Damon tried mightily to forget his fight with Stefan. However, the incident weighed heavily on his mind long after his brother left the club. Protecting Stefan had always been Damon's responsibility. For years, he had been putting himself in the path of all the terrible shit that threatened to taint his baby brother's soul. In the beginning, it wasn't even a conscious decision on his part. Stefan's pitiful cries had stirred something deep within Damon's soul and he acted. That fateful night had started out as so many others had in his childhood. Giuseppe had come home stinking drunk and spoiling for a fight. Damon awoke to the familiar sounds of his mother begging for mercy as Giuseppe beat her. He would have gone back to sleep if not for Stefan's tiny voice. His younger brother couldn't have been more than four years old at the time. Damon had raced out of his room to save Stefan from witnessing their father's brutality.

However, he could have never predicted what he saw after entering his parents' bedroom. Stefan was huddled with Lilly in a corner of the room. Giuseppe had ordered the little boy to move out of the way but he was too afraid to move. Moreover, Lilly was too grateful for the brief reprieve to push him out of harm's way. Damon had watched in horror as his father reared back to punch Stefan for his disobedience. Twelve-year-old Damon had rushed forward and wedged his lanky body in front of Stefan.

Giuseppe had pummeled his son until he grew tired. In the end, Damon walked away with an array of bruises and a dislocated shoulder. The next day, Giuseppe pretended as if nothing had happened the previous night. He called their personal physician to treat Damon's injuries discreetly. Then he lavished his family with gifts to apologize for his brutality. A few months later, Lilly disappeared in the night before having Giuseppe served with divorce papers.

Damon kept replaying his argument with Stefan in his mind. He couldn't understand why his brother kept provoking him. Stefan knew better than most how on edge Damon had been lately. His struggle to find Giuseppe was taking him to some dark places. However, his thoughts drifted to Stefan taunting him about having to behave like a civilized human being around Bonnie. His heart began to beat faster as he considered the motivation behind those words. Did Stefan truly think that Damon was so far gone that he would ever raise a hand to Bonnie in anger? Had he provoked Damon as a means of protecting Bonnie from him? The very notion made him feel sick to his stomach. He would never hit his wife or any other woman for that matter. Even if he did learn that Bonnie had been unfaithful, Damon would simply kill her paramour.

The blue-eyed mobster watched as two insanely beautiful women performed for his pleasure. However, Damon realized that the erotic scene was doing very little to arouse him. He really just wanted to see his wife. He wanted to know what situation had brought her to tears. More importantly, he wanted to know why it compelled Bonnie to seek out her mother instead of calling him. Earlier, he had told Bonnie that he would come home if she needed him. Perhaps this was her way of saying that she didn't need Damon. Just as she hadn't sought out his help after Giuseppe attacked her. Damon wondered what it said about their marriage that his wife didn't seek his comfort. He hadn't even known about these bouts of depression until Stefan blithely wielded them as a weapon against Damon. Was this depression a serious clinical diagnosis or simply a case of the blues? Was Bonnie's depression related to her being significantly underweight? Damon hadn't even realized that her weight loss was unhealthy until the doctor's visit in Shadow Hills.

Damon stood up and placed two stacks of hundred dollar bills on a table. He smiled at the women. "I hate to run but I have somewhere else to be."

Candy pouted and asked, "Do you have to go right now?"

"We're just getting started," the other woman added with a mischievous smile.

He said, "I'm afraid that I do. Good night, ladies."

Candy hopped up and ran over to Damon. She slipped a card into his hand. "Call me if you ever want to finish this…"

Damon glanced at the card and tucked it into his pants' pocket as he walked out of the champagne room. When Damon emerged, he wasn't surprised to find that Klaus' party was still in full-swing. Many loyal soldiers from both organizations had attended the private bash out of respect. Everyone knew that Klaus would soon be running his own crew. Elijah had reserved the largest and highest grossing territory for his little brother. However, Damon and Alaric were two of a handful of people that knew the entire story. Klaus would take on the role of Elijah's consigliere in a matter of months.

Vincent had been looking to reduce his role in the organization for a while because of his mother's poor health. However, he had been too loyal to leave Elijah shorthanded. Trust was a fragile thing in their business. Such an important position couldn't be bestowed onto just anyone. Klaus' release from prison had come at a particularly fortuitous time. Elijah had always wanted his younger brother to be his second in command.

