Dirty Stepbrother - A Firefighter Romance (The Maxwell Family)

by Alycia Taylor

  Chapter Seven

  Elly

  I was walking through the back lot, not really paying much attention to anything around me. I was so pissed. Cole had just proved that all men were snakes. They all only wanted one thing. I’d actually had a good time with him at the fair. That was why I’d agreed to go out to dinner with him. It was almost as comfortable as things used to be between us, before my boyfriend died and everything had gotten out of hand…We were laughing and talking about old times. He was telling me that he had a serious girlfriend back home and he was even thinking about proposing. I was happy for him until….That thought was crossing my mind just as I looked up and saw Tristan standing next to the door of my bus. Just like that, at the sight of him in the dark, that little ember that smoldered for him in the pit of my belly flared up and lit my whole world on fire. I almost smiled…and then I remembered what he’d done and that I was still really mad at him.

  “What are you doing here?” I said. I was trying not to sound too bitchy, just in case he’d come to apologize. I should have known that was a delusion on my part. He looked pissed and I thought god help me if he was going to try and turn this one around on me, too. I wasn’t going to let him off that easy this time. I wasn’t sure that even if he did apologize that I’d ever trust him again. The week I’d had with men had put me in such a bad mood that he’d be lucky to leave with his head still on his shoulders.

  “Oh I don’t know,” he said in his most sarcastic tone, “I guess I was just hanging around, hoping to meet the new boyfriend. I thought at the very least I deserved an introduction to my replacement.”

  “What?” I honestly had no clue what he was talking about. Did he see me with Cole and misunderstand?

  “You know, the preppy fucker you went out with tonight. I’m surprised you’re home so soon. After that kiss I saw outside the restaurant, I assumed you’d be rolling around doing the nasty on some no-tell motel sheets by now.”

  “Excuse me?” He was definitely talking about Cole. Had he seen us by accident? He obviously didn’t stay and watch the whole thing. The fact that he was watching at all kind of pissed me off so I said, “What are you a fucking stalker now?”

  He kind of laughed, but it wasn’t an amused laugh in any form. His tone was still sarcastic but I actually thought I heard some pain in it too. Maybe that was just wishful thinking on my part.

  “No, I’m the dumb fuck who thought he was still your boyfriend,” he said. “I came to talk to you and saw you with that other guy.”

  “Oh, you thought you were still my boyfriend, did you?” I was really pissed now, “You thought you could just come here and bat your eyelashes and I’d forgive you like I always do?” That made me have a sudden thought and I said, “If you came here to talk to me, then how’d you see the kiss? That didn’t happen here.”

  “At least you’re not trying to deny it,” he said. Nervy bastard that he was. “No, you two walked away from here all happy and chatty. Oh shit! That’s it, isn’t it? He fucked you here before he took you out to dinner. That explains why you looked so comfortable together. Smart guy, get the goods up front and then you know whether or not paying for dinner will be worth it.”

  “How fucking dare you? You have to be kidding me right now. First of all, when the fuck have you ever paid for dinner? It would kill you to do anything romantic. You’re a selfish prick and you don’t give a shit about anyone but yourself. All you ever wanted from me was sex and you got that, so fucking just move on already. It wasn’t like we both didn’t know it would happen someday.”

  “I’m selfish and unromantic because I’m pissed about finding out you’re screwing some other guy? I’m supposed to be a fucking robot with no feelings, Elly? That shit’s not supposed to hurt? You’ve just been sitting around, waiting for me to screw up? Thanks! It feels so good to know that the first girl I ever called my fucking girlfriend went into it thinking it wasn’t going to last. Is that why you started seeing this guy? You wanted a back-up ready for when we broke up? How long has this been going on? While you’ve been acting all holier than thou this whole time?”

  “Fuck you, Tristan. There is nothing going on. What you saw, first of all, was me going to hang out with a guy that I’ve known for years, since high school. He happened to be in town and he called me. When went to the fair. I didn’t so much as hold his hand.”

