The 2015 R.L. Mathewson Chronicles Collection

by R. L. Mathewson

  “You owe our brother an apology,” Johnny stated with a flat stare at the much larger boy as Sebastian added, “And all your candy,” which made the rest of the teenage boys laugh as they jumped out of the car.

  The boy that had pushed Mathew down, snorted as he looked over his shoulder at Mathew who was watching them with murder in his eyes.

  “Yeah, I don’t think so,” he said with a smug smile as he looked back at them.

  “That was your second mistake of the night,” Johnny said flatly.

  “Oh, and what’s that?” another boy asked.

  Sebastian answered without missing a heartbeat, “Thinking.”

  “Your first mistake was laying your hands on our brother and thinking that you were going to walk out of here without a scratch,” Johnny added in an ominous tone that would have sent any rational person running for their lives, but these were teenage boys that they were dealing with here.

  As the teenage boys laughed, proving their theory was correct, the twins shared a look before they shifted on the group of teenagers descending on them. Just as the biggest boy reached for him, Johnny said, “Don’t do anything that’s going to land us in jail tonight.”

  With a nod, because he really couldn’t make that promise as two of the boys reached for him, he promised to do his best.

  *-*-*-*

  “Oh, fucking hell the police are here,” Trevor said, reaching over and taking Zoe’s hand into his, needing the emotional support to get through the next ten minutes with wringing one of his son’s throats.

  Frowning, Zoe gestured with her free hand towards a group of teenage boys, sitting in various positions on the ground, and all crying. “That can’t be good.”

  No, it really couldn’t, he silently agreed with a wince, trying not to think about how much it was going to cost them this time to keep their boys out of juvenile hall.

  “Oh my God,” Zoe said hollowly as she released his hand and shoved the truck door open before he could come to a stop.

  “Zoe!” he yelled after her as she damn near took twenty years off his life.

  He threw the truck in park, uncaring that it was sitting in the middle of the road and ran after his wife, who was incidentally running towards an ambulance, he realized with cold dread forming in his stomach.

  Please, God, no…

  Not his boys, he thought swallowing hard as he ran past Zoe and headed towards the group of paramedics and police officers crowding around the back of the open doors of the ambulance. Not really giving a fuck, he pushed his way in and when he saw his youngest son sitting on Sebastian’s lap, crying against his brother’s shoulder while Johnny took a clean gauze pad from a paramedic and carefully worked on cleaning the blood off Mathew’s knee and leg, he couldn’t help but sigh with relief.

  “What the hell happened to my son?” he demanded of no one in particular, not bothering to introduce himself or even ask what his boys did to gain police attention.

  With a cold glare, Johnny looked up at him and with a slight nod of his chin, gestured towards the group of crying teenage boys. Taller than most of the officers, Trevor looked over his shoulder and smiled when he spotted Cole and Jason standing a few feet away from the boys and taunting them as only a Bradford knew how.

  When Zoe managed to break through the crowd and Mathew spotted her, he immediately leaped from his brother’s lap and wrapped his arms around his mother with a little pathetic sniffle.

  “Oh, sweetie, what happened?” she asked, fawning over their youngest son as Mathew looked up and met his gaze with a frightening expression that nearly matched his brother’s.

  “I made the biggest one cry,” he said with that frightening smile that he’d somehow managed to perfect in one night and it was in that moment that Trevor realized that he might want to think about getting a lawyer on retainer for his youngest son.

  The Day After Christmas

  “Let’s just get this over with,” Darrin said, sighing heavily as Jason and Trevor sat there, checking their texts and their latest scores on their video game.

  “Do you really need us to go in and hold your hand?” Jason asked, not bothering to look up from his phone and Trevor swallowed back a yawn.

  For a minute all Darrin could do was stare at the two assholes that got him in this situation. “You’re the reason I’m here in first place, you little prick!” he snapped.

  “How do you figure that?” Trevor asked, sounding bored as he continued to play a game on his phone.

  He gave them an, “Are you fucking kidding me?” look that said it all. Granted, when it came down to it, it was really his fault for taking his cousins’ advice.

  Not that he’d asked for their opinion, but they’d somehow just been there when he’d been searching the mall aimlessly looking for something to buy his wife for Christmas. Normally he bought Marybeth her favorite chocolate, a few novels and grabbed her a couple of gift cards, but now that they were married, the idea of sticking with the same old shit seemed wrong somehow.

