Previously in Little O'Conner.....

I notice a picture of her and some guy on the dashboard. "Who's this?" I look at it closely. She tenses up and takes the picture and sticks it in the compartment. "I don't like talking about it." I look at her. She turned a little stern and her eyes showed a hint of sadness

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked." She clears her throat. "No...you're fine. You're curious. Curiosity does not get a cat killed. Okay maybe sometimes but not all the time. In time you will find out." I nod. I look at her hand and reach out for it in hesitation. I slowly put my hand on top of hers. She looks at me a little smiling. "Never thought a guy like you would be so soft." She jokes and I chuckle. "Well, I guess I changed...that day you saved my life. I thought about it. I didn't even know the reason why I did those things." She nods. She parks her car. The others park also.

"You'll see how my family has fun." She smirks.

Well, this will be interesting to find out.

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Sarah and Carter walk into the bunker and are immediately met with a crowd of people drinking, dancing, and mingling. "I thought it was just gonna be your family." Carter raises his eyebrow at Sarah. She lets out a chuckle. "Sorry, I should have clarified." She says as she meets people. Carter's eyes roam around at the scene around him. Girls dancing against one another, grinding against other men, or people just having a good time dancing on their own. 

"Hey, Princess! That was a sexy race" James walks up to Sarah eyeing her lustfully licking his lips. Carter's eyes Immediately narrow at his presence. "James, Just cause you made your way to the party, doesn't mean I can't drag you out." Sarah says rolling her eyes as she grabs herself a drink. "Whiskey on rocks." James smirks. "I like a girl who can handle her drinks." He mentions as he reaches out to touch her. Sarah grabs his hand and twists his wrist making him hiss in pain. "OW OW, Okay chica! Just let go!" She lets go glaring at him. "Come on man. It has been 2 years since Dimitri died! Do you not wanna move on?" Sarah tenses stopping midway from bringing the glass of alcohol to her lips. Carter notices immediately and gets in between Sarah and James. "Leave her alone. She clearly does not want to deal with you." Carter hisses at him. "Carter it's fine. I'm gonna go dance." She shrugs off James' statement and smirks walking backward looking at Carter. 

Carter watches as a few girls pull her to dance with them on the table. He's left breathless as he watches the scene unfold in front of him. Sarah slowly takes her jacket off as one of the girls dances close to her. their bodies touching. He watches as Sarah runs her hand through her hair, eyes closed lips parted slightly smiling, as she sways her hips sexily, dancing with no care in the world. Carter groans a little looking down at his bulge he quickly hides himself a little to make it less noticeable. He looks over at James who watches Sarah intently with lustful eyes. "Damn I'd really like to hit that." he moans a little at the sight of Sarah. Carter punches his arm. "Have some respect." Carter growls before turning back to watch her. Roman walks up in front of him. "Keep your eyes to yourself." He says sitting next to Carter. Carter looks at him. "2 shots" He tells Letty who's working the bar in the bunker. He slides one to me. "This is the first time I've seen her let herself loose, in a long time." He says looking over at Sarah. Carter gulps as Roman turns his attention back to him. "So...don't mess with her." Roman says leaning in closely. Carter notices the look in his eyes, threatening and full of love. but not just any love, the love you would have for a sibling. "Is that clear?" Roman says as Carter nods his head rapidly. "Yes sir." Roman pulls away as he notices Sarah walking up with her jacket in her arm. "Hey, six head." She says as she uses her palm to push Roman's head. Roman grunts annoyed by the phrase. "Stop harassing my precious forehead." Carter stifles a laugh as he hands a drink over to Sarah. Sarah downs the drink and grabs Carter's hand making Roman tense. "Come on, let loose, dance with me!" Sarah says dragging Carter with her leaving Roman glaring at Carter.

"Is that the alcohol talking?" Carter chuckles as they stop in the middle. 

"Don't be dumb, I only had two drinks." Sarah says swaying to the music. 

"Dance Carter. Show me your moves." He bites his lip watching her sway nonchalantly to the music. He starts to dance slightly not realizing his body had started moving. Sarah smiles, "There you go!" She laughs slightly twirling around.