  “Then you came back here and…?”

  “I have no idea where you are getting your nerve from right now, but because I have nothing to hide, I’ll tell you. We came back here and he sat up front while I took a shower. Then, we went out to dinner. The whole time, stupid me…I thought it was just two old friends hanging out. We talked about my parents and his mom. We told old stories from high school and caught up on people we haven’t seen in a while. He told me about his girlfriend and his new job…”

  “What about you, Elly? Did you tell him about your boyfriend?”

  “No, Tristan, because what was I going to say? I was supposed to tell him that I did have a boyfriend for a very short time but I’d just found him with a naked chick on his bus…”

  “Fuck that, Elly! Is that all there is to me? Really? I honestly thought that you were the one person who saw something in me a little bit deeper than that.”

  “I thought I did,” I told him. “That all went out the window when I found you with her. Now, you’re following me around like some creeper…only you suck at it. You missed the best part. After dinner, the kiss you saw was when he showed his true colors. He’s a stinking punk like every other man I know.”

  He crossed his arms and with a smug look he said, “You didn’t seem to mind. I didn’t see you pulling away.”

  I wanted to throttle him. I wanted to pound my fists into his chest. Thank god for my impulse control.

  “Really, Tristan? Seriously? I swear you’re the worst stalker in history. You followed us, sneaked around a restaurant for what…an hour and a half? Then you see him grab and kiss me and miss the part where I tried to push away and he grabbed my ass? Or the part where as soon as he grabbed my ass I slapped him hard across the face? Why did you leave? You’d waited that long.” He looked like he didn’t want to answer that question. That made me want an answer even more. “Come on Tristan, tell me. Why did you leave before the final show?”

  He mumbled then and he didn’t look at me as he said, “I didn’t want to watch you kiss him.”

  I hated my fucking ability to feel empathy for anyone sometimes. He sounded so sad when he said that I had this crazy urge to fling myself into his arms and say that I’m sorry. I was a frigging idiot. I took a deep breath and fought through that crazy thought.

  “Whether I have a boyfriend or not, Cole had no right to kiss me or to put his hands on me. I gave him no indication today that would be okay and I’m sick of men thinking I’m just there for the taking. I’m sick of men period. You had no right following me, and the only thing worse than what I saw between you and Brooke the other night would have been if you caught me with a dick inside of me. So fuck you, Tristan! I’ve had a long day and I’m going to bed.”

  He was standing there like the idiot he was with a confused look on his face as I brushed past him and went into my bus and slammed the door. I swear I must have had smoke coming out my ears I was so pissed off. I hated them all! I swear if one person with a penis had walked in the door right then, I may have been tempted to cut it off.

  Chapter Eight

  Tristan

  I stood there next to the bus for a long time after she walked away. I felt like shit. I felt worse than before I came to talk to her and I wished that I could press rewind and start over. I’d really fucked up that conversation. I’d completely forgotten that I came to clear my name in the first place. All I could think about was seeing that guy with his hands and his lips on her. For the first time in my life I gave a shit and it hurt. I finally realized that I needed to walk away from her bus before one of the other girls came back…or security walked
by and saw me. I’d really get the reputation of being a creepy stalker then. The people on these sets loved nothing more than gossip; I figured that shit out when I was just a kid.

  As I walked back to my own bus, I didn’t know what the fuck to think. She seemed genuinely pissed at me. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the stalking or the accusations or both. Knowing Elly, I don’t think she would have been that pissed if she’d really fucked that guy. She was pretty genuine most of the time…shit…all of the time. It was the thing that attracted me to her in the first place. At first it had only been about sex, but the reason I’d wanted her so badly had been because she’d been so enthusiastic about it. She moaned and groaned and shuddered at all the right times. The little mewling sounds she made when I licked her…fuck, I was getting a boner just thinking about it. Then I actually got to know her and I found out that she lived her life like that. If she was happy about something, she showed it. If she was pissed, she showed that, too. I’d be willing to bet that she hadn’t lied to me about anything; hopefully that wasn’t just wishful thinking. But now I really wanted to kick the pretty boy’s ass.