Many people would question the wisdom of letting someone with Klaus' reputation act as an advisor. However, the move made perfect sense to Damon. Elijah was the levelheaded leader but he needed a consigliere that understood the value of getting bloody. Damon would have a similar dynamic with Zacharias once they killed Giuseppe. No one would question Damon's bona fides when it came to striking fear into the hearts of their enemies. He was an accomplished killer and wasn't known for showing mercy to those that crossed him. Meanwhile, Zacharias' milder temperament made him a valued advisor and strategist. Both personalities would be necessary in the coming months. Surely, their enemies would think them weak after the death of Giuseppe.

Damon walked up the stairs to the VIP section where he had left Alaric over an hour ago. He was glad that he took his uncle's advice. The last thing Damon wanted to do was upset Bonnie more. She had been through enough trauma because him and his family. Damon felt clear headed and more in control than he did earlier. He would be able to react rationally to whatever was happening.

The younger man's lips curled into a smirk when he saw that his uncle was falling asleep on the leather couch. He asked, "Are you ready to get out of here, old man? It has to be your bedtime."

Ric cracked open one eye to look at Damon. He was glad to see that his nephew looked relaxed now. He stood up and stretched his stiff muscles with audible pops and clicks. "It was past my bedtime when I got here."

Damon chuckled. "You sound like you're about to fall apart, Zio."

"Laugh all you want. If you are lucky, you will get to be my age. Trust me when I say that all of this shit is genetic. My old man had a bum ticker and arthritis, too," he commented.

Damon could see the irony in how everything played out between his father and grandfather. Domenico probably would have dropped dead from a massive heart attack if Giuseppe had been a little more patient. The same was probably true of his father. Giuseppe had suffered what the doctors called a cardiac event just a few months ago. However, Damon couldn't wait for the maniac to die of natural causes. The man was either becoming more unhinged in his old age or he had attacked Bonnie to provoke his son. Ultimately, Giuseppe's reasoning didn't matter. He would be dead before the New Year even if Damon had to rip Milazzo apart brick by brick to find him.

He smirked and said, "The difference is that I take care of myself. I work out. I eat healthy. I might end up with cirrhosis but getting a black market liver shouldn't be too difficult."

Ric chuckled and shook his head. "Let's get out of here, kid. A warm bed is calling my name. Did you drive yourself?"

He shook his head. "Nah. I rode over here with Zio and Stefan. I figured I wouldn't be in any condition to drive when I left."

Ric nodded in understanding. He was glad that Damon was well past the stage of driving drunk. Fortunately, nearly dying in his early twenties had served as enough of a warning. He said, "Well, I guess it's a good thing that I brought my car."

Damon followed Alaric out of the club while checking his phone for messages and missed calls. He didn't know why he had hoped to see something from Bonnie.

Ric unlocked the car and climbed inside. He was tempted to call Abby. However, he knew that she would just tell him to stay away. He figured that it was better to ask for forgiveness than permission in this situation. Damon needed to sort out his issues with Bonnie before they left for Milazzo.

He frowned as he climbed into the nondescript SUV. "Would it kill you to drive one of our cars? This is embarrassing."

Ric started the car and rolled his eyes. "I am a father of five, Damon. In what world would I drive a sports car that their booster seats wouldn't fit into?"

"I am a father, too. You could at least get one of our sports coupes, Zio."

Ric chuckled. "Coop puked all over the backseat a few weeks ago after eating six churros. I think I will wait to get something nice until my younger children are much older."

Damon peered over the headrest in horror.

Ric laughed harder at his reaction. "Don't worry, Damon. I had the car professionally detailed while Abby chewed me out for letting him eat so many churros at one time."

He snorted. "You are really trying to do this two family thing, huh? I can barely take care of the one that I have. I thought I was doing okay and then…"

"Is that why you decided to use your younger brother as a punching bag?" Ric asked with a raised eyebrow.

He could count on one hand the number of fistfights his nephews had gotten into over the years. They were always fueled by insane amounts of alcohol but something had been different tonight. Ric wasn't concerned that the boys had used their fists to settle the beef—they were men after all. However, the venomous insults they had hurled at one another worried him. Damon and Stefan had both been aiming for maximum damage as they traded honest insults. Ric was concerned that their fight underscored some underlying discord between the brothers. He would have to consult with Zach first thing in the morning. His younger brother would have certainly grilled Stefan on his behavior.

"No. We got into a fight because Stefan is an asshole when he's drunk," he complained.

However, both men knew that was untrue. Stefan was just as fun loving and peaceable when he was drunk as he was sober. In the past, Damon had always instigated the fights because of his notorious temper. Something about tonight had been different. Stefan kept needling his older brother despite the obvious signs that he was at the boiling point. In fact, Damon had even warned Stefan to back off but the younger man had barreled past the warning without care.

