Matt’s POV

I groaned as I drunkenly stumbled back into the house, my head pounding from the amount of alcohol flooding my veins. Fuck, I really shouldn’t have finished that entire bottle of whiskey, but it was the only thing that seemed to ease of the dull aching feeling in my chest. It felt like someone had repeatedly stabbed me in the heart with a knife, the dull blade twisting and turning with guilt. A piece of me was missing and I didn’t know what to do or how to handle myself. All I knew was that Vipers had taken the one thing that meant the most to me and for that they would fucking pay.

All night I had been driving around Huntington Beach looking for some sort of clue as to where the Vipers had taken the girls. They were known for their ruthless games and emotional warfare on their victims, so it was only a matter of time before they made the next move. I wanted to catch those bastards in the act and get my revenge. But the longer I drove around without answers, the more the void inside me grew. I couldn’t live like this. I had to find her and bring her back and I knew there had to be something hiding in the district surveillance footage that my men had missed.

As I staggered into the foyer, I couldn’t shake the lost and vacant feeling flooding my veins. Just knowing that Jo wasn’t waiting for me in my room made coming back here nearly unbearable. I couldn’t stand looking around the compound when everything here reminded me of her. Fuck, it made all the pain that I had been trying to suppress come flooding back. I just hoped that none of my men were waiting up for me. I wasn’t in the mood to deal with their shit right now.

I was hurt, angry, and guilty and the last thing I wanted right now was a third degree. Hopefully those bastards had enough sense to keep working and stay away from me. I drunkenly looked around to the living room, my hands gripping the wall for support, and let out a small sigh when I saw it was empty. Thank fucking god no one was waiting around. Now I could go to my office and start looking for—

“Found anything?!” Gates voice sounded out of nowhere.

My eyes opened wide as I looked around for the source of the sound. Fuck! I thought I was alone! Where the hell was he? It took me a moment with my blurred vision to find Gates sitting on the floor against the wall by the hallway.

When would these fuckers learn to leave me alone?! I didn’t want to talk to them or give them an update because I didn’t find shit. I felt helpless and useless all the same time, which was a new feeling for me. I was the boss; I was supposed to have the fucking answers!

“Do I look like I found something?” I grumbled, clenching my fists. I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with Gates’ shit. I just wanted to be alone to find some fucking answers, that was it!

“Nothing?” He asked and I took a menacing step forward. I would be damned if I was going to let him rub my failure in my face. I was doing that well enough on my own.

“Nothing, Gates,” I snapped, glaring at him. “Now get out of my way and be useful for a change.” He should be out looking for the fucking girls not lounging away on the floor in the living room. What was he doing there anyway? Was I the only one who fucking cared?

“Well? You say I am not useful, look at fucking you. Coming home stumbling and swaying,” Gates started I took a step forward. He better shut his mouth now before I beat his ass. “I bet you made a big progress in finding your girlfriend, or did you drink to forget? Found another already?” Oh that was it! Without thinking twice, I hauled off and punching him square in the jaw. How fucking dare he accuse me of that?! I loved Jolie more than I had ever loved anything in my life!

“Don’t you dare say something like that again, or I will forget that you are one of my best friends, I am not in the mood for your bullshit,” I growled, cracking my knuckles as I looked at him with a deadly gaze. I suddenly felt more sober on my feet with adrenaline pumping through my veins.

“Well if it wasn’t for you, the girls would still be here, right? You had to fucking pick up the distracting call!” Gates continued and I felt like I had been punched in the gut. Was he fucking serious? This wasn’t my entire fault! I was doing my job! If anyone was to blame it was Gates! He was the one who left his fucking post!

“Me? I was the one being distracted, well hell! I was on the phone talking, because I am the goddamn boss, you should have been on the look-out! If it was anyone’s fault it was yours!” I grabbed a hold of his shirt but Gates shoved me away. This was his fault! He was the one who left the girls unsupervised and went against orders! Gates was the reason Jolie was taken from me and that thought alone spiked my anger.

“Don’t turn this shit around! You left your girlfriend and that’s why she went off with Emery. I just followed your fucking orders, if it wasn’t for you—” I was seeing red as my fist connected with Gates’ stomach, stopping those vial words from coming out of his mouth!

I narrowed my eyes, watching him cough as I thought back to early in the day. He couldn’t be right—this wasn’t my fault! I never asked him to come over and assist in my fucking phone call! The girls would still be with us if he hadn’t come over! Fuck!

“You—” Gates gasped, responding by hitting me in the stomach and jaw with his strong right hook. It was a good hit, I would give him that but it was the last hit he would make.

I slowly ran my tongue over the inside of my cheek and spit out the blood from mouth. My vision instantly burned red as rage, hurt, and guilt pumped through my system, causing me to lose control. No one me fucked with me and got away with it, especially not when I was already on the fucking edge.

