Burning Heart: Fighting Heart Erotic Bad Boy Romance Series Book 4 (10 page)

Brandon opened the door on Regan’s room, and pulled the tape from his mouth. Regan coughed. “What the fuck was that? Was that my sister? That was my sister wasn’t it? I swear, you hurt her and I will…”

Brandon put a finger against Regan Pearson’s lips. He was an angry looking blond with a pale face and tired eyes. He’d been bound up in a chair for almost 72 hours. The only thing keeping him going was rage, along with the new agony in his left hand. Less than half an hour ago, Brandon Lynes had taken his chair and tossed it onto the floor with him in it. Brandon then told him it was all his sister’s fault… and then he lined up his target… a hand splayed against the floor. And then he had jumped on it with all his weight. He felt it give, like a bag of twiglets shattering beneath his weight. Then Regan howled like a girl. But Brandon gave the little scum his due. Brandon guessed even he would have screamed if someone crushed his hand like that.

“You’re going to do nothing, Regan. Nothing except crawl away from here and be grateful I don’t throw you out of that window.”

“She came here for me, didn’t she? You blackmailed her.”

“No, I prefer to think of it as an agreement. But we’re back together now, like we always should have been. Now, here’s the tricky part. It’s time to let you go, Regan. So, are you going to try anything? Do I think you want to try something? Yes, I think you might. So here’s what I could do. I could smash your other hand then you couldn’t do anything could you? You couldn’t even eat. Or you could keep your good hand as it is, and just leave. Just go and slink away like a cockroach. What do you think on that?”

Regan Pearson’s eyes were tired, he was mentally exhausted. Tears glazed his vision and he was ashamed. He never cried. Never. But the tiredness was such that he couldn’t control it. He looked up and felt ashamed all over again.

“I want my hand. I need it.”

“What for? Rolling joints? I hear you’re very good at that.”

“You fucking…”

“Now, now. Your hand remember…?”

Regan stopped talking and Brandon stared at him and waited. Soon the benign Buddha smile returned to his face.

“Now it’s time to set you free, little roach. Remember, try anything and I will obliterate you. That’s right. You understand.”

Brandon began to untie the knots and loops of blue rope from around the chair legs and back. Soon the only rope left was on Regan’s arms, with a little around his ankles. Regan loosened the ropes around his legs.

“Stand up. We’ll take off the rest by the front door.” Regan’s head swam with desperate ideas, but when he stood, he could hardly move. His legs were stiff and aching. Brandon edged him down the stairs, easing him along, helping him down. Then just as they reached the final step, a figure blotted out the light at the front door and the doorbell sounded. The chime filled the house. Everyone stopped moving and four different hearts started beating faster in the hallway of 175 Seaview Esplanade.

“Who’s that?” said Amanda, with an implausible, guilty look on her face. Brandon looked at her and wondered, but said nothing.

“Shut up. I’ll deal with it. Luke, stay with Regan back there.”

Brandon walked Luke and Regan towards the kitchen. He pushed the kitchen door towards the jamb but left it ajar.  Luke looked toward the crack in the door, listening. Regan grimaced with pain, his gaze staring across Luke’s shoulder into the garden. Before the front door opened, Regan’s eyes widened and he shifted as he saw a big body drop over the wall at the back and land quietly at the back of the neat garden. Luke saw the change on his face, and Regan tried to correct it.

“What?” hissed Luke.

“The pain. It’s the pain,” muttered Regan. Luke shook his head and tuned it to the side as he heard the front door open.

Regan risked one more glance out back, and saw the tall figure of his best friend wandering towards the door. Terry stopped just before he got too near to affect the light in the kitchen. He bent down and picked up an ornate piece of stone shaped like a giant snail shell from the garden path and gave Regan a broad grin. Regan tried as best he could to stifle his own smile.

“Hi Brandon,” said Cody, as the door opened

“You? You? What the fuck are you doing here? Are you volunteering for another beating?”

