"Where are you going?" I asked, flipping over to watch Dominic halfway out the door. He looked like a deer caught in headlights, was I that much of a nuisance?

"Downstairs." He answered before slowly exiting whilst I watched his every move with narrowed eyes. The door clicked shut, I scoffed.

I climbed out of bed, rubbing my temple. This bullsh-t with Dominic was giving me a serious headache, why was he so persistent on not telling me what's wrong? I looked down at what I was wearing, weren't we interrogating someone today?

The word 'we' was incorrectly used in that sentence, "Dominic is interrogating someone today." I breathed, "Not me." I honestly have no boundaries, I have to chastise myself so often.

I ran a hand through my hair before leaving the room in search of Dominic, like it or not – I just wanted to get to know him better – that's all. I nodded to Donna in the hallway, I was in my pyjamas but thankfully they didn't look like it. Just a pair of logo shorts and a tank with a lacy bra. I looked like I planned to spend the whole day eating popcorn and watching romantic comedies. I found Leo in the kitchen sneaking fruit from a platter he was cutting up, I frowned then sat at the counter.

"What are you doing?" I asked smiling.

"Taking food down t-"

"To...?" I pushed for an answer but I didn't get one.

"You have a good sleep?" he changed to subject, "I can't thank you enough for helping him out like that, it's my fault he was in that mess. I was supposed to be backing him up."

"It's not your fault," I frowned, "You were sick."

"Ha," he looked partially in pain, "Always am aren't I?"

"Uh..."

"I've gotta take these." He eyed me, "You stay here."

"Yup." I nodded once fiddling with my fingers as he began departing from the room. As soon as he went far enough I ran upstairs to change my clothes, if I went to the interrogation room wearing this stuff I'd probably get raped and Dominic wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

I put my hair in two braids and slid on one of Dominic's jumpers, because I have a right. It was big enough for me to not need pants so I decided against getting myself a pair. I slipped on basic ugg boots and grabbed my phone.

I was practically bouncing as I made my way downstairs, I'd watched carefully where Leo went to so I went back to the kitchen than started down the way he went. My hope was that they were either so loud I could hear them or there was only a limited number of doors for me to investigate. I didn't want to spend my whole morning running around looking into empty rooms. Well I hoped they were empty, if I found a dead body so god help me I will unleash my wrath. Why would they keep them?

I was already heating up and I hadn't even found one, I was getting angry over literally nothing. Maybe I am a nuisance, I snorted to myself. Go figure.

I was grateful to find there was only three doors in the shady hallway, the setup down here was drastically different to the ground level. There was concrete floor and the walls were a bare grey colour. I don't like to think of the Vitiello's as dirty people but I'm pretty sure these walls used to be white. Judging by the wishy washy appearance of the colour. I disregarded the appearance started looking at the floor of doors, to find which door had a light under it. None... okay. I started listening for sounds. I gave up after minute then went to open the first door, empty with a suspicious looking bucket in the corner.

The second had a single bed with one pillow and a pretty comfy looking blanket too, that's sweet – they give the prisoners comfy blankets. I breathed before opening the third door, the one in the middle at the very end of the hall. I twisted the doorknob then pushed the door open which made a loud squeaking sound. A loud bang went off and I squealed. I was really letting my guard down around these people, I'm not scared of sounds.

"God damn it Amara." Dominic mumbled under his breath, he sat in the corner on a wooden stool. Leo was next to him but with a coffee table next to him that held his platter of fruit, another man stood in front of the hostage. A couple of other guys came in straight after me, forcing me deeper into the room. I smiled, laughing nervously.

"I want to play."

"You always want to play don't you?" Leo chuckled.

"Come here." Dominic sighed. I grinned walking over and sitting on his lap. "Is this my jumper?"

"Mhm, yup." I confirmed. He just gave me a funny look before returning his attention to the scene before us.

"I'm tired puppet." The man who was speaking rubbed his head, "Just tell me what I need to know."

The man in the chair spat.

"I can't help you after this puppet, I can't. I'm gonna have to go and you'll have to deal with Mr. Vitiello." He gestured behind him, "If I were you I wouldn't want that. Not at all."

"Yo," a voice sang from the door, "I'm back."

"Mike," Leo acknowledged, "Did you bring my juice?" The guy named Mike chuckled tossing Leo a bottle of OJ.

"Think about this puppet." The man said to the hostage one more time. Too much was going on, I couldn't focus on any one thing.

"Who is Mike?"

"That guy," Dominic replied, "He's one of my best friends. He'd been out on business when you got here, but now he's home."

"Oh." I smiled then waved to Mike. He had red hair and blue eyes, a straight smile and what looked to be a strong, lean build. He looked like a fun guy.

"His full name is Michelangelo."

"Classic Italian ninja turtle." I commented, trying not to smile.

"I thought the information would entertain you."

"It did for the split second it was amusing." I laughed.

"I don't know what to tell you!" the man in the chair was breathing heavy, "I'm not one of the higher ups! They told my group leader all the info, we just had to follow him." He looked like he was about to cry. Dominic wasn't impressed. He patted my back and I stood allowing him to enter the situation. I sat back down and folded my legs under me, grabbing a piece of watermelon from Leo's platter.

"I don't believe you're telling the truth." Dominic sat on the table the man now had his head resting on. The man who was previously asking the questions moved to the wall and stood from afar. "I've done my fair share of research on the Russian mafia. Your name; Alexei Sokolov. Is from a prestigious family, which has strong ties with the Bogart's."

