Men in Control: Special pack: The Smith Brothers Series

by Brenda Ford

  Chapter 21 – Tami – Friday

  I didn’t want Brad to get caught up in this, that’s why I tried to push him away, but he damn well shoved his way inside and now he’s in as much of a shit storm as me. All because of his bullshit ex who has a grudge against me. The same God damn red head that I dismissed when she tried to warn me about Brad at Alex’s gig.

  Little did I know then that I should have paid more attention. Not because Brad really is a cheat or a fuck boy, but because she is crazy as all hell and will do anything to claim him as her own.

  I opened the door to let Ruby in, thinking that it would be my friend come to save the day, but all I did was unleash hell. Now I can’t seem to get this hurricane out however hard I try.

  “So, who is your friend then?” Brad continues, only winding Maria up in my opinion which isn’t the best idea. “Tawny, I bet. She clearly isn’t happy about everything going on at work.”

  “Fucking Tawny. Yes, that crazy ass bitch is my mate now, and why shouldn’t she be?”

  “Why do you think she is suddenly your friend, Maria?” Brad continues. “Don’t you remember her giving you a hard time when you were giving me a hard time the last time around? Huh? She kicked you out of the office more than once and called you all kinds of names, didn’t she? Or are we just forgetting that?”

  “She just thought it was me then.” Maria brazenly juts her chin out. “Now she knows that it’s you. You’re the asshole who gives people hope and then dashes it, making them crazy.”

  I cower in the corner, leaning back against the wall, now wishing that I didn’t leave the office at all. It doesn’t matter if the mean girls were a part of the plan. At least there would be more people on mine and Brad’s side too.

  “Maria, I never gave you hope. And I also don’t understand how that correlates to Tawny anyway…”

  “More Hayley.” Oh God, that name again. “She’s a computer whiz, excellent at design and you have led her to believe that she will get a promotion. Yet she hasn’t had one and this little bitch has.”

  Brad turns to give me an apologetic look, but I don’t blame him for this. This is just a fucked up mess that we’ve created by deciding to be together, nothing he’s done personally.

  “Right, so Hayley has a grudge and Tawny contacted you?” Brad asks. “I’m just trying to work out what the hell is going on here because it’s really confusing for me right now.”

  “Okay, since you are being thick, I will explain it to you.” Maria claps her hands together hard. “You pissed off everyone that you work with by shacking up with this slut who is clearly just using you…” She looks at me expectantly, wanting me to defend my reasons for being with Brad, but right now I can’t find the words. “See what I mean?” She laughs loudly and nastily. “So, Tawny found me online and contacted me to see if I am still interested in you, which I am. I mean, why wouldn’t I be? We had such an amazing time together…”

  This is weird. I don’t know what to make of this. Has she been hurt by Brad in the past which has made her crazy or is she caught up in the mob mentality? Trying to attack me just because the others want to? I can’t work her out, her motivation seems weird as hell to me. But that might be because she’s crazy.

  “We had a few days together, Maria, that’s all and I told you it wouldn’t be long term.”

  “You told me nothing. And you gave me every sign that we were going to be together forever and then you tossed me to the side and treated me like shit. It isn’t acceptable, Brad. Seriously.”

  “I disagree with a lot of what you are saying,” Brad replies carefully. “But I am sorry for hurting you.”

  For a moment, I wonder if I see Maria’s face relaxing. I don’t want to calm down and to believe that it’s all going to be okay again, but I do get a little glimmer of hope. Until she begins yelling.

  “Oh, fuck you, Brad. Fuck you, you horrible man. How fucking dare you. You think just because you’re a rich fuck that you can get away with anything. Well you didn’t even get rich yourself, did you? Your parents left you everything and you just carried on with it. Well, that doesn’t make you a success, nor does it make you a nice person. You’re a fucking scum bag who treats everyone else like they are below you.”

  I don’t know who she is talking about, I don’t recognize that man at all. The Brad that I know is a caring, hard-working and, a wonderful person. He took on his brothers when they were young kids, the business when he was young and didn’t really know better, and he’s been nothing but incredible to me. I don’t understand Maria one bit.

