Mia

Defiance

I was pulling down the bottom of the dress when Nick knocked, asking if we could hurry it up. Lorenzo snapped his belt into place and gave me a quick but intense kiss.

"Coming!" Lorenzo shouted and pulled me by my hand out the back door of the booming club. The music was the only thing that covered the scream from Mickey, and from me.

"Jesus, can't go a day without it can you?" Nick asked while looking at me, I acted offended, but honestly I didn't think I wanted to go a day without it. One more time and I might consider being addicted.

"I just know how to pick em." Lorenzo shrugged before opening the back door of Nick's SUV for me. I slid in while holding down the back of the dress, not that it wasn't revealing as it was.

The men got into the front seats and exchanged a triumphant smile before Nick peeled from the alley. The drive was long back to Jimmy's, I drifted to sleep against the cool window. When Nick woke me up, we were already inside the house. I reached beside me and felt cushions on my left and air on my right. A couch, they'd carried me in and I slept on a couch. In Jimmy's house.

"Hello sunshine," Nick teased, handing me a cup of steaming coffee. I held it between my hands as I sat up, no longer in the dress but the silk shorts and what I assumed was Lorenzo's button up. I reached for my neck, but the gem was still at my throat, a sigh like relief came over me.

"How long did I sleep?" I ask, bringing the hot liquid to my lips.

"Long enough, Lorenzo said you needed it." He cocked his head to the side, I followed the direction and saw Lorenzo standing between Jimmy and a small woman, the woman who was sleeping when we arrived.

"Who is she? Melani?" I ask softly. Nick nods,

"Jimmys daughter, she's the only girl cousin too. We're very.." he searched for the right word, "protective of her." He settled and moved to sit next to me on the couch.

"So you're all really cousins?" I ask, folding my legs into each other and facing Nicks' side.

"Yeah, big family." He reaches to the end table and grabs a cookie, a plate of them comes into view when he leans back and starts to crunch it. I get up and walk over where the three of them are standing, Jimmy sees me first.

"Hello Sunshine." He repeats what Nick said, must be a family thing. I smile and watch as Lorenzo turns and Melani smiles back.

"I'm so glad pure awake, I wanted to thank you." She says, her accent not nearly as heavy as her fathers. She pulls me into her thin arms and hugs me, as if she's known me my whole life.

"You're welcome.." I hug back awkwardly, Lorenzo dips his head in a laugh.

"It means more knowing a woman helped." She pulled away and I knew by the look in her eye that she meant it. The look in her eye was only hindered by the bruise around it. A black one given to her by the man she thought she loved.

"Of course." Lorenzo pulled me into his side, I laughed as he stood in the black slacks and a black tank top. Jimmy wasn't dressed to the nines, instead he wore a white tank top and pressed khaki pants, his meaty, decorated hands dipping into his pockets as he leaned against the wall.

"You did a wonderful job, would've taken four times longer with all the cousins involved." Jimmy speaks again, his voice loud enough to shake the house if he let it. I had a feeling he had control over things that I previously assumed only nature could.

"Thanks, once I knew what he'd done it made it easier." Lorenzo pulls me closer if that's even possible, our sides meshing into one with the proud tug.