Secured Sevenfold

Matt’s POV
I rushed up the stairs, trying to get away from everything and everyone. I shouldn’t have done that. Brian had picked all the wrong strings, but I couldn’t even blame him, he was going crazy. Just like me. Without even thinking I walked into my bedroom.
As soon as I stepped into the room and stopped. The sheets were still disheveled from the last time I slept in it together with Joe, her little nightgown laying on top of her pillow as if it was waiting for her to come back. My breath got stuck in my throat and I quickly took a few steps back, closing the door with me standing in the hall again.

The door to the master bathroom was open and I walked in to splash some water in my face, but as soon as I looked in the mirror I had to avert my eyes again. That tub, that tub where we… I shook my head, trying to get rid of all the thoughts overwhelming me. I leaned on the sink and looked at the face staring back at me. Eyes red, with black shadows all around, bags under it. The face was pale. I looked unhealthy, but how couldn’t I be. I hadn’t slept and I didn’t really eat either. Until now I had managed to pretend I was, sleeping, eating, and no one had asked me about it. I didn’t need them forcing me to do things, I didn’t want to. I wouldn’t be able to handle that.

Slowly I made my way down the stairs again. The whole house reminded me of Joe, but upstairs was the worst. I had cursed the guys for the no sex in public rooms, but I was grateful for the rule now. On the bottom floor I wasn’t constantly reminded of all the times Joe and I had made love. I was heading for my office when I heard a voice coming out of the living room.

“Matt? Will you sit with me for a while? My head is so full” Liv’s voice was kind and I made my way over to her and sat down on the couch.
“Where is everyone?” I asked her, trying to smile.
“Well, besides the ones you know… Joseph went up to his room to rest and Brian and Zack are outside talking”
I hummed in confirmation. They shouldn’t have let her alone.
“Can I get you something to drink or eat?”
“No thanks, you showed me where everything is, I can take care of myself” She looked at me sideways and put her hand on my arm “Can I get you anything?”
I shook my head, not able to look at her.
“Matt, you have to eat something, Joe will need your strength when she gets back”
I opened my mouth to answer, but she stopped me.
“Don’t go all eating disorder excuses on me. I’ve been keeping an eye on you since we got here, and I’ve noticed that you aren’t eating anything. You keep making up reasons not to be at the table or around in any other way when the rest of us is eating. So I know.”

I let my head hang down. So far for no one noticing.
“Have you slept?” another question I didn’t want to answer.
“Keep your nose out of my business, Olivia. What are you? My mother?”
“Well, maybe I should call her. She might be able to talk some sense into you”
I snapped my head in her direction and glared at her.
“Start talking, Matt, because I have a feeling you could use someone”
I leaned back against the couch and closed my eyes.

I didn’t really want to talk about it, but somehow Liv made it seem easy to do it if I wanted to.
“Joe and I had a fight, just before they took her away. It was my fault. I was jealous and I had absolutely no reason for it. She is loyal to me, or at least she was…. “ I let a silence fall down on me for a second, before I continued “she is so different from all the women I was with before her. The women from the younger years only saw the bad boy they wanted to have, the women from the older years only saw the mansion and my name on top at the president’s spot. But not Joe. She wanted me. Matt Sanders. No games, only honesty. She told me when I was wrong, she rewarded me when I did good”
Liv giggled a little and smiled at me “Don’t need to hear the details from you, Matt, Joe told me everything”
I looked at her with wide eyes, before I shook my head with a smile.
“Best friends talk, huh?”
She just nodded, waiting for me to continue on what I wanted to say.

“Joe was taken because of me, I promised to take care of her and I didn’t. I can’t blame her that she probably never wants to see me ever again, but I don’t know if I can be without her. I need her. She is my conscience, the little voice in my head, telling me what is right and wrong. I never had something like that with a woman before”
Liv smiled, waiting for me, as if she felt I wasn’t done yet.
“Hell, I don’t care about anything I just said. I need her because I love her, because I don’t WANT to be without her anymore. What if she hates me for what I did to her? What if she doesn’t want to see me again?”
Tears were stinging behind my eyelids, and I squeezed my eyes shut hard to not let them come out.

