I bend and twist my hair pin in every possible direction, attempting to open the locked door. Maybe I should have payed attention in lock picking training.

Eventually I give up, my back aching from sitting in this uncomfortable position next to my door for hours as I make my way to my bed. By now it's two in the morning and no one has come to check on me, probably assuming I need time to come to my senses.

I'm bored out of my mind in here. I have my burner phone but it can only be used for taking calls and I can't even pass the time by sleeping.

I don't even attempt to sleep at night anymore, there's no point. I'll just end up staring at my ceiling until the sun rises.

In order to sleep my body needs to be completely and utterly drained of all energy, literally to the point where I will pass out in exhaustion. This usually takes a couple days so for the majority of my week I walk around like a living zombie, sluggishly making it through the day.

I stare blankly at the wall, waiting for daylight to come. There's plenty of stuff to do in here, painting, reading or even knitting but I refuse to touch it. Those were all Darcy's things, and in my mind I am no longer her.

I don't paint like she did, I don't read like she did, me and her are completely separate people.

The sound of my phone ringing reverberates through my silent room. I look at the caller id, sighing before picking it up.

"Ivan," I state.

"Sin, I'm disappointed in you," He tuts, his tone deathly calm.

For some reason this sends a twinge to my heart. I feel guilty for betraying him after all these years.

"You know it was never my intention to disappoint you, I respect you Ivan but I can no longer work for you," I explain confidently now that there's no device in me preventing me from saying what I truly feel.

"You know it's not that simple," He chuckles. "Oh but it is, you no longer have any hold over me," I say, now irritated that he thinks he owns me.

"I didn't expect this from you Sin, we're like family," He says calmly. Maybe I did consider Ivan to be my family for a while but was that because we genuinely had a connection or because he was forcing me to live in his house and spend everyday with him?

"Families don't treat each other like they're expendable," I tell him, recalling all the times he promised he would kill me and replace me with someone better if I did something he didn't like.

He remains silent on the other end, something he only does when he's beyond angry. I hang up, realising that I just burned a pretty important bridge.

Ivan won't let this go, I already know that. It's only a matter of time before he finds me and makes me regret ever speaking to him that way.

I suppose my best shot of living is to remain with my brothers, who have around the clock security. Although seeing their faces enrages me, it's better than having to face Ivan's army by myself.

I'll stay with them until I get my bearings and figure out a way to go into hiding, I decide.

Feeling too caged in this room, I attempted to pick the lock again. I finally find success after ten minutes of jamming my hair pin around aimlessly.

The hallways are silent, indicating everyone is asleep. I decide to head to the bar, alcohol being the best way to distract myself from my pessimistic thoughts.

The bar room is pretty much the definition of a man cave. It includes a pool and ice hockey table, a few arcade games and a pretty impressive collection of expensive drinks.

I sit on a stool in the pitch black room, knowing if I turn on the lights my sleep deprived brain will immediately get a killer migraine. I then slip on my headphones before pouring myself a drink as 'Moonlight on the river' by Mac DeMarco plays in my ear.

I sit at the counter for hours, pouring glass after glass of whiskey.

Suddenly I feel a hand on my shoulder. Startled and extremely tipsy, I turn around and slam my glass into the unknown figure's face.

"Ow! Jesus Christ," An unfamiliar voice whines.



Me and the boys make our way through the extravagant halls of the Russo household, ready for our five am shift.

We pretty much all live here, I moved into a spare room two years ago after my farther sent me away.

We were having issues within our mafia because of multiple rats who were leaking our information, resulting in each one of my extended family members being assassinated.

After numerous of my aunts, uncles and cousins dying, my farther realised someone was trying to eliminate any possible heir to the Spanish mafia and decided it was best I go to work far away with our close allies, the Italians.

Me and Rome were already close friends at that point so they welcomed me in with open arms.

Nico, Matias and Seb all have their own penthouse but they rarely ever use it. I mean there's not much point, we only have a few hours in between shifts so we normally just choose to crash here.

Lorenzo appointed me head of security, so it's my responsibility to make sure there's a guard manning every station and nobody is in the house who isn't supposed to be there.

He told me about his farther, who was extremely paranoid about security after Darcy was taken when she was little. Which explains why Lorenzo's so uptight about it as well.

At five am everyday Me, Nico, Matias and Seb have to patrol the hallways, ensuring that there's no one in any of the common rooms before quietly checking everyone's bedroom.

I think this is slightly over kill but Lorenzo is obviously terrified of waking up and finding another one of his siblings missing.

We start routinely checking the rooms, swiftly scanning each one before moving on to the next.

I'm so accustomed to there being no one in them that when I open the bar room door I immediately shut it again, only to reopen it instantly.

A shadowy figure sits at the bar in complete darkness, their head resting on their arms.

I wave over the rest of the boys who enter the room quietly. Matias pulls out his gun, aiming it at the unknown person while Nico slowly approaches. He places his hand on their shoulder in an attempt to turn them around but he's knocked over by a swinging glass colliding with his face.

"Ow! Jesus Christ," Nico wails as the figure turns around, revealing an extremely intoxicated Darcy.

Now that I see there's no threat, I let out a laugh at Nico who's clutching his head on the floor. "It's not funny, I've for sure got a concussion," He groans. I chuckle at his bad luck, first he gets body slammed by her and now she's smashed a glass on his head.

"Jesus, how much have you been drinking?" Seb asks in disbelief causing me to focus on the multiple glasses lined up on the counter and the empty bottle of whisky.

She just shrugs. "Hey you wanna play a game of ice hockey?" She asked excitedly in between hiccups.

"We can't, we have to work," Seb explains. "Ah I understand, you're scared you're going to lose," She taunts, drunkenly attempting reverse psychology.

Seb, being the idiot he is engages in a two minute argument with Darcy about who is truly the best at table ice hockey before ultimately agreeing to participate in a match.

I look at my watch and see that it's half four, meaning we have another half hour before our shift officially begins. I lean against the wall and watch as Seb obliterates Darcy, who has little to no coordination in her drunken state, match after match.

Darcy begs for a rematch but Seb hands off the puck to Nico, who was pleading to have a go from the sidelines.

They play for what seems like forever, the boys seem to already be fond of her.

Darcy looks happy for the first time since I've met her. She continues to drink, despite my protests and laughs hysterically at Nico's jokes, causing an odd sensation of jealous to hit me for some reason.

They decide that they want to play a teams match, so Nico grabs Seb and Darcy drunkenly pulls me off the wall. Her hands brushing against my bare arm causes my hairs to stand up.

We play for awhile and I actually start getting into it, laughing and joking along with my friends but the fun is interrupted by Lorenzo entering the room.

He eyes us surrounding the ice hockey table and the multiple empty bottles littering the room as well as a belligerent Darcy, who's swaying side from side.

He turns back to me with a furious look in his eyes.

Shit.