Burning Heart: Fighting Heart Erotic Bad Boy Romance Series Book 4 (9 page)

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 for 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.

When we both ran out of words, I was about to drop some sarcasm to lighten the weird atmosphere, when Luke appeared by the door alongside her. His face looked as strained as a snare drum. His eyes were shining but not with light. They were burning like two hot coals. His look was so intense that my heart started beating faster. Something was wrong. Given the context, everything was already wrong, but I had never seen Luke look so strange. He rubbed a hand through his hair and his forehead creased up like a concertina.

“It’s good to see you. Glad to have you back, Ashley.”

“Yeah. Right.” It was all so forced, so strained I couldn’t collaborate with him. I just wanted to see Regan and get him free as quick as I could. The three weirdos in the hallway were acting like lobotomised zombies.

“Brandon,” I said, turning to meet his benign smile. He looked at me with a face like sunshine. It was radiant and attractive, and melted me a little. After looking at the others, he was still a pleasure to behold. But there was something going on behind that benign smile. He wore a Buddha like face, transcendental, the way a man who believed he was a God might look upon a mortal.

“Brandon,” I said again. “I’m here. I’ve come back. It’s time to let my brother go, like we said on the phone. Remember?”

I waited for his response. There was a definite hesitation. He looked at the other two and I didn’t like that.

“Sure. Come up and see him with me.”

He walked up the stairs and I started to follow. Before I made it up a couple of steps Luke moved towards me. “Ashley…”

“What…”

He exchanged a look with Brandon.

“Oh… Never mind, I’ll tell you when you come down.”

I stared at Luke. “What is it, Luke? Spit it out.”

“Nah. It can wait.”

I tutted and gave Luke a glare. I felt like slapping him around the head. I carried on following Brandon to the top of the stairs. “He’s in here,” said Brandon, jabbing his thumb towards one of the four closed doors up on the first floor landing.

“How is he?”

Brandon shrugged.

“You didn’t need to go this far, Brandon. In case you weren’t sure, this was too much. Way too much.”

“I had to go the whole way, gorgeous. I needed you to give me another chance. If it wasn’t for this whole situation, you wouldn’t be here. Would you?”

I said nothing.

“See. And now I’ll never let you go again. You’ll learn to love me, Ash. I promise.”

“I want to see my brother now.”

“Sure. In you go.”

Brandon opened the door for me and I walked in. As soon as I was past the door frame I knew I’d been had. The room was small and white with caricature seaside art on the walls in tiny frames, with curtains with anchor symbols printed all over them. I span round, my eyes scanning the room as the door slammed behind me. The small desk. The neatly made bed. There was nothing else, and no room for anyone else in the room besides me. I leapt for the door, clawing at it, yanking the handle down, but Brandon was pulling it hard the other side. He was so much stronger than me, there was no way I could win. I could hear him working at the door, securing it somehow.

“Brandon! Brandon, you son of a bitch, I want to see my brother. What have you done with my brother?” I hammered at the door.

“Calm down, honey. Calm down and then we’ll talk about everything else.”

When I had walked into 175 Seaview Esplanade I had been stressed and anxious. Now I was just plain terrified. I was quaking with fear. Brandon had completely lost his mind, and he didn’t seem to care. And now I was worried for my brother’s life, and my own. I needed to see him and I needed to get us out of there before something terrible happened.

Cody and Terry sat in the quiet outer reaches of a carvery pub that overlooked the Thames. The pub was playing the kind of muzak people ignored while they chatted. Families squabbled, kids cried and the smell of roast meats and stodge filled the air, but Cody couldn’t contemplate eating a thing. So far the hot greasy smells only made him feel queasy, and he was queasy to start with. He was scared witless about Ashley. Brandon Lynes had kidnapped her brother. What else was he capable of? The whole situation was unfolding like a slow motion car crash and all their decisions seemed to be questionable.

“We shouldn’t have let her go in by herself. It was a really bad idea.”

Cody was drinking a diet coke to keep his concentration high. Terry was drinking a pint of export lager, to tone done his stress levels. Terry looked at Cody, a well-educated young man who was his opposite in almost every aspect, from dress to demeanour and way of thinking.

“You think you could have stopped her, do you?”

Cody looked up from his hands and eventually made a grin.

“I suppose not.”

“Listen, fella. That girl has been doing whatever the fuck she liked since we were twelve years old. She’s always been the same. She wore the trousers in her house after her old man run off with some tart at his firm. That girl dragged that family up and kept them all going. God knows her old woman couldn’t have done it without her.”

“Yeah, she’s something.”

“She’s more than something, Cody. This situation is fucking dire, right? Dire. So let’s be frank with each other. If that girl had even looked my way once I would have been there like a shot. I didn’t just take a shine to her, Cody, I respected her, I admired her, I adored her… but I just knew she wouldn’t go for me…”

Of course she would never have gone with Terry, but Cody didn’t say that out loud. He listened. He nodded.

“I was her kid brother’s best mate. That was all I was to her, and all I was ever going to be. But it didn’t stop me caring about her.” Terry shifted in his chair. “She likes you big time, doesn’t she?”

