Matt’s POV

Fucking hell! Every time I wanted a private moment with Jolie someone was fucking knocking on the door! Couldn’t they just leave us alone for five minutes? I knew I had a job to do, but all I wanted was to lock myself in a room with Jo and never come out. Everything was just better when we were together and I just wished we could have some quality alone time. But duty called—someone had to make sure we were all safe.

“Wait here, I’ll quickly check on the footage, explain the situation to Christ, and then come back for you…” I sighed, quickly pulling on the first pair of shorts and shirt I could find. “Then we can do that office working you talked about, with you wearing that cute little skirt I saw in your wardrobe.” I grinned at her small frame wrapped in my sheets. God she was fucking beautiful and I just couldn’t get enough of her. I wanted her again but I knew I had to deal with Christ first.

And as if my shorts weren’t tight enough on my growing erection, the sight of her naked body out of the bed made it nearly impossible to button my shorts. Jolie had the perfect little body with curves in all the right places, sun kissed skin, perfect tits, and legs for miles. Damn, I would never get bored looking at this beautiful creature. I still hard a hard time believing she was mine.

“Fuck… Jo,” I groaned, my need for her almost overpowering my duty as a gang leader. Maybe Christ went back to his office and I could have another quick round with Jo before I left? Nope, there was the knock on the door. Son of a bitch!

“Now go and concentrate, babe,” Jo teased, giving me a push toward the door. I swallowed thickly and reached blindly for the doorknob, my mind racing with dirty thoughts.

Oh the things I wanted to do to her. I could just imagine her tight little pushing around my throbbing cock—holy fuck! We hadn’t used protect once in all of our times together! What the hell had I been thinking?! I quickly whipped back around to look at her, panic written all over my face.

“Matt? Are you okay?” Jo asked as I opened and closed my mouth multiple times, trying to find my voice. Fuck, fuck, fuck! I couldn’t have a kid! Hell, it was dangerous enough to have a fucking girlfriend right now, especially one as high profile as Jolie Pagano! What the hell was I thinking not using protection?!

“Jo… I… fuck… I-I I can’t believe I haven’t thought about it before… I mean, we… did… and never…” I stammered, shaking my head. Thank god when I looked back up she had put some clothes on, making it a little easier for me to think.

“Matt? Will you tell me what’s wrong? Why are you acting this way all of a sudden? Is something wrong?” Jo asked again, her hands moving over my shoulder to check my wound and I frantically shook my head.

“Jo… I just realized… that we…” Damn why wouldn’t the words come out? I licked my lips and tried again, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it. It was like my mind was in full out panic mode and all of my training and years of working in high stress situations had gone out the window. Fuck!

“Damn it, What?! What did we do?” Jo demanded, starting to get mad.

“We didn’t use fucking protection! Not a single time we had sex,” I burst, my heart beating erratically in my chest. I felt like I was having a heart attack and all she could do was frown? Wasn’t she more concerned about this?!

“Matt, I am healthy and didn’t have unprotected sex… before you… I’m regularly tested by my father’s demands,” Jo started and I just looked at her before shaking my head. No, that’s not what I meant. I was more concerned about what could be growing inside her. I mean, why the hell didn’t she say anything about it?

“I’m as well… but that’s not what I meant… I mean also, but—” I stammered before the knock at the door interrupted me.

“Shads! The tapes, we really have to talk about something here… and afterwards we have the meeting scheduled… what the hell is taking you so long?!” Johnny had the worst fucking timing and if he didn’t calm down I would personally beat his ass.

“Fucking hell, I’m coming!” I snapped before turning back toward Jo. She looked so calm and I didn’t understand why she wasn’t freaking out. “Jo… I meant pregnancy… we didn’t use protection… what if… what…” I looked down at her stomach, feeling mine own lurch painfully. Sure I wanted to be a father one day, but not right now at the most dangerous time of my life.

“OH! No… don’t worry…” Jo replied as Johnny began pounding on the door again. Fucking hell! We needed to talk about this but we didn’t have time. “Don’t worry, babe. We can talk about it later… now go have your meeting, afterwards we can do some more talking, alright?” she said, giving me a kiss and push towards the door.