  I was almost back to my bus when I saw the two security guys that had dragged Brooke out. I remembered when Tony was talking about Brooke earlier; I had thought about the cameras on the lot and wondered if that was how he’d known. He said it was from the security report, but that doesn’t mean the cameras didn’t catch some of it. I looked up at the camera mounted on the light pole above my head and then towards the backs of the security officers as they continued on their path.

  “Hey!” I called after them. The bigger one, Brad, turned around and said,

  “Yes?”

  I walked over to where they’d stopped walking and said, “How are you guys doing tonight?”

  “We’re okay; at least it’s not raining.”

  “I hear that. I don’t know whose brilliant idea it was to book a bunch of outdoor concerts in the middle of fucking fall, huh?”

  Brad said, “I haven’t had a chance to talk to you since that night, but I had to write a report about Brooke. She clawed the shit out of my arms.”

  “Yeah, I saw Tony today, he told me. That sucks man, I’m sorry about that.”

  He shrugged and said, “One of the hazards of our job. I wanted to get a tetanus shot, though, so I had to report it.” I could tell he felt guilty, or he was worried I’d be mad.

  I decided it was a good time to ask him what I wanted to ask. “It’s really okay. She was the crazy one, not me. I was wondering, though, if I could ask you guys another favor?”

  “You don’t have another naked girl in your bus, do you?” It was the little guy and he actually looked a little too hopeful about that.

  I laughed, “No man.”

  “Damn!” he said, with a grin. His partner was grinning too. Good, because I knew that what I was about to ask them for was pushing the boundaries of their jobs. I wanted them in a good mood.

  “Yeah,” I said, “But I found out the hard way that one naked chick isn’t necessarily as good as the next.”

  “Or as sane,” the bigger one said. “Crazy bitch tried to bite me and I’m pretty sure that some of my skin is probably still underneath her fingernails.”

  “I’m sorry, man. I really appreciated your help though.”

  He shrugged again and said, “Yeah well, it’s our job. What is it we can do for you?”

  I pointed up at the camera trained on my front door and said, “Any chance at all you could get me a copy of the security tape from the other night?”

  The officers looked at each other and the bigger guy said, “I don’t think we can do that.”

  “Aw come on, man. It’s really important. If I had any damned money, I’d even be willing to pay you to help me out here. But, they don’t give me my million until the tour is over. I could be convinced to part with some of that then though, just to show my gratitude for a job well done.”

  “I think you just offered us a bribe,” the smaller guy said. I wasn’t sure if he was offended or amused.

  “I’m sorry, shit! I just don’t know what to fucking do. My girlfriend thinks I slept with that skank; she thinks I lied to her. I don’t want to lose this girl. I can’t believe I’m even saying that out loud because it is so not like me, but I fucking do not want to lose her…please help me.”

  They looked at each other again and the bigger one said, “Is Elly your girlfriend?”

  “Yeah man, she was before this. Now she thinks…”

  “She thinks you cheated on her with this Brooke chick?”

  “Yeah. I have lied to her before, so I have priors there. But I’m not lying this time, and she doesn’t believe me.”

  “I like Elly,” the big guy said. “She’s a nice girl. She’s got a lot more class than that other chick, that’s for sure. It’s too bad she thinks you would choose a girl like that over her.”

  I smiled and said, “Yeah, she is a classy lady and I would never do that to her. I swear. But she thinks I did, and with good reason. If you won’t do this for me, will you do it for her? She needs to know that I wouldn’t cheat on her. This isn’t just about me; it’s about how it’s made her feel.” I was playing it up a little for their benefit, but as I said it, I realized it was actually true. I hadn’t really considered how bad it must feel to her to think I’d choose that slut over her.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Brad told me. “I can’t promise anything. The CEO may already have them. I’m sure he’ll go over them because of the report. If he didn’t take them already, I’ll try and get a copy before he does.”