Cody winced, worrying about her even more if that were possible.

“What makes you say that?”

“Don’t be a dickhead. Do you know she feels that way about you or not?”

“I thought she did, but things happened. Brandon was one of them.”

“You mean the kidnapping nutcase? Are you blaming her for anything that bastard has done?”

Cody shook his head. “I guess not.”

“Good.”

“How do you know she likes me like that way?”

“Man. I know you think I’m dumb as shit, don’t you? I haven’t got any ’ologies, pal, but I’m still smart enough. I can take apart a whole game system inside thirty minutes and put it back together. I could build my own system if I wanted to. I chose to do what I’m doing with my life, get it? And I know Ashley inside out and backwards. She’s close to you. I see that. She’s smitten. So, do me a favour.”

“What?”

“When we get her out of this, don’t you ever mess her around or let her get into a mess like this ever again.”

“Say what you mean, Terry.”

“You heard me. That’s all I’m saying. If you get with her your job is to protect her and you never let anyone hurt her. You with me?”

Cody was annoyed, but he heard the heart behind Terry’s words. They were an appeal as much as a warning and they were said with affection for Ashley.

“Yeah, I’m with you.”

“Good.”

Terry checked the time on his phone. “That’s long enough,” he said, and downed the rest of his drink.

“She’s in trouble, isn’t she?” said Cody.

“Brandon Lynes is in worse trouble, I promise you.”

The stern words cheered Cody, but they still rang hollow.

They drew near to the 175 Seaview Esplanade and slowed down.

“She’s in trouble. She won’t have left the door open for us,” said Cody.

“No. So here’s plan B. You’ll like this.”

Cody gulped. He knew he wasn’t going to like it one little bit.

“Whatever is going on in that house, they’ll still come to the door when they hear the door bell, so you’re going to ring it.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. They know you. They don’t like you, but they know you. Me, they don’t know me from Adam. If they see my face they’ll leave it shut.”

“So what am I supposed to do then?”

“Come on. I thought you’re a creative type. Use your bloody imagination! Keep them talking, get inside the house if you can. Maybe the guy’s gone psycho and he’ll drag you in. That’ll work just as well too.”

“You think? That doesn’t sound so good to me.”

“Ashley’s in there. Snap out of it. You’re not going in there to stay, you’re going in there to smash it up. This ends now.”

Terry’s blunt attitude was warming Cody. All he remembered from before was the beating he received from Brandon. It wasn’t heroic, but Cody was also a realist. Cody was going to fight with every fibre of his being, and he would fight until he was smashed into the soil if he had to… So far he’d only thought of the pain he was going to feel at Brandon’s hands. But teaming up with Terry gave him new insight into Ashley’s life… And if he was reading the guy right, Terry was sure that Ashley loved him. The thought made him feel joy and immense sadness all at once. How had he almost lost her? He shook it off because there was no time for self-pity or an inquiry. He had an opportunity. Right now he had the chance of a lifetime to win her back.

“And while I knock at the front door, where will you be?” said Cody.

“Didn’t you guess? I’m the backdoor man.”

“How in hell are you going to get around the back? There’s no access from the front with these terraced houses.”

“Jeez. Is your degree in stating the obvious? Of course there’s no access from the street. It’s a back garden. The clue’s in the name. You stop worrying about me. I can improvise. I just hope you can too. Are you ready?”

Cody nodded and drew a huge deep breath. “I think so.”

“Right. I need five minutes before you ring the bell. Can you manage that, genius? Wait five?”

“Sure. I’ll set a timer on my phone.”

“Whatever works for you, Cody. Now, wait here and watch the master at work.”

Cody drew his phone and set the timer as Terry walked up the front path of number 171 Seaview Esplanade.  He knocked. A moment later a man with a shock of white hair and a ruddy face answered the door.

“Yes?” said the big old man.

“Sorry to bother you mister. There’s a problem in the house two doors down at 175. It’s serious and if you don’t mind I’ll need access through your garden.”

The man looked Terry up and down.

“What sort of problem?”

“The people hiring that house are up to no good… it involves holding someone against their will.”

“Against their will? Like a kidnap or something…? Blimey. Why don’t you call the police then?”

“You know why I can’t call the police?”

“Why?”

“Coz they’re fucking useless, mate. This needs to get fixed quickly and done the right way, not after someone’s been hurt. I’ll call the police when I’ve fixed it.”

“And this is for real? You’re not winding me up?”

“Look at me. Look at him. What do you think?” said Terry.

The old man looked at them both and then shook his head lightly.

“Okay. I’ll trust you. But don’t let me down boys. And make sure you give the bastard a hiding from me.”

“You bet,” said Terry. He looked at Cody and smiled.

“You’re one minute down, Terry.”

“Then we’re right on time. See you on the other side.”

Terry disappeared with the old man into the house and the door shut behind them. Now Cody was only left with his thudding and his rasping breath. There was just three minutes to go until they all entered the endgame. Cody looked up to the sky for help, and he silently asked anyone who might be listening to make sure that Ashley would be fine.