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“He’s myuncle,just tell me.”
I hesitated—what was the harm in her knowing the truth? I mean, yeah, it was against the club rules, but HannahwasVinny’s family.
Andgod,those blue eyes...
“Come on, Viper.” She studied my face, her gaze staying intense. “I’m not going to write about it—off the record.” Hannah tossed the notepad and pen to the floor beside the bed. “I have no intention of writing any of this.”
I took a deep breath. “Fine, but here’s the deal.IfI tell you the truth, you can’t even talk to Vinny about it. This is between you and me—that’sit.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s go. Tell me.”
I chuckled at the enthusiasm. “Well, for starters, Vinny has been around a really long time. He and my dad were best friends.”
“I think I knew that,” she said, her brow furrowing. “But I know that can’t be the whole story. I’ve done my research—if you’re not a member, then you don’t carry much weight in the club. Iknowthat.”
“Right,” I agreed with her. “But who said he was never a member?”
The way her eyes widened was adorable. “Oh.He’s never mentioned that. I didn’t see him in any of those photo albums, either.”
“That’s because we basically just erased him. According to the by-laws, you don’t get to justleave, but Vinny was an exception to the rule. He was one of the original members, along with my dad. They got caught up in some stuff—stuff that Ican’ttell you about, but there was only one way to keep the entire club from being prosecuted, and that was him taking one for the club. So he went to prison for seven years, got his journalism degree while he was in there, and started his press company when he got out on good behavior.”
She wasshocked.“So, what did he go to prison for?”
I hesitated. “You can probably look it up.”
“Okay, or you can just tell me.” She folded her arms across her chest.
“I think they dropped it to manslaughter, but I can’t be totally sure.”
“What?” she gaped. “You can’t be serious?”
“I am...” my voice trailed off. “But don’t let it skew what you think of him. It wasn’t even Vinny. He took the fall for the club, because they had him cornered, trying to get him to snitch. It was an honorable thing, and he asked to be kicked out of the club, so that’s what they did. They said he was no longer affiliated—and that was the end of his ties to the club. It wasn’t until the last few years that everyone got back in contact with him. Well,” I paused, my stomach knotting up. “He did come to the funeral.”
Her lip pulled downward into a frown. “For your brother and dad?”
“Yeah.” As much as I wanted to go digging for the source of that knowledge, I knew that it was fairly common to everyone who lived in the town. Hell, Vinny could’ve told her himself.
“I’m so sorry for your loss,” she said softly, placing her hand on my forearm.
I pulled my arm away. “It’s fine. It’s the risk you take when you join the club. We all are aware of it.”
And it should have been me.
She nodded, her eyes dropping to her hands. “I know, but I’m sure it was still hard. Any time you lose someone—”
“Hannah, just stop,” I cut her off, my tone growing sharp. “I get that you’re trying to be sympathetic or whatever, but I don’t want your sympathy.” My head was starting to spin, the memories from the past coming back.
The phone calls.
The ambulances.
The fucking joint funeral.
Everything about it was nothing but torture for me—and I didn’t want to go back to that.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.” Hannah reached for me as I went to slide off the bed. “I only found out because of my interview with Louise.”
Louise.
