intrepidity

hehehhehhehhe :)

The evening had settled into a rare, peaceful quiet. The house was warm, the soft hum of the fireplace filling the room as the brothers gathered in the living room. The chaos of their world had receded for a few hours, leaving behind a rare moment of normalcy.

Aiden sat on the couch, his back resting against the cushions, one arm draped over the side while he half-heartedly flicked through a magazine. The rest of the brothers were sprawled around the room in varying degrees of comfort. Elias was leaning back in the armchair, eyes closed, hands clasped behind his head as he half-listened to the chatter around him. Roman and Alec were sitting on the floor, Roman's head resting on Alec's shoulder as they exchanged quiet, easy words. 

Even the twins, Atlas and Antonio, had settled on the couch with them, their usually frantic energy subdued for the moment. Antonio's head was resting against Atlas's shoulder, his usual tension gone for now. Aurora, too, had joined them, sitting cross-legged at the edge of the room with her book in her lap, hair falling around her face in gentle waves.

There was no rush. No mafia business to tend to. It was one of those rare nights where they could just be. Together. As family.

But then the call came.

It was sudden—out of nowhere—like a jarring disruption to the fragile peace they'd managed to build. Aiden's phone rang, its shrill tone slicing through the comfortable silence, a stark contrast to the calm that had wrapped around them all evening. The sound felt almost alien in the quiet room.

"Boss, it's Marcus... someone tampered with his bike... he's been hit... We don't know if he's going to make it. They're rushing him to the hospital now."

The words didn't quite hit him at first, didn't make sense. His brain struggled to make sense of what he was hearing. Marcus. His little brother. The guy who was always the first to laugh, the first to jump into a fight, the one who would never, ever let anyone see him break. He couldn't be lying in a hospital somewhere, fighting for his life. Not Marcus. Not him.

Aiden's breath caught in his throat, his chest tightening, and everything around him seemed to slow, then grind to a halt. His grip on the phone tightened until his knuckles turned white, his eyes locked on the screen, trying to process the chaos that had just been dumped into his world. The pounding of his pulse rang in his ears, drowning out everything else. His stomach twisted as fear—the kind of fear he never allowed himself to feel—began to creep up his spine.

"How bad?" Aiden's voice was icy, too cold. The words came out measured, controlled, but there was a tremor in his chest he couldn't hide. His mind raced, but he didn't dare show the chaos inside. He couldn't afford to.

"We don't know. But it doesn't look good. They've got him in surgery."

Surgery. The word bounced around his mind like a death sentence. Aiden's gaze flicked across the room, and that's when he saw his brothers—each one frozen, processing the horror in their own way. Roman's face was unreadable, that familiar calm mask in place, but the way his jaw tightened, the faintest tremble in his hands, betrayed the storm swirling beneath the surface. 

Elias was shaking, fists clenched like he was fighting the overwhelming panic that was threatening to overtake him. His brows furrowed deeply, and he was looking at Aiden like he could somehow fix this, like the older brother had the answers to this nightmare.

And then there was Alec—standing next to Aurora, his arm protectively wrapped around her shoulders, his face pale, the lines of worry cutting deeper into his usually steady expression. He was trying to keep it together, trying to be strong for her, but the fear in his eyes matched the panic growing inside Aiden.