I charged Gates, my right hook connecting with his left eye. He stumbled backwards and we fell to the floor, wrestling for dominance.

“Fucking hell, don’t blame me for your fuck up!” I screamed, hitting Gates between each word, my teeth grinding together as my fists connect to different parts of his body.

Gates kicked me off of him and I let out a wild roar. He wasn’t going to get the upper hand in this, not when he was the one responsible! Just as I was about to reach up for his exposed neck, Gates was pushed off of me and I was wrestled to a standing position it a head lock!

“Calm the fuck down, Shads!” Jimmy’s voice sounded in my ear as I met Zack’s eye, his arms up between Gates and I. I glared across the room to see Johnny barely holding Gates back. Go ahead, push down Short Shit so we can settle the fucking score!

“What the fuck is wrong with you two?! Do you think this shit is helping someone?!” Zack snapped looking between Gates and I. “Do you think the girls would want to see you guys ripping out each other throats, blaming each other!?” Zack yelled.

My chest was heaving up and down as I tried to regain control. I pinched my eyes shut, seeing those gorgeous blues and I let out a long breath. Just imagining Jolie and her beautiful smile relaxed me. When my breath started to level out, I felt Jimmy’s grip slowly release and pull away, leaving me to stand on my own will.

“Yeah, lets fucking beat each other to a bloody pulp because, we don’t need all our strength when we get the girls back… no fuck, should I get you some guns to help with the situation?! Damn, what is going on in your heads… You know, if finding them isn’t important enough to try and stay with a level head, maybe you to should be out of the loop and Johnny, Jimmy and I will get the job done, because like this, we don’t need you.”

I clenched my fists and took a step towards Zack. I knew he was right, but I was too pissed off and hurt to admit it. I just wanted someone to take away this dull aching feeling in my chest, to feel the same way I did! I wanted Jolie back safe in my arms.

“You can’t leave me out of the loop!” I snapped. It was unfathomable for me to think about not being involved in finding my girlfriend. I couldn’t let them block me out and sit idly by, waiting for news. I needed to take action and I knew they couldn’t face the Gold Vipers without me. “I’m the fucking boss!”

“Well then it’s time to get your head out of your ass and start acting like it!” Zack countered and I got right in his face. He pushed me back towards Jimmy, who grabbed my arms to hold me in place.

I knew I wasn’t acting like myself by attacking my friends, but I didn’t know what to do anymore. Lashing out was the only thing my brain could register. I lost the one thing that meant to the most to me and I couldn’t handle it, or anything for that matter. I was in total defense mode.

“This is what I’m talking about!” Those narrow green eyes look between Gates and I let out a sigh. He was fucking right… “Ever since the Vipers took the girls you two have lost your goddamn minds!” he continued tapping his temples. “That’s what the Vipers want! They wanted to hit us where it hurt and instead of staying level headed and helping us find the girls, you’re letting the Vipers win with their fucking mind game! So if you don’t pull your heads out of your asses right now, you might as well say goodbye to Jolie and Emery forever!”

Zack’s words felt like a slap in the face and I knew he was right. I wasn’t being the boss who fixed these situations; I was letting my emotions get the better of me. No fucking wonder I hadn’t found anything useful. I was running around blind and making rash decisions that could get my men and the girls killed. I shook my head and swallowed thickly. Shit, I had to find myself and fix all this. I had to turn off my emotions for now and play the boss roll. That was the only way to make it through this.

“You’re right,” Gates and I said at the same time. We had to work together if we were going to get the girls back. It was an oversight on all our parts that would never fucking happen again.

“So you’re ready to work now? No more moping around, right?” Zack said, looking between us. “You’re not the only ones who miss the girls. Besides, Short Shit thinks he has a lead.”

“What the fuck, Christ? Why didn’t you say so?!” I turned on Johnny, glaring him down with narrow eyes. I knew none of this was his fault, but this is what I had been waiting and looking for. “What are we standing around for? Show us what you found!”

“The Berrys got us footage from Rico’s surveillance tapes on the boardwalk. At first glance I didn’t see anything but after a second viewing, you can see a large van parked on the perimeter of the beach,” he started, leading the way down the hallway to his office. My heart hammered in my chest with each step, praying that this was the break we needed to find the girls. “The camera viewpoint makes it difficult to see who gets in and out of the van but it disappears shortly after the girls disappear from the frame,” 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. I couldn’t watch those bastards manhandle Jo again, but it was a necessary evil to find this vehicle. I had to get her back no matter what it cost.

“Here it comes,” Johnny said, pulling me from my thoughts. My eyes snapped up at the screen to see a large white van parked on the edge of the beach, two Vipers approaching the girls, drugging them and dragging them off the beach. Then in the next shot the girls and the van had vanished. My stomach dropped and my anger began to bubble up again. I would kill those sons of bitches.

