Confession of a King

“Ivy, fix your fucking face before I fix it for you,” Matt spoke through gritted teeth as we sat on the black leather sectional in the Avenged headquarters. Zacky summoned us here for a meeting regarding a so-called “discovery” he made, and I was all but happy about leaving the warmth of my bed this morning to speak with him. “I mean it.”

I pulled at the corners of my mouth, faking a grin, “Is this better, Shadows?”

“Would be better if it wasn’t so forced, but I’ll take it,” Matt replied, dryly.

I knew he was slightly stressed out over what Zacky could have discovered. Avenged’s business wasn’t Matt’s business anymore, so the fact that both of us were necessary for this discussion made it seem like it surrounded one topic of interest - me. Things had been better since I quit my job, making up the excuse that I wanted more time with my family rather than telling my husband the truth as to why I walked out so abruptly. We were happy. We were still working on getting me pregnant. But, we were happy.

I reached out, placing my hand on Matt’s thigh and squeezing lightly, “Stop being so tense, sugar. I’m sure this isn’t anything that serious or that the gang can’t handle without you by their side. Everything is going to be alright. We’re going to go to that diner you like after this, and then check out Alec’s potential daycare. I need you to be mentally available, Matty.”

“I’m fine, Iv,” he reassured me as he placed his hand over mine. “I just want to know why we were called here at six in the morning after Vengeance has been up jacking off and playing COD all night.”

I laughed quietly at his comment, “Maybe he discovered something on the video game and needs to tell you?”

“I know that thing like the back of my hand. There’s nothing new he can tell me,” my husband responded. He looked to his right, his hazel eyes connecting with my brown ones, and gave me a lighthearted smile. “I just wanted to spend the day with you without any distractions. You have to understand my worry in the fact that he needed you here, as well. If someone is threatening to come after you or Alec, I am going to have to take the reigns and step back into this business.”

“I know,” I said in a sad whisper. “Which terrifies me.”

The sound of a throat clearing echoed throughout the room, and I looked forward to see Johnny standing in front of us with his arms crossed over his chest. His mohawk was disheveled and he was in just a pair of pajama pants, obviously agitated that Zacky had called the meeting for this early, as well. He took a seat next to me, muttering a hello and was quickly followed by a very sleepy Brian.

My eyes almost popped out of my head at the sight of my raven-haired best friend. His hair was in all sorts of directions, but still somehow managed to look somewhat styled. His eyes were even squinter from the tiredness, but what really stood out was the giant, purple hickey on his collarbone. It looked like it was aching it was so large and swollen, my mind couldn’t help but travel to who the hell gave him such a thing.

“Brian Haner Jr,” his name fell off my lips as he trudged in our direction, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants. He fell between my legs, sitting on the floor and resting his head in my lap. Faint, red lines went down his back. “Who?”

He laughed to himself as he shook his head against my lap, “Scratches, please.”

I rolled my eyes and let my hands fall into his hair, scratching his scalp lightly with my fingernails. “You can’t just waltz in here with a giant hickey on your neck, demanding more scratches to go along with those on your back, and not tell me who you fucked last night.”

A smirk broke out on his face, his eyes closing at the feeling of my hands in his hair, “Why? Are you jealous?”

“Well, this is getting weird,” Johnny muttered while pulling his knees to his chest. “Where the fuck is Vengeance?”

Brian shrugged his shoulders, “Don’t know. Don’t care to be honest.”

I looked to Matt who rolled his eyes while sinking into the couch. Typical smug Brian who just got laid. God forbid he acted anything like a god himself after he penetrated a woman. A chuckle erupted from Matt’s chest, “I really hope she was hot.”

“Oh, she was,” the man in my lap laughed. “And she’s waiting for round three in my bed as we speak.”

I raked my hands through his hair one more time before pulling them away, letting them rest on his shoulders, “Girlfriend material?”

“Anyone that fucks that fast is not girlfriend material, Ivy” Johnny added.

Matt threw his arm over my shoulders, “Stop trying to play matchmaker.”

I shoved Matt’s arm off me, “I need to live through someone. Being married isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Why do you think I want another baby so bad? You’re boring, Sanders.”