  I felt relief wash over me and I shook his hand and said, “Thanks man! Seriously, just the fact that you would try means a lot to me.”

  I gave him my phone number and went inside the bus at least feeling a little better. I still felt like shit about the fact that Elly would think I did that to her…but then I’d thought the same thing when I saw her with that pretty boy…fuck! This relationship shit was jacked up!

  It took me a long time to quiet my head enough to fall asleep. It was the first time in months that I wished I had just one little sleeping pill. I told myself that I’d come too far to even think about that. I thought about Elly instead, and the good stuff….

  I slept in the next day and woke up to the bus moving. I knew we were pulling out early, but it was still a little disorienting when they did it while I was asleep. We were on our way to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We were supposed to pull in there around ten or eleven in the morning for the six o’clock show that night. I looked at my phone to see what time it was and realized I had a text. It was already almost ten, which meant we were almost there. I looked at the text and saw that it was from Brad, the bigger security guy.

  Hey Tristan, I got those for you. I’ll come by with them when we pull into Santa Fe.

  I texted back.

  Thanks, man.

  Then with a self-satisfied smile, I went back to sleep.

  I got woken up not long after when I heard the bus stop and then the commotion of the crews outside setting things up. I looked out the window, hoping to catch a glance of Elly, but no such luck. I showered and ate a bowl of cereal while I waited for Brad. He didn’t disappoint. By noon I had a copy of the security tapes in my hand. It was two DVD’s. I sat down and watched one, happier than shit to see that it was date and time stamped, too. I also realized as I watched it that the camera’s panned every so often and caught every angle of the bus. There was a perfect shot of me answering the door in my towel and Brooke standing there in the robe with the six pack in her hand. I saw myself let her in and close the door. Shit! That didn’t really prove anything other than what Elly already knew: I was in a towel with a naked chick on the bus. From the looks of the tape, I could have invited her over. I popped that DVD out and put in the other one. As soon as it started running I said,

  “I’ll be a son of a bitch!” out loud. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I watched it, happy because
it looked like what I needed, and pissed because I couldn’t believe the controlling bastards actually did this.

  I called Brad. “Hey, Tristan,” he answered.

  “Why the fuck didn’t I know I was being videotaped. One of these DVD’s was taken inside the bus. What the fuck is that about?” As I talked to him, I looked around the bus. There were little tinted boxes in the front corners that I’d never paid attention to. Fucking surveillance cameras.

  “Um…you asked me for the tapes so I just assumed you knew. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

  “I knew there were tapes of the outside. I had no idea they had fucking camera’s inside the bus, too. What the fuck? Does Tony watch them and get off on seeing me naked?”

  He snickered; no one liked Tony. Then in a calm voice he said, “It’s just for security measures, Tristan. No one even watches them unless there’s a problem, a break-in or something like that, or something like what happened the other day. It’s good they were there, not just for Elly’s sake, but what if that crazy bitch did try to say you tried to force her into something? I promise you, no one is trying to invade your privacy. You’re a star now man. You can’t be too careful.”

  I knew he was right, but I was still pissed. I didn’t like the thought of them thinking they had a right to watch me without my permission. “They should have at least told me. That way I’m not walking around naked and shit. It’s a fucking violation,” I told him. He was quiet and I suddenly realized I was yelling at the guy who did me a huge favor. He actually put his job on the line for me, or at least for Elly. I said, “Shit, man, I know it’s not your fault. The fucking producers act like they own us and it pisses me off. I’ll take it up with them. The rest of this is golden though, thanks.”

  “Sure, Tristan. And hey man, I really wouldn’t worry about those tapes. I’ve been doing this job for three years and the first one I’ve watched was this one, and just because you asked me to. Like I said, Jake will probably watch the part where we carry Brooke out if she contests what we’ve said, but that’ll be the end of it, I’m sure. ”