"You haven't told her?" Megan accused him. Then she looked around and found that her seat was taken. She glared at Daxon.
Daxon, who realized where he was sitting, instantly got the message. He didn't even wait for Megan to utter a word. He immediately stood up and moved beside Mason since Nic was sitting on the other armchair.
"Told her what?" Mason asked curiously.
"Her?" Nic asked, wondering who Megan was talking about.
Megan looked at Nic and Mason before she glared back at Matthew. "Liv! You haven't told her about you. Now you are in deep shit!" She said then as she sat on her chair that Daxon vacated.
Matthew's eyes went wide when he realized what Megan was talking about. It looks like she and Olivia had already met and Olivia had already told her about her vigilante theory before he could tell them. "That's what I've been trying to tell them before you suddenly barge in," He defended himself pointing his hand at Nic, Daxon, and Mason while looking at Megan.
This time, Timothy could not take it anymore. How could he work when there were four men and a woman shouting at each other behind him? And besides, it seems like his woman was not angry for nothing.
"What is going on?" Timothy asked, looking at Megan and then at Matthew. Based on the looks that he saw on his woman's face and then on Matthew, he knew that it was something serious.
Matthew sighed heavily and in a defeated tone, he said, "It's Liv. She was starting to suspect that there is a vigilante out there who was kidnapping, torturing, and killing all kinds of women and children abusers,"
Nic, Mason, and Daxon looked at Matthew with indescribable expressions on their faces while Timothy's face remained expressionless.
Mason blinked a couple of times before he broke out in what seemed like a trance and asked, "You mean like Franklin Amudsen?" He was pointing his thumb finger behind him as if the man whose name he mentioned was just behind him.
But the truth is, Franklin Amudsen was having the time of his life in one of the cells in their underground facility. Though Mason and Daxon haven't visited the man ever since they put him there, Matthew and Nic already gave him a sampler of what awaits him in the future a couple of days ago.
"Yeah," Matthew nodded his head. Then he frowned and added, "She even has these crazy boards where she put all the pictures of those men. Men that we put in the underground facility. She was trying to find links that connect them to each other to prove that she is right about the vigilante thing,"
"She asked me for the records of those men," Megan said as if what she said was a normal thing. But the men in the room except for Timothy shot her a look.
"Did you give her?" Matthew asked. He could not believe that in just a few hours, his girlfriend had managed to accomplish a lot of things when it wasn't even twenty-four hours ago when they talked about her finding proof of the existence of vigilantes.
Megan glared at him. "Of course. What would you want me to tell her? That I can't because she will find out that one of those people that she called vigilante was her boyfriend?" She asked in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Did she say what she would do once she found out that she was right?" This time, it was Timothy who asked the question.
"She said that she would expose them," Megan replied instantly, making the men around her hiss under their breath.
Again. Except for Timothy.
"Is this an assignment given to her by Bardwell or she just independently and voluntarily chose to put herself into trouble?" Timothy asked, looking either at Matthew or Megan since they were the ones whom Olivia had talked about her theory with.
"It was just her. I don't think she plans on telling Bardwell about it unless she already got the proof that she was right about the vigilante thing," Matthew replied. Though he doesn't feel good about it, he felt relieved that at least, only Olivia knew or at least had suspicions about the vigilantes because if Bardwell would be involved, it would be much more troublesome because Bardwell was ten times more inquisitive than Olivia.
"Well at least, it was us. Because if it was another person, she would definitely be in deep trouble," Mason said, crossing his arms in his chest as he leaned back. He looks as if the situation was no big deal at all.
But to Matthew, it was since it involved his girlfriend.
Last night, Matthew was already planning to tell Olivia the truth about what he, Nic, Daxon, Mason, and Timothy were doing. He was going to tell her that they were kidnapping men who were abusing women and children in all possible ways. He was going to tell her that they were keeping them in an underground facility where they torture them and then, later on, kill them. He was going to tell her that they were just doing that to return the favor of what those monsters did to those women and children.
Matthew was going to tell Olivia that they were doing that because they believed that the justice system in their country was either slow or inadequate. Sometimes, it takes months to years before those women and children get the justice that they deserve but most of the time, they never get it at all.
So they took that matter into their hands. They knew that what they were doing was unlawful but at least they were doing something to make their community better. They were helping victims of abuse and violence and that was enough for them to overlook the fact that what they were doing was unlawful.
