage he had over me. I’d always been protective of Ginger, even when we were kids, because she hadn’t been born into our world like I had. When Hades spotted how protective I was, he thought he had me over a barrel. That’s why he ordered Ginger to put the razor to her neck.”
“Goddamn it.”
Yep, that about summed it up. “The bastard actually grinned as she did it, then told me to swear undying allegiance to him to the point where I would forfeit both Ginger’s life and my own if I ever defied him. I stood there like a fucking moron, my brain spinning its wheels and going nowhere, because that sonofabitch really did have me up a shit creek without a paddle. I looked over at her, and our eyes met. That’s when I saw something I never believed I’d ever see in a firecracker like Ginger.”
“What?”
“Defeat. I saw it in her eyes, man. Not fear, or even rage anymore. It was like she was just so goddamn tired . Tired of all the insanity, the pointless bullshit my family had put her through, all of it. In that moment, I could see she just wanted out . I knew as clearly as if I could read her mind that Ginger was going to slit her own throat, just so she could finally escape Hades, and go out in a way that she could control. Then her mom screamed, begging Ginger to stop and to cut her instead. Ginger turned her head and looked at her for the longest time, almost like she didn’t recognize Audrey. Not talking. Not crying. Just staring. It was the weirdest fucking moment, and we all seemed to be as stuck as Ginger was. Then I said, ‘ Ginger, don’t. ’ She closed her eyes, moved the blade to just below her collarbone and gave herself a shallow cut. That scar’s still there, too.”
“Goddamn evil bastard.” Romeo let out a breath in an audible huff. “How the hell did you get everyone out of that?”
I shrugged. “I had it in my head that Ginger wasn’t going to last much longer, because eventually she was going to choose death rather than continue to be Hades’s plaything, so I got inspired in a hurry. I turned and broke Popcorn’s neck before he even knew he was dead, then shoved his body at Hades. I needed to buy time to get to Ginger, and having Hades deal with a dead body that landed on him gave me that time. But Marvel was right there with her, and I’m sure you won’t be surprised to know my recently deceased cousin tightened his hand around her braid and cowered behind her with promises of killing her if I got any closer.”
The man who had made my cousin recently deceased curled his lip in disgust. “Not surprised at all. Once a coward, always a coward.”
I nodded, my mouth twisting. “As I closed in on them, Ginger looked me straight in the eye, mouthed something at me, though no sound came out. I think she said, sorry . Then she turned as best she could and slashed the straight razor at Marvel. She got him across the chest, though mostly it was just clothes that got cut. But it was enough to make Marvel squeal like a stuck pig. I think that was when he fully realized the age-old conundrum of having caught a tiger by its tail.”
“To let go or to not let go.” For the first time Romeo grinned. “I would’ve paid money to see Ginger go after that spoiled little brat with a weapon they’d been stupid enough to give her.”
“No doubt about it, poetic justice was rolling hard,” I agreed, and my smile felt savage. “Problem was, Marvel was a lot stronger than Ginger and he kept jerking her head around by her hair. I think he was trying to snap her neck with all those sharp movements while he tried staying out of her slashing range. That was when she suddenly reached back and cut off her own hair. Shocked the shit out of Marvel, I can tell you that. He just sorta stood there like the dumbass he was with her braid in his hand, her so-called leash , like he couldn’t comprehend what she’d done to be free of him.”
Romeo whistled. “I always said she’d make one helluva fighter. I had no idea how right I was.”
“The most dangerous person in a fight isn’t the most powerful or well-trained,” I agreed, nodding. “It’s the person who’s got nothing left to lose. That was Ginger that night. Even on a calm day she doesn’t fear pain or death, because Hades beat that out of her, and I don’t think there’s any way to undo that kind of soul-deep damage. I’m not even sure she fears Hades anymore, because of what happened next.”
“I can’t wait to hear it.”