What did she mean ‘don’t worry’? How could I not worry?! We hadn’t used any form of protection and-and fucking hell my child could be growing in there! What would we do if she were pregnant? No, we had to figure this out right now so I had some piece of mind. But just as I opened my mouth to continue our conversation, the door locked clicked and opened.

“Fuck Christ! I said I’m coming!” I stared at Jo for a moment longer before I moved out the door, cursing at Johnny for interrupting our conversation. I know it wasn’t his fault but he was the person I was going to take out my frustrations on. “What the fuck, Christ? You couldn’t have wait for me in your office? What was so fucking important that you had to come barging into my room?” I raged, glaring down the hallway.

“The footage you had me pull from Rico’s surveillance tapes has something pretty interesting on it. You’re going to want to see it because it seems like the Gold Vipers have a Jolie Pagano doppelganger,” Johnny continued as we headed into his office. He quickly moved over to the computer and turned the screen to face me. “Just watch the upper left screen, that’s the only camera that picked up anything.”

I ran my hands over my face as I sat down in the chair in front of the desk. My heart was still racing in my chest and the feeling of bile rising in my throat was about to make me gag. How could I have been so fucking stupid? I always used protection, so what about Jolie made me forget about the most important step? Fuck! If she was pregnant, we’d have to get out of California because it wasn’t safe for any of us, especially if my enemies found out I had a wife and kid. They’d be every gang’s targets and I wouldn’t let that happen. No, I had to keep them safe.

“Here it comes,” Johnny said, pulling me from my thoughts. My eyes snapped up at the screen to see three figures walking across the beach. My stomach dropped. Fuck, there we were, walking across the beach.

“Can you enhance that image?” I asked, my heat beating even faster than before.

“Yeah, but the figures are so far away it’s supers pixilated and you cant really make anything out,” he said but zoomed in on the shot nonetheless. To my relief the only thing you could really make out was two men in leather jackets and a girl with long dark hair. She undoubtedly looked like Jolie, anyone with eyes could see that, but thankfully it was impossible to make out whom Zack and I were.

“Okay keep going,” I ordered. To my surprise, the upper road that was adjacent to the beach was vividly lined with multiple Gold Viper snipers. You could see the writing as clear as day on the back of their jackets. They were watching us walk across the beach but in the video it almost appeared like they were guarding us.

“So as you can see the Vipers are everywhere, but what confused me was this next part.” Suddenly he fast-forwarded the video to the three of us running off the beach, the Vipers moving, and then the Vipers firing their guns toward he parking lot in the opposite direction. “Who are they shooting at? And did you see the close up of the Jolie looking girl? How the hell do they have her when she’s been on our compound the entire time?”

That was it! If Christ didn’t put the pieced together then surely Pagano and his men wouldn’t be able to either. Thank fucking god the viewpoint of the video played in our favor. The last thing I wanted to do was explain to Christ why Zack and I were out at Rico’s with Jo.

“They must be trying to get the reward from Pagano,” I chuckled, thinking how perfect this had worked out. “But to Pagano it will just look like they have Jolie, which will take any of Pagano’s suspicions that we were involved with his daughters disappearances. Good work, Christ. Make a copy and give it to the Rev to deliver to Pagano.”

“Wait, this tape is going to Pagano?” Johnny looked alarmed and I rolled my eyes. I wished for once my men would just do what I asked without questioning it. “Can’t he access it himself?”

“Just make the copy and leave the grown up stuff to me, okay Christ?” I sighed before moving out of the room and down the hall. I needed to find Jimmy to talk to him about the tape delivery. I had to make sure he passed on the right message along.

The tape and our cooperation would buy me some more time to figure out how I was going to keep Jolie. I knew I couldn’t give her back to her father but at the same time, I still needed to get my properties and money back from Pagano. At least this tape would get us a few grand and some of our territory back.

When I entered the living room, I found Jimmy picking up the kitchen after the breakfast rush. “Hey Rev I’ve got an assignment for you,” I said, watching his expression light up.

“Thank fucking god! I was going stir crazy!” he yelled, sliding across the freshly cleaned island and screeching to a halt in front of me. “What is it? What kind of espionage do I get to part take in today?!” he gushed, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.

