Matt’s POV

From the moment Gates and I walked in, Pagano and his men had been on high alert. They were searching, questioning, and scrutinizing everything that we said and did. One wrong move or slip of tongue and Pagano would be onto our treachery and signing our death warrants. Luckily I had one of the best poker faces on the West Coast and I knew what cards to play around a man who had lost everything he held dear to his heart. He was playing my game and I didn’t lose.

“So are there any reports on your missing daughters?” I asked, carefully watching Pagano’s expression as I moved our business meeting forward. I knew Danny didn’t call me in here today to talk about territory and landmarks—no there was more motive to this meeting. He wanted something from us and I was tired of beating around the bush.

Pagano narrowed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, his voice suddenly becoming dry and void of any emotion besides anger. “No, not after the false ransom calls. But I’ve got all my men out looking and sweeping the area, tapping phone lines, private investigators, and I’ve raised the award for their return. Whoever took my girls will not get away with this, mark my words,” he said dangerously. “We will find them and then they will be back where they belong.”

“Well if there is anything we can do,” I replied with a nod, fighting the unsettling feeling building inside me. It was part anger for how he imprisoned his own daughters and part satisfaction in that we had a leg up on the man. “We are happy to lend a hand in your efforts to find them.”

Pagano could look all he wanted but he would never find his daughter nestled safely in my bed. As far as I was concerned, she wouldn’t be returning here. Jolie was mine for as long as she would have me and I wasn’t sending her back to this imprisonment. A girl like Jo deserved to be free and explore the world, not be caged in a mansion with only her sister to talk to. Hell, just thinking of her trapped in her room made my blood boil.

How could a father do that to his daughters? Fuck how did Pagano do half of the disgusting things he had done in past? I fucking hated that man and it took every ounce of strength I had to remain nonchalant and profession with this bastard.

“That’s actually part of the reason I invited you here today,” Danny said, leaning back in his chair as a guard entered the room. “One moment,” Pagano said to me before the guard leaned down to whisper something in his ear.

What the hell was so important that the guard couldn’t wait another ten minutes? If any of my men did that to me in an important meeting they would get a boot up the ass, but I guess Pagano had more class than I did. Though I wasn’t the one missing his most prized possessions and eating right out of the palm of the perpetrators hand. That’s right, we had Pagano right where we wanted him—begging for help and easily manipulated. He would crumble when I was done with him and that bastard would think twice about messing with Avenged Sevenfold again, that was for damn sure. The only issue was figuring out how to keep Jolie in the end because I couldn’t lose her.

Jolie was the first women I had ever felt this deep connection with and I couldn’t just hand her back over to her father, especially when she just agreed to be mine. Sure it was the most dangerous relationship I had ever been in—hell, it was the only relationship I actually wanted to be in—but Jolie was worth the risk. In the past it didn’t seem to be worth the risk to keep my enemies from finding someone close to me, but with Jolie, I wasn’t afraid. I loved her more than I had every loved anything in my life and I wanted her to be happy. I would protect her and give her everything she needed and deserved.

“I’m sorry, I have an important call. We will continue the talk in a minute,” Pagano said as he stood up and headed toward the door.

Wait, an important phone call? Was it about the girls? No, it couldn’t be, right? Fucking hell, what if those bastards from the beach were calling with information? What if they spotted me with Jolie? I would be a dead man in a matter of minutes if Pagano go wind that I had his daughters. I had to come up with a plan if the shit hit the fan. Luckily I still had a gun hidden inside the lining of my leather jacket that Pagano’s men missed in their pat down.

“Tucker, Brown, why don’t you show a picture of my girls to the Sevenfold men, and accompany them to the girls’ rooms? Maybe they will be able to find some clues.” Pagano mused and I raised a brow. Search the girls’ rooms for clues? I had always wondered what Jolie’s room looked like and what kind of things she liked in her living space. Maybe I could use this Intel to get her some things to make her more comfortable at my home.

“Mr. Pagano, do you believe that—” The one guard started but Pagano waved him off. “Do as I command,” he yelled and vanished from the room.

