by M. S. Willis
DAVID
A Control Series Novella
By M.S. Willis
This is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
David: Copyright © 2013 by M.S. Willis
Cover: ©2013 by Jason L. Lee
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced, scanned, distributed in any printed or electronic form or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN 978-0-9894479-7-3
[email protected]
Control Series
Book One – Control
Book Two – Conflict
Book Three – Conquer
Coming in 2014
Captured – Alex and Ava’s Story
Changed – Annie and Logan’s story
OTHER BOOKS BY M.S. WILLIS
- The Estate Series -
Book One – Madeleine Abducted
Prequel (Book 0.5) – Joseph Fallen
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Epilogue
Prol
ogue
Hello everyone! David here.
Listen...I want to commend M.S. Willis. (I’ll call her ‘M’ from here on out because we are tight like that). When I first learned that she’d written The Control Series, I was a little skeptical. I mean, sure, she could probably do a great job describing my friends and the craptastic events that affected our lives, but really, I don’t know that there are enough words in the English language to describe how wonderful I am. I knew whatever words she used could never do me justice…and I was right.
Anywho, I have to admit I was disappointed. Although M’s portrayal of what happened was pretty close to the truth, she missed the most important thing: Me.
Not once did she tell you the story from my perspective. You had to have been just as disappointed as I was. Let me apologize to you now and I promise you, M and I have talked long and hard about this and, well, she basically told me where I could stick my opinion.
So, screw her! I’ll write the damn book myself. How hard can it be? I can talk about myself all day long – shouldn’t be any different typing it out. (Fine! Matt’s typing, but I’m the one telling the story.) M told me I would have to find an editor, a cover artist and of course, fans. She wished me luck in my endeavors (does she always have to speak so formally?) and I set out to prove that anything she can do, I can do better.
I want to mention that I had a child at The Center draw the ah-mazing cover and I was slick by stealing not only her editor, but her fans as well.
So here it is, key events in the Control series, told from the only perspective that should have mattered…mine.
Will there be extras, as in where people ended up after Conquer concluded? Of course! I know that you all are excited to hear about what happened with Matt and me…and the rest of my friends (although they are not as important).
Before beginning, I suggest you finish up whatever chores you have to do, possibly get off work or hide in a place where you can read uninterrupted. Just tell your friends that you’re hanging with David…THE David. I’m sure they’ll understand. Now grab some wine, or coffee, or soda and popcorn and sit back to read all about the most important person in the world.
Me.
Chapt
er One
“Oh my god, holy crap and heaven help me, that stuff is disgusting!”
Why in the hell hadn’t Paige moved yet? We’d been sitting at the light for five minutes and I believe it rotated between red and green three agonizing times. Looking through the cracked windshield of the David-mobile, I noticed how she kept looking up at the luxury condos to our right. Sure, the buildings are beautiful, but there’s no reason to hold up traffic to take a gander. My eyes couldn’t help but follow the direction of her gaze and, holy shit, was I glad I did. There, standing on the third floor balcony, in his tanned and toned glory, was the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. I’m not talking just ordinary good-looking. No. This man, he was the epitome of sex, an Adonis dripping with sin, every sensual muscle on his body outlined by a deeper gold shadow. Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t as beautiful as me, but I wasn’t going to hold that against him. In fact, he possibly ran a close second.
After wiping the drool from my wide-open mouth, I slammed my hand on the horn to wake up the freakishly tall blonde ahead of me. She jumped in surprise before swiveling her head to look at the light. Finally! The red brake light faded away and Paige moved forward.
Reaching the small diner that sat just inside the city limits, I parked the car, made a quick hair check in the mirror and exited my vehicle to meet up with Paige. Climbing off her bike, she pulled off her helmet and allowed her long blonde hair to fall around her shoulders. I sat mesmerized by how easy she made it appear, like a hair commercial come to life.
We took our seat inside the diner and Paige looked like she’d just seen a ghost. Her eyes were flicking all over the place and she sat in a defensive posture. She wasn’t telling me something and I’d be damned not to get to the bottom of it. I opened my mouth to begin my interrogation, but then…then…the third most gorgeous man I’ve ever seen approached our table in the form of our waiter. He had a thin build, but it was still toned, his shoulders were droolworthy and his light brown hair was cut short to his head. I looked up into his green eyes and time stopped. I know Paige was still babbling on about something, but it became random noise in the background. This man was going to be mine. I made the decision and he was going to have to live with it.
“Uh, hey. My name is Matt and I’ll be your server today. What can I get y’all to drink?”
Good Lord sitting in his throne in the sky – Matt’s southern accent made me think of sweaty, shirtless cowboys on horseback and I shifted in my seat. There was not one thing that I didn’t like about him. I don’t believe in insta-love, and even after meeting him, I still didn’t; but instant lust? Oh hell yeah! Sign me up for the fan club because I was instantly on the prowl.