"Well, you are an asshole 365 days of the year. I think that we can allow Stefan one night. It is also okay for you to admit that he struck a chord, Damon. I know that what Gio did to Bonnie has been weighing on you. I think it has taken a toll on all of us. We all feel as if let her down because we did. Somehow she slipped through the cracks…it should have never happened."

Damon frowned. "I guess that Stefan did get under my skin with some of the shit that he was saying. I didn't realize that Bonnie was depressed. I mean she always seems fine when I am around but maybe she is just pretending. I'm beginning to think she does that a lot around me."

"What are you talking about?" Ric asked.

"I don't know. I keep seeing flashes of this person that I don't recognize. Bonnie has been making me feel off balance lately. She has known about Katherine since before we were married. However, she never said a word about it until after Giuseppe attacked her. Then she casually mentions that I was at the penthouse at the time. I had Enzo grill Katherine. She swears that she never mentioned the penthouse at the Rischard to Bonnie."

Ric frowned as he considered everything. There was a chance that Katherine was lying. After all, she had been contacting Bonnie behind Damon's back for years. However, revealing the location of the penthouse seemed like overplaying her hand. Having the wife turn up at your love nest was bad news for everyone.

Damon continued, "I keep wondering how Bonnie came to know about the penthouse. Did she hire a private investigator to gather evidence for a divorce? Has someone in our organization been talking out of school?"

"I don't think that Bonnie is looking to divorce you, Damon. Gio attacking her is ample ammunition. Sheila made sure that prenuptial agreement was iron clad. It's almost like she was expecting this to happen. Although, I guess it wasn't much of a stretch considering Sheila had firsthand experience with the kinds of violent acts that Giuseppe is capable of committing against women."

"That's another thing that bothers me. Bonnie never mentioned the recordings that Sheila left her until it was beneficial for her. She hasn't offered to tell me about the other information she has in her possession. Apparently, the recording was just the opening salvo. What else is my sweet wife hiding from me? For the first time since we've been married...I feel like I don't know Bonnie."

Ric lifted an eyebrow when Damon mentioned that Bonnie had more information on Giuseppe. However, it occurred to him that Sheila might have gathered dirt on all of them. While he didn't think that Bonnie was a threat to them, he also couldn't just dismiss his nephew's concerns. Abby was proof that Benedetto women were complicated creatures. The love of his life forced him to eat healthy foods so that he didn't drop dead from a heart attack. However, there was no doubt in Ric's mind that she would kill him the moment he raised a hand to her the way that Rudy had. Abby was dangerous in a way that most people would never see. She was the type of danger that even he didn't see coming until he woke up with the barrel of a .45 wedged against forehead. Ric could concede that the same might be true of Bonnie.

He said, "I think that those are all valid concerns, Damon. However, there is a simple solution to your problems. You need to sit down and have an honest conversation with your wife. Women are perceptive creatures. Abby thinks that Jo knows about us. I have been bending over backwards for years to make sure that never happened...and yet here we are. Who knows how Jo figured it all out?"

"I can't interrogate Bonnie until after I have taken care of Giuseppe. I owe her that much. She is my wife and my responsibility. I left her in the warpath of a psycho and she paid the price for it. Once that debt is settled, I can talk to her about my concerns. I just want to find a delicate way to do it. I don't want to upset her. I do enough of that already."

"You will figure it out when the time comes. Just focus on the fact that she's still with you. In the meantime, you need to get your head out of your ass. We are going to Milazzo to prove to our people that you are ready to take over for Giuseppe. Your best quality is that you are not a mercurial bastard. They have already served someone like that for 30 years. They might as well stick with Gio if you are going to behave the same way. It is better to serve the devil you know after all."

Damon groaned and scrubbed at his face in annoyance. He could feel the stubble growing on his jaw. "I'll have my head on straight before we touchdown in Milazzo, Zio. I know what is at stake for all of us."

"Good. I also talked to Big John earlier. We are going to have dinner with him on our second night in town. He knows that something is up. It would be better if he finds out about the approaching change of leadership from you."

He nodded in agreement. "We're still not telling him about Giuseppe attacking Bonnie, right?"

"No. That stays within the family until we take care of Gio. We need his death to be a mea culpa to the Benedettos. Hopefully, they won't insist on some other type of compensation," he replied.

"And you are sure that Abby won't say anything to Big John?"

Alaric said, "Abby gave me her word. But it's only good for a limited time. She will take matters into her own hands if we don't find Gio soon."

"Can't you put a muzzle on her?" he muttered.

"Have you met Abby? No, I can't put a muzzle on her, Damon. Your father beat her daughter black and blue. She showed a surprising amount of restraint by not getting Big John involved from the beginning. She already blames me for what happened and for not telling her. We argued about it again before she kicked me out tonight."