I carefully stood up from the chair wincing from the motion. Fuck this wound hurt! Every time I moved wrong or took too deep a breath, my shoulder screamed in protest, reminding me that I wasn’t at my full strength. Damn, I guess Jolie was right, moving probably wasn’t the best idea today but I didn’t have any other choice. I had to make an appearance here or else Pagano would get suspicious.

Though deep down, I felt a little guilty about not telling Jo about this meeting this morning. I didn’t want to give her anything to worry about and I sure as hell didn’t want her to try and talk me out of it. What would Jo think if she knew what I was doing here today? Would she try to stop me or worse want to come along? The last thing I wanted was for her be in the middle of a battle between her father and I. Well, maybe it was a little too late for that…

“So, show us around, will ya?” Gates snapped behind me, pulling back to reality. This was our chance to direct everything away from Avenged Sevenfold and give Pagano a new lead, as well as make a new deal with him. We had all the cards in our hands and even though I was a gambling man, I knew that we had the winning hand.

The guards shared a hesitantly look before the dark haired man in front of me nodded, signaling the other guard out of the room. Within seconds the blonde guard came back into the room with the pictures of each of the girls. The dark haired one quickly took the pictures and began showing us the pictures, but my attention was immediately drawn to the picture of Jolie.

“May I?” I asked, stupidly reaching for the picture with my bad arm. I instantly regretted my motion and ground my teeth together to stop from cursing. Fucking hell, what was wrong with me? Shake it off Sanders, you’ve got a job to do. It’s just a gunshot wound! It’s not your first and wont be your last!

I looked down at the picture in my hand to see Emery’s face looking up at me. In the picture she was mid laugh and looked a lot different than the girl who was kicking and screaming to see her sister last week. There was no denying that she was beautiful but in my opinion, she had nothing on Jolie.

I exchanged pictures with Gates and had to fight a smile from coming over my face at the sight of Jolie. God that girl was beautiful, even looking out the window like she was doing in the picture. Just the way the light reflected off her tanned skin made her look even more attractive, and the smile on her face set me over the edge. I pulled the photo a little closer to examine some more details about her but the picture was quickly pulled away from me by the dark haired guard. What the hell was that about?

“You were supposed to show us their rooms?” I asked, raising my brow challengingly at the guard. He was supposed to be showing us things to help us find them, not taking away any evidence. Something about the guy just wasn’t sitting well with me, but I quickly shook the thought away.

“Follow me,” he said before marching forward. “We should probably split, Chris you take one of them to Emery’s room while I will show Jolie’s to the other.”

“You really think this is a good idea, Jeremy?”

Jeremy? Why did I know that name? My mind instantly flew back to the first morning with Jolie when she woke up calling his name. Oh fuck no! This was the bastard she had called for? No wonder why I didn’t like him! Why would she call his name anyway? Did they have some kind of relationship?

“We don’t have a choice, do as ordered,” Jeremy replied and marched forward.

I silent followed Jeremy down the long corridor, watching how he walked with a certain arrogant swagger. He looked so confident and full of himself, almost like he owned the place. Who the hell did this guy think he was? He was one of Pagano’s whipping boys, not his right hand man or even anything. I narrowed my eyes and stood up to my full height as I passed him going into the room at the end of the hall, sizing him up. I didn’t like this guy, especially since he had some kind of connection to Jolie.

“Here is Jolie’s room,” Jeremy said, standing at the doorway and looking around with a sad expression. “It hasn’t been the same since she and Miss Emery were taken from us,” he continued, his voice growing dark and full of emotion. “They are definitely missed…” he trailed off and I couldn’t shake the feeling of anger rising inside me. So in other words this bastard missed her? Why? Wasn’t he just one of Pagano’s guards?

“Well, we are here to help get them back,” I grumbled, hating the idea of Jolie coming back to this place. “This is where she spent most of her time?” I asked, looking around at the very sophisticated looking room.

The room was white decorated with purple and blue accents, a large window seat, and a back wall full of books. I had no idea that Jolie liked to read, but maybe that’s how she spent most of her time here? Maybe I could find out what kind of books she liked so that I could get some for her.

