I Knew You Were Trouble

Josh’s POV

A cold breeze wakes my tired body, goose bumps rising on my skin as a sudden chill runs up my spine. I groan and pull the duvet up over my head to try and keep out wherever the cold was coming from. I open my eyes and see I’m buried under unfamiliar bed sheets which I find a cause of concern.

I sit up quickly and take in my surroundings. I was sitting alone in a large bed with the duvet pulled up to my shoulders. The room was cold and empty and the only thing alive was the netted curtains dancing in the wind from the open balcony doors. My body relaxes a little when I remember where I am. I was in Oli’s room.

I sigh heavily and sit back against the headboard. I was hoping to wake up this morning and hope last night was all a dream. But it was far from it.

I crawl out of bed and put on Oli’s red flannel which was on the floor and hesitantly peek my head out of the balcony doors. I find Oli sat up on the railings with his back against the wall and one leg dangling down whilst he inhaled his cigarette. Classic Oli, I don’t know how he’s sitting out here in only a tank top and sweatpants its bloody freezing.

He senses my presences and glances over at me, his eyes raking over my bare legs as I was only in his t-shirt which only came to mid thigh.

“Hi.” He smiles.
“Hi.” I say giving a small smile back.

“How are you this morning?”
“Cold.” I frown wrapping my arms around myself and leaning against the glass door.
“Sorry, guess I’m not used to having people over.” He says, stubbing out his cigarette and stepping down from the railings.

He walks over to me and goes to touch my face but I back away a little still abit afraid. He stops instantly and sighs.

“You’re afraid of me now, aren’t you?”
“I’m just abit confused.” I bite my lower lip seeing his expression change.

“We should really talk.” I suggest and head back inside and hear him sigh loudly.

I sit on the end of the bed and watch Oli come back in, closing the balcony doors behind him and leans back on them.

“I don’t do talking Josh.” He confirms but I just raise my eyebrows.
“You need to give me some sort of explanation.”
“We agreed to sex and nothing more. Can we just leave it at that?”
“Well, I didn’t agree to being shot at and crazy car races and being forced to stay the night at a gang’s grand palace house but you know, here I am.” I sassed not putting up with his bullshit of not wanting to talk. Fuck it, I’ll make him talk to me.

He groans and drags a hand down his face. I cross my arms over my chest and scowl and he rolls his eyes at me. He walks over and lies back on the bed next to me with an annoyed expression but I was going to get him to open up.

“So… Tom said your some sort of deadly gang leader?” I start, getting straight to the point.
“Ugh, I shouldn’t have left you alone with my brother!”
“Well… is it true?”
He leans up on his elbows so he could see my face.
“Look, Tom shouldn’t have said anything to you but yes, yes I am. I run a well known gang which is called Horizon, I have a very interesting track record for my work. I’m feared because I’m the best at what I do and I take no shit. End of.” He huffs and lies back down on the bed.

My eyes were wide at his honesty. I didn’t expect him to come straight out with it, I guess I wasn’t used to him talking so forward about himself.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” I look down at my lap.
“Would you have carried on with our agreement if you had known?”
“Uh, well…”
“See.” He was getting snappy with the questions but I didn’t care, he owed me answers.

“You were in prison?”
“Along side Jordan, yes. There are punishments for the work I do Josh and prison is a minor one.”

How could prison be a minor punishment? I just stare at him confused and he sits up in annoyance.

“Look, I take and sell a lot of drugs, big deal. I carry a gun and put people in they’re place when they step out of line, get it now? Right good. That’s all you need to know.” He was starting to get agitated and I didn’t want him to lose his temper so I guess it was best to leave it at that.

It was a lot to take in but what was I really expecting? The drugs and then finding the gun in his pocket, it's basically been infront of me the whole time but I've been too blind to see it.

I start twirling around with my fingers thinking of what the next step was.

“So, uh, what now?”

He glances up and his well known smirk grows across his lips. He sits up and shuffles over to me.

His fingers trace down my cheek to my chin tauntingly. My eyes meet with his and I feel my heart begin to race, I swallow hard as I feel the butterflies flutter in my stomach like they always do when he does this to me.

“Whatever you want, sunshine.” He whispers in a sudden mood change. He lifts my chin up and ghosts his lips over mine, barely an inch apart. My breath hitches feeling his hot breath against my lips, I was almost desperate for him. What was I going to do with him?

He smirks and pulls back.

“Come on, I’ll make you some breakfast.”

He stands up and puts a beanie over his wild curls and I try to ignore the fact how much I wanted to kiss that smirk right off his face and have my dirty way with him.