Damon immediately felt guilty because he had been the one that asked Ric to keep quiet. He was only trying to contain the fallout. He hadn't expected to cause strife between Ric and Abby. He said, "I didn't know that the two of you fought because of that. I'm…"

"It was the right decision for the family," Ric interjected.

"The family always comes first," Damon murmured. It was a lesson that Giuseppe had beaten into him as a child.

Ric pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine. He said, "I meant what I said about keeping your cool in there. I won't have you waking up my kids."

"I hear you. I am not going to be an asshole. I just want to make sure that Bonnie is feeling okay," he replied.

Tyler was sitting outside smoking a cigarette. He stood up when the men approached the house. He had received a call from Stefan an hour ago. His best friend had warned him about Damon's volatile mood. "Good party?" he asked.

Damon eyed him but nodded. "Yeah. Bonnie and I will be leaving soon."

Tyler nodded and put out his cigarette. "I'll get the car."

Ric unlocked the front door and walked into the quiet house. Only Nina Simone's soft crooning could be heard filtering out of the living room. That was where they found Bonnie sleeping with her head on Abby's lap.

The older woman was carding her fingers through the sleeping girl's hair and humming along to the song. She frowned, "What are you doing here, Alaric? I said that I would call you after Bonnie left."

His jaw clenched as he said, "I do live here, Abigail. Besides, Damon was worried about Bonnie."

Damon walked into the room. "Is she okay?"

Abby wanted to slap Damon's face but she calmed herself. She said, "Bonnie is fine."

"Then why did she come here tonight?" he asked.

She saw the genuine concern but it did little to tame the fury roiling in her gut. She was angry with so many people that had hurt her precious little girl. Unfortunately, Abby was at the top of her own list.

She took a deep breath and smoothly relayed the lie she and Bonnie had agreed on earlier. "Bonnie is just having a hard time with the pregnancy. The morning sickness seems to be getting worse. Her insomnia certainly isn't helping matters either. She keeps dreaming about Giuseppe popping up like some killer from a slasher flick. But I think most of all she is just missing the comfort of my mama. She always made Bonnie feel safe and secure. I'm doing my best to cure some of the loneliness she's been feeling out here in California. But I'm no substitute for her grams."

Damon nodded in understanding. He had asked Bonnie about her insomnia but she had told him she was only restless.

"I am going to see if Aunt Geneva will come for a visit after Christmas. My aunt is where I go when I am missing Mama. They are so much alike sometimes. They even sound similar over the phone. It's not a replacement of course but God does it help during the harder moments."

It was second time that week that Damon had been reminded how little contact Bonnie had with her own family. He knew most of that was down to his father's machinations. However, Damon hadn't done anything to stop Giuseppe from isolating Bonnie from the people that loved her. He supposed that estrangement could be another reason that his wife was so often depressed if he could believe Stefan's assertion. He asked, "How long has she been asleep?"

Abby said, "Bonnie has slept off and on since she's been here."

"Other than that is she okay?" he asked.

"She was a bit sick to her stomach but I think the ginger tea helped her. Morning sickness hasn't been very kind to my poor baby," she murmured affectionately.

He sat on the coffee table so that he could be close to his wife without disturbing her rest. "You must hate me. I know you were never in favor of this marriage."

"I could never hate you, Damon. However, I did think that you were too old to marry my daughter. You're not the man that I would have picked for her," she confessed.

He nodded in understanding. He wouldn't have picked himself for Bonnie either. Damon wasn't blind to his own flaws. However, he hadn't been able to stomach the thought of Bonnie marrying some distant relative from Milazzo.

She continued, "But Bonnie loves you and that is all that matters to me. She has always loved you."

Damon smiled tiredly but his eyes never left his wife's face. "That's a lot to live up to. She fell in love with her crush—not the real me. I keep getting this feeling that I will fall short no matter what I do."

Abby huffed out a laugh. "If you think my daughter doesn't know exactly who she married then you have severely underestimated her. Youth and naiveté are not always synonymous, Damon."

Something about Abby's words tickled the back of his consciousness. However, he was too tired and too drunk to examine it now. He said, "I should take her home. It is late and Sarah will be looking for her in the morning."

Damon was too prideful to admit that he slept better when Bonnie was curled up against him. Everything from her soft curves to the familiarity of her scent was like home to him.

She turned her nose up at that idea. "You aren't driving my daughter home. You are drunk."

He frowned in response. "I don't even have my car with me, Abby. I wasn't planning on driving drunk. I figured Tyler could drive us home."