“Calm down it’s just a delivery,” I chuckled. Jimmy never ceased to amaze me with how much energy he had. He was like a child stuck in a grown man’s body.

“Ooh! A delivery? Where am I going tonight? Somewhere in Pagano territory?” Jimmy narrowed his eyes as he looked around the room.

“I want you to deliver a tape to Pagano. Christ is getting it around for you now,” I explained as Jimmy clapped excitedly. Why he enjoyed these assignments I would never know. “Make sure you hand it directly to Pagano, and only him, you hear me?” Jimmy nodded and I continued with a sigh. “It’s very important that you tell him it appears the Gold Vipers have his oldest daughter and make sure he pays you.”

“Wait, but we have Jo,” Jimmy looked around confused as Christ came back in the room. “Is that what’s on the tape?” He asked leaning forward and giving me a suspicious look.

“Don’t worry about what’s on the fucking tape! Just remember to tell him our Intel found evidence that the Gold Vipers have the girls and to get the pay. That’s it, in and out, got it?” I snapped before turning to Johnny. “What?”

“Did you want a copy of the whole tape or just the Vipers segment?” What was I running a fucking daycare today? Fucking hell, why did my men need me to hold their hands to do their work? I just wanted to get this shit done and go back and figure out this whole thing with Jolie, but these assholes were making it nearly impossible to do anything quickly today.

“Is there anything else on the rest of the footage?” I asked with narrow eyes, my temper starting to rise.

“No, just normal pedestrians passing by,” Johnny replied and I was about to explode. “Then what the fuck do you think? Cut the tape just to the Viper evidence! Pagano wants fucking answers, not to sit and watch useless shit for hours. That’s why he fucking hired us!” I hissed, giving him a shove backwards toward his office. “And make it quick, we need to have a quick meeting before Jimmy goes on a run.”

Speaking of the meeting, where the hell were Vengeance and Gates? They both knew what time to be here and didn’t have any excuse to be late. I wanted this meeting done and over so that I could get back to my discussion with Jolie. God, I fucking hoped she wasn’t pregnant.

With my anxiety building, I quickly looked around the room as Jimmy yammered on about delivering the tapes. A door shut and quickly turned around to see Jolie walking into the living room with Vengeance. Just seeing her smiling face instantly made most of my fears drift away. Damn she was beautiful in that dress. I didn’t know how I was going to concentrate on the meeting with her here, yet at the same time, I couldn’t picture her anywhere else…

“I can’t fucking believe it,” Jimmy’s voice suddenly shouted next to me. “I was so blind not to see it before! There right there! The look on your face!” He was pointing a finger in my face as I gave him a questioning look. What look? “Of course you were the first to break the rules! Fuck! Shads, you fucked Pagano’s daughter!” He exclaimed only to quickly cover his mouth with his hand.

I took a menacing step toward him, not believing my ears. How the hell did he find out about us? “What the fuck did you just say?” I hissed, getting dangerously close to his face. No one called me out and especially not my men. So what if I was with Jolie, it wasn’t any of their business and I was going to deny it left and right to protect her.

“I-I…just saw how you looked at her—that’s all,” Jimmy stammered taking a step back, shaking his head. “That’s your ‘I got some’ face…but maybe I was wrong,” he rambled on as I took another step toward him.

Suddenly I was shoved backwards and I stumbled slightly, bring up my fist to sock Jimmy for pushing me back. Much to my surprise it wasn’t Jimmy that had pushed me but Jolie’s little sister, and she was now hitting every inch of my body that she could reach.

“HOW DARE YOU TOUCH MY SISTER!” Emery raged as I scoffed, puffing my chest. This little bitch was about to get her ass handed to you. “SHE’S NOT YOUR PLAY TOY TO FUCK WHENEVER YOU WANT, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!”

“Em wait—” Jo started, stepping forward to try and pull Emery off of me but ended up getting pushed to the side. The little blonde packed quite the punch for being so small, and it took every ounce of effort that I had not to put her in her place.

“Gates…” I hissed with a warning tone as he stepped forward to grab her. He seemed to be just as shocked about her action as I was.