  That’s when the two bastards had shown up, offering their unwelcomed, but well-timed, assistance. At first he’d ignored them, then when he found himself about to buy her a bunch of scratch tickets to put in a card, he caved. It was a weak moment, he’d admit that and one that had seriously pissed off his wife and landed him on the couch last night.

  For his own safety.

  It had also been the first time in his life that he’d gone to bed with his service weapon by side, but then again, it probably would have been understandable if she’d killed him. Lord knows that his mother and all the women in his family had certainly tried to kill him last night. Thanks to the two asshole sitting in his truck, he’d been forced to lock himself in the freezing cold attic last night for five hours until his father managed to calm everyone down.

  Once the women had settled down, the betraying bastards in his family, from his father to his brothers, uncles and even the two bastard cousins who had talked him into buying that fucked up gift had come after him. He hadn’t run that fast or that far since the academy. Thankfully he’d stayed in shape and had been able to outrun most of his family, but he would never figure out how his Uncle Jared had managed to catch up with him, tackle him, and hold him down until the rest of the bastards had been able to join them.

  From that point each of his so called family members had taken their turn explaining about appropriate gifts to give your wife in front of the whole fucking family!

  He couldn’t prove it yet, but he had a feeling the two bastards with him had snuck that package in there to entertain themselves. He’d planned on giving his wife that box later in private after the kids had fallen asleep. There was no way in hell that he would have ever given his wife a box full of sex toys and crotch-less panties in front of his entire fucking family.

  He’d more than fucking agreed, which was why that was supposed to be a gift for them to laugh about later in private. For her real gift, he’d bought her a set of white and black diamond studs, a large box of her favorite chocolates and The Walking Dead DVD Collection. Somehow those gifts hadn’t made it downstairs.

  “Get your asses out of the truck,” he said, in no mood for their bullshit.

  “I’m still waiting to hear a please,” Jason said with a heavy sigh.

  In no mood for their bullshit, Darrin pulled his phone. “And I bet Haley and Zoe are still waiting to hear where I got such a stupid fucking idea in the first place.” he said casually as he found Haley’s phone number and held his thumb over the “Send” button.

  That immediately got their attention.

  “You wouldn’t!” Jason snarled.

  “I really would though,” he said, loving the idea of the two normally lovely women tearing the two large bastards apart.

  “You fucking bastard,” Trevor said as he jammed his phone in his back pocket and with a glare that promised all sorts of violence, got out of the truck.

  Jason followed, muttering something about disloyal bastards.


  All Darrin cared about was the fact that his cousin got their asses moving. Grabbing the box that had gotten his ass kicked up and down the street last night, he walked towards the mall, barely pausing to shove the box in Jason’s hands and kept on walking, daring the bastard to bitch about it.

  Fortunately for Jason, he didn’t bitch, but he did release a long-suffering sigh as he followed him into the mall and-

  “Holy shit,” Trevor muttered as they all came to a halt. It was either that or risk getting crushed to death by the large crowd taking up every available spot, holding Christmas bags and demanding refunds.

  “Maybe we should do this at another time,” Jason suggested.

  “Or just throw that shit in the dumpster,” Darrin suggested as he gestured for his cousins to slowly back up so that they could get the fuck out of there before-

  “Oh, shit!” Jason groaned as two women fighting over who was in line first at one of the jewelry kiosks banged into him, knocking the box out of his hands and sending the contents sprawling across the marble floor.

  The impact somehow caused three of the vibrators that hit the floor to turn on, causing a shift in the attention from the cat fight to a little boy picking up one of the vibrators with a huge smile and yelling, “A light saber!”

  A few feminine shrieks followed and yeah, that was definitely their cue to leave.

  Being a man of few words, Darrin said the only thing that would mean anything to a Bradford at a time like this.

  “Run!”

  With a nod, Jason said, “Sounds like a plan.”

  “Definitely a plan,” Trevor said as they all turned and raced for the door, but not before they heard, “Hey, Timmy! Grab the green one and we can have a swordfight!”

  “Wow, it glows!” they heard another little boy say, confirming the fact that they were all going to hell.

