Her Mafia Brothers

The Brothers Return

Rose was charging through waist-deep water in the sinking ship, holding an ax above her head that I assume she was going to use to cut Jack free from the pipe he was handcuffed to, when my other brothers walked in the door.

I stood up and glared at Damon angrily. "You left me!" I accused him. "You said you would wait for me, you promised, and you didn't! You left me in the bathroom even though you knew I was afraid!"

Rocco hit pause on the movie and Damon strode towards me.

"I'm sorry I got called away, Carrie. I had a phone call with some urgent business that needed to be tended to right away. I asked Logan to go and wait for you instead. Did he not do that?"

He glared ferociously at Logan, but I quickly interceded for my youngest big brother. I didn't want him getting in trouble, he'd done nothing wrong.

"Yes he came but he wasn't there when I got out. Noone was." I looked up at Damon bravely, my lower lip quivering. Why was I always so close to tears all the time? I hated it. "But you should have been there," I told him. "You promised. I didn't want Logan, I wanted you!"

"I am sorry about that, Carrie-girl. But I'm sure you understand that in our business, we deal with very dangerous people and situations and sometimes, time is of the essence."

I nodded grumpily, but didn't say anything. On the surface, what he said made sense, but it still felt like a betrayal. Besides which, I didn't truly understand exactly what it was they did. I had a vague idea, and I knew it was dangerous, but that was really all I knew. And I knew they wouldn't tell me if I asked. Damon fully expected me to take what he said at face-value and just accept it, not question it.

I felt all my brothers eyes on me. Watching me.

"Come back and sit down Carrie," Rocco commanded gruffly. "You're still my shadow."

Nick and Alex both raised their eyebrows in surprise.

"What's going on?" Alex asked at the same time as I scowled at Rocco.

"It's been more than two hours," I informed him smugly. "My punishment is over."

Beside me, Nick groaned. "What did you do this time?" he asked, acting like all I ever did was get myself into trouble.

I rolled my eyes and poked my tongue out at him, earning a chuckle from Alex. "Why do you automatically assume I did something wrong? Maybe Rocco is overreacting?" I asked.

Nick raised an eyebrow again. "Is he?"

I looked at the ground. I didn't want to lie, but I didn't want to admit to the truth, either.

"Is he?" Nick asked again, sternly this time, his voice a low growl.

"No." I shook my head. "I pretended to drown when he pushed me in the pool and he didn't like it."

"Why did you push her in the pool? I already told Logan not to do that today," Alex asked angrily, directing his scary glare at Rocco. If that had been directed at me, I think I would have shriveled up on the spot but Rocco didn't even flinch.

"She filled a balloon with flour, hung it from the roof, and shot it with a dart, covering me with flour."

In unison, my brothers cracked up laughing. I'd never seen them all laugh like that before, and a small, proud smile spread across my face.

"I shot the balloon, actually!" Logan corrected him gleefully.

Rocco leaned across the couch and shoved his shoulder, sending Logan crashing into Jack, who reached out to steady him. "Yeah and you got chucked in the pool too," Rocco said. "But you at least had the good sense to just get out. Not like Miss Dramatic here, who had to pretend to drown and scare the crap out of me."

My proud smile faded. The words Miss Dramatic hurt. Although Rocco probably hadn't meant them as an insult, that's exactly how I took them. Like he thought I was making a big deal out of nothing. Is that what he thought? That I was just being dramatic about nearly being raped last night, and I should be over it already?

"I filmed it," Jack piped up, either ignoring my distress or simply not noticing it. He fished his phone out of his pocket and flicked through it, pressing the screen a few times, until the footage appeared on the huge TV in front of us, replacing the frozen image of Rose, ax poised above her head.

We all watched as the balloon exploded on the screen, covering Rocco with flour. The expression on his face was priceless, and Jack had zoomed right up, giving us a really clear picture. It was much better seeing it on the big screen than it had been in real life; I didn't get a good look at his facial expression when the flour actually landed on him. But seeing it right there on the screen in front of us, larger than life, I couldn't help but laugh.

Even Rocco laughed.

"Classic!" Nick said in approval.

Authors Note: Sorry this is such a short update.  I've got more, but it's not finished and I wanted to give you all something..... so here it is. I'll try to get the rest of the chapter finished tomorrow :)