“Pleased to meet you. I’m Terry,” said the big guy, sticking his hand Cody’s way. “And I see you like to play baseball,” said Terry with a mischievous grin.
“Good to meet you. Baseball? It’s not really my thing. But it’s what they use in all the movies...” said Cody, smiling guardedly.
“So, you’re, er, you’re Ashley’s…”
“Good friend,” I added quickly with a cheesy smile. “He’s going to help us get Regan out of there.”
Terry barely held back a smirk at my ‘good friend’ line, but I wasn’t in the mood for banter.
“So, do I qualify? Do you want me on board?” Terry asked Cody. Terry was smarter than I remembered. He must have sensed the awkward dynamic and was asking Cody’s permission as much as he was asking mine.
Cody shrugged. “It’s not my call, Terry.”
“Right,” said Terry, sniffing as he thought about Cody’s reaction. “Tell me how this is going to work, then we can see if you need me or not...”
I started explaining, quickly. He needed to know everything there was to know. We couldn’t afford any mess ups from the moment we got inside that house.
“I’m going in first, just as Brandon expects me to,” I said. “I’m going to play happy families because I think that’s the only way to keep Regan from getting hurt.”
Terry shook his head. “Do you think Regan would want you to do that?”
That question stumped me. For the last couple of years – and especially the last few months – I didn’t think Regan gave a shit about me at all. Not a single one. I didn’t have an answer, so I shrugged.
“You don’t know him, Ash. I know that sounds weird considering he’s your brother and all, but it’s true. He’s a total screw up, he knows that. That’s why he’s a complete idiot when it comes to dealing with you. He knows he’s made bad blood with you, but he still cares about you Ash. He wouldn’t want you taking risks like this.”
“How much did Regan pay you to say those things?” I said, with a smile.
Terry grinned. “Hey. Regan’s a dick, but he’s not a prick, if you get what I mean.” Cody smiled. Like I said, Cody and Terry were from two different planets, but the smile on Cody’s face said he was thawing out.
“Okay, Ash,” said Cody. “Tell Terry the rest of the plan.”
That was a relief.
“Okay. So, I go in. Brandon somehow imagines we are going to live happily ever after, you know, your psychopathic male living with two rival girlfriends. It’s twisted beyond words, Terry, but I have to go with it and act like it all makes total sense.”
“You know, maybe this Brandon guy should be my life coach.”
I couldn’t help laughing, and Cody laughed the same. It was good to break the layer of ice we’d been living under all morning.
“Terry, you really don’t want lessons from this guy, believe me. Stick with video games. It’s safer for your health,” I said. “Back to the plan. So, I go in, and impersonate a Stepford wife. Then Brandon says he will release Regan, as long as I show up before one pm. He says it’ll all go fine as long as that happens and I’m not late.”
“In his dreams. Or maybe yours,” said Terry.
“What do you mean?”
“Regan isn’t going to scurry away like a little rabbit released into the wild. He’s going to want to scratch someone’s eyes out. Think about it. What would you want to do?”
It was the first time I had considered Regan’s immediate response. I just assumed freedom was the end of the game. I’d been blindsided and stupid. It was obvious that Regan would be mad as hell.
“Now think again,” said Terry. This Brandon guy will have considered that, I’m sure of it. So how will he handle that? Think about it.”
“Terry, do you want to hear the rest of the plan?” I said. Terry was throwing curveballs, and I was getting anxious.
“For what it’s worth, yeah.”
“Okay. Until right this second, this was how it went. I get in. Regan gets out. Either way I have Cody and you waiting to act. By then you will both know that Regan is safe – or not. If he’s safe, it’ll be very easy. I open the door and run straight into your arms.”
“And if Regan’s not set free, or you don’t come running, we smash the door down and Cody gets his batting practice,” said Terry.
“You won’t have to do that Terry. I’ll open the door for you either way.”
“You’re too confident about things you can’t control Ash,” said Terry. “This man is a fruit-loop. You said it yourself. He might lock you up. He might decide to turn you into pork chops. You are messing in heavy shit and you don’t want to do that. Why don’t you forget all about the sacrificing yourself part and just let the big guns deal with this before the deadline?”
Terry looked at Cody and raised his eyebrows as if to say “You with me?”
Cody nodded. “You know, I think I actually prefer that.”
“Yeah?” I put my hands on my hips and dug in. “Well, Regan is my brother, and Brandon is a monster I have to deal with. He’s tried to bully me the whole way, but now he’s messed with my family. My family. I’m asking for your help, boys, not your leadership. My priority is Regan’s safety, and I want to be there to see him safe.”
“Yeah. I get that,” said Terry. “But what about your safety? You think Regan will thank me if you get hurt?”
Terry let that hang in the air while I formulated a killer response. But it didn’t come. I didn’t have one. It seemed Terry had grown wise over the years. I didn’t know how deeply cracked Brandon’s mind had become, so I couldn’t ever know his real intentions. All I knew was that Brandon was equally capable of deceiving himself as he was of deceiving me. Maybe Brandon didn’t know what he was going to do next. Now I thought about it, I got chills. Even so, I couldn’t back down. “It’s my way or the high way, Terry.”