  “Maria, please let’s talk about this calmly,” Brad pleads. “Let’s just sit down and have a calm discussion about this. There’s no need to yell and act all wild about it. We can just chat. Me and you…”

  “What about that bitch?” Maria waves her hand in my general direction. “She’s here so it won’t just be like me and you, will it? We can’t properly talk with her listening in like this. It will be too hard…”

  Wow, Maria seems to really believe like I am the bad guy here and she’s the victim. As if she didn’t storm in to my apartment and start acting like an insane person. I can hardly believe that this is even happening.

  “Kick her out,” Brad shocks me by saying. “We don’t need her here, do we? We can be alone.”

  As he steps closer to her, my breath gets caught in my throat. What the hell is going on? Is this somehow working? Is Brad falling for this woman? Oh God, are they the real love story and I am the bad guy in the middle? Blocking them from their destiny of truly being in love? What the fuck will I do then?

  “You want me to kick her out?” Maria looks lost in his eyes. “Get rid of her?”

  “Yes. Then it can just be us, can’t it? Like the old times…”

  “Exactly, just like all the times me and you had the best times. It was amazing. Wasn’t it?”

  “Better than you have with her?” she sneers, hating me with everything that she has.

  Brad doesn’t even turn around to look at me. “Better than anyone. No one is as good as you, Maria.”

  But there is an insincerity to his voice. One that grabs my focus. Maria can’t know him well at all if she doesn’t recognize that. He is obviously telling the truth and she doesn’t know what she’s going on about.

  The truth hits me like a smack in the face. How could I have been so stupid and naïve? How low is my self-esteem if I truly just believed that I was going to be dropped like that? Brad is doing this to help me get out, just like I didn’t want him to come in. He’s trying to throw himself under the bus to save me. I want to get the hell out of here as well, to run for help, but I’m also afraid that if I leave Brad who knows what she will do?

  “What will you do with me?” Maria asks in a flirty way. I don’t get lost in jealousy, instead I let my brain run wild as I try to work out what I will do first if I get let out of here by some miracle. I have my cell phone now so I can call the cops. Probably some of Brad’s brothers too, just to make sure that everyone is okay. How the hell can I be sure that anyone will get here quick enough though? I need them in this house right now!

  With my heart pounding, I slide my cell phone gently out of my pocket, hoping to message someone now to give them even more time to get here. While Maria is lost in Brad, I can use this to my advantage and speak to someone. Anyone. I would take any person coming here to help us out of this mess right now!

  This woman might not be so dangerous. I may well be freaking myself out, but this is definitely the kind of situation where it would be much better to be safe than sorry. She’s unhinged and that is bad enough for me.

  Help… I just about manage to type at the moment something awful happens. My phone rings, the sound so loud it bursts through the whole house. I drop it in shock. It clatters to the ground just adding to the sound which has already wrecked everything. My eyes flicker upwards and I see Maria and Brad both staring at me with horror.

  “I just knew it.” A glint of s
omething catches my eye. As Maria turns, something catches the light. “I knew that you would be the bastard to fuck everything up. What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you lie to me and tell me that you didn’t have a cell phone? Is there something wrong with you?”

  She pushes Brad to the side and steps towards me. I don’t even look at him because I’m too focused on the mania in her eyes as she steps in my direction. The glint gets brighter, it becomes more noticeable by the second. I haven’t quite yet processed what it is yet, but I already know that it screams danger. There’s no other way to take this. She is everything that I feared she might be, and I didn’t get to send off that message.

  A bleak hopelessness overcomes me. I have a horrible sensation that it’s the end for me. As soon as it hits me that I could die, I know for certain what it is. It’s a knife, a blade that’s coming straight for me. Panic balls up in my throat, fear settles in hard. I try to come to terms with the fact that I’m absolutely screwed.

  “Oh my God.” A more important fact comes to light and I clap my hands to my mouth. “Shit.”

