Confession of a King

I jolted forward in the backseat as Brian’s car peeled out of the driveway at the speed of light. I hadn’t even had time to buckle my seatbelt yet, but luckily Matt’s hand held me slightly in place. The guys had officially made a plan on how they were going to tackle Behemoth, and since Matt had to be involved and our house was now known, I was to be under his lock-and-key; literally. His hand hadn’t moved itself from my body since we opened the front door, and I didn’t expect him to let go of me any time soon. I finally got my seatbelt on as Brian accelerated to what had to be 80 mph, following closely behind Christ’s car that held Corey, Shaun, Mike and Jeremy. Ryan was staying back home with Zacky, getting everything ready for us when we would be arriving. At the Avenged headquarters, let me clarify, not the Shadows household.

“How far away are we talking?” I asked quietly, looking up at Matt to my right. His jaw was tight and his lips were sealed. He was staring forward behind mirrored aviators; I couldn’t imagine his hazel gaze underneath.

“About ten more minutes,” Brian responded from the front seat, looking back in the rearview mirror and connecting his eyes with mine. “If Christ’s calculations are right, this should be quick, clean and we’ll be headed back to Huntington Beach in no time.”

I nodded and diverted my eyes to look out of the tinted windows of the BMW. The cars passing us were a blur as our car flew down the road. I couldn’t say that I wasn’t afraid of what might be happening once we got to our location. The plan was for Matt to stay in the car with me, whereas everyone else would be on standby if Brian couldn’t do the dirty work on his own. Matt was a last resort because that meant one of two things - he either left me in the car alone, without supervision, or he brought me with him and risked me getting shot on the spot. He and I were not comfortable with either one of those things, so the hope was that the guys could get this figured out on their own.

Brian took a sharp turn, hard enough to make my head hit the door of the car even while strapped into the seat. Matt’s right hand kept him steady, holding firm onto the passenger seat in front of him. The minute he noticed I fell out of place, his left hand yanked me up and laid over my shoulder, pulling me into his side.

“Someone’s tailing me,” Brian commented, looking into the rear-view mirror again. I started to turn my head around and he snapped, “Ivy, keep your head forward and sink into the seat a bit. I’m going to make a few random, hard turns and see if they continue to follow.”

I nodded and did as he asked, unbuckling my seatbelt and literally lying my head in Matt’s lap. His hand ran through my hair, lightly, then settled on my shoulder, holding me in place once again. Brian hadn’t been lying when he said he would make hard turns. I couldn’t begin to imagine how his car could handle him driving like this.

Matt’s phone began to ring, causing him to pick his hand up off of me. He held it up to his ear and grumbled into it, “Some fucker is tailing Gates. Make a u-turn and come up behind the car. Tell Corey to have a gun drawn and ready.”

I swallowed the spit collecting in my mouth, not wanting to be shot up in a car yet again. Matt threw his phone down onto his lap, it grazing my head as it fell. He reached onto his waistband and grabbed the gun that sat there, clicking the safety off it.

“Christ is behind him now,” Brian spoke while preceding to turn harshly down a street, the car behind us following fast. “They noticed. There’s a gun in the hands of someone in the passenger seat. I can’t see who it is.”

“Ivy, stay down, and don’t move unless I tell you to,” Matt commanded me, his hand brushing against my cheek, stroking it lightly. He leaned to the right, my head falling off his lap, as he rolled the window down. He hung his torso out the car, his left hand drawn with the gun.

I looked up at his stance, feeling myself becoming sick. Matt’s finger pulled back, sending a bullet flying out of the gun and at the car behind us. My eyes closed shut at the loud bang. A few more erupted after it, then Matt sank back into the car and rolled the window up quickly. The next sound I heard was all too familiar, the sound of a bullet hitting the metal body of the car. My hands clung to Matt’s thighs, my nails digging into his jeans, as I feared for the worst. There it was, the sound again, as Brian took a sharp left turn down an alleyway.

