Four days after Izzy had returned home and found Matt with another girl in the most compromising of positions, the sting of betrayal and hurt was still fresh. She had little to no appetite and would only eat when Jimmy came up to her room with a tray laden with food, forcing her to put something in her system. She hadn’t spoken a word to Matt but that didn’t mean that he didn’t try to talk to her. Since she had returned with Vengeance from the beach that fateful evening, Matt was relentless in his attempts to explain himself. Izzy heard not a single word that escaped his mouth. She didn’t want to hear his excuses for what she had caught him doing just a few days after their time together in Italy.

Locked in her room listening to music or trying to read, Izzy battled with her emotions. Vengeance’s warning to her rang out in her mind each time images of Matt and the girl who he had bound and gagged on his desk floated into her thoughts. Izzy was angry with herself for trusting Matt after only a few short weeks. She was angry with herself for feeling something for a man that clearly felt nothing but lust towards her. She had been so wrapped up in his kind words and sweet gestures that she had been blinded by them. Of course he had shown her what she had wanted to see and like a fool she had lapped it all up.

The sadness of loss had been replaced by rage and hatred for that was the only way she could deal with Matt’s betrayal. For four days she had tried to cry but not a single tear had been shed. Now the coldness that wrapped around her heart was frightening, but Izzy welcomed it. She allowed herself to believe a lie that Matt had more to him that he let on. No, he was no longer Matt to her, she no longer wanted to believe that he was all the things she believed him to be. He was Shadows, his name encompassing everything that he was, dark and filled with secrets. If Izzy was to protect herself while living in the same house as the man that hurt her so deeply then she would have to give up her emotions, at least towards him. In order to save her sanity, Izzy would be cold and closed off. She would be just like Shadows.

A faint knock on Izzy’s door caused her to be pulled from her thoughts that afternoon. There was a faint commotion coming from downstairs but Izzy blocked it out, turning the music up on her stereo to drown it out. She had no interest in what was happening downstairs but now, whatever it was going on down there had reached her bedroom door. Letting out a sigh of frustration, Izzy marched to her bedroom door and wrenched it open only to be launched backward by something resembling a smurf. Confused and slightly annoyed, Izzy looked down and found a pair of shining brown eyes peering up at her from under the tufts of shocking blue hair.

“Annie?” asked Izzy, startled by her best friend’s sudden and unexpected appearance in her bedroom. She hadn’t spoken to Annie since she had last seen her outside Wonderland with Jimmy. “What are you doing here?” Izzy wrapped her arms around her best friend’s tiny frame. “And what’s with the smurfette getup?”

Annie broke away from Izzy and stared at her best friend. “I was asked to come here. This morning a ridiculously good looking man with the most amazing brown eyes came to my house and demanded that I come. He said that you hadn’t been out of your room for 4 days and that you were barely eating.” rushed Annie, dragging Izzy over to the bed.

Izzy let out an audible sigh and began picking at the stray threads on her ripped jeans. She avoided Annie’s piercing gaze, knowing that once Annie got her talking she wouldn’t stop. Izzy didn’t want to go over what had happened with Matt. She didn’t want to open that wound that she had attempted to stitch closed.

“Tell me Izzy. What happened?” asked Annie, her voice filled with concern as she reached out to hold Izzy’s hand.

At the sound of Annie’s voice, so concerned and comforting, Izzy felt the emotions she had been keeping locked away swell in her chest. She desperately wished that she could tell Annie every last detail of how she had gotten to the A7X mansion but she knew that that was out of the question. The tears that she had refused to shed over the past four days came tumbling down her cheeks and she let it all out. Everything. From the feelings she had for Vengeance to those she had for Matt. The kiss that Vengeance had so roughly given her to the sweet and passionate one that she shared with Matt. She recounted Vengeance’s warning and the gift that Matt had bought her while she was in Italy to Matt’s surprise visit and their first time together. Then she got the hard part and Izzy felt her throat constrict uncomfortably as images of Matt and the brunette in his office flashed in her mind. She felt Annie squeeze her hand reassuringly and finally found the courage to say out loud what she had seen.

“Jimmy and I opened Matt’s office door and there he was, fucking some brunette girl who was bound and gagged beneath him. He didn’t even realize we were standing there. The look in his eyes, oh God Annie, it was horrible. His eyes were cold and there was something dark in them. When I started screaming at him, that’s when he stopped and it seemed like he was trying to flip some kind of switch in his mind. I’ve never seen that look in his eyes. He’s always been so….”Izzy choked on her words and felt Annie wrap her arms around her.

“I know this is hard, especially since you let him in after everything you went through this past year with your dad’s death. It’s only natural to feel something towards someone who has been so kind to you. But maybe this Vengeance character is right, maybe there is more to him than meets the eye.” said Annie reasonably. “It’s up to you if you want to find out what it is.”