The guy looked like he was about to sh-t his pants, "In fact," Dominic pretended to think, "I believe you were close family friends, you both joined the Russian training facility together. Vince scored much higher than you did and received job offers direct from the Russian government. You were offered a job in intelligence, which you took and were only recently allowed relief to join the practical team."

"You m-memorised m-my file?"

"I'm not finished." Dominic growled slamming a fist on the small table. "You were assigned leader of a squad just three days ago. So don't give me the bullsh-t you're trying to serve to Romero."

I turned to supposed Romero who watched with a blank face, Romero looked to be older than all of us and was very much not interested in me. Probably married. Though I can't say the same for Michelangelo. I glanced at Mike who leant on the wall beside Leo, sipping on his own bottle of OJ and observing my every move.

"I'm sorry." The man, Alexei pleaded.

Leo snorted spurting out some juice, "Idiot." He muttered then returned to drinking his juice.

"You're," Dominic whispered, "Sorry?"

"Y-yes."

I barely saw it myself, it happened so quickly. Dominic pulled out a gun and shot one bullet into Alexei's foot. I pulled a funny face as Alexei squealed. "You scream like a girl." I chuckled. It sounded like the scream had been building up, which was even more hilarious. Leo smiled from behind his bottle, Mike just cocked his head to the side still observing me from afar and Romero only glanced in my direction. Tough crowd.

Alexei looked up to watch me, I was trying so hard not to laugh. The guy looked mesmerized. What was up with that? For the past few days Vince had been looking at me like that, and now his Russian buddy was too? Back off.

Dominic took the handle of the gun and hit him up the face with it, I stopped laughing. The guy was honestly miserable, if I didn't take this seriously I may develop guilt.

If I want to stay so I can observe Dominic, I'll have to take it seriously. I immediately looked him right in the face and put up my wall, it'd be a solid hour or so until I could take it down. A funny skill I learned during my teen years, I was able to mask my emotions so much that it didn't even seem like I had any and whilst I was in this 'mode' I would not be able to feel anything. I chose what emotion I wanted to show.

"Y-you're," Alexei was pointing in my direction, I looked at him blankly, "Y-you're the girl."

"What girl." I stared at him.

"Y-you're going to save us." He breathed a bit of a laugh, "You're going to join us. And you're going to marry my – m-my best friend."

"Enough." Dominic hit his elbow into the man's skull then jabbed it into the back of his neck, following by trapping him into hold. "You degenerate little sh-t."

"Let's not kill him before he gives the answers Dominic." Leo requested casually whilst picking up another slice of pineapple.

Dominic pulled the guy back then pinned his hands to the table by stabbing knives into the palms of his hands, I raised my brows ignoring the irritating sound of man-shrieks and looking under the table saw the blade did in fact go all the way to the other side.

Tears sprung in his eyes, "I'm s-sorry. L-look I kn-now what you w-want." He made the mistake of moving his arms, pulling the blades further into his hands. I shook my head as he let out another cry. A solid forty minutes passed of Dominic asking questions, not getting the answer and beating the man once each time. Finally he broke.

He cried, "Vince has no idea what to do about this. He's going to wait it out and hope for an idea by the end of the year. He says," he hiccuped, "Maybe around Christmas." he finished tilting his head back.

"Bastard." Dominic growled before elbowing Alexei in the face, the man went unconscious. Or maybe he was dead, I couldn't really tell.

"I'm tired." I announced stretching. I'd gotten out of my 'mode' ten minutes ago and I was feeling peckish. I cracked my shoulder then stood, I smiled at all the men that were watching then skipped out of the room. I began walking normally just outside the door, Vince was planning to attack huh?

I though back to what Alexei said before...

'you're going to join us. you're going to marry m-my best friend..'

I pulled a face. No I wasn't.

"Amara!" Claire grabbed my arm, "Where have you been? Its time for dinner." I shrugged. She just rolled her eyes and led me to the kitchen. Abrielle sat with a copy of Vogue in one hand and a fork carrying pasta in the other. "Everyone else already ate, we came pretty late ourselves but when my mom told me you hadn't ate I just had to come looking for you."

"Thanks." I smiled at her.

"You shouldn't let worrying about Dominic get in the way of your health like that." she scorned. Abrielle glanced me from under her lashes.

I gasped, "I am not." I glared at Abrielle who wore a smug smile on her face and took a sip of her water. "Is that water?" I pointed at it.

"No," Claire answered matter-of-factly, "It's vodka."

I laughed. There was really nothing uninteresting about Dominic or his family, I think I'll have tons of fun here. We heard coughing and turned to the hallway, Dominic was holding Leo up and Leo was coughing uncontrollably. I stood but Claire held my arm, "Let them go."

"But he's clearly not well."

"And Dominic will deal with it." Abrielle followed.

"You're his sister, surely you care more than you're letting on!" I was outraged. Leo was only getting more unwell and all they did was sit back and watch.

"He's always like this," she took her gulp of vodka, "It'd be best if you simply just got used to it." There was definite sadness in her eyes, "I'm going to bed." she said flipping the magazine closed and finishing her glass. She brushed past us and made her way upstairs. I watched her depart then turned to Claire who looked to the ground, they clearly hadn't wanted to bring this up with me but I'd gotten myself into it anyway. They'd better get used to that.

"Dominic is in the same boat, Abrielle and I have a similar story. I will tell it to you, if you promise not to change the way you act around those two." Claire looked me straight in the eye, "I think they like you because you don't treat them different and at the same time, you're no different to them."

"I understand."

"This next part may not be so easy to understand," she sighed, "Let's sit outside."