I shake my head and let out a little laugh. He was impossible.

~~

All the guys were up and scattered all around the kitchen. I stay close behind Oli feeling a little uncomfortable with all their eyes on us when we entered.

“Morning lads.” He greets.

“I see you brought your little friend down with you.” One of them say, raising his eyebrows at Oli and then looking down at me.

I bite my bottom lip nervously and Oli steps aside and places his hands on my shoulders and he makes me stand in from of him.

“This is Josh and this big mouth right here is Nicholls.” Oli points to the guy leaning against the counter eating out of the cereal box.
“You’ve already met Tom and this is Lee.” He points to the guy washing up a plate in the sink.

“The two at the table are Vegan and Jordan.” He motions his hand towards them, Vegan on the laptop and Jordan drinking a cup of coffee. I timidly mumble a ‘hi’ to them all because after all they are ruthless gang members and I wanted to be polite.

“These are my closest men, don’t allow them to intimidate you too much, they’re goofballs really.” Oli chuckles, noticing how nervous I had become.

“Go sit at the table and I’ll make you something to eat sunshine.” He smiles and I do as he says and take a seat at the table. I watch him from a far, moving around the kitchen as he talks to some of the others.

“Boss, what you gonna do about your car, its totally fucked.” Nicholls mumbles through a mouth full of cereal.
“Carlile owes me a favour, I’ll run it over to him later on to have a look at it.”
“We’re due a visit.”
“Yeah I know, maybe at the end of the month we’ll go over and pay them a little welcome back visit.” I see both Oli and Nicholls share a smirk, their conversation having a deeper meaning to what they led on.

I feel someone watching me and I pull my eyes away from Oli and look at the guy I think who was Jordan, staring at me with the stupidest grin on his face.

“I gotta say Josh, it’s nice not being the new kid on the block anymore.” Jordan laughs and I give him an awkward smile. Yeah, thanks for pointing it out, as if I didn’t feel out of place as it is.

Oli comes over to the table with a grin and hands me a plate of toast and a glass of orange juice and I give him a small smile as my appreciation.
He takes a seat beside me, spinning the chair around backwards and straddling it, crossing his arms and resting them on the top of the chair while he watches me eat.

“I’ll take you home after this, okay?” I nod, feeling relief that I was finally getting away from this house.
“I have work at 12:30.” I glance up at the clock on the wall and see it was about 10:40. I needed to get going soon.

“Are you just gonna let him go? Knowing full well that he knows our location and last night’s information about the shooting?” Tom sneers making his way over to the table.
“Shut up, Tom.”
“No, this concerns all of us not just you and him. How do you know he won’t go blabbing to anyone about this?” he argues.

“I’m not going to tell anybody.” I mutter quietly looking down at my plate. They were all so intimidating and made it extremely uncomfortable to be here. I was so out of place, I couldn’t wait to go home.
“Well how nice of you to give us your word kid, but that’s all it is, it means nothing!” Tom shouts at me making me shut right up. He seemed to really hate me.

“That’s enough Tom.” Oli warned but Tom didn’t stop.
“He needs to be warned, he needs to know what will happen if he dares crosses Hor-“

“I trust him and that all that matters!” Oli growls, his chair making a horrid scrapping sound as he stood up and glared at his brother.

“How many times do I have to tell you to cut your shitty attitude with me? You do as I say Tom and that’s final or do I have to remind you what happens if you keep disobeying me?” Oli growls again which sounded like a threat…

They stood inches apart from each other both of them with their hands in balls of fists. The tension between them was thick, tempers about to explode. They looked as if they were about to have a punch up right here in the middle of the kitchen.

“Why are you sticking up for him? I am your brother!” Tom yells, hurt lingering in his tone as his gaze shifted from Oli’s to mine.

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, hating every second of having all the attention put on me. I hadn’t done anything wrong but Tom looked as if he was ready to rip my head off.

A little pinging noise comes from Vegan’s laptop and I’m eternity grateful that it interrupts the heated argument.

“Boss, I hate to interrupt but you’re gonna want to see this.” Vegan butts in looking rather concerned.

Oli sighs deeply and reluctantly pulls away from his stand off with his brother making his way over to Vegan. This left Tom death staring at me from a cross the table.

“It’s one of the un identified victims from last night. Do you know him?” Vegan asks, pointing down at the laptop screen and I see Oli’s expression turn dark with fury.

“Yes.” He seethes pushing away from the laptop and going over to one of the kitchen drawers and pulling out a gun which immediately alerts the rest of the gang.

“What’s the plan boss?” Nicholls asks waiting for his plan of action.

