~Greyson ~

A thick silence filled the car once we get in.

I am boiling on the inside, so to try and relief my anger I start the car and grip the steering wheel in a death grip. I hate myself for terrifying Magnolia like this, but I had to. I had to get her out of there, but mostly I had to get myself away from Maddox. He dared to insult my little sister. I could have busted his head right there in the middle of the food court, but I don't want Mags to see me like this. She would be scared of me.

"I am sorry Mags." I sight heavily after a few minutes of driving in silence. "I just had to get you out of there. There aren't good guys." I pause to see if she would say anything, but nothing came. She was blankly looking outside the window, her hands nervously fidgeting on her lap. What have I done.

"I gamble." I state simply and soon in the corner of my eyes I see her head turning to look at me, confused. " I make deals for money and mess with the wrong people. I bet and gamble." I wait for her to react, but she just listens to me, so I continue.

"Maddox lost 10 grand on a pocker game against me and didn't appreciate it so much. I am good at these sort of things, which make people loath me. They want to take revenge in some way to losing against an 18 year old like me you know ? I-... listen I know I am not the best brother here by setting an example of me like this, but please don't hate me for doing this." I was honestly scared to her reaction, maybe she doesn't see me like the same brother any-...

"Bring me with you."

"W-what ?" I stutter. Did I hear well ?

"Bring me with you to your next bet or gamble Grey." She stated and I couldn't help myself to stop the car.

"Didn't you just listen to what I said ? It's dangerous Mags !" I replied as I felt my protectiveness side for her come out.

"I know ! Trust me I know it better than you actually think" what the hell does she mean by that ? " But I want to get to know you. All of you. If that is what you like then let me see your world..." she trails off and I shake my head vigorously at her proposition.

"No Magnolia. It is too dangerous. I have already been in so many difficult situation and I don't want you to get involved in any of this. You have been through enough"

"But..." I cut her off.

"No. I am not coming back to my decision. End of discussion." I coldly say, and as soon as my words leave my mouth it feels like the temperature in the car dropped. I push her away when she tries to know me better. I have no choice. I need to keep her safe from all of this.

When we arrive back at the mansion I stop Magnolia to get out of the car to tell her one more thing.

"Damon doesn't know about me gambling. So I trust you to not snitch on me for this one." I watch her intensely to watch her reaction and see her nodding her head, understanding.

"Thank you."

And then she leaves the car without saying anything else. I breaks me to push her away, but I have no choice. She has already been hurt so many times in her previous home, so now I am trying to keep her away from all this danger. God ! it was going so well earlier when we went shopping, before the food court. Then it just went down hill and now Magnolia will be distant again. Like the first days she arrived. She was distant, scared of us, she didn't even utter a word... Fuck.

But a part of me knows that I won't be able to protect her forever. Not with a messed up family like ours. We are surrounded by danger, because of the business our parents managed to create, which means it is currently in our hands. No security guards, no bullet proof house, no brothers will keep her safe from knowing one day or another what we do. And that will make her hate us.

As I try to calm myself down I head to Damon's office on the last floor of the house where we forbid magnolia to go and I inform him about today, leaving the part in the food court out of the discussion.

I knock on the dark wooden door, before entering the cage of demon. Of Damon I mean.

"Did everything go well ?" Damon says without even looking up from his computer two look at me.

"yes. I got her the clothes she needed. She didn't want me to her everything, she hated the fact that we spend money on her" I chuckle a little as I recall earlier when I had to force her to take the things I gave her. She always tried to put them back someway or another, but I guess she doesn't quite know me yet, because I picked every single thing back. " We just weren't able to buy her school stuff." at this words Damon's head lift up to look at me with a strict glare, waiting for me to explain. "She was in pain. I'll go grab the stuff later." I smoothly lie, thanks to my gambling skills and Damon nods understanding.

"Is she alright ?" Damon questions me, and I notice the concern in his voice.

"Yeah I think she is just tired."

"Make sure she has everything she needs." he says before redirecting his eyes to his computer.

"Any news on the Cambells ?"

Damon's tired gaze looks back up at me, and that's when I see how actually worried he is.

"Blake's men are looking for them. We think we have a lead on the son of a bitch of the dad, but nothing else. I don't fucking get it. We gave all the resources to them and it still takes them so long to find them." Damon harshly spits, which only shows me a small fraction of the hate Damon has on Cambells.

"they won't hurt her anymore Damon...not when we are around" I try to convince him, but he still doesn't look assured.

"don't you remember last time ? They killed our parents and nearly Magnolia... what is going to be different this time..."

"Don't you dare say that ! Now we are trained. We were just kids before." I coldly state. Damon still blames himself for what happened to our parents and Mags. But he couldn't have done anything. The attack on the car that night was planned since months. The attackers knew what they were doing when they crashed into our parents car, just to make it explode one minute later. Somehow the six year old Magnolia managed to get out of the car and hid herself on time. Nobody knew she was alive.

Damon keeps silent, but stands up to stand in front of me. I gulp in fear as he looks at me dead in the eyes.

"We both know she wasn't the one supposed to be in that car that night." he spits, venom laiced in his words. And before I can say something else he goes to his desk again to open a drawer and pulls out a brand new iPhone. " but if you don't mind I am going to give this to Magnolia right now."

Then I was left alone in his dark office room, trying to figure out how he could have turned into such a cold and distant person.