A small, soft hand slipped on my hands, carefully squeezing.
“Matt… you have to listen to me. Jose loves you. She really does. I have never ever seen her like this and I have known her for a very long time. And let me tell you, this little thing of you two fighting and her being abducted…” a smirk pulled on her lips as she put in a high dose of sarcasm.
“…She won’t hold it against you. There aren’t enough soldiers to keep her from you once she gets back, so you better be prepared for a lifetime together, because she isn’t going anywhere.”
I let out a deep sigh, was Liv right? Would Joe want to stay with me forever?
“Now… You need to stop beating yourself up over this. You need to eat something, and you need to try and sleep, because if you are planning on being the savior for my best friend, you need to look the part… Have you ever seen a hero with bags under his eyes?”

As if peptalk was all I needed, all the tension left my body and I was so tired all of a sudden. I moved from sitting position to a lying one. Not even really noticing Liv sliding of the couch, sitting in front of it. My eyes were falling shut and just before I gave myself to sleep, I heard Liv whisper “Everything will be okay, Matt, it has too”

Arin’s POV
I typed the address into the gps system and got behind the wheel, Johnny sitting next to me and Dean in the backseat.
“You guys ready?” I ask looking at them one by one and they nod, I wait a second before turning around in my seat again and looking at Dean with a little concern.

“Dean, I mean, we will just take a look at the street, the ground surrounding the house, try to find out if that the location where the girls are, that’s about it. I know you can be as hotheaded as Brian, so please don’t make me regret taking you along.” I tell him and he chuckles.
“What?” I ask surprised, I didn’t say anything funny.
“I never thought you or well anyone comparing me to that guy... but okay. I got it, I will listen and won’t do a stupid move, you are the boss... I just want my friend back, Arin.” Dean says and I hear the sadness in his voice.

“Don’t lose hope my man, we will find them. It’s not only our job but it’s a matter of the heart.” Johnny says and turns to Dean with a nod, and I couldn’t have said it any better, so I started the engine and we drove towards the place where we knew the house of Joanne’s mother was.

It took us a good 45 minutes drive towards the area, I didn’t want to park anywhere near the house, afraid we could be seen or that the area could be watched by the employees or whoever was involved in this.
So I parked a block away and cut of the engine, I looked over at Johnny who nodded.
“Listen, we need to find out if there is any sign if the girls are there, maybe we can find the van, a hint... maybe see something in the windows, just any hint will do, but most important, don’t get caught, we don’t know what is waiting for us in there. We need to have a good distance and be smarter than them.” Johnny explains. He had been on missions with Brian or Zack more often than me so I thought it would make sense letting him take the lead for now.
“We need to find out how many men are there or if there any at all, we need to check the whole area, even the houses in the neighborhood. I don’t want you guys get to close, I will do the close up checks, you can do the neighborhood and maybe Dean can just walk by the front, seeing if you can find anything suspicious, if you walk into a neighbor maybe you can ask a question or two but don’t be too obvious, we will meet again here in exactly 1 hour, not longer!” Johnny says and both Dean and I nod.

“Okay, you got everything? And no matter what you hear or see, we will meet back at the car no stupid moves, okay?” He narrows his eyes and I have seen Johnny only rare occasion like this, but it fit him very well, I think this whole situation was bringing out all our qualities as bad as it sounds or was it good? “Alright and put your phone on vibrate, I need to be able to reach you if something happens.”

With that said and down we moved away from the car, Johnny gave a final salute and he was gone, I nodded at Dean a final time who walked slowly into the direction of the house, while I made my way over to the neighborhood, trying to be as quiet as I could.

I checked the houses and nothing was out of the ordinary. I didn’t run into any of the neighbor but I also tried not to get any attention to me.
I tried to see over the fence of the garden from the neighbor house if there was any sign of Jacky or Joe, but nothing… the windows were dark and there was no light shining in any of the rooms, does that mean something, or were they just trying to hide the fact that there was something strange going on?! That there was something out of the ordinary?!

The problem was I haven’t seen anyone come or go and it was frustrating. I checked the time again and it was only 5 minutes until we said we would meet back at the car, so I slowly made my way over there, still throwing a glance at the house, that house that I hoped would lead to something...
I would have betted that we would get something, but now my only hope was that Johnny and Dean had noticed something, so we would have a concrete hint that the girls were here and we could plan our next move.
Brian and Matt both needed this, hell we all needed to know that we were succeeding and searching in the right area.

Exactly one hour since we made our way to check the area I saw Dean and Johnny walking towards me from different directions. I was about to open my mouth to ask what was going on, but Johnny held a finger to his lips to silence me and motioned towards the car. I opened the door and slipped inside, waiting anxiously for any news, may it be good or bad.

Notes

Matt just needed a friend and the guys seemed to have found something... but what?
Tun dun dun.... you'll have to wait for that :P

Comments lovely readers :-)