“Yes, Miss Jo did spend the majority of her time here,” Jeremy said, his eyes wandering over to the window seat with a dreamy expression. It was almost like he was recalling some kind of memory.

I angrily shook my head and walked around toward the canopy bed, seeing a wall full of pictures and music posters. They ranged from classical music to some rock and roll band, all of which I was sure she had never seen in person. I could just picture Jo locked up in here listening and dancing to music that she had never gotten to experience first hand. Fuck, I wanted to give her that freedom and that experience!

“We will find her and we will bring her back to where she belongs. Mark my words, I will find her,” Jeremy continued, his voice becoming louder with each word. I instantly clenched my fist and locked my jaw, trying not to snap back at him. Man he was pissing me off.

Either this guy was very passionate about his job as a guard or else he was way over his stepping his professional bounds. Nonetheless, he shouldn’t have been showing any emotion in regards to the girls, and that fact that he was didn’t sit well with me. Something about his guy and his relationship with Jolie was off, that was for damn sure.

“So you were pretty close to her?” I asked, failing at keeping my anger out of my tone.

“You could say that,” Jeremy replied with a small smile and I quickly turned my back to the guard. It was taking all of my strength to remain nonchalant and not beat the living piss out of this guard. What the hell did he mean, you could say that? Did Jo have a secret relationship with this guy? I sure as hell hoped not!

Jeremy quickly shook his head and took step further into the room. “What I mean is that I was her personal guard,” he said, a professional tone back on. “I was the one in charge of her safety and making sure she had everything she needed.”

“So like her own personal butler?” I said, getting my dig in as turned around to see Jeremy take a menacing step towards me.

“No,” he said with narrow eyes. I stood up to my full height and smirked when I realized I was a half a head taller than the guy. If he wanted a fight, he would get one. “I was her protector and…well, we were friends.”

“Friends?” I scoffed, moving away from him and looking at a picture of Jolie and Emery on the top of the dresser. “That’s not exactly going along with the guard code is it?” I snapped. “Does your boss know?”

“What? No, I didn’t mean it like that,” Jeremy said, his eyes growing wide like he had been caught with is hand in the cookie jar. “I just meant that we had a good working relationship,” he said, turning back on his guard mentality.

I scoffed and shook my head again. This douchebag was a piece of work and he was definitely hiding something. I didn’t know what kind of relationship he thought he had with Jolie, but I wasn’t about to stand by and let him continue to have those notions. Jolie was my girl now and no perverted guard was going to have delusional fantasies about her.

“What else can you tell me about the girl?” I continued, watching the dark-haired guard out of the corner of my eye. He was still looking around the room like he was missing a toy. “Did they ever sneak out and if so, where did they usually go? Maybe we can get a lead.”

Jeremy sighed and hung his head. “Look, I don’t know what Mr. Pagano has told you but he usually kept the girls on a pretty tight leash,” he said and I narrowed my eyes at him. “But…christ I could lose my job for this, but sometimes they would sneak out and head downtown to the clubs. Emery more than Jo, but I always made sure they were home safely,” he said, running his hands over his face. “You don’t think someone from the club targeted them, do you?”

How funny that was exactly what happened. “I don’t know, but I will need more details,” I said, watching the slime ball closely.

Jeremy licked his lips and looked back and forth around the room before he lead me back toward the walk-in closet and bathroom area. “I don’t know who they hung out with at the bar because they snuck out. The only thing I can tell you is that they always dressed to impress in those hot short little dresses their father would never let them wear. Every eye was undoubtedly on them,” he said bitterly. “ But Chris and I always stopped them from doing anything they might regret. We helped them in whatever way we could,” he finished, accentuating the last part like it had a deeper mean.

I nodded with a locked jaw and quickly walked through the closet and bathroom. “I miss seeing her around here,” I heard him mutter under his breath once I turned away. That fucker better stop thinking about her or else he was going to get a firm left hook in the face.

“Any other information?” I gritted out just as Jeremy’s phone started to ring. He quickly answered it and then turned back to me.

