Ten years old ...

“Dominic!”

I jumped about a foot in the air the second my name was bellowed. I scrambled out of bed, stood straight, and waited.

“Yeah?”

My dad flung my bedroom door open, and it cracked against the wall with a thud. My heart pounded against my chest, and muscles all over my body tensed with apprehension. I swallowed as my dad, who physically reminded me so much of my older brother Ryder, glared at me with cool grey eyes. Eyes that my brothers and I inherited from him.

“What did I tell you about attending your lessons?”

I jerked my gaze to the black on the clock and winced. I was two hours late for math class. It was Tuesday, and on Tuesdays, we had a day-long math class to get us up to par so when we started working for Dad and his business partner, Marco, we’d have a foot in the door of understanding how they did business. Numbers meant everything to Dad and Marco, so it was vital to them that my brothers and I were smart and knew all there was to know about them.

I looked back at my dad and felt myself shrink.

“I’m sorry, Dad.” I tensed. “I forgot to set my alarm.”

When he crossed the space between us and backhanded me, my eyes stung with tears, but I refused to let them fall. I stumbled back a few steps but quickly stood upright and tried my best to appear I was okay when all I wanted to do was get back into bed, hide under my covers, and never come out again.

“Get showered, dressed, and get your worthless ass to your lessons. Now.”

I bobbed my head.

“Answer me with your words, boy.”

“Yes,” I squeaked. “I understand you. I’ll get to class right away.”

He was going to hit me again, I knew he was, so I tensed my body to prepare for it.

“Dad,” Ryder’s voice suddenly spoke. “I’ll deal with him.”

Dad, who was in the middle of raising his hand, paused.

“You said that the last time, and here he is, flaking on lessons.”

Ryder spoke softly as he stepped into view and walked up behind our father. “He is ten.”

“I don’t give a fuck if he’s five!” Dad bellowed when my brother stopped at his side. He shoved Ryder whose entire body was now rigid. “When I tell him to do something, I expect him to do it. If he slacks on attending lessons, he’ll slack when he’s on a job when he’s older, and that is unacceptable.”

“Like I said,” Ryder said gruffly, this muscles in his jaw rolling side to side. “I’ll deal with him.”

Dad looked back and forth between us, shook his head, then left the room without a second glance my way.

“Fucking useless pieces of shit,” he called back. “You’re on thin ice, Dom. Get your ass to your lesson. Now!”

I gritted my teeth. I hated when he called me that. He was the only person to call me Dom as a nickname, and I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t stand when he called me Dominic either ... He made me loathe my name because of how much hate he poured into it when he spoke it.

“Hey,” Ryder said, gaining my attention. “You okay, bud?”

I nodded but winced when he reached out and brushed his thumb over my cheek where our dad had struck me.

“It’s swelling already ... How hard did he hit you?”

Ryder was angry, I could feel it radiate from him in waves.

“I’m okay.”

I wasn’t okay, my face was throbbing, but I had to be strong and show no weakness. I wasn’t allowed to.

He grunted. “You don’t have to be tough in front of me and our brothers, okay? We talked about this. It’s a safe space with us, so you don’t have to pretend to be okay when you’re not. Not with us, buddy.”

I hated when my lower lip wobbled. I hated crying. I hated showing any sign of emotion because I knew my parents regarded it as weak, but with my brothers ... they didn’t make me feel weak. They made me feel like crying whenever I was hurt or sad was a natural reaction, and it was just one of the many reasons I knew I couldn’t live without them. They were my rocks. When I lowered my head, my chin touched my chest, and that was when I began to sob. Ryder quickly hunkered down, put his arms around me, and tugged me against his body. I wrapped my arms around his neck and rested my forehead against his shoulder. I loved hugs, and I think it was because I rarely got them that it made each one from my brothers special.

“Ry?”

He squeezed me. “Yeah?”

“Why don’t Mom and Dad love us?”

Our dad was always so mean to us. No matter what we did, it was never good enough for him, and our mom ... she only thought of us as a bother. She didn’t like hugging or kissing us; she didn’t even like being around us. She’d told us that so much that we’d stopped asking her to spend time with us a long time ago. Our parents weren’t like normal parents; they only had me and my brothers so their business had a future. The only love they had was for each other and their empire ... We were just pawns in a twisted game that they played.

Ryder didn’t answer me for a long time. He only held me until my tears subsided, and I was no long shaking in his arms. When my brother leaned back, he moved his hands to my shoulders and looked me in the eye. It was weird, but I could almost feel how sad my question made him. He went out of his way to make me and my brothers smile and feel loved, and I hoped he knew that we loved him just as much as he did us.

“They just aren’t like every other mom and dad, buddy,” Ryder eventually answered. “But you know that I love you, don’t you? Kane, Alec, and Damien love you, too. The five of us are an unstoppable team, right?”

“Right.” I nodded firmly. “It’s us against the world.”

“That’s right, buddy.” Ryder smiled. “Us against the world.”

I returned his smile.

“C’mon,” he said. “Grab a quick shower and get dressed, then I’ll walk you to your lesson.”

“Ryder.”

“Hmm?”

“I love you, too.”

When my brother looked at me, it was with a bright smile on his face. The very first time I had said I love you to a grown-up, I was met with laughter and rejection, but whenever I said it to my brothers, I felt their love for me returned tenfold. With them, I was never met with heartless laughter or rejection, only love and acceptance. That was why I really believed it was me and my brothers against the whole world. Once I had them, I didn’t need anyone else. I would follow the code we believed in, and for them alone I would live my life with love and loyalty because it was hard to find one person to love you for who you are, let alone five.

It really was us against the world.

And you know what? Fuck the world.