They were doing the world a favor by making it a better and safer place for women and children to live in.
But before he could say anything to Olivia, before he could defend himself and make her see his point of view, Olivia made him see her own point of view. To Matthew, it seems that Olivia was firm in her belief that the people she called vigilantes were no less than those criminals that they were kidnapping, torturing, and killing. She was determined to find them and expose them.
Seeing the determination in Olivia's eyes, Matthew decided to put off telling her that the people she was calling vigilante were him, Nic, Mason, and Daxon. Matthew thinks that he would have to prepare Olivia first before he uncovered the truth in front of her eyes.
And he also has to prepare himself in case he doesn't get the reaction that he was hoping to get from Olivia once she found out the truth.
Matthew was afraid. Upon realizing Olivia's thoughts about the vigilante, he was afraid that once she found out that he is one of those vigilantes that she seemed to hate, she would hate him and leave him.
Matthew could not take even the thought of Olivia leaving him. He loved her. He loved her more than himself. He loved her more than life itself. And if he lost her, he would be gone as well. He wouldn't know what would become of him if she leaves him.
So he doesn't know what to do.
Daxon suddenly broke Matthew's thoughts. Just like Mason, he was acting as if the situation was no big deal. "Why am I not surprised?" Daxon said.
Matthew looked at him annoyed. "What?"
Daxon looked at him and said, "Liv is the kind of person that would do this kind of thing. So, it is not surprising at all," They all knew what kind of person Olivia is. She was very inquisitive so they were not surprised that Olivia had come to this theory despite Timothy erasing all traces of their involvement in the deaths of those vile men.
Matthew doesn't know if he should be mad at Mason and Daxon for acting like that. But then, they were not in his position so he could not blame them. Though he was annoyed at them because he thought that the least they could do was sympathize and be sensible.
Mason suddenly got up and had a thoughtful look on his face. "Now that Liv thought of that, all this time, I thought that we were just returning the favor. It never crossed my mind that what we were doing was a form of vigilantism," He said.
When they started that kind of activity, they drilled it into their mind that what they were doing was just returning the favor. Those men did vile things toward women and children. They abused them. Hurt them. Tortured them. Killed them. They were just returning the favor for what those men did to their victims.
'Returning the favor' has become their mantra. It made them feel better about what they were doing.
Matthew caught Timothy turning his chair around and doing something on his computer. He became suspicious so he asked, "What are you doing, Tim?"
Nic who was sitting closer to Timothy turned his head and looked at Timothy's computer. He answered, "He is obviously hacking Liv's computer,"
Matthew instantly stood up when he realized that Timothy was invading his girlfriend's privacy. "What the heck, Tim?"
"Are you two hiding something steamy and scandalous in her computer?" Mason decided to tease because of the way Matthew reacted.
Matthew glared at him. "Of course not! We will never do such a thing. And if we did, I would never put it into her computer. I would put it in mine," It was not that he was worried about it because he knew that Olivia was not hiding something scandalous in her computer and he doubts Timothy would look into it.
Matthew just doesn't feel good about it.
"She is starting to research those men and their cases," Timothy said when he looked through Olivia's computer and checked what she had been up to since the morning. Then he frowned and said, "But it looks like she is already in deep trouble,"
Upon hearing that, Matthew was instantly standing behind him. "What are you talking about?" He asked in a worried tone. He doesn't like it whenever he hears that his woman is in deep trouble or even the possibility of her in trouble.
Matthew turned his head to the side to look at Megan. "Do you know about this?" He asked.
Megan frowned and stood up. She walked towards him and looked at Timothy's computer. After a while, she shared the same frown that Timothy was wearing on his face. Then she nods her head. "Yeah. But it's classified,"
"Well I guess it is not that classified if Bardwell managed to get a whiff of it and assigned the story to Liv," Timothy said as he leaned back to give Matthew a better look at what kind of trouble his woman was courting.
"Yeah, Liv is in deep shit," Megan said while Matthew has a deep frown on his face.
It is not the first time that Olivia's job put her into trouble but Matthew could already tell that this by far is the deepest trouble that Olivia got herself into. Or more like, Bardwell got Olivia in. Even deeper than the trouble she was courting with the vigilante.
Right then and there, Matthew set aside his thoughts on how to tell Olivia that the vigilante she was searching for was him. Because at this moment, he needs to make sure that Olivia is going to be safe.