“Mr. Pagano is ready to continue your meeting,” he said, ushering me out of the room without so much as another word. Fuck, I needed to calm down before I met with Pagano again or I would say something that I regretted.

“Ah, Shadows, did you find anything worth looking into?” Danny asked as I made my way back into the office to see Gates standing in the corner with his hands in his pockets. He had a locked jaw and was glaring around the room at the pictures. Must be his meeting went just as well as mine. I would have debrief with him later.

“A couple of things that we could have our tech guys look into,” I lied, sitting back down in the care. Fucking hell, I swear if I hit my shoulder on this chair again, I might actually scream. Fuck this hurt! “So you were saying you wanted our help with finding your daughters?”

“Yes,” Danny Pagano said, packing the area around his desk. “I actually have something for you to look into,” he mused, running his hand over his goatee. “I just received a call from one of my business partners claiming that there was a sighting of my eldest daughter on the beach last night with two unidentified men,” he said and my heart stopped in my chest. I sat up a little bit taller and put on my best poker face, though on the inside I was trying not to panic. He said unidentified, so that was a good sign—he didn’t know it was Zack and I.

“Really?” I asked, tilting my head to the side and looking surprised. “Which beach? Maybe if it was in our territory, I could see if we have any surveillance footage.”

“It’s funny you should say that,” Pagano continued, walking over behind my chair and setting a firm hand on my throbbing shoulder. He gave it a pat and I held my breath, trying not to show any sign of pain. “It was on the west side beach over by Ricco’s restaurant,” he said and I swallowed thickly. “Which is in your territory.”

“Well, I can make a call as soon as we leave to have one of my men check out the security footage from over there and send you a detailed report,” I said, keeping my voice calm and collected. “I could also send out Gates and Vengeance to go search the houses in the surrounding area,” I added, seeing Gates in my peripheral vision.

“Great!” Pagano said, giving my shoulders a squeeze before letting go. “I will be forever in your debt if you can find them or even give me some kind of lead,” he said, pulling his hand away slowly. My jaw was totally locked as I nodded, trying to ignore the feeling of ripped flesh on my shoulder. Did it suddenly just get very warm in here or was it just me?

“But, if we find them or any news then we should come to some kind of agreement,” I continued, causing Pagano to stop and lean on the corner of his desk.

Pagano narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking down at me. “What kind of agreement are we talking, Shadows?”

“If I can find your girls and bring them back, then we need some kind of compensation,” I continued, putting my hands together in front of me on my lap. Now it was time to play the game both of us had been waiting for. “Land and money, Danny. I’m talking 50 G’s and the territory bordering the west coast.”

“That’s a hard bargain, Shadows.” Pagano pursed his lips and put his hand on his chin as he contemplated my words. “And what happens if you don’t deliver?”

“Then no land or funds,” I said simply, though I knew better. I was holding the girls. “We give you the girls or information that leads to the girls and you pay us in return. Seems fair to me.”

“I’ll tell you what, you have my girls back by the end of the month and I will give you 100 G’s and all of the west coast territory,” Danny said and I looked over my shoulder to see Gates slowly nod. That was a good deal, but could I really let Jolie go for that? No, she meant too much to me. Maybe we could give back one daughter? Fuck, why was this complicated all of a sudden?

“Deal,” I said, leaning forward to shake Danny’s hand and instantly regretted my movement. My shoulder screamed like it had never screamed before.

“And as a measure of good faith, if you get me that security footage then I will give you 15 G’s and the west coast territory that boarders yours,” Danny added and I nodded in agreement. Now that was what I was fucking talking about.

Now all I had to do was make sure Zack and I were not actually visible on the tape, or have Christ edit it so that it looked like Gold Vipers had Jolie instead of us. Yeah, that was it. I’m sure he could do that…the only thing was that I would have to explain why we were on the beach that night…fuck! But at least it would get Pagano to go after the Gold Vipers and hey, maybe he would think they got rid of the girls and stop looking for them. It seemed like a win-win situation to me.