“I’m going to have to run a few things over on this street, hold the fuck on,” Brian grumbled and accelerated as fast as his car could go. Matt’s hands were back on me, the gun resting in the seat, cradled against me. The sound of Brian plummeting through the alleyway, knocking over trashcans and a few other things, filled my ears. It was loud, but it was better than gunshots.

Matt’s phone began to ring again, him pulling it to his ear once more, “He hit the trunk a few times. Good. We are going to hit the parallel road and block it, meet us on the opposite side. Do not let them get away.” Matt shut the phone and looked up toward Brian, “Did you get all that?”

“You got it, boss,” Brian nodded and made a sharp right turn, flying down this road just as fast. The car came to a quick halt, spinning and ending up perpendicular with the road, blocking the only exit from this side. The doors unlocked, both men grabbing for the handles. Brian turned and glared at Matt, “Shadows, what are you doing?”

“This is personal,” Matt growled and ran his hand down my side. “I’m certain this is the same fucker that tried to take out Ivy. I need to be involved.”

If looks could kill, Matt would be dead from the expression on Brian’s face, “Are you out of your fucking mind, dude? I can handle this, and if I can’t, I have back up. Ivy needs you, Matt. What if someone tries to come after the car because they know she’s in here alone?”

Matt’s stoic face faltered a bit, his hand stopped running down my side and rested on my waist. He cleared his throat, “You’re right. I do not doubt your capabilities, Brian. You are my second, after all.”

“Thank you,” Brian smiled in response to Matt’s kind words.

My heart felt full, hearing those two actually call each other by their real names in such a high-stress situation. I leaned into Matt’s lap once again and looked Brian in the eyes. I gave him a small smile before he exited the car, “Be careful, Bri.”

“Always, little one,” he grabbed his gun from the passenger seat and stepped out of the car, closing the door behind him.

Matt leaned forward, cut the ignition off and locked the car. Once he leaned back into the seat he pulled me all the way into his lap, but still kept me lower than the windows. His gun now rested in my lap, my gun on the floor of the car, just in case. His right arm was wrapped tightly around me while his left grazed my thighs. His fingertips lightly brushed against the skin through my ripped jeans, a feeling that made me feel at least slightly safer and calmer. I leaned into his chest, my ear pressed against the fabric of his t-shirt. His breathing was loud, but calm, his heartbeat on the other hand, boy, oh boy, that was rapid.

The sound of squealing tires erupted from the road, headlights flashed through the tinted windows. Yelling began to fill my ears, but I blocked it out. I didn’t want to know what was going on outside of the car, as long as everyone on our side was safe. Matt picked up on my behavior and gave my thigh a squeeze. I closed my eyes and told myself that things were going to be okay.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” Matt said softly, his hand now back in my hair, brushing it out of my face. “I will never let anything happen to you.”

“I just want this to be over,” I responded in a mere whisper, knowing if I spoke louder a few tears would escape my eyes. There it was, a gunshot, causing my body to shiver in his arms.

Matt’s hand cupped the my chin and he leaned his head down, pressing his lips to mine, never been so gentle in his life. I leaned into his hand as it guided itself up my face, his thumb rubbing over my eyelids and lashes, “Breathe, my sweet Ivy. I know you are scared, but soon this will all be over. You, I and Alec are going to take a vacation as soon as this is done. We’ll go somewhere remote and beautiful. You won’t have any more worries in the world.”

“I love you, Matt,” I breathed out, focusing on his words and snuggling into him.

“I love you, more,” Matt smiled down at me.

A few more gunshots were sounded and next thing we knew, Brian was pulling on the car door. Matt leaned forward, knocking me off his lap again, but catching me with his hand on my shoulder. He unlocked the door and Brian literally flung the back door open, a slumped body in his grasp behind him. He motioned for me to get out of the car and I looked from him to Matt, terrified. Matt ushered me out and into the passenger seat. Brian pulled the body into the car and Matt grabbed a roll of rope from under the seat. The wrists and ankles were tied together as the body laid, knocked out, against the door. It belonged to Ashley. That is who must’ve been tailing us.

Matt let out a dark laugh, “I guess this was easier than driving all the way out there. Good for you, Gates. How did you do it?”