Cody’s heart was break-dancing in his ribcage… but the anxiety was gone, right there in the moment, he actually felt good.

“Actually I’m here to get Ashley and Regan. Have you got a problem with that?”

Brandon looked him up and down. He saw the Sports Shop carrier bag in Cody’s hand, but ignored it as he broke into a mocking smile.

“No, I haven’t got a problem with that. I tell you what…” Brandon looked out of the door into the cool grey air of the seaside, then checked left and right. No one was paying them any attention whatsoever. The cars were drifting by as usual.

“Why don’t you come right on in and we’ll discuss it like two civilised human beings.”

“Civilised. Now I like the sound of that,” said Cody. He stepped inside and turned to face Brandon immediately, in a defensive pose. The plastic shop bag slid away from his bright green baseball bat. Brandon shifted back and pressed his back against the door.

“And I thought you’d got yourself a ping pong set. What do you intend to do with that exactly?”

“Nothing yet. I’ve just come to get Ashley and Regan. We’re leaving you and your little nuthouse crew all together.”

“Says who?”

An almighty crashing of glass sounded in the kitchen.

“Me and the other guy.”

Brandon’s eyes got big and his smile faded away. He looked at the kitchen door as it shook left and right from the action behind it.

Brandon turned to Cody. “Looks like I’ll have to borrow your bat. Come here, stick man.” Brandon lunged forward, but Cody swerved and brought the bat down too weakly on Brandon’s biceps. Brandon sneered. “Is that all you got?”

Cody had to do better, or it he was going to get pulverised…

Terry clattered the rest of the window out of the frame with the snail shell stone, then leaned his arm in and tried the handle. He grinned. “Would you believe it, Regan? It was only fucking open already. Oh well, I do like making an entrance.”

“You always did.” Luke looked at each of them and dithered in fear. The dithering was handy, as it gave Regan all the chance he needed. He shifted back a half step then thudded his head forward and down across the bridge of Luke’s nose. There was a crunch, and then there was a little spurt of claret which hit the tiles. Luke slapped a hand over his face and cried out. Regan turned to Terry.

“I knew he was a lightweight.”

“Shame. I was going to do that with my handy rock.”

“Then I saved you the bother. Look at my hand. The bastard out there jumped on it just for fun.”

“We’ll get you to hospital after this.”

“Thanks for coming, Terry.”

“Save the thanks for Ashley. I’m here because of her. Her and her boyfriend out there.”

“I’m going to kill her boyfriend.”

“Not the big lump. The other one.”

“You what?”

“You’ll see. Come on.”

They pushed the door open and found Amanda looking at them both while a struggle raged behind her. “Get out of the way, and you won’t get hurt,” said Regan.

“Please, this wasn’t our fault. Not Luke’s either. We had no choice but to go along with this.”

Regan lifted his hand. “You people tied me to a fricking chair for three days. No choice? Is that right? You had every choice, sweetheart. Now get out of my way before I consider what a horrid, nasty little bitch you are.”

“Pretty little thing, ain’t she?” said Terry.

Amanda was struck dumb and hurt by the truth she’d been mulling for days, weeks and months. She shifted and let them by, and slid down the wall beside Luke.

“Luke… Luke, what the hell have we done…” she whispered.

Luke’s eyes were streaming as he held his bloody face.

Brandon was frantic. He threw fists across the bat as it swung for him and he parried blows across his shoulders and back. He caught Cody with a fist. Blood trickled down his face from his eyebrow.  Brandon pointed behind Cody towards Terry and Regan. “Look out!” said Brandon. In the heat of the moment he almost looked back, but instead Cody flinched. It was enough of an opportunity for Brandon to throw a punch. The punch connected with a dull thud, and sent Cody flying back into Terry. Brandon turned and raced up the stairs.

“This is the real boyfriend,” said Terry, helping Cody to his feet.