“That’s a deal, Danny,” I said standing up and trying to hide the pain I was feeling. Something wasn’t right with my shoulder and I had to get out of here. We had been gone too long and I’m sure Rev was loading up the van to come invade the mansion. “But Gates and I must be going. We have another business meeting this morning,” I said, shaking his hand again. “We will get you that footage and keep you up to date on any new reports.”

“Perfect,” Danny said before I headed out the door, escorted by Gates and another guard. “I look forward to working with you, Shadows. Don’t let me down,” he said darkly behind me.

By the time we reached the car, I could feel the sweat rolling down my face from the pain of my shoulder and the California heat on my leather jacket. Fuck, that meeting was exactly what I expected and yet at the same time I was still torn on what to do. I couldn’t send Jolie back there, not when I had just got her. How the hell was I supposed to make a deal that I couldn’t carry out? I just had to think of another plan and find another way to get everything I wanted.

“So that went well,” Gates said, putting his gun back in his holster after shutting the car door. When he moved I saw the shape of a small box in his pants pocket. What the hell was that? That wasn’t there before we went into the mansion. Did he steal something from Pagano? “Looks like we are going to get everything we were after,” he continued, leaning back and putting his arms above his head.

“Yeah, it was a good deal,” I said, looking at him out of the corner of my eye. There was something off about him and I wasn’t sure what it was. It seemed like Gates was stuck in his own little daydream. “So did you find anything while searching Emery’s room?” I asked, still eyeing the box shape in his pocket that he kept fidgeting with.

“Nothing except for the guard acting like he had some sort of relationship with her,” Gates grumbled. “How about you?”

“The same,” I mused. “Something isn’t right there. It’s like they are all hiding some big secret and that all of Pagano’s guards are sniffing after the girls,” I said bitterly, still hating that Jeremy guy. Fuck him. “But you didn’t find anything else?” I asked, gesturing to the box he was trying to hide.

“No, nothing that I didn’t already know,” he said and I chuckled. “What?”

“So that’s why you’re hiding that box in your pocket? What the hell did you take?” I chuckled, shrugging off my jacket. I felt instant relief when the heavy fabric slid off my shoulder, the cool temperature of the car feeling good against my white t-shirt.

“What? I didn’t take anything from Pagano,” Gates indignantly shoved his hands back in his pocket. “It’s my fucking zippo, asshat,” he said but I didn’t believe him. A zippo lighter wasn’t that big. What the hell could he have taken? The last thing we needed was for Pagano to come after looking for whatever my blockheaded friend stole.

“You are so full of shit,” I said, speeding down the road. “Show it to me then.”

“Why do you need to see my zippo?” Gates snapped as he turned to look at me. His eyes instantly grew wide and opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water.

“What?”

“Shads, you’re fucking bleeding!”

“Fuck,” I cursed, reaching my hand back only to see my finger covered in crimson blood. I knew my wound hurt more for a reason. “I ripped my fucking stitches open,” I hissed.

“What hell did you have stitches for?” Gates asked. Well, wasn’t that just a perfect way to change the topic of what he was hiding?

I sighed and looked at the road, the turn for our compound couldn’t come fast enough. “I had a misunderstanding with a client,” I lied, trying to think of something to appease him. The last thing I need was for him to find out about my date with Jolie last night. I would never hear the end of it for breaking my own rules, especially form Gates. Honestly I was lucky that Vengeance wasn’t razing me for it.

“What business meeting?” he pressed and I rolled my eyes. Of course this wouldn’t be easy. Gates was the only one of my men that pushed for information, it was probably the reason I made him my right hand man. “Who the hell did you meet with without us?”

“I had a meeting with Val,” I sighed, using the same lie I had used with Jimmy about my date with Jolie. At least if Jimmy and Gates talked they would still have the same story. “I was trying to get her back on as a distributer but as you can see the meeting didn’t end well.”

“She fucking stabbed you?” Gates laughed, throwing his head back and hitting his knee. “What the hell did you do to piss her off?”

“I guess I insulted her with my offer,” I shrugged before wincing in pain. “I don’t know, you know how much a loose cannon that bitch is. Though I would rather have her on my side than against me.”