Quickly glancing at the menu, my eyes kept seeking out the vanilla milkshake I would normally order, but I needed to impress this guy, and given his build, I assumed he had to be into sports or some kind of physical fitness. Not wanting to appear like the glutton that I am, I closed my eyes and pointed. Unfortunately I landed on what looked like an interesting concoction of grass and fruit. Yuck! But I went with it.
“I’ll take the mango wheatgrass smoothie, please.” Add a bright smile, and I’m sure he was instantly impressed. From the corner of my eye I could see Paige’s skeptical eyebrow rise on her face, but, I ignored her.
Matt smiled back at me, displaying a gorgeous row of bright white teeth and I knew I had this in the bag. I watched as he walked away and I was barely able to take my eyes off of his firm, round behind when he made his way back to the kitchen.
“Mango wheatgrass smoothie? Really? What happened to your standard vanilla shake?”
Hmph! Like I can’t be healthy…
Okay, fine. Maybe Paige was right to ask. In truth, I’m nothing more than a human garbage disposal. Burgers, fries, grease, sugar, fat, carbs, salt and more sugar. My basic diet is made up of everything your doctor tells you not to eat – plus coffee, lots of coffee. I love every minute of it. However, I’m always the type
to try something once and mostly when it benefits me. So, wheatgrass it was.
Minutes ticked by while we waited for Matt to bring us our drinks and I nodded sympathetically at my bestie, listening to her drone on about the man she’d met at Tomb. Honestly, I was a little in shock. Paige never acted this way. In fact, the only time she seemed to pay attention to the opposite sex was when they infuriated her so badly, she’d already listed out seventy-five ways she would kill them and dispose of the body. Most people didn’t understand her, but then again, most people couldn’t understand what it must have been like for her growing up. I love her parents, don’t get me wrong, but I swear those people were whispering to her in her crib about the dangers of loving people. However, when Paige revealed that the Adonis we’d just passed on the way here was the asshat she’d been obsessing about; I paid attention. The man was gorgeous, and if I wasn’t already in insta-lust with Matt, I may have considered steering Paige off his course so that I could have a go at him myself.
“Okay, you two. I have one orange juice for the lady and a mango wheatgrass smoothie for…I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.” I jumped when Matt’s southern accent sounded above us and I kicked myself for having missed him when he walked to the table. Looking up quickly, I noticed he was talking to me.
“David.”
He smiled and I melted in my seat. It was a match made in Heaven, or a match made in a greasy diner…same thing, just as long as it was a match.
“What can I get y’all to eat?”
The corner of his mouth twitched when I looked back up at him to order a salad. Damn, I knew he was into the healthy stuff. I’d break him of that habit eventually, but, for now, I was playing along.
Paige ordered an unimpressive breakfast of grits, fried eggs and sausage and, on one hand, I had to be thankful that she made me look good. On the other, I knew I was going to cut-a-bitch when I watched her eat it. Two of my food groups would be in that bowl while I was munching away on rabbit food.
When Matt swaggered away, I picked up my smoothie and I sat back and took a big swig. I know lots of people drink it all the time, so I convinced myself I was missing out on something and should jump right in.
I was wrong.
Way wrong.
Spitting out the offensive lawn clippings, my body heaved from the introduction to the horrid concoction and Paige laughed on her side of the table after dodging a pea green avalanche that would have made the director of The Exorcist proud.
“Oh my god, holy crap and heaven help me, that stuff is disgusting!”
Quickly grabbing napkins, I hastily covered up my faux pas and shoved the napkins to the side hoping Matt didn’t notice the pile of sopping green paper.
It didn’t work.
Matt brought our food to the table and placed the grease and salt saturated goods in front of Paige, before handing me the salad. I watched his eyes flick over to Mount Vomit on the side of our table, looking like a sad, wilting Christmas tree made of napkins.
“Oh hey, could you also bring me a burger and a vanilla shake.” Paige smiled up at Matt while mixing her food together. His beautiful lips curved up into a knowing smile and those soft green eyes of his looked at me before he turned to fetch the goods. Good ol’ Paige. She saved my ass by ordering me real food.
Paige and I ate quickly while discussing her issue with Daemon and I had a pretty good feeling I piqued her curiosity enough to at least check him out.
(David Note: So, because you all have read Control, I’m sure, there’s really no need to rehash what I told her, but basically, this is the part where I broke down my top three reasons for dating someone: good looks, money and a good personality. Why did I do that? Simple. Paige is an investigator, me pointing out that a lowly bouncer must be rich is a decent enough mystery to get her cognitive wheels spinning and, as you know, it worked. This is the beginning of how I saved the day. Think about it. If Paige hadn’t talked to Daemon, he wouldn’t have been able to save her later on in the story – which I should get back to.)
Paige hightailed it to her bike when we finished eating, but I lagged behind hoping that green eyes would make it back over to the table before I hoofed it. And…he did.