Carter's POV

I don't know when my body started to move to the sound of the music but it did. I smile as I watch Sarah dance jumping to the music and flipping her hair around. I soon see Brian come towards her and grab her hand to dance with her. "Hey brat." he chuckles saying. "Hey jerk." she flicks Brian's arm laughing before he pushes her slightly into me. 

She turns towards me and starts dancing extremely close. My eyes wander to her brother Brian who walked off to the bar to talk to Roman. I place my hand on her hips as she dances. My breath catches in my throat trying to control those impulsive thoughts. To my luck, she stops and leans up so I can hear better. "People are starting to leave. We should go to the meeting room where the family is." she says over the loud music. I nod and start to follow her there. When we walk in to see the family sitting down at the large table with food, ready to eat. "Finally! I'm starving again." Sarah eyes all the food and takes a seat next to Letty. the bunker gets quiet pretty quickly and Brian walks in. "Finally got everyone out!" He chuckles. "Hey Ramsey can you pass over the sandwiches." Sarah asks. I look over at the girl who is Ramsey. She has a beautiful afro and light brown skin. I nod my head at her. "So you're the infamous Carter Alverez." she says as she eyes me suspiciously. 

"Yes, that's me." I smile nervously. She nods. " I'm Ramsey. I'm kind of the brains when it comes to hacking." Tej looks at her in disbelief and gasp dramatically. "What does that make me?!" Ramsey gives a sly smile. "That makes you my sidekick." Tej hold his chest at the word. I laugh a little watching their little bickering session. 

Sarah laughs. "And well you've met Roman. We call him Rome for short." I nod taking in the information. "You can call me Roman." he says trying to intimidate me. "Yes sir." I smile at him. He narrows his eyes at me even more. "He just exists in the group." Sarah says as she takes a bite of her sandwich, moaning slightly about how good it is. "I am the leader." Roman crosses his arms over his chest making the group burst out laughing at his statement. "In your dreams Rome!!!" Tej says laughing. " And that's Dominic AKA Dom. He and my brother Brian are basically the leaders of the group." Roman looks at Sarah dramatically. "I get no respect." He huffs playfully. Dom nods at me raising his beer before taking a swig. "That's Dom's wife Leticia, but you can call her Letty." Letty smiles at me. the door opens and another woman walks in. The woman that Sarah called Mia. She smiles and takes a seat next to Brian giving him a kiss as she does. "Sorry, I'm late. I had to make sure Jack and Olivia wouldn't wake up." She apologizes. "This is Mia, Brian's wife and my wonderful sister-in-law." Mia blushes. "Oh stop it, Sare!" 

We sit and talk together. I never experienced this type of environment so I was mostly quiet or only talking to Sarah who kept me company. "So back to Carter, who are we protecting him from?" Sarah asks. "Dante Reyes..." Sarah choked on her drink as soon as Dom mentioned the names. "What? As in the Clinically psychotic son of a bitch?!" Sarah looks at him with wide eyes. "Didn't his dad die when we were conducting a heist?" Dom nods in response to her. "He's not only after him, but after us too." He says scanning the room. "Wait, he's the guy that conducted the terrorist attack to frame us?" Letty nods sighing. "He's dangerous, he made us the most wanted people around the world." Sarah sighs. "Shit." she mumbles under her breath. "Did you inform Giselle and.." She trails off "Cipher." she mumbles gritting the name through her teeth. I look at her curiously. "We did. they're working on tracking him along with us." Mia says. 

Sarah shakes her head. "Brian...you and Mia need to stay off this. Get off the radar...you have a life a family, kids.." Brian sighs looking at her. "I know, But we need all hands on deck right now... let's talk about this later okay?" Sarah nods. "I don't feel good about this...at all." She whispers loud enough for us to hear. "Dante had beef with my father." I speak up on the matter. "I'm guessing he wants to kill my family for that as well. The problem is I don't associate myself with my family and never will." I tighten my fist under the table. 