“I let Ginger do her thing with Marvel and got to Audrey, since logic told me that Ginger’s mom was the last bit of leverage Hades could’ve used against us. Once Audrey was on her feet I told her to get her ass out of there and save herself, while Ginger kept chasing after Marvel, slicing away like she’d turned into fucking Edward Scissorhands.”
“Damn, that must’ve been a beautiful sight.”
“It was, but right about then Hades got out from under the body I threw at him, and he began to slow-clap at all the chaos. Marvel ran to him and cowered, because of course he did, while Hades smiled and announced that I’d passed the real test by killing Popcorn. He’d managed to get me to finally pop my cherry when it came to killing, he said, the fucker, like it had been his plan all along. Then he followed up that shit sundae by magnanimously letting me know there was no need to thank him for it, because as my uncle, it was his duty to teach me the tough lessons.”
“Oh my fucking God.” The outrage that burned in Romeo’s eyes threatened to light the room on fire. “There it is, Hades’s bullshit that everything is all going according to plan. Except the only plan he’s ever had in his life is fucking people over. He’ll never be wrong, because his goals always change with the outcome. Jesus, I can’t believe anyone buys his shit.”
“Trust me, no one in that room bought it, even though he was all smiles. He then ordered Marvel—who was still cowering from Ginger—to deal with Popcorn’s body, and told us we were all free to go. I looked at Audrey, who could barely stand she was shaking so much, and Ginger, who was covered in her own blood and most of her hair gone, and I realized they were both at their limit. Maybe I should’ve tried killing Hades then, but with a clubhouse full of Chicago Gravediggers to get through with two women who were in rough shape, I chose to stand down. To this day, I still don’t know if that was the biggest mistake of my life.”
“You had Ginger and Audrey to take care of. Any man worth that label would’ve gotten them to safety.”
Considering Audrey died the next day, safety was the one thing I hadn’t given her. “You know what was a mistake on H’s part? Forgetting Ginger still had the razor.”
Romeo’s shocked face was oddly satisfying to see. “Oh, fuck.”
“Didn’t turn out to be a big deal, because unlike my uncle, I didn’t forget. I saw her eyeing his throat as she and her mother made their way out, but I stepped in and took the razor from her just as she started to raise her hand.”
“Why? I mean, did you want to save your uncle, or…?”
“Fuck, no. Blood loss and adrenaline had taken its toll on Ginger, and she was shaking like a leaf. She could barely stand. There’s no way she could have done any actual damage to H, but attacking him would’ve gotten her dead double-quick—something I doubt she believes to this day. I know I made the right call in stopping her, but I don’t think she’s ever really forgiven me for it.”
Romeo chewed on that for a minute. “Did Hades even realize what she was going to do to him?”
I couldn’t have stopped a derisive snort if I’d tried. “You kidding? A mere woman posing an actual physical threat? That asshole is so deep into his own mythology I doubt the idea of Ginger jumping him even crossed his mind. If it had, he wouldn’t have armed her with a straight razor in the first place.”
“So the only time Ginger does enter his mind is to use her as leverage against you?”
“I guess.” I shrugged, aiming for an air of detached indifference. Ever since that nightmare of a night, I’d done everything in my power to make sure the world believed I viewed Ginger as the one element that constantly fucked up my life. And since that was basically true, no one questioned me about it. “That’s how it was when we were kids growing up together. Hades hasn’t been around us in nearly a decade, so he doesn’t know we barely speak to each other anymore. But he's a lazy shithead, so I can see him getting up to his old tricks by targeting her. That’s why I need every aspect of her life under a microscope. Got it?”
“Got it.” Romeo nodded and made one last notation. “You never answered the question, though.”
“What question?”
“Does Ginger make you vulnerable?”
I shot him a sharp look, only to find him waiting for my reply. With great deliberation I locked my expression until it felt like a frozen mask. “I’m the president of the fucking Gravediggers, Romeo. As far as the world is concerned, this club and my brothers are the only things that matter to me. That means there isn’t anything on this earth that can be allowed to be seen as making me vulnerable, least of all Ginger Sisko.”