Abby wasn't in love with that idea either. She had this urge to take her family, including Bonnie and Sarah, and run away from the Salvatores for good. They were poison. However, Bonnie wasn't a little girl anymore. Abby knew her daughter was planning something. The only thing she could do was support her and make sure that she wasn't getting in over her head. Abby's connections to the Old Country ran deep. She had spent a lot of time in Milazzo after she left Rudy. She knew that side of her family well. If Damon wouldn't pull the trigger on Giuseppe, she knew people on the other side of the ocean that would gladly do it.

Damon stood up and gently lifted Bonnie into his arms. "I'll get her home safely, Abby. I promise."

The older woman nodded slowly and picked up Bonnie's purse. "I'll walk you out."

Ric and Abby followed Damon out to the car.

Tyler hopped out to open the back door as soon as he saw Damon emerge with Bonnie in his arms.

Abby handed him Bonnie's purse and gave the young man a loaded look.

His dark eyes acknowledged her warning as he waited for Damon to get Bonnie settled in the car.

"Tell Bonnie to call me in the morning," Abby said.

"I will," Damon replied.

Ric put his arm around Abby's waist and walked back into the house with her.

Abby slipped out of his embrace and returned to the living room.

Ric locked the door and then waited until Tyler drove away from their house. Afterwards he walked into the living room and watched Abby for a moment. He asked, "What's really going on, Abigail?"

"Are you calling me a liar, Alaric?" she asked. Abby was collecting the teacups from the coffee table.

"I saw the way you were looking at Damon. You were never in love with the idea of their marriage but this is different. Something has changed. What's going on?"

She smiled. "I love you, Alaric, but you must know that we are on opposing sides here."

He followed her into the kitchen. "There is only one side now, Abby. We are part of the same family."

"That is where you are wrong. Bonnie is my daughter. I know that I have not been the best mother but I have always wanted her to be happy and safe. Right now she is neither and it is because of your family."

"Damon…"

She snapped, "Damon is still the selfish manchild that he has always been. You know that I love your nephew. I watched him grow up. He might as well have been my little brother. If it were someone else's daughter that he was jerking around I wouldn't even bat an eyelash. But it's my little girl that he's hurting and I can't even say anything because she loves him."

Ric walked up behind Abby and rested his hands on her hips. "Damon loves her, Abby."

"It's not enough and you know that. Imagine Josie or Lizzie in the same position. You wouldn't be quite so understanding about any of this."

He tensed because she was right. The same went for his behavior with Jo and Abby. "They are adults, baby. They are going to have to figure it out on their own. Marriages have their ups and downs but you can't protect her from that."

Abby sighed. "I know but it doesn't mean that I can't wish for a better life for Bonnie. It doesn't mean that every day I don't wish that I had done more to protect her from all of this."

"Protect Bonnie from whom? Giuseppe or Damon?" he asked.

"I want to protect her from all of you, Alaric. You know that I love you but your family is a curse to mine. The worst thing we ever did was get into business with the Salvatores. Do you know the things Giuseppe did to my mother? He broke her and growing up around that broke me, too."

Alaric studied her expression. "No, I don't know because it's not something you have ever shared with me. Is it something that you wanted to talk about now?"

Abby shook her head. "You can guess what your brother did to my mother. You know the type of man he is—the type of man he has always been. I let Rudy abuse me for years because I thought it was…."

"Normal?" he asked. Alaric had to overcome similar beliefs once he was an adult.

"I didn't think that it was normal but I also didn't think that Rudy was abusing me. I thought as long as I fought back that I wasn't a battered woman. My mother always fought back against Giuseppe. It took three years of being married to Rudy to realize that fighting back to survive didn't make me any less of a battered woman. There was still a man twice my size beating the shit out of me. My daughter grew up seeing the same things that I did because I neglected my responsibilities when I left her with Mama. Now I am terrified that she learned the same lessons that I did as child. Maybe she learned that men can do anything to hurt us and we just have to be strong enough to weather it. I don't want that for Bonnie," she replied softly.

Alaric winced involuntarily. "Is that what you think Bonnie is doing with Damon? He would never hurt her."

Abby sighed and said, "You are being willfully obtuse. I am tired and I just want to go to bed. The kids will be up in a few hours."

Ric watched as she walked out of the kitchen. "Abby…"

She looked over her shoulder. "Like I said, we're on opposing sides of this, Ric. You want the best for your nephew. And I want the best for my daughter. I suppose one of us will get our wish. I just pray to God that it's me."

Ric stood there as he watched Abby walk away from him. He realized that his relationship wasn't the only one that was in trouble.