"Alright alright...enough talk about this. Let's eat peacefully." Mia says smiling trying to lighten the mood by giving Sarah some mashed potatoes. Sarah's eyes brighten. "You made it?!"Mia nods smiling. "Thanks, Mia!" Sarah takes a spoonful and engulfs it. she closes her eyes moaning lightly. I breathe out at the sound she makes, laughing slightly. "So good!" She squeals. "you know who would have loved this..." Tej says smiling a little. "Dimitri." The name comes up again and I look at him wondering. Sarah stops with her spoon near her mouth and slowly drops the spoon. "Yeah, he would have." She whispers. I notice tears well up. Ramsey slaps Tej's arm almost as to say why he bought it up. "Excuse me...I'm not that hungry." Sarah smiles a little trying to hide the tears that are being forced back. She gets up and walks away. Brian sighs slightly looking at her plate and covers it. "I'll put this in the fridge for her to eat later and check on her." The room gets really quiet, to the point you could probably hear a feather drop. Dom clears his throat. "We should get going." Letty nods. With that, everyone started to get up to leave. Mia started to clean up. I get up to help her as everyone heads out. She smiles at me solemnly and mouths a thank you. I start drying the dishes she washes. "I'm sorry about that...we don't really bring it up for Sarah's sake." I smile slightly. " It's okay...It's a touchy subject?" I ask.

Mia clears his throat nodding slightly. "It's best for Sarah to tell you when she's ready to speak on it." She puts the dishes away wiping her hands with a towel. "Thank you for your help." She turns to me. "So wanna tell me how you got into your...activities." I look at her when she pops the question. I look down at my feet. "I really don't know...I never got to make choices growing up. I was always controlled by my parents... I guess it made me want to have control." I fiddle with my fingers. "It turned me into a monster and regret it. Seeing this tonight...this is what I wanted as a child, this is the love and attention I craved." Mia nods. "I never meant to hurt those girls. and until Sarah came...I never touched a woman without their consent. but I don't know what was going on and why I tried to with her..." I trail off as Mia stiffens. "Did you?" she eyes me. I shake my head. "I stopped or was stopped before I could go any further." I whisper. She sighs in relief. "Thank god.." She holds the side of the sink. "I'm sorry..." I mumble. "You fought it...the voices and your demons...that's all that matters." She says as Brian walks in lost in his thoughts. "How is she?" Mia asks. "I put her to sleep..." Brian says running his hands over his head before wrapping them around Mia and bringing her close. "I just want her to be okay...she's my baby sister. I hate seeing her this hurt knowing that I couldn't protect her." Mia rubs his back holding him. "In time baby... all in time." he smiles slightly kissing her. "Let's go home." Mia nods. "There's extra food in the fridge, let Sarah know." I sigh nodding and watch them leave.

End POV

Carter heads to his room exhausted from the day he had. Replaying it in his head thinking about the 360 his whole life made. He plops down onto his mattress sighing as he strips into his sweats and checks his phone seeing messages from Liam and Jesse. "Fuck.." He sits up. "They must think I got abducted." He mumbles to himself self letting them know you are protected and safe. Liam and Jesse were old friends who put up with him and his threats. He writes them a message and lets them know how sorry he is and that he will see them soon. 

Just as he was about to go to sleep he heard a scream from Sarah's room. He immediately sprints to her room slamming the door open to find her still asleep but screaming in her sleep. "No! No! Please!" He notices the tears streaming down her face. "DIMITRI!!" She screams. Carter holds her shoulders shaking Sarah trying to wake her. "Sarah! Sarah wake up!" He shakes her one last time before her eyes shoot open and she shoots up breathing hard and looking around. She looks at Carter calming her breathing down and wiping her face. "I'm sorry.." She says as Carter helps her wipe her face. "It was just a nightmare. I didn't mean to wake you. You should go back to sleep." She tries her best to put on a smile. Carter looks at her. "You sure? I can stay if you..." She interrupts him. "I'm sure." Sarah says abruptly.

Carter gets up and looks at her as she lays back down, bringing her knees to her chest. He closes her door. 

"I have to find out what happened." He says to himself. "I need to know"

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Thank you all! I wanted to apologize for the very very long awaited update to this book. I just finished my bachelor's and have a break to work on writing again. Hope you all enjoy it! Thank you!