“Your aunt isn’t fighting back,” he says. “If she needed your help, she wouldn’t be taking the hits.” He makes a good point, but that doesn’t stop me from trying to stop Ruby from throwing her punches. I feel sick to my stomach at the thought of leaving with these people—not that I have another option. A few more blows and Ruby is done. She and Gloria laugh and smile at each other. God, these people are sick.
The next few moments happen so fast. Gloria tells me to go with Ruby, and I do. We run out of the house and into a black van with tinted windows. Outside the house stand ten more men clad in leather vests, standing in front of a sea of motorcycles. I don’t get a good look at any of them. Inside the van, another man sits across from us and closes the door. I peer out through the tinted windows. There’s a loud ruckus coming from inside the house, then screams, and finally—gunshots. I jump from my seat and try to fend off Ruby’s attempts to restrain me. The man across from us pulls out a black gun and points it at me.
“Sit,” he orders. I do.
“Put that fucking thing away,” Ruby yells at him and he complies. “And don’t you ever pull a gun on her again,” she says. I sit; shocked at the way she speaks to him. No woman I’ve ever known is allowed to speak to a man of power the way she has and not be punished for it. He nods and claps his hands together and looks away. “Gloria isn’t hurt, Alex.” I look at Ruby like she must be out of her mind. Then again, looking at the crowd she runs with, I have to say my guess is likely spot on.
“You know what your father is?” Ruby asks. I nod my head. “Then you know that I can’t very well walk into that house and take you with me without making it look like a fight. What do you think your father would do to Gloria if he thought she sent you away?” Oh God. And there it is—the reason for all of this. When Gloria was trying to get me to understand, what she was doing, this is what she was talking about. If my father thinks that Gloria has undermined him, he could have her killed. It doesn’t matter that she’s his underboss’s wife—and his sister. Nothing matters but the family he’s sworn himself into.
“I didn’t enjoy hitting her,” Ruby says. “She was my best friend once. But would you rather I be the one to bang up on her or one of those guys?” she asks, pointing out at the men who are walking out of the house. The older man with the black-gray hair has his hand gripped around Gloria’s neck. She looks frightened and in pain. Ruby assures me that Jim isn’t hurting her; he just has to make it look like he is.
Jim walks with Gloria to the sidewalk near the van and the men—the ones who had been inside the house and the ones waiting outside, form two lines. One line faces the street and the other faces the house with their backs to one another. They draw their guns, and the men facing the house begin firing. They shoot out windows and fire at the wooden siding. I cry as I watch the only home I’ve ever known be turned into Swiss cheese. One by one, when the job is apparently done, men put their guns away and walk to their motorcycles. The van door opens, and in climb two more men. Both the front passenger and driver’s doors open, and a man climbs in each. The van starts up and we pull away, flanked by several men on bikes in front of us and more behind us.
Chapter 6
Alex
When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves.
Viktor E. Frankl
I SIT IN the van, unable to move, unable to speak. We drive for what feels like hours before the images of my Aunt Gloria being hit and my home being shot up finally cease. The sun rises fully and brightens the world around the van. Inside, it still feels so dark. I let myself cry when I feel like it, which is most of the trip. I’m run down and unable to think about where we’re going or what will happen next. At one point, I catch a glimpse of the man who sits across from me. He has short blond hair and a baby face with nearly a week’s worth of stubble. He wears patches like the guy with the black hair, but on the right breast of his vest are the patches DEVIL OF DEATH and SECRETARY. What the distinction is between an ANGEL OF DEATH and a DEVIL OF DEATH in this community, I don’t want to know.