Matt’s jaw hung down to the floor as the other two men broke into laughter. I sat with a proud grin on my face as I stared in my husband’s direction. Matt had been giving me so much shit over trying to find Brian a nice girl to date, it was a relief to put him in his place a little, even if it was obviously a joke. I leaned over to him, letting my knee smash Brian’s face, and puckered my lips for a kiss. Matt tried to move away from me, falling backwards onto the arm of the couch. I leaned onto him, pressing my body against his and kissing his jaw.

“THEY’RE GOING TO FUCK! QUICK! GRAB THE CAMERA!” Brian shouted, jumping up from the floor. “We’ll make this shit go viral. Matt Sanders, aka Shadows, convicted criminal from Orange County fucks wife on couch in gang house.”

I moved my lips from Matt’s skin and rested my head on his shoulder, laughing loudly, “You’ve obviously thought of that before. There’s no way you just came up with that in your head.”

“Can’t you have a little faith in my smarts?” Brian took my spot on the couch, “I am a lawyer, after-all.”

Matt sat up, pulling me onto his lap and engulfing me in his arms. His chin rested on my shoulder as he looked over at his friend, “You were my lawyer, and the only reason why we won that case is because I played the dad card and you’re good looking.”

Brian blew a kiss in our direction, “Thanks for the compliment, sweet-cheeks.” Earning a wink from the hazel man behind me.

Johnny scoffed, “If the two of you didn’t like pussy so much I’d swear you were gay.”

“Sorry I’m late,” Zacky walked in, causing all of our eyes to follow along the wood floors till they hit him. He was standing there fully dressed in jeans and a hoodie, his glasses high on his nose and a coffee in his hands. His black hair was a little bit messy, but otherwise, he looked like he was ready to take on the day. “I needed to get some caffeine in my system. I’m running on literally zero sleep.”

Matt lifted his head off my shoulder, “You are late. Now cut to the chase, Vengeance. What the hell is going on here that you made Ivy and I come here so fucking early in the morning? Why do I need to be involved in any of this?”

Zacky sighed and sank into the armchair that was diagonal from us, sipping his coffee, “We’ve been intercepted.”

“What the fuck do you mean we’ve been intercepted?” Brian shouted in the direction of Zacky, “Intercepted in what fucking way?”

“Someone is working from the inside, taking some of our clients. We’re not running nearly as tight of a ship without Shadows around since it’s just the three of us covering all bases of Avenged,” Zacky pursed his lips. “Corey cannot seem to figure out who it could possibly be either. He has been trying to help me figure this out for the last two weeks.”

A sigh of relief fell from my lips as Matt let out a laugh, “So, you’re asking me to come back to a management position?”

Zacky nodded, “Somewhat, yes. But that isn’t what I really wanted you here for, Shads.”

My face fell as I noticed Zacky’s pained expression, “What? What is it?”

“Whoever is feeding this information out is also well aware of the Behemoth situation. They know where you live. They know what car you drive. They know your usual schedule. And they’ve put a bounty on Ivy’s head,” he said slowly. “We give them Ivy, they give us their clients back.”

“Absolutely fucking not,” Matt growled. “This isn’t happening again. No one is using her to get to me, again.” He picked me up, placing me on Brian’s lap as he stood up. Matt walked over to Zacky and grabbed him by his hoodie, pulling him out of the chair and holding him up so that he was eye-to-eye with him, “I’m back, and you can tell them that I’m fucking back and I’ll find out who the fuck they are and will break every single bone in their body when I do.”

I went to open my mouth and Brian held his hand over it, pulling me ear to his lips, “Don’t.” I relaxed in his arms and he dropped his hand, “We are sure that this is an inside job by another gang? This is not the police trying to catch us for gang activity and throw Matt back in now that Ivy has quit her job?”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll kill the whole police force if I have to,” Matt dropped Zacky back into the chair. He looked over at me, hazel eyes burning with anger, “Alec is going to stay with your mom, Ivy. You are going to call her as soon as we leave here. I’m going to call a realtor about selling our house and buying a new one. We’re going to pack up our things and move back here for now. We will get Alec on the plane tomorrow morning with my sister until this is taken care of.”

I could tell that there was no sense in trying to reason with him. He was going to do this his way… Shadows way. We would be safe once again, he just needed to keep his mind about him in case Brian’s thoughts were true. I just let out a deep breath through my nostrils and nodded my head, “Okay.”

Notes