Secured Sevenfold

Josephine's POV
'Work with what we've got' ?
That guy must be out of his mind, how can I work with what we've got?! I had nothing here and he wanted me to run my company from his house?! How could he not understand?! I tried to find more arguments to convince him of my concerns, but I had a hard time concentrating on my thoughts when he was staring down on me like that, his eyes piercing into mine, his body only inches away.

I wanted to repeat my action and slap him in the face..... or repeat his action...
Why was I still thinking about him kissing me? He took advantage of me in my most vulnerable moment, it was rude and unprofessional to say the least, but still my mind kept telling me that if I would stand on my toes just a little, I would be able to-

"Are you going to adjust? I don't have time to stand here all day" his voice pulled me right out of my thoughts and I saw him smirk down on me.
I let out a cry in frustration, threw my hands in the air and shot him one more angry glare. I turned around, rushing out of the office, just praying Jacky would have left in the meantime, I really couldn't use her annoying remarks now.

I walked up to my room, I didn't want to admit it, but Matt was right, my room was very big and really beautiful, for a house full of men, they had their house pretty well in order, must be a interior designer, I huffed, slamming the door behind me. This house was amazing, I now got what Matt was telling me about them not having to spend time together all the time. My room was almost directly at the stairs, next to Matt's not far from where he had his office on the first floor, I guess he needed his work close by, just like I did.

A sigh escaped my lips, I didn't like my work situation, but it would have to do, I had to do some work that couldn't wait, I had let it go for too long anyway. And seeing Matt wasn’t going to have my office ready right away forced me to take his orders and “work with what I’ve got”.
I pulled out my laptop and my notebook with notes from my meeting at Hawaii and sat down at the little desk against the wall. I was trying to find enough space to put all my stuff, but the desk was just too small... Shit!

My annoyance level was quite high when I heard a knock on the door and I saw a head lean in
"Hey sis!" Jacky came walking in, without even asking me if it was okay for her to enter. That would be my sister alright.
"Go away, I can't handle you right now"
"Tsk, Tsk, you don't even wanna make time for your little sister? We haven't talked in ages, come on Joe" She chuckled lightly and sat down at my bed, crossing her legs, making herself comfortable.
"I asked you nicely to leave, why can't you just do as I ask you?"I sighed. This would be a long and unpleasant stay, under one roof, with my sister, I could hardly think of anything worse than that.
“How are you Joe?”
“How do you think I am? I wanted to go home, I asked you to leave me alone and none of those request was granted. I’m just peachy!” I heard the venom dripping from my reply, but I couldn’t care less, I was so far out of my comfortzone that I wouldn’t even be able see it if I had binoculars.
Jacky looked at me with a smile “It’s not that bad you know, this house is amazing, they even have two pools”
“I know, I got the tour too, don’t act like you are the one living here for years now”

"Don't be like that Joe, I have been here for a few days now, I can show you around, tell you how things are going down here. I get along nicely with all of them, well except for Matt, but you've seemed to have covered that part yourself" She smirked at me, wiggling her brows. I didn't even took the effort to reply her, god knows what she meant with that remark.
"But seriously Joe, the others are easy to be around"
"Yeah, that's one way to put it" I sneered
"What the hell do you mean with that?!" She raised her voice and got up of the bed, agitated.
"Nothing... just use your imagination,little sis"

Jacky started pacing the room and looked at me with fire in her eyes
“Why are you always acting like I am a pain in the ass, only partying and to not even mention the fact that you practically just called me a slut”
“Whom the cap fits….”

Jacky made a few steps forward and then held back, she looked me up and down and smirked "Didn't pack much huh?"
I knew she was trying to get to me and I knew I shouldn't give her the satisfaction of replying, but she was getting under my skin, like always
"I didn't exactly have time to go home, Matt didn't let me"
She looked around as if she was looking for something.
"You didn't even took mom's bag with you?"
I looked at my hands and blushed, it wasn't my fault I lost the bag, but I felt guilty about it and really sad, it physically hurt me they took the bag.
"They took it from me.... The men that are after us" I replied quietly

Jacky's eyes grew even bigger and her face turned red, I knew where this was heading. She took the last few steps, bridging the distance between her and me and pointed her finger, her voice was soft and threatening
“You accuse me of all things that are mean and ugly and then you lose the one thing that is important, the one thing that made you just a slight bit human? Get of your high horse, Joe, you are nothing better than me. You made dad leave, you lost mom’s bag, you are even worse than everything you could even accuse me of”

“It wasn’t my fault….” I replied quietly, but then I looked up at my sisters eyes and I felt the anger boil up inside of me. I was usually so contained, I was always able to control my feelings, but not with her, not with my sister, she had a way of crawling under my skin and make me lose my calm, she knew exactly how to push my buttons.
“Dad left without me knowing, the bag was taken from me, I didn’t hand it over. IT’S NOT MY FAULT!!!”
"YOU SHOULD HAVE PAID BETTER ATTENTION JOE! IT'S MOM'S BAG! I KNEW DAD SHOULD HAVE GIVEN IT TO ME! I WOULD HAVE TAKEN CARE OF IT!"
We were full on screaming at each other now, standing in front of each other, measuring up, ready to go for round two, three, four, I’ve been here before and this wouldn’t be done for a long time.

Brian’s POV
I was just about to walk away from Matt’s office and hear into direction of my room, when I heard his voice behind me and I flinched a little.
“Brian, can you come in again?” Matt asked.
“Yeah, sure.” I nodded and turned back around seeing Zack a couple of feet away from me motioning with his thumb across his throat and I flipped him off, stupid ass.
Matt couldn’t know... I mean... how could he...
Nobody said anything and I kept my distance, he even made me the main bodyguard and main responsible for Jacky, if he knew anything he wouldn’t do that, right?
Yeah, right.

