Her Mafia Brothers

Trouble

It was Jack. He was alone, which I was grateful for, but he looked stern and angry, and I didn't like that at all. Jack was meant to be my nice brother. The kind, patient, gentle one. The one who called me cute nicknames like Sweetheart and Darling Girl and treated me tenderly, with affection. He wasn't the one who was supposed to scold me and punish me; I had enough brothers who did that already.

"Stand up," he commanded and I hastened to obey. I pushed myself up out of the beanbag and moved to stand in front of him and immediately he pulled me closer, then took my chin in his hand and forced me to look at him. I tried to avoid his gaze but he wouldn't let me. His eyes were blazing, but not with anger like I'd expected. All I could see was disappointment.

Knowing Jack was disappointed in me hurt worse than having him angry at me. At least if he was angry I could get all defensive and brush it off and pretend I'd done nothing wrong and get angry at him in return. But I couldn't do that with disappointment. Seeing Jack unhappy with me just made me sad. I felt bad. Guilty. Like I'd let him down.

"When we were chatting with Damon earlier, what did I tell you about disrespect and disobedience?" He spoke calmly, quietly, but his tone was almost as authoritative as Damon's.

I thought back, trying to remember the exact words he'd used. He'd made it sound like it was really important, something I had to be really careful not to do. The words had just been spinning around in my head, too. It was immensely frustrating that I couldn't remember them right now when I really needed to.

"Um....." I tried to look down, but he wouldn't let me.

"Answer me Carrie. What did I say?" This time, his voice was harsh and I cringed but he didn't soften either the tight grip he had on my chin or his hard stare.

I racked my brains. Aha! That was it! "That it could cost business dealings, and might even be a matter of life and death."

Jack nodded. "Right. So what happened? Why did you disrespect me in front of Dominic?"

I shrugged. Jack glared.

"Were you doing a business deal with him? Was it a matter of life and death?" I asked, acting like it totally wasn't a big deal, then instantly regretted it. I bit the inside of my lip as Jack inhaled sharply, then exhaled heavily through his nose. His demeanor had changed completely from the friendly, concerned brother he'd been before. Right now, he was terrifying.

"You need to be respectful at all times," he said, his voice a low growl. "Not just if you think there's a business deal happening, or if we're with someone important. All the time. Do you understand me?" He let go of my chin and I instantly looked away, but that was another mistake. Jack grabbed me again, holding my chin so tightly it hurt, and wrenched my face back so I was looking at him again. His touch was anything but gentle and I flinched. I was used to rough treatment, but not from Jack. Jack had never been anything but kind and gentle with me.

"Ow," I whimpered and instantly, he let me go again and just as quickly, I looked down at the floor. This time, he just put a finger under my chin to tilt my face up rather than grabbing me harshly as he'd done before, but even that one finger was enough to tell me that he meant business and it would be wise for me to cooperate.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you," he told me sternly. "Now answer the question."

What question was that? I thought in my head, but luckily I didn't voice those thoughts out loud. I had no idea what Jack would do if I did.

He looked at me hard for a moment then sighed and stepped back, running a hand through his hair like he was frustrated. I didn't know why he was frustrated though - I was the one who's life had been turned upside down. As far as I could tell, his life hadn't changed at all with me coming into it, but mine had changed completely, coming into his.

"Do you understand me?" he growled. "You don't just be respectful when you think it's important to do so, you be respectful all the time. Right?"

Even though he wasn't holding my chin, I kept looking at my brother, with a myriad of thoughts swirling in my head.

"Yes I understand," I whispered. "But I wasn't meaning to be disrespectful." I looked down at the ground. I know if I looked at Jack, I wouldn't be able to say what I wanted to say. "I..." I let my voice trail off. I couldn't do this, I wasn't brave enough.

"You what?" Jack asked, his tone much softer now. "You can tell me."

Jack's face softened into the brother I remembered, but instead of encouraging me to talk, it disconcerted me. He was changing so suddenly from scary to kind and with everything else that had happened to me today, it was almost impossible for me to deal with.

"No I can't tell you!" I yelled at him, venting all my frustration, fury, and raging emotions at him. I heard Damon's voice in my head telling me to stop yelling but I ignored it and carried on. "I can't tell you because you don't care!" I accused him, even though I knew that wasn't true, not really. "I've only been here for a few hours and already I've been given a whole lot of rules to follow. I'm not allowed to do this and I'm not allowed to do that. I've got to behave in a certain way because I'm a Bogiatto and apparently that explains it all. I barely remember any of you and I'm frightened and instead of you hugging me in front of that doctor that I didn't like, you held me still so I couldn't get away and you held up my shirt for him and I couldn't escape. You didn't give me any time to get used to it, you just did it! You didn't care that I was frightened, all you cared about was that I somehow disrespected you and now I've lost my trampoline all because I accidentally shut my door too hard!" All of those words had rushed out of me in one go without even drawing a breath and now that they were out, I looked up at Jack with my heart in my throat. This was it. This was the part where Jack either hit me or threw me out, calling me an ungrateful, useless brat. The same words I'd heard dozens of times before. I felt tears well up in my eyes and I braced myself for the whack I expected, tilting my chin towards him defiantly, trying to show him I wasn't afraid. It was a lie; I was afraid. Actually, 'afraid' was an understatement. But if he was going to hit me, I was going to show him that I could take it. I'd taken plenty before.

"Carrie, come and sit down with me sweetheart." Jack's voice was soft, but his tightly clenched fists told me how angry he was. I'm pretty sure he wasn't used to being yelled at, especially not from a girl like me.

"Are you going to hit me?" Although I tried really hard to keep the fear out of my voice, I didn't succeed and my voice was shaky.

"No sweetheart. I'm not going to hit you. I would never hit you. I'm not taking away your trampoline, either. Damon probably would if he had witnessed that, but I'm not going to. After everything you've been through I think you deserve a trampoline But we do need to have a chat. A proper chat, without yelling. And I'm serious about the no yelling part."