Double Dare (A Neighbor from Hell Book 6) (5 page)

Chapter 4

              “Come on! Don’t be like that!”

              “Go. To. Hell,” she bit out, stressing every word as she rolled over onto her side and got more comfortable as she read on Darrin’s iPad, determined to ignore her brother.

              “I said that I was sorry!”

              She rolled her eyes, because he hadn’t apologized and probably never would. “Go away!”

              “What if I told you that I had Black Jack’s pizza?”

              “Oh, shit!” she gasped in terror, jumping off the couch and racing to the door, praying that Darrin hadn’t heard him, because even though she was pretty pissed at her brother right now, she really did love him. She had the door thrown open and was dragging her brother, pizza and all, inside before she slammed the door shut, wincing at the noise and praying that Darrin hadn’t heard it.

              “He’s not here,” Jake said, chuckling as he shifted the pizza boxes and appetizer bags in his arms so that he could hold out the six-pack of A&W root beer to her.

              “His truck wasn’t outside?” she asked even as she slowly reached up and turned the lock on her door, flinching when the action produced a soft clicking noise that was bound to give them away.

              “No,” he said teasingly as he gave up on waiting for her to take the soda from him and placed the six-pack on the coffee table.

              “You wanna eat in here or in the kitchen?”

              Licking her lips nervously, she reached up and slowly turned the deadbolt, something that she only used in dire emergencies. Cringing when the lock made a louder clicking noise, she froze on the spot and listened. When she didn’t hear anything she turned around and mouthed the word, “bedroom,” and gestured for her brother to move his ass.

              Rolling those baby blue eyes of his, courtesy of their mother, Jake walked upstairs. She picked up the six-pack and looked around, making sure that there wasn’t any evidence left behind like a napkin or one of those coupons they usually slapped on the pizza boxes. When she didn’t find anything that could give them away, she grabbed the small bottle of perfumed air freshener that her mother had bought her as a housewarming gift seven years ago and liberally sprayed the living room and stairs as she made her way upstairs, praying that the obnoxious smell was enough to keep Darrin from finding out what they were doing.

              “That shit stinks,” Jake said, taking the air freshener and six-pack of soda from her and placed them on her bureau, freeing her hands so that she could shut and lock her bedroom door behind her.

              “Mom gave it to me,” she said absently as she checked and then double-checked the lock.

              “I think she gave me the same bottle a few years ago,” Jake murmured thoughtfully as he looked at the bottle. “I’m pretty sure that I gave it to an ex-girlfriend.”

              “Probably,” she absently agreed as she considered stuffing a towel against the bottom of the door.

              “Let’s eat,” Jake said, chuckling as he threw his arm around her and-

              “What the hell happened to your hand?” she demanded, noticing for the first time that two of the fingers on his right hand were in splints.

              “Huh?” Jake asked, glancing down at his fingers as he shrugged it off. “Just decided that I needed a new accountant.”

              “I thought the guy you tried setting me up with was your accountant,” she pointed out, allowing him to lead her to the bed.

              “
Was
is the operative word,” he said with a wink as he waited for her to climb on the bed.

              “What happened?” she asked, shifting closer to the edge of the bed to make room for the pizza and Jake.

              “Nothing that you need to worry your pretty little head about,” he said mockingly as he reached over and patted her on the head, an annoying habit that he’d picked up from Darrin.

              Rolling her eyes, she grabbed one of the heavy-duty paper plates off the pizza box and tossed the other one to him. She reached down, opened the box and realized that Darrin might very well kill her on this day.

              “The Monster,” she said in a reverent tone as she reached for a thick slice that held every delectable topping known to man.

              “I figured this would make up for the other day,” he said, helping her load the impossibly thick slice of pizza on her plate.

              “It doesn’t,” she said, taking a bite of pizza and groaning when the buttery crust and toppings competed for attention in her mouth, “but it’s a nice start.”

              “What will it take to earn your forgiveness?” he asked, grabbing a slice of pizza for himself before he shut the cover and provided them with a table.

              “Well, besides a root beer?” she asked, giving him a pointed look that had him rolling his eyes and getting off his ass.

              “Yes, besides a root beer,” he said, grabbing the six-pack and walking back to the bed. As he sat down he handed her a can.

              “You could stop trying to set me up with your loser friends,” she suggested, hopefully.

              “My friends aren’t losers,” he said around a large bite of pizza, groaning in pleasure.

              That was true. His friends and the men that he normally tried to set her up with weren’t losers, but the last one definitely had been. Seriously? What kind of loser was willing to pay for sex?

              “And the last guy clearly doesn’t count,” he said firmly.

              “Fine,” she said, taking another bite before she added, “Then just stop trying to set me up. I’m fine.”