“That’s true. Val is one of the most bad ass bitches around,” Gates chuckled. “Though it probably didn’t help that you fucked her and left her either,” oh god not this fucking shit again. “But did you get her to come around?”

“Do it look like it?” I hissed, my shoulder throbbing as I got out of the car. My t-shirt sleeve was almost completely soaked with blood now and I was starting to feel ad little dizzy. “Can we drop it and focus on Pagano? Let’s round up the gang and meet in my office in five.”

“Sure thing but first we are getting you stitched up. Emery should be around here somewhere,” he said, leading me through the door. “Rev get Emery!” Gates yelled down the hall as I sat down at the kitchen island.

“Shit what happened?” Jimmy asked, appearing at my side with both of the girls and Vengeance. What was this a fucking party? “Did something go wrong at your meeting with Pagano?”

In that instant I met Jolie’s eyes and she opened and closed her mouth a few times, anger written in her features. Shit! Thanks a lot Rev for opening your big mouth! “No the meeting was fine,” Gates replied before grabbing Emery’s arm and dragging her up next to me. “Can you fix him up?” He asked her, his tone suddenly different then it was a minute ago.

“Y-yes…” the little blonde stammered before looking back at Jolie and then at me. There was something about the expression on her face that didn’t sit well with me. Did she know something? “Jo will you help me with this?” she said shortly.

“But really what happened, Shads?” Jimmy continued and I rolled my eyes.

“My business meeting with Val last night didn’t end well, okay?” I snapped, feeling a cool compress on my now completely exposed shoulder. I hadn’t even notice that they cut my shirt away.

“She stabbed him, though by her right, Shads probably deserved,” Gates chuckled from somewhere behind me, causing Jolie’s frown to deepen. Fuck I was batting a thousand with her now. I just wished my friend would shut their fucking mouths!

“Yeah, she probably wasn’t the best chick to fuck with,” I swear I could kill every single one of these bastards. “I hoped it was worth it.”

“Will you assholes shut the fuck up?” I raged, slamming my fist on the table, causing both of the girls to jump. God this was turning into the worst fucking day and my throbbing shoulder was only the tip of the iceberg. I could tell from the look on Jolie’s face that she wasn’t happy about the information she just heard.

“Do we have anything to numb this? It’s a pretty good flesh rip and it’s going to take some time to stitch this up,” Emery’s said and I let out a loud groan.

“Just fucking do it so it will be over with!” I raged. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Emery flinch and look back at Gates with a worried expression.

“Will you relax, Shads. She is just trying to help—”

“I don’t fucking care just take care of it and take her back to your room where she belongs!” I raged, all the pain, anger, and frustration of the morning coming to a head. I didn’t mean to take it out on Emery and Jo, but they were the ones in the danger zone.

By the time Emery and Jolie were done stitching up my shoulder, I was exhausted and sore. She wasn’t kidding, those were the most painful stitches I had ever received, but at least I knew I was in good hands. The girls had been trained well, that was for sure.

“Christ I need you to pull up the footage from Ricco’s security camera and put it in my office,” I said, as I ran my hand over my new bandage. “I’ve got to run through it and we might need some editing. Can you have it to me by tonight?”

“Of course,” Johnny replied. “Do we need to do some editing?” he asked with a small knowing smile that I didn’t like. What the hell was that about?

“Possibly,” I grunted, taking Jo down the hall with me toward my room. I just needed to lie down and rest for a while. “I’ll let you know.”

“Sure thing, Shads,” and with that he disappeared down the hall leaving Jolie and I alone for the first time since this morning.

I looked down to see Jolie carefully watching the floor as we walked silently to my room. She was twisting her fingers together and chewing her bottom lip. Shit, this wasn’t a good sign. And either was her moving to sit on the couch on the other side of the room when we entered my quarters.

Fuck, this day was just going from bad to worse…

Notes

So do you think the girls had some kind of relationship with the guards? Or did the guards just kind of fall in love with them because they were the only girls around?

And Matt ripped open his stitches and all the guys are making things worse for him and Jolie...is there trouble in paradise?

Tell us what you think! We love hearing from you lovely readers! :)