Izzy looked at Annie as if she were insane. “Are you fucking kidding me Annie? I want nothing to do with that bastard. How could he move from one bed to the next so quickly?” said Izzy incredulously making no attempt to hide the disgust in her voice. “And I don’t think Vengeance gave me that warning so I could go digging further into Matt’s mind. I’m sure I won’t like whatever it is I would find.”

“You do live in the same house with him now, so at some point you are going to have to face him.” replied Annie getting off the bed and heading to Izzy’s closet.

“Just because I live in the same house as him doesn’t mean I have to anything with him. He hurt me remember?! I don’t have to be nice or anything.” said Izzy with contempt, folding her arms across her chest.

“You’re just going to make an uncomfortable situation worse by doing that Izzy.” said Annie, throwing some clothes towards Izzy. “All you need to be is civil. I don’t care if you do that thing where you shut off your emotions towards anyone that hurts you. Once you’re civil. Just try okay?”

“What are you doing?” asked Izzy picking up some of her clothes that had fallen short of the bed as Annie threw them over her shoulder.

“We are going out tonight with that yummy brown eyed guy and your friend Jimmy.” said Annie happily as she turned to face Izzy with a huge smile on her face. “I’m getting you out of this room.”

Izzy shrugged her shoulders and began folding the clothes on her bed. “I don’t really feel like going anywhere Annie. Really.”

“I never said you had a choice in the matter.” Smiled Annie sweetly as her eyes flashed with warning. “Get your ass into that shower and make yourself presentable. I think I’ll borrow this.”

“You mean steal?” laughed Izzy in spite of herself.

“It’s not stealing if you know that it’s going to end up in my closet.” Retorted Annie as she ushered Izzy into the bathroom. “Now hurry up. Yummy brown eyes is taking us to dinner first.”

****

Matt’s eyes connected with Izzy’s the second she came down the marbled staircase with her best friend in tow. She looked beautiful in one of the dresses she had picked out while they had taken an evening walk through the Palazzo in Venice. The look in Izzy’s eyes took Matt by surprise. Her once bright grey eyes were cold and void of emotion when she looked at him. Matt felt like she was looking right through him, as if he wasn’t really there. He desperately wanted to reach out and touch her but the last time he had tried to do just that, she had recoiled from him.

Once upon a time, Matt didn’t give a damn about what anyone thought about him. He hadn’t become the most notorious gang leader by being soft. He had locked his heart and emotions away years ago and it never bothered him how cruel and callous he had become. People respected him, feared him even and that was all he needed. On the nights when his bed became cold and lonely he had many girls at his disposal who were ready to please him however he saw fit. Being as emotionless as he was, Matt had found the desire to be dominant in almost every aspect of his life, including women. And then Izzy walked into his life, and she turned everything upside down with just one look at him. He felt emotions that had long been detached surface after so long just by being near the raven hair beauty. Matt found himself doing things he had never done since his long-time girlfriend, Val, left him 7 years ago taking a huge part of him with her as she walked out the door, never to look back. For the first time in 7 years, Matt wanted to feel and he wanted to feel something with Izzy by his side. Now, she wanted nothing to do with him because Matt had given into a fleeting desire­ and he had shattered any hope of Izzy loving him in one fell swoop.

He watched Izzy walk out the door with Gates and Jimmy, her arm linked through Annie’s as they chatted animatedly, ignoring his presence. Matt sighed to himself and retired to his office. He had tried everything he could think of to apologize to Izzy but she rejected him each time to the point where he knew that she no longer heard anything he had tried to say. Matt felt out of sorts, unfamiliar were the emotions tormenting him as he sat alone in his office. He wanted to mend what he had broken but somehow he knew that the damage was irreparable. Izzy had called him Shadows last night when she had run into him just after 2 in the morning in the library. Her once sweet voice sounded cold and distorted as she acknowledged him not as Matt but Shadows. It meant that she no longer saw him the way she once did and through no fault of her own. Matt had brought it upon himself. He had ruined the one thing that could have saved him.

Notes

comments and feedback my dear readers....enjoy!!!!!! congrats to meganlovesboys123 over on Mibba who won the contest for first comment on the previous chapter...she'll be making her first apperance next chapter....fresh meat...yay!!!! if any of you want your own character who will make an appearence at some point send me a message with all your details and i will hook you up...
plus i need a girl to be Vengence's plaything to get under Izzy's skin....any takers....first one to comment gets the part..!! good luck! (i'm giving this opportunity to you guys on this site since i gave away the new girl part on Mibba...yes i feel bad about forgetting you guys so please take this opportunity as my IM SOORRRRYYYY