              “Are you going to marry Darrin?” he asked offhandedly as he popped the small piece of crust in his mouth.

              “We’re just friends,” she mumbled as she took a big bite out of her pizza, but this time the delicious flavors were lost on her and all she wanted to do was throw the pizza and Jake out of her apartment so that she could avoid this conversation, the same one that they’d been having for the past five years since Jake had caught them-

              Well, what he’d caught them doing wasn’t important.

              “He loves you,” Jake said, reaching over and taking her hand into his to give it a reassuring squeeze.

              “I know,” she said, dropping the rest of her pizza on her plate and placed it on the box.

              “You’ve been in love with this man for your whole life, Goose,” he said softly, using the nickname that her grandparent’s tribe had come up with for her after a rather unfortunate incident involving several geese, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and her determination to feed them when she was three years old.

              She nodded, because he was right of course. She was in love with Darrin Bradford. For the longest time she’d fought it, tried to deny it, but at the end of the day, she knew that there was no denying that she loved him. He was the love of her life and always would be, which made things worse because she wasn’t good enough for him.

              And she never would be.

              “Tell him, Goose. It’s not going to change anything for him. He’s still going to want to marry you,” Jake said, placing his plate on the pizza box so that he could reach over and take her hand in his.

              “I know it won’t,” she said, sniffling.

              “So, tell him.”

              “No.”

              “Why not?” he asked, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.

              “Because I love him too much to do that to him,” she said, accepting the napkin that he was holding out to her and quickly wiped her mouth.

              “He has the right to make that decision for himself.”

              “No,” she said, shaking her head, “he doesn’t. I don’t want him giving up his dreams for me.”

              For several minutes neither one of them said anything as they sat there, thinking things over until finally, Jake said, “Then it’s time that you let him go.”

              “I know,” she reluctantly admitted, because what she was doing wasn’t fair to either one of them. She had to let him go.

              She just wasn’t ready to do that yet.

Chapter 5

              “It’s gotta be a trap,” his twin brother said as they stood there, staring down at the small stack of Black Jack’s pizza boxes that they’d discovered hiding in his normally barren refrigerator twenty minutes ago.

              “I know,” Darrin said, staring down at the boxes and damning Marybeth to hell and back for teasing them like this.

              “Didn’t you double dare her to go on all those rides?” Reese asked, swallowing nervously as he glanced around the large kitchen.

              “Yes,” he admitted hollowly, wondering what kind of sick person could do something this.

              “They’ve gotta be empty,” Reese said, shifting his attention back to the boxes.

              “No,” he said, shaking his head slowly, “they were heavy.”

              “What are you thinking?” Reese asked, poking the box with a butter knife. “A diuretic?”

              “It could be anything,” he said, folding one arm over his chest while he cupped his chin in a thoughtful manner with his other hand.

              “Maybe we should just throw them away,” Reese suggested, but they both knew that neither one of them would be able to do that.

              There were just some things that you didn’t do, and throwing away Black Jack’s pizza was one of them.

              “Just try it,” he said, hoping that his brother would man up and get it over with so that they could end this bullshit.

              Reese shook his head, assuming a similar pose as he continued to study the box. “You first.”

              “No fucking way,” he said, having absolutely no desire to willingly accept Marybeth’s revenge.

              “I double dare you to do it,” Reese said, which was really fucking sad.

              “That only works coming from Marybeth,” he reminded his brother.

              “Why?” his brother asked, frowning as he tore his gaze away from the boxes to glare at him.

              “Because you refused to play the game when it started.”

              Reese snorted. “I wasn’t going to eat that fucking shit. That was disgusting.”

              Darrin chuckled as he returned his attention to the box. “It wasn’t that bad.”

              “They admitted you to the ICU for a month!” Reese said, looking just as horrified as he had that fateful Sunday afternoon when Darrin had followed through with Marybeth’s first double dare and ate the entire bowl of penicillin covered worms.

              “It was just a bad reaction to the worms,” he said, waving it off.

              “Then this should be a walk in the park for you,” Reese said, gesturing towards the boxes.

              “Eat a slice or get the hell out,” he told his brother, hoping to cut the shit and get this over with.

              “No,” Reese simply said, using the butter knife to pop the cover open on the top box, revealing-

              “Oh, fuck no,” he said, swallowing hard when he realized what they had in front of them.

              “A Monster,” Reese said, licking his lips hungrily as they stared down at the pizza in front of them.

              “Four slices are missing,” he pointed out, moving closer to examine the pizza for any obvious signs of tampering.

              “She did that to fuck with our heads,” Reese said, coming closer to examine the pizza as well. They examined the pizza from every angle, looking for anything that would give away Marybeth’s sick and twisted plans for him.