Brian smirked and started the engine of the car, it roared as he whipped it around and back in the direction of home. “A perfect sniper doesn’t give his secrets away, Shadows,” he chuckled. “Shot him in the foot then got him with chloroform. He should be out long enough for us to shackle him up down there. I expect you will want to be around for a portion of the torture?”

“Actually no,” Matt spoke, strongly. “We will return home and you will do what you need to do. I have already given Zacky a list of what I expect you to get out of Ashley. I would like to keep my face out of the picture unless necessary. Christ is not to play good cop, either.” I could imagine the eye-roll behind Matt’s mirrored glasses, “You do what you need to do for the answers, Gates. Once I have them, you can dispose of him however you wish to.”

My nose scrunched up as Brian’s face turned into a wicked grin, his chocolate eyes glowing as he flew down the road in the direction of Avenged’s headquarters. The headlights from other cars shined into the windshield, those drivers having no ideas as to what was going on around them. I wondered how many families were aware that in their backyards, there were gang members and knife fights. How many people knew of the bullets that flew around Orange County when no one was looking? The amount of drugs, prostitution and everything else that went on around here, unspoken, but still there. The backbone of the county, in all honesty, was this. The police force fed off of it, the government did, too. It kept people employed with the dare program, as well as people like me, counseling, detention centers for the juveniles, and rehab for those who just couldn’t seem to help themselves. I closed my eyes and leaned back into the seat as Brian drove; shocked as to what my life had become. I was riding in the car, shotgun to whom was now my best friend, the love of my life and father of my beautiful little boy behind me, a man who was sent out to kill me laid unconscious in the backseat, hog-tied and held hostage. My family would be sick if they knew their sweet, little girl from a small town in New Jersey was living this lifestyle, but then again, that’s why I didn’t speak to them.

We pulled into the driveway and I got out of the car first, walking into the house with Matt hot on my trail. His hand had extended forward and grabbed mine, holding it tightly in his as we walked toward Zacky and Ryan at the end of the hallway. Corey, Shaun, Mike, Jeremy and Christ all followed in behind us. The last one to enter the home was Brian, carrying Ashley’s body along with him.

Brian pulled the cellphone out of Ashley’s pocked and threw it into Matt’s hands, “Here, Shads. I figure you wanted to get eyes on this first.”

Matt nodded and went to unlock the phone, reaching over for Ashley’s hand to use his fingerprint to unlock it. “Zacky, pull the information off of this and embed it into your computer system. Make sure it is encrypted and that Behemoth cannot trace it back. Then, I want to make a quick phone call on it before we destroy it.”

“Yes, boss. I’ll be back in less than ten,” Zacky responded and grabbed the phone. He disappeared down the hallway and an awkward silence filled the room.

I looked up at Matt, pressing my chest against his torso, and wrapping my arms around his waist. He looked down at me with a half smile, “Why don’t you rest on the couch for a bit, honey? I’m going to assist Gates and the rest of them with getting Ashley downstairs. Then we’ll be on our way home and to bed.”

“I worry if I sit on that couch I will fall asleep,” I laughed and gave his ass a small squeeze.

“I don’t mind. I’ll carry you out to the car if you do,” he pressed a kiss to my forehead and shooed me toward the couch. Him, Christ and Brian all soon disappeared as well, Ashley’s body dragging behind them.

I sat on the couch and sank back into the softness of the pillows that scattered it. I loved living with Matt, but sometimes I did miss this place, as crazy as it seemed. Or maybe I just missed how comfortable the couch was, that could be it, too. I closed my eyes, ignoring the fact that Shaun’s eyes were boring into me from the other side of the room while Corey and the rest of his men were deep in conversation about the situation that unfolded earlier. I nuzzled my face into the pillows and drifted off to sleep-land, knowing that Matt was serious when he said he’d carry me if I was out like a light. The last thing I thought of before I completely zonked out was that vacation Matt brought up. I just imagined the two of us with smiles on our faces, Alec in Matt’s arms giggling, on the beach somewhere. The perfect dream.

Notes

Also; check out my new M. Shadows story, Fallen.