Her Mafia Brothers

Alone and Afraid

Neither of us said anything. Neither of us moved. We both stood there, frozen like statues, completely emotionless. Logan's face was an expressionless mask, but there was no hiding the abject fear in his eyes. He looked absolutely terrified.

"They're going to die, aren't they?" I whispered.

Logan looked at me, but he didn't say anything.

"Logan!" I cried. "Tell me they're not going to die!"

But he didn't. He didn't say anything at all which both infuriated me and completely freaked me out. I stood there in a daze, then I felt my body start to shake and I took a step closer to Logan.

"Don't let them die!" I screamed at him.

"Nobody's going to die." Strong arms wrapped around me from behind and a deep voice spoke quietly, but commandingly, in my ear. Rocco. He turned me around and held me tightly, pressing my cheek into his chest.

"You don't know that," I countered, desperate for reassurance but also knowing, deep inside, that he couldn't give me any with certainty.

"Yes I do," he said. "Jack's injuries aren't life threatening, and the men our brothers have with them are good at what they do. Plus Nick is in the left wing right now hacking into security systems, giving our boys a head start. They'll be okay."

But Rocco could obviously tell that wasn't enough for me because he put his hands on my shoulders and guided me into the movie room, sat down beside me and patted the space next to him for Logan.

"Come sit down with us, bro. I know you want to."

Without even hesitating, Logan did.

Rocco went and got popcorn and drinks while Logan and I fought over the movie, finally settling on Forrest Gump which neither of us had seen.

And that's how we spent the rest of the afternoon - leaning against Rocco and watching movies. When the popcorn ran out, Rocco got one of the staff to bring us a platter of cheese, crackers, chocolate and fruit.

Later, Nick came in to join us. He had an open bottle of beer, and passed one each to Logan and Rocco.

"Where's mine?" I asked. "Logan's underage too, you know. If he's going to drink alcohol, so am I."

Nick shook his head firmly. "No little sis, you're not. Damon will have my guts for garters if I let you have alcohol behind his back."

"Damon isn't here!" I pointed out, but Nick ignored me.

"Soda is coming for you, and we're having pizza for dinner. We'll eat it in here. Sound good?" Nick put his arm around me and smiled, acting like he was doing all this for me and I was the most important person in the world. Warm fuzzies spread through me. Until I remembered: Nick was trying to distract me from my sexist reality.

"Can I have just one? Please?" I begged, giving my brothers my best puppy dog expression.

"You can have a sip of mine," Rocco said. "But only a sip, you hear me? I don't need Damon pissed at me for letting you get drunk."

"I'm hardly going to get drunk off one beer!" I protested. "And besides, he's not here so he's not going to know."

Nick narrowed his eyes at me and gave me his dangerous glare, the one that means I'm about to be in trouble, so I backed off.

"It's so not fair!" I muttered before falling silent. But Rocco let me have some of his beer and it was gross anyway. I screwed up my face and handed the bottle back and all three of my brothers laughed. Bastards.

We ate our pizza dinner in the movie room and spent the rest of the night watching movies. I fell asleep on Rocco and only stirred slightly when Nick carried me up and tucked me into bed.