Secured Sevenfold

Arin’s POV
The four of us sat at the table, Joseph staring into his cup of coffee, while Brian and Matt exchanged nervous glances. I had a pretty good idea what was going on in their minds, and I could only assume that wasn’t the girls at the moment.
Matt had just told Joseph the story on how the girls had disappeared, or at least, bits of it. The complete story had too many relationship references in it and I had noticed that was something both guys were desperately trying to avoid.

“So Joseph, maybe it’s time you give us the full story now” This was a serious matter, but I couldn’t help but laugh within myself. The full story, Matt was asking for? He had some explaining to do himself. My train of thoughts was broken when the old man started to talk.
“I don’t even know where to begin” he sighed, looking from me to Matt, to Brian. The last one just raised his brows.
“The beginning, right” He took a deep breath, stared down at his hands and started talking.
“When the girl’s mother died, I fell into a black hole. I didn’t know what to do with myself and I tried to hold on to her desperately. I was out all day, going to places we used to visit together, places she used to love. That included the restaurant we always went to.
There was waitress there, Anne, she usually waited on us when we came there and she was nice. That one night, lost as I was, Anne invited me to her house after her shift. I’m not proud of it, but one thing led to another and that night I … well… you know” the old man blushed and was still avoiding our gazes.

“The morning after I regretted what I did, I went home and tried to get my life in order again, especially for my girls, they needed stability, they needed a father they could count on now their mother was gone, so I tried to be that for them. I didn’t go to the restaurant anymore and I never called Anne anymore. I know it is not the decent thing to do, but it was the only way for me to survive”
Joe looked at Matt shortly, as if he was looking for reassurance. With no reaction whatsoever from Matt, Joe continued.
“Three months later, Anne called me. She told me she was the mother of my daughter. I was confused and told her that my two daughters weren’t hers and that I made a mistake, that I needed to take care of my girls and that I was sorry about how it all had gone. It was only a few hours after that call I realized what she had been talking about… But then it was too late. I decide to go to the restaurant to look her up, but the manager told me he had to let her go. She had been harassing customers, and she had been lying about a lot of things. He had suspicions about delusions, but couldn’t really confirm.”

Silence fell over the table.
“Joe, please continue” Brian asked.

“I tried to get into contact with Anne, but she always told me she didn’t need me. She never accepted the money I offered her. I saw the little girl 3 times. There was no doubt that she was mine. She looks like me. But Anne never let me come near her.”

The old man’s eyes got teary. There was so much in them, the hurt of his unknown daughter, the hurt of his known daughters not being here with him.

“What happened with the deal that brought you to this?” I asked. I think this story was important, but I needed him to get to the end of the story.

“I had a cashflow problem for my company. It’s all business and not that important, really, but I needed money. Quick.”
I saw Matt clenching his fists at the not important part, before he could say anything, Brian put his hand on his arm, stopping him from doing so. I understood he was mad, how they both were, but there were more important things to worry about.

“I didn’t want to bother Josephine with it, so I looked for other ways. Mr. Smith offered his services and I took them. We made an agreement on when to pay the money back, but suddenly, a month sooner then agreed on, he told me I needed to pay him. I didn’t have the money yet, and I couldn’t pay him. Well… You know that story.” Joe said with a sigh, looking around the table.
“The deadline came closer and I received some calls, telling me she could help me. At first she didn’t tell me her name, and I didn’t want to get in the same trouble this all started about. But I did my research and found out the phone calls came from a company named Madison Inc.”

Now we were getting somewhere and I just wanted to push the man to not linger that much and just get to the point. I needed to know the details so I could go look for Jack and Joe, do a more detailed search.

“As time passed, the phone calls became more frequent and one day…..One day she told me her name, Joanne Crowley”
Matt and Brian stared at each other and then at me with wide eyes, their mouths open. We just had a breakthrough!
“What is going on?!” Joe looked at us confused.
“We will tell you, just finish the story, a little quicker!” Matt growled
“Everything fell into place, the girl’s name, the name of her mother. She told me she had some things to offer me and if I didn’t agree I would pay for it. I tried to reason with her, but she never really listened. I never even got the chance to make things right with her, because she didn’t let me. I never thought she would go into business with a criminal to get back to me. I wanted to make things right, but how can I?”

Things started the fall into place and I knew we were really close to the answer. There were still some gaps, there will still some things we needed to figure out, but we had to be close to figuring all of this out and getting the girls back, finally.

“Well, Joe, you have to think of something quick. Because Joanne is the one that took Josephine and Jacky…”

Zacky’s POV
I took the note from my pocket again and shook my head “A girl... what the fuck...” I mumble to myself and Johnny chuckles beside me, we were nearly back at the mansion.
“Do you think it’s funny, short shit?” I shot at him
“No… But I know.. what the hell.. do you think this is really, like... a girl behind all of this? Why? What does a girl want with Jack and Joe?” Johnny asked looking at me from the side, while the gates to our mansions slid open.