“No fighter then. But he’s got bottle. Where’s my sister?” said Regan looking round.

“Amanda? Where is she?” shouted Cody.

“Upstairs, Cody. She’s in the small bedroom!”

Terry started past Cody, and Regan dragged himself up. They watched as they ran and saw Brandon untie a belt which he’d fastened between the door handle and cupboard handle, and then he went in and slammed the door behind him.

“No!” shouted Cody.

“Leave her alone! I’m warning you!” said Regan.

They scrambled to the top and parted for Terry, the largest of the three, who pulled and pulled on the door so hard the brass handle started coming away from the door surface.

Brandon looked at Ashley, his chest heaving. There was dirt, blood and sweat all over him.

“Leave us alone and she’ll be fine, I promise” called Brandon through the door.

“No chance, no chance at all,” said Regan.

“You’re finished Brandon... Let her go,” said Cody.

Brandon looked at Ashley, smirked and shook his head. He leaned against the door.

“They don’t get it, do they? You’re still here with me. And I’m not going to give you up honey, not in a million years. I’m addicted to you.”

“Finally, it looks like you’re getting what you deserve…” said Ashley, her eyes levelled at Brandon. There was no love there, no feeling beyond disdain and something she rarely felt. Something which burned within her. She realised it. Brandon had taken her from the beginnings of love… the first stirrings of her keen heart… all the way through the full range of feelings, from lust and joy… to disappointment and then deep hurt… to frustration and upset… all the way to the fire of hatred. There were few people in Ashley’s life ever worth hating… In the last twenty four hours, Brandon Lynes had joined that number.

“You… you planned this didn’t you?” He saw the unmistakable hatred in her eyes.

“Does that make you feel better, thinking that I planned this? Does that give you some new justification for trying to hurt me – for trying to ruin my life, because right up to now you’ve been doing pretty well without a single good reason…?”

“I never tried to ruin your life. I’m a man. I wanted you. I needed you…”

“But you wanted every other girl as well… and I was supposed to play along the whole time, like some dumb nineteen fifties Barbie doll pretending none of it was happening? Was that it? Just like Amanda! And look what you’ve done to her! You’ve made her a pathetic wreck!”

“No. She did that all by herself. But you… you’re conniving. You’re the vicious one. I only did any of this…”

“Any of this kidnapping, blackmail, and violence - because you love me? Is that it?”

“Maybe.”

“Ahhhh. You’re an old fashioned guy who’s not yet in touch with his feminine side. Bullshit.”

“You hate me. I see it. I see that look in your eyes…it’s poison to me. It burns me up.”

“Yeah? Is that so? Well get used to it. Because it’s the same damned look you’re going to get every time I see your face. That’s what you did to me. You made me hate.”

“You cold, cold…” Brandon moved towards her a step, but the anger trumped the fear. It trumped everything else she felt.  She nodded at him, egging him on as he stepped towards her.

Outside the door, they heard the commotion and shouting die down. Terry, Regan and Cody looked at one another.

“I don’t like that,” said Cody.

Regan shook his head. “Not at all. Right, we need this door gone. Terry, and you. On my mark we take this door down. Are you ready?”

Brandon stepped close towards her. Ashley looked back and saw only a wall behind her. She had to hope something would happen. She pressed back to the wall, and Brandon Lynes leaned down close. His stubble grazed her cheek. Her heart stopped as he looked into her eyes. His eyes were still gorgeous, that absorbing blue that pulled you in. He pressed his lips to hers and she closed her eyes, half in fear, half wanting to block him out. She laid her hands on his chest to push him away…

Outside the men moved away from the door as far as the bannister would allow, and then Regan said “Now!” They ran and threw their weight against the door. Shoulders and arms clattered against the door and each other. The wood heaved with a splitting sound, and in the small white room, Brandon span around as the door frame and the door shattered inwards across his body. He fell but scrambled to his feet as he came face to face with Cody, Regan and Terry.