“Take a seat.” So formally? Shit, maybe he did know something?
“Okay.” I let myself plop down on the chair opposite of Matt and he closed his laptop looking at me.
Was he waiting for me to admit?
Was does he want?
“Since we are both now main responsible for the two girls, we should make sure that even if they are under our roof, they are watched constantly. Take your job serious, Brian.”
“I do, since when do you question it?” I asked and felt a small jolt of guilt making its way up.
“That’s not what I meant... shit... I just know you don’t like this particular assignment, and having them in our home, is really not easy... so... can you try to work this out?” Matt asked and sounded exhausted.
“Sure, I will have my eyes on her, no problem. She will be watched around the clock.” I agreed immediately and hoped I didn’t sound too eager.

“Good... now... after that is clear... I want to talk to you about what happened... We didn’t get the chance to speak man to man about this until now.” Oh Shit!
“About what exactly?” I asked carefully not wanting to dive into the wrong topic right away.
“About you and Jacky... about what happened. Damn, Gates... I can’t really blame you... I mean nearly the same happened with me and Joe as well..” Matt said and shook his head in regret.
Wait what?
“You and Joe... the same?” I asked in disbelief and what meant nearly the same?
“Yeah... I didn’t think this would be so hard, I mean... maybe we have underestimated the whole situation, these girl.. damn they are... tougher then I thought but the situation they brought us in... It’s not easy.” I was so not sure what he was talking about so I would just go with the flow.
“What do you mean with I am not to blame?” That got me really curious.
“Well... as I said it happened to me too, even more intense... I would say.” Matt said and looked at me again and I was about to disagree with the intense part, but I was still frowning... what the fuck was he really talking about, it sounded a lot like sex but I can’t believe that.. Can’t believe Matt would break his own rules.
“Can you clue me in again about what you are talking now?” I asked carefully and Matt looked confused at me.
“Huh? Of course the break in and the nearly being grabbed part, what are you talking about?” Matt looked at me with a lifted eyebrow and I quickly regained my composure.
“Sure, yeah... that’s what I meant as well.” I nodded.
“Honestly, Jacky was really shocked, I guess she didn’t think the situation was this intense and that they were really in danger, so this was kind of a opener for Jacky to realize how serious it is. I could calm her down, but she was really freaked out about it, but she trusted me then... I could convince her to come to the mansion and she was coming along good. Arin made a grand tour with her and I started to do self-defense lessons with her.” Matt nodded at my explanations and I hoped it would get him away from the other thoughts.
“Good idea, we should continue that with both girls. I will start that with Joe as well, they should be prepared and able to at least defend them a little if something got out of hand.” Matt agreed and I sighed in relief, trying to not let it be shown.

“IT’S NOT MY FAULT!!!”
"YOU SHOULD HAVE PAID BETTER ATTENTION JOE! IT'S MOM'S BAG! I KNEW DAD SHOULD HAVE GIVEN IT TO ME! I WOULD HAVE TAKEN CARE OF IT!"
Jacky’s yelling could be heard even through the closed door.
I immediately got up from my seat and saw Matt doing the same.
“Shit, what’s that?” Matt looked around and the door was pulled open and Zack stood in the doorway.
“Hey, your responsibilities are having a cat-fight... I think you should better get between it, I don’t wanna get my eyes clawed out.” Zack announced and I ran upstairs trusting my hearing that would lead me the right way and I knew Matt was hot on my heels.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? IT. WASN’T. MY. FAULT!” Joe stood toe to toe to Jacky both glaring at each other ready to really claw each other’s eyes out, Arin also stood in the doorway looking a little helpless.
“I tried to talk to them, but they don’t even realize that I am here.” He shrugged his shoulders.
“ENOUGH OF THIS!” Matt yelled and I was glad standing a little off to the side.
But instead of reacting they still yelled at each other and I saw Jacky move her hand towards Joe, wanting to shove her shoulder, but I got between it, grabbing Jacky’s hips and lifting her away.
“Alright.. enough of this.”
“What? Brian.. what the... get your hands off me... put me down..” Jacky complained, but I didn’t react to any of that, I had to admit I liked having her in my arms and so I made my way out of the room, with a still angry glaring Joe and a ranting Jacky in my arms.

Matt stepped towards Joe and all her anger concentrated on him now and I was glad that I could carry Jacky away and make her stop her death threats towards me without an audience.
“LET ME GO! Damn it... BRIAN!!!” She yelled again.. but I just carried her to her room and closed the door behind us.
“What was that about?” I asked her and she narrowed her eyes on me.
“That? Nothing... just a normal talk between me and my sister.”
“That was nothing but normal, remember you two will be living under this roof together, you should better try and come along with her, Jacky.” I made a step towards her and she shook her head and in that second the door opened again, Arin sticking his head in, his expression a little shy.
“You alright?” He looked at Jacky and she nodded.
“Yeah, perfect, thanks.” Her voice full of sarcasm, Arin seemed to be a caught a little off guard by that reaction, not so best buddies anymore huh.
“Do you want me to stay with you? I can if you want?” Why was he still here? Why was I still here?
“No thanks” Jacky’s voice sounded nice again and she gave Arin a little smile.
“Okay.” With that Arin left and I made my way to the door as well, this could have ended badly, I shouldn’t be in one room with her now.

Notes

Some talk between men.... a nearly misunderstanding :P
And some Cat-Fight going on in this one :D

Tell us what you think!!! :)