“Fuck do I know... I just hope Arin, Brian and Matt better checked all the information about the girl, so we can quickly get back to work and get our girls back. And we shouldn’t forget we still have some explaining to do for our parents.. because... hell I know my parents knew something was up... and the way Brian and Matt acted, their parents won’t let this topic go either.” I say and rub a hand down my face, this really was a fucked up situation.
“You know, what I think Brian and Matt should be doing?” Johnny asks, while he parks the SUV in the spot next to the other.
“What?” I ask and he looks at me when he finished his task.
“Well, who would know anything about this? Who would know what someone and especially a girl wants from Jack and Joe?” Johnny asks again, climbing out of the car and made me frown.
“Well.. who?” I ask not getting his hints.
I climbed out as well and we walked towards the front door.
“Joseph, their father... If someone would know the name and the person to it, it would be their father, right?” Johnny asks and opens the door.
“Right...” I nod at him while we walk inside the mansion. Johnny stops to hang up his jacket, while I look around the living room and my eyes widen.

“Hell...” I softly say seeing Matt, Brian and Joe sitting at the table looking uncomfortable as hell.
“But you know why Brian and Matt are not doing that?” Johnny asks, still his back to me, getting rid of his shoes.
“Huh?” I ask and forgot what he was talking about, all three men turn towards us. Brian, Matt and Joe all looking like they were waiting for Johnny to continue, who still didn’t know, that I wasn’t his only listener.
“They won’t call Joseph and tell him about it, because they are fucking his daughters, like literally... Fucking them” Johnny laughs loudly and turns around, oh shit...
I had just opened my mouth to tell him not to say it, but Johnny was faster and I closed my eyes, now we got a problem.
“What?” Joseph stands up and looks at Johnny and me.
“Holy hell.. Is this….I didn’t know-” Johnny looks from Matt to Brian to Joseph and back at me.
“Why didn’t you freaking say that we weren’t alone?” He hissed at me and I can’t bring my mouth to open or close, I still couldn’t decide which was the best idea.

“Matthew?!” Joe looks at him from his standing position and the old man looks like he had so much adrenaline in him he would take on both Brian and Matt in a fight, if it concerns his girls anyway.
Matt and Brian looked at each other helpless. So they didn’t mention to Joe that there was actually something going on between them and the daughters and Johnny had just really dropped the freaking bomb, and not in a good way.
“Shit, I’m sorry.. I didn’t mean..” Johnny rushes forward walking towards Joe and wanted to soothe the situation.
Matt narrows his eyes at Johnny and he takes a step back while Brian finally regains his speak.
“Joe, listen… we planned to tell…” He starts but Joe holds up a hand.
“You planned to what? Tell me you defiled my precious daughters? Matthew, I handed my daughters to you to protect them and what did you do? You were just enjoying your fun?” Joe looks disgusted at Brian and Matt and he sighs loudly. Then a disappointed look came over his face.
“Damn it, Joe. You are not making this easy for us, are you?! We wanted to tell you about our relationship to your daughters, but we planned to do it later. Not in a situation like this. And what my not much longer friend Johnny was saying was of course not the case. We are not just… sleeping with your daughters.” Matt chose his words carefully “We didn’t want this to happen either, but it did… We are in love with them, as they are with us…” Matt closed off, his voice sounding sad.
Joe was slowly sinking down on his chair looking even older now than before and I realized I was still standing in the doorway while Johnny was slowly walking backwards to the kitchen and out of the fighting zone.

“We mean it honest with them… we love them and we need to find them as soon as possible. I cannot stand to be separated one moment longer.” Brian says and sighs heavily.
“Hmm..hmm..” Joe was silent for a moment and I slowly approached the table, letting myself plop down next to Brian.
“You mean it honest with them? And you will do your utmost to get them back? I mean as we talked earlier you were already succeeding in finding out long buried secrets.” Joe says, a small smile pulling at his lips.
“We would do everything, we all would. They belong to us, Joe, they are family.” Matt says and we all nod, Brian, Arin, myself and Johnny in the kitchen.
“You know that as soon as you got my princesses back I will have a full on talk with both of you.” Joe says and looks with narrowed eyes at Brian and Matt who both nod reluctantly.

“So I thought Jacky would bring you out of your shell.” Joe grins and closes his eyes as if he thought about a funny moment in his head.
“I haven’t met any of her boyfriends if I have to be honest, she never introduced one, because she knew I would hunt them off my property and I knew that she would do whatever she wanted anyway… I’m glad she makes you happy, as long as you make her happy as well, Matthew.” Joe says and I couldn’t hide the chuckle, because Brian was grinning like an idiot hearing about Jacky but then Matt’s name fell and the smile fell of his face.
“Wait a second.” Brian says but Joe just continued.
“And I think Joe could bring some good organization into the bodyguard parts of your life. I think she needs come more out of her shell, too. She needs someone special and-”
“Joe, you are wrong.” Matt says. “Josephine belongs to me and Jacky to Brian. I love everything about Joe, she just needed to trust me and after some small difficulties in the beginning we just… we belong together… and I love her.”
Joe chuckles surprising us all “I know, Matt. I was just kidding, you could never handle Jacky and Brian would never have enough nerve for my Josephine, that’s for sure, I just wanted to hear what you would say.”

I had to try and hold the chuckle myself, this guy nearly got me there “Okay, I’m sorry to interrupt this nice son in law presentation, butI think the guys can do better than this later on. I think we should concentrate on the task at hand and find out who this woman is and where we can finally find the girls and bring them back home.” I say and the Matt, Brian and Joe exchange some looks then nod. It was a shame we had to break the light mood, but we had enough time for that, when the girls were home.

Notes

Soooo.. what do you think about all that?!

How did you like Joe's reaction to his son's in laws?! ;)

And Johnny... :P Hahahaha :D

Leave us some comments ;)