“Your way it is,” said Terry. He fixed Cody with a strange look, and Cody met it. Man, I wished this thing was over. Everyone was acting way too weird, and at the worst possible time.
Twelve
“It’s twelve thirty, damn it. You know, I think that little bitch lied to me,” said Brandon, checking the time on his mobile phone screen and then the clock above the mantelpiece in the front room. “She lied. I’ve got her own brother tied up in a room upstairs and she’s not going to come and help him. Maybe I misread this. She already saved that little bastard once. He was about to get his legs broken by a drug dealer right before she started college and she bailed him out. Maybe Ashley thinks she’s already helped him enough.”
Amanda watched Brandon pace around the front room.
“You’re jumping to conclusions, Brandon. Ashley will come, I’m sure of it.”
“You weren’t so sure yesterday…” said Brandon.
“Yeah, well…” said Amanda. She wanted to keep Brandon calm. If he stayed calm, there was a chance they’d get through this unscathed. Amanda had a headache. What the hell was she doing here? How had she let it get this bad? She was caught up in some kind of crazy kidnap situation. It felt like she had woken up in a nightmare. But she realised she’d been kidding herself all along. She pretended coming here was a way of waiting for the best possible moment to leave him. But that wasn’t true. The real reason she’d followed Brandon was to postpone leaving him because she needed him and she still adored him. Even after all the poison and horror he’d poured into her life, after the way he’d made her fall in love with him - even when he was fucking Ashley in the very bed they had shared together - she still fawned over him, wanted him and went giddy in his presence. Her body still responded to his call more than any other man she’d known. It was as if her hormones were on automatic pilot, coded only for his needs. The sex was still amazing. In fact, his performance lately had just seemed to get even better. She sighed, recalling how he made her shudder as he filled her core and squeezed her flesh in his strong hands. She needed to leave him because he was killing her. But when they
made love she came alive at his touch. Such a terrible quandary. In Brandon Amanda saw perfect male beauty, and sometimes it was hers. But even beyond his affair with Ashley, Brandon had gone haywire. She guessed he had suffered a breakdown after his expulsion from college. It was possible. His dreams and ambitions had all but gone up in smoke. And even as her body enjoyed the gentle aftershocks of Brandon’s latest domination, Amanda knew her season of passion with Brandon would be over as soon as Ashley returned. He was obsessed with her. Thoughts of a pre-emptive revenge against Ashley came to her mind. She considered telling Brandon that she had seen Cody on the beach. But Amanda knew she would hate herself if she did. She stayed silent for another reason too. No one could do what Brandon had been doing and avoid trouble for long. Whatever happened next would have consequences. If she could ride this out and stay safe, Amanda was sure Brandon would be going away for a while. Jail or a mental institution or whatever, he was going somewhere. Once he was gone, what would she do? She wondered if there would be any kind of life left. So she had to safeguard any glimpses of hope that remained. The only reason she didn’t tell Brandon about Cody’s appearance was because she couldn’t afford any more enemies. She feared being alone.
“Luke! Look at the time. She’s not coming…”
“Brandon. You told her one o’clock. You’ve put the girl under enormous pressure. She’s probably bricking it. She doesn’t want to come here, you’re twisting her arm. There’s every chance she’ll turn up at the last possible moment.” Luke had rarely spoken so frankly to Brandon, in all the time she had known him. She saw the twitchy look on Luke’s face. Luke also knew that Brandon was coming apart at the seams. Brandon’s eyes became glassy, lost in thought. He looked sad, and she had rarely seen him sad. He looked sad enough that she wanted to hug him and hold him and rock him and tell him it would all be okay. But she knew that wasn’t an option. She wasn’t invited to love him now. His thoughts were dedicated to Ashley.
“Do you think she doesn’t want to come? She doesn’t want to see me?”
Luke’s head snapped up at the ceiling in disbelief. He trained his voice to stay level and calm.
“Brandon. She left the house. She tried to leave before. I think there’s a bit of her that DID still like you… I mean, what girl doesn’t like Brandon Lynes… But how can she love you after what you’ve done?”
“What? Are you on Ashley’s side?” said Brandon, gritting his teeth. He looked at Amanda and she flinched away in fear. “I bet you’re on her side too. Both of you…”
“No!” said Amanda.
“You’ve got this wrong,” said Luke. “You’ve got to keep it together, Brandon. This is not a good situation to lose your head in. This is dangerous, very dangerous. This shouldn’t have happened, but it has… so we have to stay composed, or this is going to go off like an A-bomb.”
Luke looked at Amanda. His eyes stayed trained on hers, as if there was a hidden message, something only for her to receive. This was the first time they’d ever shared any kind of confidence excluding Brandon. A new line had opened between them… and it was a kind of admission that Brandon was not the man they’d loved for so long. Not anymore.