  A Sneak Peek at Christmas from Hell

  “Just act cool,” Duncan said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze of assurance as he shot another discreet glance around the large restaurant while she stood there, trying not to yawn.

  She was so tired, she thought with a smile when all she should be doing is grumbling and bitching that she wanted to go back to bed, but that would probably lead to exhaustion and eventually a stay at the hospital where she would probably have to explain how she’d managed to get exhausted and dehydrated by going to bed.

  That definitely was not a conversation that she wanted to go on record, so instead she stood there, taking in the delicious aromas of scrambled eggs, toast and bacon. She loved to cook and had a very high level of expectation when it came to her food, but every now and then she liked to slum it up a bit and eat at places like this.

  No, she wasn’t a snob, not in the least, but sometimes she liked to sit down and enjoy a simple meal without having to worry about how it was made, who made it and what should have been done to improve it. Basically, she just enjoyed a little bit of fast food now and then as an escape from her own impossibly high standards.

  “Do you see a banned list?” he asked suddenly, drawing her attention to the fact that he was now wearing sunglasses and staring intently at the brown tiled floor.

  Frowning, she looked around as she repeated back in a mumble, “A banned list?”

  “Shhh! You’ll give us away!” he said in a harsh whisper as he reached back and rubbed his neck nervously while risking a glance at the cashier and manager before averting his eyes back to the floor and giving her, her first clue that there just might be something a bit off about Duncan.

  “Ookay,” she said, stretching out the word and wondering where all this paranoia was coming from suddenly.

  That is until she saw it…

  By the time she’d read through the list twice, she decided that she definitely needed to use bathroom and splash some cold water on her face. As she excused herself, she averted her eyes to the piece of slate nailed to the back wall with what looked like heavy duty bolts and quietly made her way to the bathroom.

  Once she was there, she breathed a little easier. Maybe she’d misread the slate board, she tried to tell herself, but she knew that she hadn’t. She also knew that in less than a minute Duncan was going to realize that he was banned from this restaurant simply because he had the misfortune of having the last name, Bradford.

  It also meant that she now had a choice to make. Go with Duncan in support of this unfair band, find a restaurant or another grocery store, whip up a lunch or a late breakfast or, she could risk the man that she was quickly falling for over some cheap, greasy food.

  When she looked in the mirror, she realized that the choice was never hers to make. She wasn’t the type of person to back down from doing the right thing and she wasn’t going to start now. So, after taking one last fortifying breath, she swallowed, praying for the strength to do this even as she asked for forgiveness, because she knew without a doubt that there was going to be hell to pay for this later.

  Opening the bathroom door that was off to the side of the front cash register, she wasn’t exactly surprised to find Duncan standing by the exit, looking incredibly pissed and being guarded by five really nervous looking employees. When he saw her, he sighed with relief and held out his hand for her. “Come on, sweetheart, I’ll make you breakfast,” Duncan said with a sweet smile that really made what she had to do a little more difficult, but they were talking about unlimited bacon and eggs here so…

  She frowned as she walked towards the cash register, “I’m sorry, but do I know you?” she asked innocently, loving the way that his eyes narrowed accusingly on her, because she could see the heat in them and knew exactly how he’d make her pay for this later.

  Which, was more than fine with her, she decided with a little thrill as she paid for her meal, grabbed a tray and walked away, trying to pretend that she didn’t feel his gaze burning into her back the entire way.

  As she loaded up her plate with fresh scrambled eggs, bacon and home fries, she was kicking herself for not bringing a few of her cooking magazines with her to help pass the time, because it seemed as though that she was going to be stuck here for quite some time.

  About the Author

  Writer, Facebook stalker, mother of two and hot cocoa addict, R.L. Mathewson lives life to its fullest.

  When she’s not chauffeuring her children to and from school or their various activities, she runs a Lego Club for a bunch of chocolate addicted children, blasts Sirius XM’s The Highway, writes, edits, cooks, cleans and oh yeah, she even watches movies on Netflix.

  It’s safe to say that she does it all…………..

  Intrigued?

  Of course you are.

  If you would like to know more about this author, her latest books or information on the latest methods to stalk people on Facebook, visit her site:

  www.Rlmathewson.com

  Or you can email her directly at, Rlmathewson25@gmail.com