Oli loads one of the guns and throws it across the room to Jordan which he catches. I eye up the gun in Jordan’s hand and that’s when reality hits and I fall under another dose of an anxiety attack.

“You remember your training?” he asks Jordan, whilst loading another gun and puts it in the waistline of the back of his sweatpants.
“Yes.”
“Good, come with me, I’m going to need your back up.”

“Boss, what’s the plan for us?” Lee steps forward getting ready to take action.

“The rest of you stay here until I call for more back up.”

“Wait what? Oli, I’m your second in command Fish doesn’t even know what he’s doing with a gun, let alone watch your back.” Nicholls complains looking highly offend with Oli’s choice.

“Well this is the perfect opportunity for him to learn isn’t it?” Oli takes some car keys off the counter and motions Jordan to follow him out of the kitchen.

“I’m taking your car Nicholls, stay on alert and I’ll keep you posted if things escalates.”

“Oliver you’re not serious about going alone with just Jordan are you?” Tom questions following him into the hall and Oli lets out an annoyed grunt.

“This is the plan, shut up and get over it.” he orders before disappearing out the front door with Jordan following him close behind.

Did he just leave me?

I take a couple of steps out into the hall and stared at the front door, shocked that Oli had just left me here with them. I felt my chest tighten and my hand reaches up and clasps at my shirt. He left me alone with these deadly gang members which I knew for a fact none of them liked me. How the fuck can Oli leave me with them, I needed him here. I needed him to keep me safe and most importantly take me home.

I take in a deep breath to try and control myself.

“Fuck!” I hear Nicholls scream, kicking over one of the chairs in anger. I slowly walk back into the kitchen to see what was going on.

“What the hell is Oli playing at?!” he roars, turning round and glaring at the rest of the members.

“He hasn’t been himself since he’s got out of prison.” Lee mumbles, leaning against the counter.

“None of us know who the victim was but Oli definitely knew when he saw the name on the profile and he knows where to find the one who sent them. We need to be on high alert.” Vegan tells them.

All of this information was a lot to take in and to be honest, listening to it all was scaring the hell out of me and I just wanted to get as far away from here as possible before I pass out from the anxiety. I had become a shaking mess.

“I-I need to go.” I stutter quietly making Nicholls look up and scoff.

“You’re not going anywhere kid you’re staying right here.”

“N-no, p-please! I have to go, I have work!” I pleaded hoping it was a good enough excuse for them to let me leave.

I take a step backwards as the nerves started to get the better of me but my back bumps into a body and I turn round and see Tom standing creepily close behind me.

“Pizza anyone?” Tom mocks as he holds up my phone. My hand reaches for my back pocket and I feel that my phone was missing. How the fuck did he manage to get it, I didn’t feel a thing?!

“Give it back!” I try to reach for it but Tom shoves me back harshly and I fall backwards into Nicholls who grabs a hold of me and pulls my hands behind my back harshly.

“I think Vegan will enjoy hacking into your phone and finding out how innocent you really are.” Tom smirks, tossing my phone over to Vegan who starts looking through it.

“Don’t you dare!” I scream as I tried to fight my way out of Nicholls hold but his grip was insanely tight around me.

I don’t know what they’re expecting to find, I wasn’t hiding anything I just didn’t want them going through my personal stuff. It was none of their fucking business and I shamefully still had text messages from Dan on there from when we were together and I really didn’t want anyone else reading them.

Nicholls grip around my wrists was agonizing especially when I struggled against him. They can’t just keep me hostage and go through my things as if they own me!

“Let go of me!” I insist, turning back at Nicholls glaring at him but before I could say anything else I’m met with a lethal blow to the face.

I drop to the floor from the sudden impact, my vision blurred seeing signs of small black dots in front of me.
My hand flings up to my cheek from the excruciating pain which throbbed across my face, my eyes tearing up from the agonizing feeling.

My whole body was trembling with shock and I tried kneeling up but I ended up coughing out blood onto the kitchen floor. I choke on a sob at what I see before me. What did I do to deserve this?

“That’s that last time you ever speak back to me kid. Shut the fuck up and stay out of our way or you will receive more than a fist to the face.” Nicholls growls and I see Tom snigger beside him.

I get up on wobbly legs still covering my cheek with my hand and sat in the corner. Not saying a single word to them for the rest of the morning.

~~

Hours past but I didn’t once lift my head to look at the clock on the wall to check the time. I was terrified if I accidently breathed loudly it would cost me a beating. So I remained sat in the corner, hurt, hungry and forgotten about.