“Can you enhance that image of the van?” Gates asked in a dark tone, my heart beating even faster than before. He was leaning over the side of the desk, his face pale. I didn’t realize before now how much this was bothering him too. He must have been deeply invested in Emery to respond like this…

“Yeah, but it’s supers pixilated and you cant really make out the license plate,” he said but zoomed in on the shot nonetheless. I squinted at the screen as I tried to read the letters on license plate.

“Looks like the last thee digits are KH2,” Zack said, looking between Gates and I with a small smirk on his face. This was a lead we could work with.

“Run it through the database and find out who owns that van,” I ordered.

“Already did,” Jimmy said and with a click of the mouse, we were now looking at an address of three Vehicles in the Huntington Beach region with those digits in the license plate.

My eyes scanned the screen, reading the three addresses and vehicle descriptions on the page. “This one is registered as a car,” Gates said, pointing at the screen. “So we have an address in district four and that surf shop only a few blocks from the beach.”

“Gino’s Surf Shop?” I raised my brow and exchanged a look with Gates. It seemed like way too much of a coincidence for the suspicious looking van to belong to a business known for having GV ties. Was he thinking what I was thinking?

“The one and only. Let’s grab some guns and go,” he replied with a smirk, instantly heading for the door.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Zack said, holding his hands up to stop us from leaving the office. “We can’t just go charging down there without a plan. They’re going to know we are onto them if we don’t handle this correctly, which could put the girls in jeopardy.”

I ran my hands over my face and pulled on my hair. Fuck! We didn’t have time for this! Who know what kind of hell those sick bastards were putting the girls through right now?

“Can we do surveillance for a few hours and check out the scene?” Jimmy proposed looking between a pacing Gates and myself. Gates was pinching the bridge of his nose as he walked the small office, obviously trying to keep his calm. “If the coast is clear we can break into the van look for clues and keep an eye on the shop? Look for Vipers to follow back to their compound?”

“That’s a fucking brilliant idea,” Gates said, stopping and looking at Jimmy with a small light in his eyes. “But we need to make sure to switch up cars… the Vipers are slick bastards and will notice if they are being watched. We will also have to watch out for their surveillance footage around the shop, that is if the Berrys’ information is correct.”

“Do you want Gates and I to take first shift?” Zack asked. All four sets of eyes turned to look at me for the first time since the girls were kidnapped and I gave a curt nod.

“Yes and I’m coming with you,” I announced. “Now lets get our shit and get out of here so we can find our girls.”

Within ten minutes our car was loaded with surveillances equipment, a full weapons arsenal, and disguises. For the first time since the girls had been gone, I didn’t feel helpless. We had a plan and something about this lead made me feel like we had a leg up on these slimy bastards. I just hoped that feeling was right!

“Here it is,” Zack said, when we pulled up across the street from the small shack looking building. The paint on the powder blue and pale yellow building was peeling from the heat of he sun and the sign that hung from the top of the building was only half lit. “One classy establishment…”

“You can say that again,” I scoffed, trying not to picture Jolie trapped in a building like that. A girl like Jolie deserved all the beautiful things life had to offer and once I got her back I would make sure she got it.

“So now we wait,” Gates sighed, pulling out the binoculars and looking out the window. “It’s almost four in the morning… I say we do a quick scan of the area and then go check the van. Locals will start coming out for their morning run soon,” he said, his expression all business.

“Agreed,” Zack nodded, picking up the binoculars. There was a reason these two were my right and left hand. They were meticulous at their job when their heads were in the right place.

I looked out the dark tinted windows toward the surf shop. There was a driveway on the left side of the building but from my position I couldn’t see any vehicles parked there. “Is the van here?” I asked, moving to look between Brian and Zack through the front window.

Gates jaw instantly clenched after following my line of vision. “I don’t see it… I swear if they have the girls tied up in that van still…” I balled my hands into fists thinking about Jolie rolling around the back of that van, getting hit and bruised against the sides. The whole thought of her with those Vipers set me off each time. They would pay for this.

“It might bet better then having them locked in a cell somewhere. At least in a van they can’t do as much damage…” Zack sighed and I shook my head, not wanting to think about where he was going with that.

“Enough! Stop the bullshit and keep watch,” Gates suddenly snapped, shaking his head, pulling a beanie down to hide his face, putting on a black sweatshirt, and ducking out of the car. By hell I was letting him investigate on his own! I wasn’t about to lose one of my best men because he didn’t have back up. “I’ll be back once it’s clear.”

“I’m gong too,” I said, pulling on my gear, my hand on the gun in my pocket as I climbed out, following Gates.

“Wait—” Vengeance started to protest but I shut the door, not wanting to hear his lecture. It wasn’t my first day on the streets looking for information, that was for damn sure.

