Her Mafia Brothers

Shoplifting

I sucked in a big breath of air - the scent of freedom! Raised my arms and spun in a circle.

This was such a good feeling!

We laughed out loud, proud of ourselves for getting away so easily, enjoying just walking around without a plan. We bought lunch at the food court, sipped on smoothies from the juice bar and just generally enjoyed ourselves.

"This is so much better than school!" I exclaimed, and my friends all nodded in agreement.

"Do you know what would make it even better?" Lily asked, her voice quiet, teasing.

"What?"

"Walk into that shop right there and nick something. Go on, I dare you!" she said, a definite sparkle of challenge in her eyes.

"I'm not stealing anything!" I protested. "I don't need to! I can afford to buy whatever I want, Damon gave me a credit card," I reminded her.

"This isn't about being able to afford it," Lily explained. "It's about the thrill of it. Try it - the buzz is addictive. You'll see!"

Kate, Petra and Frankie smiled, and didn't look at all surprised. Nor did they open their mouths to stop her, or discourage me. Instead, Frankie looped her arm through mine.

"Come on," she said. "We'll all go."

I froze. I definitely did not want to do this. Aside from the trouble I would be in if I got caught, I didn't really want to be known as a thief. It was bad enough that my brothers ran a Mafia - I didn't want to have a bad reputation of my own.

I looked at my friends in horror. "Have you all done this before?"

They did at least have the good graces to look slightly guilty, and a bit sheepish, but they all collectively nodded.

"Yep," Frankie confirmed. "Lily has done it the most, though."

"Plus this is the perfect opportunity because your bodyguard isn't here!" Petra pointed out.

I nodded thoughtfully. She had a point. Normally, the bodyguard trailing me would step in and stop me from doing anything illegal or extremely foolish. Or, at least, I assumed he would. I'd never tried it out to be sure, but I couldn't imagine Damon being happy with any adult standing back and watching me do something monumentally stupid - like shoplifting. But right now he was nowhere in sight and I literally had free rein to do whatever I wanted.

The corners of my mouth curved upwards and I felt a smile slowly spread across my face.

"That's true," I agreed. I swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the knots that were tying themselves tighter in my stomach, shut my eyes briefly and shook my head to clear away my conscience, and nodded decisively. "Let's do this!"

Casually, we strolled into the designer clothing shop, looking for all the world like a perfectly normal group of teenagers about to embark on a perfectly normal shopping trip. Together, we oohed and aahed over the gorgeous tops, fingering the silky items, talking and laughing, holding garments up against ourselves in front of the full-length mirrors that lined the walls.

Kate didn't say much. She seemed nervous, which wasn't at all like her. But the other girls - Kate, Lily and Petra - made up for her silence. They stopped in front of different items of clothing and draped an entire ensemble over Kate's arm before leading me into the dressing rooms.

"Go and try these on," Lily ordered. "But instead of putting this shirt back, stuff it into your school bag." She gave me the hugest smile, and I didn't even hesitate. Without even thinking about it, I confidently followed her instructions, stuffing the shirt right down at the bottom of my school bag, underneath all the other crap that was in there.

As quickly as we could without arousing suspicion, we returned the rest of the items to the racks, looked around a bit more, and walked out.

I didn't get very far, though. Just before the five of us exited the store, a big, burly security guard came up behind us, calling out to us, before he roughly brushed past us and stood in front of us, blocking our exit.

"Come with me ladies," he ordered sternly.

Oh shit. My heart plummeted. I looked at my friends: they all looked terrified. Their faces were pale, they were swallowing hard. Kate looked to be crying.

"My mom is going to kill me," she whispered.

We didn't even try to run. I don't know why that option didn't occur to us, but we didn't even think of it. Instead, we meekly followed the security guard through the store as he escorted us to his office out the back.

The store manager was very unimpressed as she demanded I hand over my bag. I stood there, completely freaking out, as she rummaged through it before extricating the shirt I'd so carefully hidden.

She started lecturing us all, which I expertly tuned out, but then she asked for our parents phone numbers and that's when the panic really started to set in. Damon! He was going to kill me!

"Please don't call my brother," I whispered desperately. I wasn't beyond begging. At that point, I wasn't beyond anything.

"If you don't give me your parents phone numbers I will be forced to call the police," the store manager threatened seriously, and I swear my heart stopped. The police? For a shirt that I didn't even succeed in stealing?

"That won't be necessary Ma'am," a deep voice rumbled.

"Paul!" I hadn't even heard the door open or my bodyguard approach, but I'd never been happier to see him in my entire life.

"I wouldn't be smiling if I were you," Paul scolded. "You're in quite a bit of trouble. Alex has asked me to bring you straight home."