Her Mafia Brothers

Frightened

I was still sitting on Alex's lap, snuggling into him, when Damon walked into the room. He looked so stern that I gulped. Surely he wasn't going to punish me as well? Hadn't I been punished enough? I squirmed warily.

"Did Alex punish you properly?" Damon growled, his voice so low and rumbly and scary that I wanted to hide.

I nodded.

"Answer properly," Damon demanded, at the same time as Alex whispered the same command in my ear.

"Yes," I whispered around my sniffles, tears still wet on my cheeks.

"Good." Damon nodded in approval. "I assume he explained to you why your disobedience was taken so seriously?"

"Yes." I nodded, looking down at the ground, trying to brace myself for my oldest brother's lecture. Damon had the uncanny ability to fill me with fear without ever raising his voice, and to make me feel thoroughly chastised without actually punishing me, just from a lecture. But it appeared the universe was on my side today because all he did was look at me and tell me not to ever do that again, and then he and Alex both left the room.

I was left to my own devices. Or rather, I was left to my own company - Alex had taken my devices. But I still had my telly, so I lay back on my beanbag, making myself as comfortable as I could, and turned it on, flicking through the channels until I found something I wanted to watch. But as interesting as the show was, I couldn't watch it. I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't focus on anything at all, my thoughts were consumed with what Alex had said earlier: there was a Mafia war brewing, and people wanted to take me.

Had I not suffered enough in my short life already? Now people were after me!

Frustrated and frightened, I got up and walked slowly, my bottom still on fire, and knocked hesitantly on Logan's door. Maybe he still hates me, but that was a risk I was willing to take. Because maybe - hopefully - he could help me understand.

I knocked, but when he didn't answer, I swung his door open and walked in. Logan's bedroom was in darkness and he was propped up in bed but he wasn't sleeping. He was on his phone, and the light from the screen illuminated his face. He glared at me as I walked in.

"What do you want?" he snarled as I plonked myself down on his bed beside him.

"To talk to you, obviously," I said in a 'surely-you're-not-that-stupid' tone.

"Well I don't want to talk to you."

Rude! But I didn't voice my thoughts. It wasn't my fault he had busted ribs. Instead, I got up and flicked the main overhead light on, blinding us both momentarily. My eyes adjusted to the sudden light far quicker than Logan's did - he'd obviously been sitting in darkness all day - and he was still blinking rapidly by the time I could see clearly again and sat myself back down next to him.

"Tell me about this Mafia war brewing," I demanded. "Why are there people who want to take me? Who are they and what do they want with me?"

The death glare Logan gave me would have made a lesser girl wither on the spot, but I was used to my brothers and their fierce glares, so I just stared right back. After what Alex had just dished out, there was nothing Logan could do to me that would faze me.

"They'd soon give you back," he snapped. "They'd find out how fucking annoying you are and return you. Don't worry."

I looked at my brother, aghast. He'd never spoken to me like that before and it was horrible. Well maybe he had, just recently, but I didn't like it. His words hurt, and he'd interjected a lot of venom into his tone.

I got up hurriedly. This was a bad idea. A very bad idea.

But the second I stood up, Logan sighed.

"Sit down. I'm sorry." He patted his bed. "It's not your fault I'm sitting here bored and in pain. Go downstairs and get me something to eat and I'll tell you what you want to know, alright?"

So I did. I padded down the stairs, too sore to slide down the banisters like I normally would, and found the kitchen staff. I still wasn't overly confident asking someone else to prepare food for me, but the lady I spoke to acted like it was completely ordinary, taking orders from a teenager. She set about preparing a plate of food, and it wasn't long before I was carrying up a tray with cut up fruit, chocolate chip cookies, cheese and ham sandwiches and a glass of strawberry milk. Logan's favorite, apparently. So she told me, anyway.

He wolfed the milk down straight away when I set the tray down on the bed in front of him, so maybe she was right.

"So you've forgiven me then?" I asked, not even completely sure at this point why we were even angry at each other. I mean, I could remember the stupid altercation over losing the video game, and kneeing him in the balls, but the why of it all was a bit hazy. And now that I knew there were people who wanted to capture me, to potentially hurt me or kill me, the why didn't even matter.

"Don't push it," Logan snarled, but he didn't actually sound angry like he was before. He sounded far calmer, and the corners of his mouth were twitching up into the semblance of a smile. Inwardly, I grinned. He was forgiving me. I knew it.

"So what do you want to know?" he asked around a mouthful of cookie. Crumbs sprayed out of his mouth as he spoke.

"Eww gross!" I exclaimed, flicking a saliva-coated cookie crumb off my sleeve. "That's disgusting, Logan!"

He just grinned. "This is my room and you're my sister. I don't need manners here. Now do you want to know anything or not?"

"Yes." I nodded. "I want to know what's going on. Why I'm in danger."

Logan scoffed. "You're not in danger."

"I am!" I yelled. "Alex told me there's a war brewing and there are people who want to take me - to hurt me - to get at Damon!"

"But you're still not in danger," Logan said. "Paul and his team are watching us all the time. They're armed, and they're good shots. They're not going to let anything happen to us. Stop worrying."

Logan's reassurance did nothing to calm my racing heart or quell my fear.

"But the war!" I pointed out.

He shrugged. "Wars happen in the Mafia. Tensions brew, some deal goes wrong. It happens. Damon will deal with it, don't worry."

"So it doesn't bother you?" I asked. "How can you be so blase about it all?"

He shrugged again, but I could tell it was an act. He was afraid. Ha! I was learning how to do this whole body language reading thing! I grinned, feeling pretty smug.

"I don't really have a choice," he said. "This is our life.