I quickly crossed the street and ducked down into the bushes, and looked around the surrounding area. The sun was just starting to peek over the horizon line and I knew we didn’t have a lot of time. We needed to move quickly before the owner of the surf shop showed up to start the day.

Without another thought, I pulled out my gun and crept around to the side of the house to the driveway. I cursed as the stone crunched under each step, making it nearly impossible to be stealthy. Fuck, how did Gates get through here without making a sound?

Just as I turned the corner of the house I heard the faint sound of a gunshot with a silencer. Fuck, did Gates run into company up ahead? I quickly ducked down and moved around the house, my gun drawn and ready to go. But when I turned around the next corner, the only person I saw was Gates peeking through the dark windows.

“What the hell did you fire your gun for?” I hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him down to the ground. Gates pushed me away and stood back up, walking down the long driveway towards the back of the building.

“Relax, I just shot out the surveillance camera so we didn’t get picked up,” he snapped and I rolled my eyes. “What are you doing out here anyway. I told you and Vee to keep watch.”

“And let you walk into the hornets nest without backup, fuck that,” I replied as we crept to the back of the building. “I just hope that fucking van is back here somewhere. It’s all we’ve got so far…” I was hanging onto this lead for dear life because I couldn’t let the thought of Jolie slip away from me. We had to find them!

“There’s that little son of a bitch,” Gates chuckled as he glanced around the corner of the building, pulling up his gun and shooting out the second camera in one shot.

“And there’s the fucking van,” I said, unable to stop the smile from coming over my face. This was it! This was going to lead me to Jolie. I could feel it. Without another thought I quickly darted over to the van and pulled out my lock picking tools. If this was the van the girls were stashed in, we could stalk the place to find Vipers… it was only a mater of time until they lead us right to the girls!

My heart pounded against my ribcage as I sat picking the back door lock. I could sense Gates moving around behind me keeping watch but I was totally focused on getting the door open to notice anything else. “Come on you piece of shit… almost there… almost—Fuck yeah!” I said as the lock clicked. “Gates I—”

The sound of smashing glass erupted though the silence and I dived to the ground. What the fuck was that. “Gates?” I hissed, looking under the van to see his sneakers standing in front of the vehicle. “What the hell?”

I climbed to my feet to see Gates standing with his hand through the smashed window of the drivers side door and a manila envelop in his other hand. His jaw was locked and he looked murderous. “What did you find?” I asked clenching my fists.

“Gates?” As I approached Gates he pinched his eyes tight, his chest heaving up and down like I had never seen before. He looked like he was about ready to snap. “Gates?!” I asked again and suddenly his murderous brown eyes met mine. He let out a growl as he pushed the envelope and three pieces of paper against my chest and stormed away back towards the car.

“What the fuck?” I asked holding onto the papers as I watched his retreating figure. His hand was dripping blood as he walked and I instantly knew whatever was in my hand wasn’t what we were looking for.

I took a deep breath and looked down at the papers in my hand, seeing a small note and two Polaroid pictures. “Good try Avenged…. But you’ve got to be better than that,” I read, the rage building inside me for the third time tonight. I crumpled the paper in my hand and reached back into the envelope to grab the two pictures. I was terrified to see them. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I hissed.

My mouth fell open as I looked at the pictures and my breathing hitched, as did my heart seem to stop for a moment, while I could only barely register the two pictures in my hands. No... they couldn’t be in that bad of shape…

The first was a picture of a badly bruised and unconscious Emery and the second one was of Jolie. She looked right at the camera with a terrified expression, bound hands, and a swollen and bruised face.

In an instant my anger switched turned on and I started right back towards the car, ready to kill. How fucking dare the Gold Vipers touch the girls like that! She was my fucking girl and I was going to go put her right back were she fucking belonged. God I wanted to murder those sons of bitches!

“I’m going to fucking kill them, all of them,” I growled, taking in a deep breath. I knew I needed to calm down if I was going to find any more clues. I was really fucking pissed and if the Vipers were doing this to get a rise out of me, it was fucking working!

“Give me the envelope and breathe,” Zack said, meeting me in the street. I could tell just by his tone that he was trying to remain calm. Gates was leaning against the car with a cigarette in his mouth, angrily puffing away. “Shads, give it here,” he said again, pulling the envelope out of my grip.

“I swear if they fucking touches her again I’ll-I’ll—” I raged, beyond pissed that we walked right into their trap.

“Okay, you need to chill out and get in the car before we are seen,” Zack said, pushing his pack of cigarettes into my hand. “Take a few deep breaths and calm down, maybe even have a smoke. They wont get away with this, Shads. I will kill them myself but we have to get out of here. There has to be another clue… something besides this taunting shit and games!” He snapped looking at the photos with a disgusted look and throwing the envelope in the car.

“We will find them.”

Notes

Sorry for the long delay! Hope you liked the new twisted chapter! Tell us what you think!