“Hey, um, I hope everything turned out okay. It doesn’t look like you touched the smoothie or the salad, but your friend seemed to put everythin’ away.” Two small dimples popped out on his tanned cheeks when he grinned and, had I been standing, I would have been a puddle on the floor. This guy oozed southern charm from every pore on his body.
“Yeah, I can’t believe the girl is such a stick after the amount of crap she consumes. It’s amazing. They should use her as a lab rat or something when studying weight issues. But anyway, enough about her, let’s talk about you.” I didn’t have much time and I was going in for the kill.
He smiled, and the look on his face told me he was a little skeptical about my interest. “What would you like to know about me?”
“Your phone number and what night you are available to meet up this week.” I gave him my signature smile and when his expression changed from confusion, he looked away shyly, but then back to me. It took him a minute to finally take me up on the request, but he pulled out a piece of paper from his pad, scribbled on it real quick and handed it to me. I grabbed his pad from him and quickly scribbled my number on it as well…just in case.
Score!
I climbed out of the booth and stood up to find that Matt was approximately the same height. Bonus. Trying my best to be suave, I held out my hand for a friendly shake and he smiled to take it, his grip was not too weak and not too strong. Inst-lust was fast becoming insta-love.
Clearing my throat of the excitement that bubbled up within it, I regretfully admitted, “Well, I should get going. My friend Paige can be pretty damn scary when you hold her up. I’ll call you later in the week. We could get coffee or dinner or something.” I’ll admit, I had to force my voice to appear confident in that last sentence. In truth, I was scared shitless and the cute dimples on his cheeks were doing nothing but taunting and intimidating me.
Leaving the diner, I flashed Matt’s number at Paige while she was pulling on her helmet. I couldn’t tell because of the mass of black plastic that surrounded her head, but, I was pretty sure she gave me a megawatt smile in response.
It was a good day.
Chapt
er Two
“Hurry up, Paige! The freaking swamp is trying to eat me!”
(David Note: Here, again, I’m going to skip ahead. You know we drove to Paige’s parents’ place, you know Paige had a decent talk with her mom, and now you’re going to know what really happened when my dear friend, Paige, tried to get me killed in the swamp. M.S. did a good job for the most part in her description, but I came out looking bad – so it’s time you know the truth. Back to the story…)
As usual, the kids at the Center were little balls of energy that received great joy out of using me as a jungle gym and subsequent punching bag. By the time I could get them settled to read, I had at least five good hits to the shins and arms that would turn a nice shade of purple the following day. But, despite the pain, the high-pitched giggles and squeals made it totally worth it. Settling down, I read Curious George to the kids and once they were settled and drooling from their afternoon naps, I went in search of Paige.
Opening the back door, I was instantly met with the smells of spring in Florida. The Star Jasmine was in bloom and its scent wafted across the wetlands, creating a magical backyard in which to lazily spend a day. I stepped out and spied Paige wading in the water by a large Cypress.
“Paige!” I called out to her and she immediately turned to look at me. I wasn’t sure, but I assumed by waving her hands, she was just overenthusiastic to see me, because, let’s face it, it’d been at least thirty minutes since we last talked and that’s a long time to go without yours truly.
Heading out over the veranda and large area of grass, I got annoyed that she kept waving at me. But, then
I thought, Oh crap! She might need help or something, so I started to run.
I moved as fast as I could and she looked like she was coming out of the water towards me. I’d worn my new – ridiculously expensive - shoes today, not thinking I’d be jogging through nature. These beauties cost me three hundred bucks and they weren’t intended for leaping over rotting logs and running through grass that was as high as my hip.
But this was Paige…and she needed rescuing. At least I could be fashionable while doing so.
When I approached the edge of the marsh I yelled out, “Paige! Hold on, girl! I’m coming to get you!”
And that’s when it happened.
The swamp opened its cavernous mouth and ate my $300 shoes and it was taking my legs with them.
I looked up at Paige, desperately hoping she was able to get out of the water without me. She was yelling something out to me, but I couldn’t hear her. I think she was frightened but I couldn’t get to her to provide assistance. I had problems of my own at that moment.
Desperately, I pulled at my leg and groaned. My foot was sinking fast and taking my entire body with it. I tried to think my way through this. Clearly, whatever had trapped Paige in the water was now working its way up my leg. I looked up to find that Paige had escaped the death trap she’d previously been caught in and I breathed out a sigh of relief to see she was running in my direction. Now, I had to save myself.
“Hurry up, Paige! The freaking swamp is trying to eat me!”
I stepped forward in an attempt to gain leverage and yank my foot out of the boggy depths of the swamp. Placing my foot down, I pushed against the ground and pulled at my trapped leg. Just when I thought I was making progress, my other foot sank into the ground and I was sinking fast. I’ll admit it, I screamed like a girl at that moment, but my situation had just gone from bad to hopeless. It didn’t matter how hard I pulled on one leg, because any bit of leverage I gained on one resulted in the other sinking deeper into the muck.
