Her Mafia Brothers

Broken

Jack held me for ages and Nick sat next to us, his quiet presence helping me feel calm, safe. Flashbacks of him standing above me with a belt played on a continuous loop in my head, but slowly, thanks to the comfort of my brothers, it faded into the background more and more.

As if he could read my mind, Nick touched my arm and smiled at me tenderly.

"Damon will never use his belt on you," he reassured me softly. "But Logan doesn't have trauma from it like you do, so it's just a normal punishment for him."

I nodded, but didn't reply. And then it occurred to me. "Why are they taking so long up there? Is Damon beating him to a pulp?"

Jack chuckled. "No sweetheart, Damon won't be beating him. He's more likely to be lecturing him."

I frowned. "I don't know why adults bother lecturing us," I mused quietly. "It's not like we actually listen."

Much to my surprise, neither Jack nor Nick told me off like I'd half expected them to, and they both just laughed, instead. But then Jack turned stern, and cupped my chin in his hand, tilting my face up to look at him.

"If you ever do anything to earn yourself a lecture from me you'd best listen to every word, sweetheart. Because if you don't, you'll be in big trouble. Okay?"

I sighed. "But why?" I whined. "You know it's literally pointless, don't you?"

Jack looked like he was about to scold me but Nick reached over and patted my knee, grinning.

"Don't worry sis," he told me. 'I'll skip the lecture and just go straight to the punishment, okay?"

I pouted. "Or you could just not boss me around," I grumbled.

'Nuh-uh," Nick declared, still looking amused. "You won't be acting like a shit and getting away with it on my watch."

I ignored him and buried my face back in Jack's chest. I really couldn't be bothered arguing with my idiot brothers.

Jack hugged me again, then he stood me up so he could stand up himself.

"You okay now, sweetheart? I really need to get back to work."

I gave him one more squeeze and then I let him go. "Yeah I'm okay," I told him. The crisis had been averted, again. My brothers might be idiots, but they were pretty good at distracting me and helping me through panic attacks.

Nick extended his hand to me. "Trampoline or X-box?"

"X-box." My butt was too sore for me to jump on the trampoline. Damon might have gone easier on me than he did the last time, but my butt still throbbed. I wouldn't be able to jump on the trampoline comfortably at all. Even sitting in the oversized beanbags in front of the big gaming screen would be uncomfortable. But right now, playing X-box with Nick was the best option I had, so I took it.

"Will Logan be coming back down to play? Because if he is...." my voice trailed off, but Nick knew what I meant, anyway.

"Nah I doubt it. He usually stays in his room for a while and sulks when he gets in trouble. I doubt we'll see him until dinner time. Damon will make him come down then."

I nodded. "Okay." Because I really wanted to play X-box with Nick, but I also really didn't want to be around Logan right now. Not after hearing what he'd said to Damon about me. Sure, he was angry when he said it, but he'd still said the words and they'd still hurt. I honestly wish I'd kicked him in the balls harder.

Playing X-box with Nick was fun. I've really only played with Logan before and I was a bit worried Nick would be a poor substitute, but he was good. He wasn't any better at playing it than Logan was, but he still beat me nearly every time. We laughed a lot and time flew, and before we knew it, it was time to go and eat.