“NO!” Emery screamed, slipping out of Gates’ grasp and landing a firm slap across my face. “You have no right to use her! She is not your fucking toy and I’ll be damned if I’m going to stand here and you take advantage of her!”

“Gates!” I growled giving Emery a small shove backwards. If he couldn’t control the little spitfire then I would, but just as I moved Jolie stopped me.

“I will fucking kill you myself if you touch her again!” she raged, launching herself at me again to hit every inch of my body that she could reach. “She is not yours to play with! NOT FUCKING YOURS!” she screamed, punching me one last time before Gates and Vengeance finally overpowered her and pulled her off me.

“Get her out of here! NOW!” I bellowed, the volume of my voice shaking the room. Jesus Christ! How hard was it to get a petite 5’5 girl off of me? I was about done with the little blonde. She really needed to be taught a lesson on how to follow directions. What the hell was Gates doing with her? She should have been terrified to speak around us, not fight back, and sure as hell not even daring to touch me.

“No! I’m not fucking going anywhere!” Emery raged, fighting and kicking with everything she had to get away from Gates and Vengeance. Good luck sweetheart, those men had vice grips. “Not until Jolie sees what all this is! It’s a fucking trick to get to you! To break you down and make you trust him, just so they can sell us back to father!”

“Emery,” Jo started, but Emery just shook her head, still putting up a hell of fight as they tried to move her.

“No! He’s brainwashing you, Jo!” she cried. “He’s using you! You have to listen to me! They all are using us!” I was beyond pissed! How could this little bitch run her mouth about something she knew nothing about? She didn’t even fucking know me or what kind of relationship I had with her sister!

“Get her out of here!” I ordered again, but Jo put her hand on my arm, forcing me to look down and meet her eyes.

“Please, she needs to know what’s going on,” Jo said to me, her beautiful blues begging me to listen. “She deserves the truth…they all do.”

“Fucking hell,” I sighed, running my hand over my face. I didn’t want this out in the open for everyone to know. It was risky having a public relationship, but then again these were my brothers, not the enemy. “Wait,” I said, holding my hand up to Gates and Vengeance who were struggling to drag the little blonde out of the room as she screamed obscenities.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Jimmy was right… Jolie and I are…well, we’re together,” I explained, hearing a loud thud on the floor. I looked up to see that Gates had let go of Emery and was standing glaring at me with clenched fist, his jaw locked and his eyes deadly. If looks could kill I would be dead in an instant.

“No!” Emery yelled, stomping down on Zack’s foot so that he would let her go. “This is bullshit and some kind of trick!” she carried on as I looked around at my stunned looking men. Their emotions ranged from pissed to shock and I knew I would never hear the end of it. Thankfully our attention was on the girls, though I knew it wouldn’t be long before the backlash started on our end.

“Emery Jane Pagano stop it now!” Jolie yelled, raising her voice for the first time. She grabbed onto her sisters shoulders, forcing her to look at her. “It’s not what you think! If you would just listen for a minute—”

“Listen? You want me to listen to how he’s brainwashing you, Jo?” Emery shot back. “He’s just taking advantage of the situation! And you!” the blonde yelled, pulling away from her sister and pointing a warning finger at me. “We are not your personal play toys to use while you wait for the paycheck from daddy! And if you ever touch my sister again, I swear to fucking god I will make your life a living hell!”

“That’s not your decision to make!” Jolie snapped back. “It’s my choice to make! You don’t get to say anything about me or Matt, especially when you don’t know him.” I felt my heart swell with her works. She really did love me.

Emery scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest, “I know more than you think I do.”

“Em if you would just listen to me for a minute. I promise it’s not what you think,” Jolie said, taking a step toward her sister. “Please, just let me explain.”

Emery pursed her lips and glared at me, looking thoroughly pissed off. “What is there to explain?” she sighed, just as Jo followed her line of vision that had thankfully moved away from me. “They are all playing this sick twisted game and we are just the prize. That is until they get bored and trade us in for money.” Was she glaring at Gates as she said that? I wasn’t sure what she was talking about I was definitely interested.

“Babe?” I looked away from the little blonde to see Jo’s stunning blue eyes staring at me. “Do you mind if we talk for a minute? Alone?”