A noise of commotion from out in the hall comes into the kitchen breaking the awkward silence in the atmosphere. The loudness worsens my headache but I lift my head just enough to see who had entered and I’m relieved to see Oli and Jordan walk through unharmed.

Everyone gathers round them just like last night when they came back from doing whatever wanting to know information.

Oli glances over at me and suddenly gives me a double take and rushes over to me, his face full of concern. He pulls me up out of the chair and immediately cradles my face with his hands which makes me whimper from the contact. He frowns down at the growing bruise on my cheek and I see him become really bothered by it.

“Who did this to you?” he insists and I shake my head not wanting to be a grass and cause any more trouble.
“Tell me now, Josh.” Oli demands and I flicker my eyes up to his full of sadness before moving my gaze over to Nicholls.

I feel Oli tense and see him flare his nostrils in anger before he turns round and swings a punch straight at Nicholls face. He crashes to the floor holding his nose which was now pouring of blood. My eyes widen and I push myself further into the wall horrified. This wasn’t what I wanted to happen, now Nicholls is going to hate me so much more than he already does.

“Don’t you ever fucking touch him again!” Oli seethes standing over him.
“As goes for everyone else, including you Tom!” he stands up straight and looks them all in the eye.
“I swear to God, if anyone of you lay a single finger on his curly head again, I will fucking cut your hands off! He is mine and you all protect what is mine! You will do whatever it takes to keep him safe with no questions asked, do you understand me?!” Oli yells at the group and they all murmur a ‘yes boss’ and nod their heads in understanding.

“Come here Josh.” Oli motions for me to go over to him and I do as he says. He takes a can of Pepsi out of the fridge and holds it against my cheek but I flinch back at the coldness and whimper.

“It will help the swelling go down.” He gives me an apologetic glance and holds the cold can to my face again.

“You know, I would offer to fix it for you but I don’t think I want to.” Jordan taunts, loving every moment of Nicholls misfortune.
“Fuck off Fish.” Nicholls groans still covering his bleeding nose which was most likely broken. I hated all this violence and fear of everyone.

“Josh go upstairs, I’ll be up shortly I just need to discuss some things with the lads alright?” Oli says and I nod and quickly leave the kitchen not wanting to be in there any longer than I had to.

When I get to Oli’s room, I look at my reflection in the mirror and see the dark purple bruise which basically has covered the whole of my cheek. I groan in pain when I trace my finger tips over the skin. That explains the pounding headache.

I sit on the bed thinking over everything what’s just happened.
I never expected Oli to go mad and actually act out the way he did. It was scary but kind of nice in a way knowing that he was on my side…

I sigh to myself.

He said I was his… I wondered what he meant by that? Did he see me more than just sex? Or was it just the heat of the moment so that his men wouldn’t harm me again?

I look up at the door when I hear it open and see Oli come in and stroll over to me and crawls onto the bed in between my legs.

“I’m sorry.” He says in soft voice as he inspects my cheek again and I feel my eyes water.

“T-they t-took my phone and-“
“Shh. They will never hurt you again.” He reassures me and runs his fingers through my hair to calm me.

He brings my lips up close to his and he waits to see if I’ll reject him but I don’t and he gently pushes his lips to mine.
The kiss deepens but stays gentle, it was far beyond any of the kisses we’ve shared before. This felt like something more.

Oli’s hands run down my sides and slip under my shirt to stroke my skin and I knew what this was leading to and I still felt unsure if I wanted us to continue with what we started.

“Wait, Oli.” I break the kiss and place my hand on his chest.
His eyes were filled with lust and he leans in again but I hold him back.
“Don’t be scared baby, I will kiss away the pain.” He whispers gently kissing along my jaw and I can help but moan in response. He always knew how to make me feel good.

“Oli I-I don’t know about this…” I mutter moving my head away from him.
He pulls back letting out a heavy breath and I could tell he really wanted this but I was unsure.

I wanted to have sex with him no doubt about it, its just I was unsure of him… of who he was. Could I get past him being a violent gang leader? Get past the unknown truth of who this man really is? He’s supposed to be dangerous and maybe he is but he seemed anything but that right now. He’s being gentle and patient, the complete opposite from what you’d expect.

“It’s just going to be how it was before, just you, me and us having a good time. Nothings changed sunshine.” He says pushing my hair back as he sense my reluctance towards him.
I bit my lip and looked at him as I made up my mind.

“Okay.” I breathed giving in and I see him smile before he kisses me again. Despite everything what I’ve learnt and gone through today, none of that seemed to matter. I still wanted him and he still wanted me and nothing could ruin that.