  The blade isn’t just coming for me, it’s absolutely covered in blood which can only have come from one source. Maria wasn’t falling for Brad’s words at all, she was getting closer to him and she seemed to stab him before my phone even went off. She had already planned that this was going to happen.

  With sheer horror, I drag my gaze off the blade and fix it on Brad instead. My worst fear is confirmed. There is blood pouring from him, he has been stabbed and now he’s sliding to the ground in agony. The color has drained from his face, the life is draining from him. I haven’t ever seen him look so lost before.

  “What the fuck have you done?” I scream, racing towards him, ignoring Maria as I go. “You’re nuts.”

  Tears stream down my face. It was one thing accepting that I was going to lose my life, but I don’t want to think about Brad dying. That’s too much for me to handle. I bump into Maria as I tear off, but I don’t even look back to see if she falls to the ground. I don’t care about her at all, only him and I need him to live.

  Chapter 22 – Brad – Saturday

  What time is it? I wonder curiously. How long have we been here? How long is Maria going to keep us?

  I’m woozy, but I’ve been this way for hours. Or at least it seems that way. It’s dark outside anyway and I’m sure I remember someone saying something about midnight at some point, but I don’t know if I just imagined it. I feel a bit like I might be going crazy with all of this blood loss. It mustn’t be too bad a wound, nothing inside of me must be seriously damaged, but it’s still painful as all hell. I still want it to get looked at.

  “Hospital,” I rasp out for what feels like the hundredth time. “I need to go to the hospital.”

  “Oh honey, you aren’t going anywhere. Not until you agree to be with me for good.”

  Urgh, this is stupid. “Okay, sure, whatever you want. I will be with you. Just get me to a doctor.”

  “Oh sure. You’re going to be with me. I believe you.” I can practically hear the eye roll in her voice. “Do you think that I’m stupid or something? Do you think that I have come here for your lies?”

  “Lies? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not lying. I’m just…”

  “Just feeding me what I want to hear because you want to get out of here. I know what you’re up.”

  “Maria, I really think he does need to go to the hospital,” Tami jumps in to my defense. “Look at him. If you keep him here like this for much longer, he will end up dead. Then where will that leave you?”

  “You shut the fuck up, bitch.” Woah. Maria’s tone completely changes as she speaks to Tami. “Haven’t I already told you that you have done enough? You nearly took my arm off charging past me.”

  “You had just stabbed Brad! You can’t honestly stand there and pretend to give a shit about this man when you seem to want him dead. I sure as shit wouldn’t treat someone that I loved this way.”

  “So, you’re telling me that you love Brad now?” Maria sneers. “You love my man. Well, that is just pathetic, honey because that son of a bitch has always belonged to me. Sure, I might have had to wait around until he is ready for commitment, but if that time has come then I will take him. Not you. You are one hell of a basic bitch. He deserves a goddess. Someone who would actually look good on his arm. I couldn’t believe it when Tawny showed me a picture of you as she gave me your number to start the torment. I couldn’t stop laughing.”

  Fuck, this is bad, it’s really bad. I just wish that I had more strength to sort it out. I want to really tell Maria what I think of her and all of this right now. I think that she deserves to know how I really feel about her, even though I don’t think I have been very discrete about that, but it’s like I have no blood in my brain to help me.

  “I actually might call Tawny and the gang around here now,” Maria continues. “They want some serious revenge on you. Who knows, they might even want to cut a bitch up. That could be fun, couldn’t it? Get some more DNA on this knife before I toss it away? Getting rid of any evidence.”

  “The cops will get you.” I’m proud of the way Tami doesn’t seem to want to back down. But I’m scared for her too. I really don’t know which way this will go. Since she’s already shoved that blade in to me, I can see that she is capable of anything. “It doesn’t matter what you do, they will get you.”

  “Please, you think this is my first rodeo? I know how to get away with whatever I want.”

  “So, you really can’t care enough about Brad then, if you’ve done this for another man.”

