Her Mafia Brothers

Ringing Damon

Once Logan has disappeared, Jack pulls his phone out of his pocket and dials up Damon. He answers instantly; he'd obviously been waiting for our call.

"How are you, Carrie?" he asks. "Are you okay?"

I just nod. I'm still crying, albeit much more calmly now, but I don't trust myself to speak. My lower lip is quivering, I'm sniffling, and I have the hiccups from crying so hard. Just because the tears aren't rushing down my face like a river any more, doesn't mean I'm in control enough to talk.

Damon launches into a stern lecture, but I lie back against Rocco's chest and mostly tune him out. I've heard so many lectures already, I really don't care for another one.

"Carrie!" A stern voice and Rocco poking my leg jolts me back to the present and Damon sighs.

"Did you hear any of what I just said?" he growls.

Sheepishly, I shake my head. There's no point lying - it's obvious I wasn't listening, and I'm probably in enough trouble already, without adding lying to it.

Damon shakes his head, but he doesn't look angry. Instead, he looks resigned. "I guess you have been through enough, you don't need another lecture." He takes a big breath, and then catches my eye through the phone screen. "Look at me," he demands.

I do, and I see a soft, reassuring smile. There's sadness, anger, hurt, in his eyes, but he's doing his best to reassure me, and make me know that everything is going to be okay.

"Talk to me, Carrie-girl. Tell me what was going through your head before you ran away."

"I didn't run away!" I object loudly. "I wasn't trying to run away, I wasn't trying to get myself kidnapped, and contrary to what Rocco seems to think, I wasn't trying to get revenge! I just needed some space and I needed to take a walk." I say the last sentence more calmly than the first few - but Damon didn't scold me for raising my voice, he just listened patiently. And Rocco didn't react at what I said, either, which was a nice surprise. I was expecting to get a jab in the ribs or something at the very least, but his arms stay secure around me and he's holding me close, just letting me speak.

Nick and Jack are silent, too. They've both pulled up stools and are sitting beside us, but they're not reacting to my words, either. I guess, like Damon, they want to know the full story, in my words. I guess they were too busy and preoccupied before, to really know what was going on with me.

"Okay, so start from the beginning. Tell me everything. Jack's filled me in a bit, but I want to hear it from you. In your words. In detail."

So I tell him. Words spill out of me as I describe how alone and frustrated I felt, like I was going to erupt or something. I tell him how hard it's been, being confined to home and not able to see my friends at school or talk to them in any way because they're still grounded. I tell him how hard it is to keep up with my school work when it's all online and not in class, and how I just needed attention. Affection. Something.

I tell him how I slammed my door repeatedly, hoping for one of my brothers to come and spend some time with me, but how Rocco took my door instead, and how angry and betrayed I felt. The lack of privacy isn't a huge problem because I have my own lockable bathroom and a big wardrobe and the boys don't invade my privacy anyway, but it was just the fact that he took it instead of giving me what I wanted - time - that pushed me over the edge.

Damon was silent for a moment.

And then he asked the questions I'd been dreading:

"Did you go and ask any of your brothers to do anything with you?" He sounded merely curious, not like he was telling me off or anything, so I felt sheepish and stupid rather than defensive.