“Keep it together? What? You think what I’ve done is wrong? I did what I had to do. The girl won’t respond to me, won’t hear me, won’t even give me the time of day. The only way I could possibly get her back was by doing something daring…”
“Brandon. This is more than daring. This is seriously dangerous. We’ve got to play it safe from here,” said Luke.
“Is that right? You know, maybe I should start calling you Luke Warm, because that’s what I’m hearing from you right now. What was I supposed to do, Luke? Let me hear it?”
“Do what other people do, maybe… when a girl doesn’t want you anymore it hurts… but you let them go… because you have no choice…?”
“Let Ashley go? After all that’s happened? And then what, eh, Luke? Then what?”
“You’ve already got a great girl, Brandon…”
Luke gestured towards Amanda and she looked away, her face turning crimson, before she stole a glance at Brandon. He looked at her with blazing blue eyes, his brow low over them. It was a wild look. She loved those eyes, but right now they made her heart beat faster with fear much more than desire.
“Fine,” said Brandon.
Luke and Amanda looked at one another. “Fine. What does that mean?”
“It means I know you’re no longer on side.”
“But we are with you,” said Amanda.
“But you’re not, Amanda. Ashley is pushing me to the edge and I can’t stand it. She’s calculating. She knows what she’s doing. And because she knows it, I’m going to have to punish her, so she’ll see she shouldn’t have messed with me.”
Brandon walked out of the room, full of arrogant purpose. Luke gave Amanda a desperate look, then rushed into the hallway after him.
“What are you going to do, Brandon?”
“Oh don’t worry. Nothing drastic.”
“But what are you going to do? This has gone far enough, don’t you think?”
“Yes. Yes it has. You can trust me on that part.”
Amanda stood by the window looking out to the seawall, listening to the conversation with trepidation. As Brandon’s heavy feet creaked up the stairs, Luke returned to the front room.
“What’s he going to do, Luke?”
“Nothing. He said nothing drastic. He wants us to trust him, and that’s what we’re going to do…”
Amanda waited for him to finish his sentence. “For now…” he added, sounding desperate and conspiratorial.
They heard the door to Regan’s room creak open. They heard talking. Then raised voices. Amanda and Luke looked at one another, and she pressed her hands to her temples. “Please, no,” said Amanda. Then came a gentle thud and a half second later came a harder thud that shook the ceiling, followed by a deep screeching howl.
“Oh my God,” said Luke, and he ran for the stairs.
Thirteen
I admit it, I couldn’t bear facing Brandon, and so I put off seeing him as long as I dared. It was ten minutes to one when I pressed the doorbell at 175 Seaview Esplanade. I felt sick with anxiety. I was sure I was shaking, but I didn’t want to let it show. When Brandon opened the door and fed me those great big blue eyes, I was absorbed by his disarming good looks, but I was also churning. I wanted to look in control, settled, and surrendered. But I was none of those things. I steadied my hands by force of will and looked at him as he looked me up and down like we were a couple about to go out on a date. I wasn’t exactly dressed to impress. I was just me, jacket, blouse and jeans with my winter boots on.
“So, you made it. I was getting worried. You look good Ash.”
“Thanks,” was all I could muster.
He stayed holding the door and looked at me again.
“Where are your things? You’re coming back to live, remember?”
Damn. In all the hurly-burly I’d forgotten that crucial thing – a suitcase prop. So I bluffed.
“Um. We can get all that, or I can buy some more stuff. The most important thing is that I’m here, right?”
“Yeah. We’re back together. Come in.”
He outstretched his hand and I laid mine in it. His calmness and warmth was disarming and spellbinding, I had to remember he was not a nice guy. Brandon was a poisonous villain dressed up as the most wonderful eye candy.
I looked around the little hallway. The house was small, but all done up in a seaside theme with seashells and model boats and miniature beach huts everywhere. It was nice. In another life it would have been a wonderful place to hang out, but right now it was a twisted house of horrors. The seaside objet d’art seemed horrifically jaunty. Amanda’s face emerged at an open doorway by the foot of the stairs. She leaned on the doorframe, pressing her face against it. Her eyes were all charged up and emotional, like she was having her own personal freak out, but I didn’t have any time f
or her issues. Not now. And looking at her told me something else too. Her neat hair was slightly mussed up, and her face had that blushing thing going on. I’d seen that look on her before. She was having sex with Brandon again, and it had happened recently. I could barely look at her because I knew how unreliable she was, and I guessed she could have already betrayed me, or she wanted to, yet I couldn’t be sure, so I smiled at her. It was a weak smile, but it was the best I could do under the circumstances.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi, Ash. It’s good to see you.” What a total lie.
“Likewise,” I said. I didn’t ask if she was okay, because she plainly wasn’t. She was probably back to hoping I would vanish and be forgotten forever more. The girl was as neurotic as they come.
Burning Heart: Fighting Heart Erotic Bad Boy Romance Series Book 4 Page 8
