Her Mafia Brothers

Aftermath

I woke up a couple of hours later to Jack crouched on the floor beside me, shaking me and speaking to me softly.

"Time to wake up now sweetheart," he said. "You'll never sleep tonight if you sleep for much longer."

I went to sit up, but immediately lay back down and yelped in pain at the throbbing in my butt. Jack chuckled. Bastard.

"Still sore?" he asked. "Damon obviously did a thorough job." He looked pleased at that statement, which was odd, considering he'd specifically told Damon to go easy on me, and earned himself a fierce glare in the process.

I nodded. But then I remembered our earlier conversation, and I glared at him, too. "You lied to me!" I accused. "You told me you would give me time to get used to the rules and you said I wouldn't be punished harshly! But I was!"

Jack frowned. "That's not quite how our conversation went," he corrected me. "I told you, you probably wouldn't get any more warnings, and if you broke the rules again you would likely be punished. And that's exactly what happened."

I didn't like that answer. Not at all. So I propped myself up on my elbows and turned to my side, mindful of my sore bottom, and looked at Jack. He was still crouched beside me, so we were at eye level.

"You said I wouldn't be punished harshly," I reminded him. "But I'm still sore. I think that constitutes harsh punishment, don't you?"

Jack chuckled, and I liked that even less. He reached up and ruffled my hair, but I pulled away from him and glared at him with the most ferocious glare I could muster. I don't think I looked very scary though because his grin got even wider, although he did pull his hand away.

"Well let's think about this," he said in a slightly condescending tone. "You broke a very clear rule, and in doing so, you put yourself in danger and got yourself shot at. You agree with that?"

I nodded.

"Verbal answer."

"Yes, I agree."

"Good girl. Now let's break the rest of it down. You think you were punished harshly, yet all you got was a spanking. Damon used his open hand, right? On your bottom? There was no smacking any other body parts? There was no punching, no kicking, no hitting with any objects, no thrashing with a belt? No burning with cigarettes?"

I didn't know which question I was meant to be answering there, so I went with clarifying the first one.

"Yes, he spanked my butt. With his hand," I confirmed.

"Well a bare hand isn't going to do a lot of damage," Jack pointed out.

"It hurt! He spanked me lots!"

"Of course," Jack agreed. "That was the point. Damon meant for it to hurt. But when you wake up tomorrow, the pain will be all gone. There won't be any bruising, there's no broken skin, no lasting damage. You'll be tender when you sit for a couple of days at most. That doesn't sound very harsh to me. Especially not when you think of what the consequences could have been."

"Hmphf." I grumbled and looked down at Damon's bed, very unimpressed with the direction this conversation had gone, but I had to admit that perhaps Jack was right. Maybe, when there were bullets flying around and dead people involved, a spanking wasn't all that bad.

Jack stood up and extended his hand to me, wiggling his fingers in invitation.

"If you're done grumping, you might want to come downstairs. Your trampoline has been delivered and Logan and Rocco are putting it together for you now."

"Really? I'm still getting my trampoline? Even after....?"

"Yes sweetheart. You're still getting it. We all agreed that you deserve all the happiness in the world, and if a trampoline is going to make you happy, we're not going to take that away from you. You've been punished for breaking the rules, and it's over." Then he winked at me, reassuring me that he still loved me, and reminding me that he was still my favourite brother. "Plus I paid for it, so it was my decision."