“Babe? You’re calling him babe?” Emery started again as I nodded. Jo quickly pulled
her sister into the study in shut the door, leaving me alone with my men.

An uncomfortable silence settled over the room as the level of tension began to rise. I could feel four pairs of eyes glaring at my back, judging me for breaking my own rules and letting them down as a leader. I knew it wasn’t in my best judgment falling for Jo but I couldn’t help it. Just something about the girl drew me towards her and I couldn’t stop myself. She quickly became a part of my daily routine and I couldn’t imagine my life without her. Jolie was mine and there was nothing anyone was going to say to change my mind.

Jimmy let out a long whistle as I slowly turned around to face them, avoiding their eyes. “So you and Jolie Pagano?” Jimmy said, breaking the silence. “How long have you been…you know?” he asked, leaning forward like a high school girl begging for gossip.

“Yes, please tell us how long you’ve been preaching the ‘no touching the girls’ rule while you’ve been reaping in all the benefits?” Brain snapped, his words dripping with venom.

I knew he would be the hardest to convince. Gates never believed and loved and hated being told what he couldn’t do. So the fact that he thought I was being a hypocrite was working against me in this situation.

“I don’t know how it happened, okay!” I admitted, running my hands over my face. “But it did and it’s not like I planned it!” I tried to explain only to be cut off by Gates again. “But it’s more than just a fling…I-I fucking love her, alright?”

“You love her? What the actual fuck, Shads? What happened to the ‘rules’?” he continued, used air quotes. “Because it seems to me like you just do whatever you want and the rules don’t fucking apply to you! We are supposed to be brothers and here you are holding a double standard? What kind of shit is that?!”

“Yeah you said the girls are a paycheck and are not play things. That the girls are off limits!” Johnny agreed and I let out a groan.

“How many fucking times did you tell us the girls were off limits, huh? Then I find out from Emery that you’re fucking her sister?!” Brian continued, his arms flying up in the air. Wait a minute, how the hell did Emery know? My eyes quickly shot over to Zack to see him looking at the floor and I wasn’t the only one who noticed his silence. “And why the fuck aren’t you saying anything, Vengeance? You should be the most pissed about this!”

Zack just shrugged his shoulders and put his hands in his pockets. “Shads knows what he’s doing. He wouldn’t have set out to fuck her…there’s got to be more to the story,” he replied, taking my side.

Gates narrowed his eyes before he let out a loud scoff. “You fucking knew, didn’t you?!” he raged. “You’ve been hiding this from us, both of you? Who else fucking knew?” he asked, looking around the circle. Both Jimmy and Zack raised their hands. “Well that’s just fucking great isn’t it! You’ve all been lying to me and we’re supposed to be best fucking friends? This is complete bullshit!”

“Its not like that!” I sighed again. “I never intended for this to happen! I tried to keep away from her but I fucking fell for her, okay? Is that what you wanted to hear?! Its not like I purposefully tried to screw you over with the rules!” I snapped, feeling my anger rise.

“Well guess what, it fucking did and you chose a girl over your friends,” Gates said. “And I’m not going to stand around here while you try and explain how you ‘accidently’ got your dick waxed after fucking punishing Vengeance for trying to do the same thing! You’re a fucking hypocrite and I’m done with this shit!” He said before storming off toward the study to grab Emery. Well, those two were a match in the temper category, that was for damn sure.

“Gates, come on!” I called after him but he just flipped me off and roughly dragged the little blonde down the hall. “Fucking hell…”

“Don’t worry, he just needs to calm down and I’ll talk to him,” Zack said, giving me a pat on the back. “He’ll come around.”

“So she’s not just some fling…it’s the real deal?” Johnny asked, all three guys staring me down.

“It’s definitely the real deal and I need all of your help to make sure we keep her safe. Can you do that?” I asked, holding my breath and praying they were still on my side.

“She’s different for you isn’t she?” Jimmy asked softly, looking down at the ground with an unreadable expression.

I nodded my head with a half smile. “Yeah…I’ve never met anyone like her and I can’t lose her back to Pagano or anyone else.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve all got your back, Shads, even Gates,” Zack said, patting my back just as the door to the study opened again. I slowly turned around to see Jolie step out of the room with her eyes swimming with tears.

Notes

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