  “Will you just shut the fuck up, bitch? You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know me at all, so don’t go judging my life. Brad is mine. I tried to warn you away from him before, but you wouldn’t listen…” She did? Why the hell did Tami not tell me about that? “So, now you need to pay for it. And I’m going to make you pay. You will realize that you should have kept away from my man.”

  “Not your man,” I spit out angrily… not that any emotion comes through. “Not yours ever.”

  “What did you say, Brad?” Maria snaps. “Not mine? Are you still spinning that bullshit? Look, I’m all for playing hard to get, it’s a lot of fun. But it’s getting old now, isn’t it? Let’s just call a spade a spade and get it together already. Me and you are destiny, aren’t we? We’re meant to be together.”

  This is nuts, isn’t it? She really has lost her damn mind. She’s unhinged and I’m sure that Tawny and the others have been feeding her enough bullshit to swell these thoughts in her mind. I am definitely getting rid of them now. All of them, anyone who has anything to do with this, they are all gone.

  “Maria, this is between me and you,” I rasp with all of the strength that I can manage. “Not Tami. Just let her go already. Let her get out of here. She isn’t going to do anything to get in the way of us.”

  “That bitch is only getting out of this place in a body bag.”

  “Don’t say things like that. That’s really stupid. Just let her go. Tami isn’t involved…”

  “Tami is too fucking involved and that is exactly the problem. She is in our way, Brad, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to dispose of her. Me and you are going to have to get rid of her body, aren’t we?”

  I really hope that she doesn’t mean this. I really hope this doesn’t get worse than it already is. “Maria, please stop it. Don’t say things like this. You and that knife are scaring me right now.”

  “Good, because they should be. You and your whore.”

  “Tami isn’t a whore, Maria. She’s just a girl. Someone who met a guy…”

  “My guy,” she cries out loudly, really feeling the need to emphasize this point. “My man. She had no right to go after you, did she? She had no right to go anywhere near you at all.”

  Something snaps inside of me. I can hardly keep it together any longer. It’s too intense for me now. She isn’t responding to me t
rying to be nice to her so I’m going to have to try a different tactic.

  “I went near her, Maria. I chased Tami like I haven’t ever chased after anyone before.” A strength begins to burst through me. One that comes from a place of sheer rage. “I wanted her desperately. So, I’m the one who did all of the seducing. The only person to blame here is me. I mean, you know what I’m like.”

  “Yeah, I do,” Maria snaps back. “That’s why I’m confused that you aren’t done with her yet.”

  “Urgh, because I’m falling for her, that’s why. I’ve been falling for her ever since I first met her properly. That’s why I did all of the chasing. Because she is the one for me. Not you.”

  I lean up and watch Maria’s face change. She narrows her eyes angrily at me, hating me for doing this to her, disagreeing with her in front of Tami, disregarding her feelings. But what am I supposed to do? Nothing else will get through to her. I need to make her understand that she’s acting crazy some way or another.

  Then she twists around, and a horribly loud slapping sound fills the room. I half expect a sense of pain to radiate through me, but it isn’t me that she’s hit. It’s Tami. Her body falls backwards, knocking against the wall.

  “See what I will do to anyone that gets in the way of me and you?”

  “Tami isn’t in the way of me and you,” I yell back. “You are in the way of us. You and this behavior. You really think that anyone would want to be with someone who acts this way?”

  Maria’s hands fly on to her hips. She looks completely brazen, like she doesn’t give a shit about anything that I have just said. “You think that anyone wants to be with a man whore, like you?” she sneers. “I have stayed and waited through everything when I really didn’t have to. Then you treat me like this?”

  “I haven’t treated you like anything. I have just kept well out of your way.”

  Maria doesn’t take well to this. She slaps Tami loudly again, which lifts me from the ground. I can’t just sit here and let Tami get hurt, it doesn’t matter what sort of state I am in. The wound screams at me as I move, but I push through it and lurch myself at Maria. Unfortunately, she hasn’t been stabbed so her wits are far more in control than mine, so she moves rapidly. The only thing behind her is a table which my head slams against.