              “I bet there’s nothing wrong with the pizza,” he said, chuckling.

              “You’re probably right,” Reese agreed, matching his chuckle, but didn’t make a single move to go for that pizza, he noted.

              “Then try a slice,” he said, gesturing to the pizza.

              Reese narrowed his eyes on him. “You.”

              “No, you,” he snapped, wondering why his brother was being so damn difficult about this.

              “Just eat a slice!”

              “You eat a slice!”

              “You!”

              “You!”

              For another minute, they glared at each other. Waiting for the other to back down and give in, but they both knew that would never happen without a little physical prompting. With a nod of understanding, they pushed away from the kitchen island, stepped to the side and with a bored sigh, they did what they had to do.

*-*-*-*

              Perhaps she should have said no when Uncle Jared called earlier to see if she could start the old Mason mansion project tonight. A moment later when she opened her truck door and moved to climb out only to wince as every muscle in her body screamed in protest she decided that there was no maybe about it. At the very least she should have waited until tomorrow when she had her crew to help carry everything inside and prepare the house.

              Instead, she’d carried over twenty five-gallon buckets of primer to several different locations, most of them up to the third floor of the large mansion. Then, because she really was an idiot, she’d carried in the heavy drop cloths, ladders and all the equipment that they were going to need to paint the interior of the freshly renovated mansion and placed them where they would be needed tomorrow morning.

              Six hours later she was sore, exhausted and starving, but at least she wasn’t on the verge of crying about this hopeless situation any longer. Well, tonight she wasn’t. Every time she felt like she was in danger of crying, she’d pushed herself harder and harder until all she could think about was how heavy those damn buckets and ladders were. It’s hard to focus on anything else when your arms felt like they were going to fall off.

              Somehow she managed to climb out of her truck and shut her door without screaming in pain. It took her twice as long as it usually did, but she managed to drag her ass to the front door and let herself inside. When she didn’t see Darrin, she counted herself lucky. Groaning softly as she tried to work out the stiffness in her shoulders, she walked into her apartment, tossed her keys on the small table by the door and made herself walk up the stairs, whimpering pathetically with each and every step.

              By the time she’d made it to the second floor, she was more than ready to call it a night and curl up into a ball on the landing and stay there until her alarm clock went off and forced her to get up so that she could crawl in her room and beat the shit out of it. But she knew that if she didn’t go pop a few Advil and a take an excruciatingly hot shower now that she’d regret it in the morning.

              She walked into her room, slapped her hand against the wall, leaned over and started the long, tedious process of untying her work boots. Once she had the left boot off, she dropped it with a grunt and worked on removing the other one. Once that was done, she let out another pathetic groan and headed towards the bathroom, stripping her clothes off along the way.

              She turned on her shower, turning it all the way up, grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste and forced the muscles in her arm to work. Five minutes later, she was closing her eyes and savoring the hot water as it helped soothe her aches and pains. It felt so good, but all too soon the water started to cool off.

              With a sigh of disappointment, she shut the water off and stepped out of the shower. She dried off with a towel and then wrapped it around herself so that she could comb out her long hair.  Biting back a yawn, she grabbed a bottle of lotion and walked into her bedroom, dropping the towel along the way, letting it hit the floor with a mental promise to pick it up in the morning.

              She pumped some lotion into her hand and placed the bottle on her nightstand. Rubbing the lotion between her hands, she began rubbing it all over her body, moaning softly as she worked the last of the tension out of her muscles.

              Once she was done, she reached over, switched off her light and crawled in bed. She curled up on her side, closed her eyes and released a sleepy sigh as she settled in for the night before she muttered, “Get the hell out.”

              A warm chuckle teased her ear, making her shiver as Darrin wrapped his large arm around her and pulled her closer. “I was wondering when you’d get around to kicking me out,” he said, kissing her shoulder.

              “Now you know,” she said around a yawn, “so get out.”

              He kissed her neck. “Turn over.”

              Oh, God…

              It actually frightened her how badly she wanted to do just that. She usually loved how he could drive her crazy with just a few words, a look, a smile or a simple kiss to her shoulder, but not right now. Right now she just wanted to pass out and stay that way until it was time to drag her ass out of bed and go to work.

              “I can’t,” she mumbled, whimpering a bit at the end there.

              “You can, sweetheart,” he said soothingly as he gently pulled and shifted her a bit until she found herself draped over him.

              She was too tired to push away from him and crawl back to the safety of her side of the bed. Instead, she lay there, whimpering as she waited for him to say or do something that was going to leave her begging for more. God, she hated being this weak.

              “J-just make it quick,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut as she felt her body start to respond to the large erection pressed against her stomach.

              He chuckled as he kissed her forehead. “Shhhh, just relax, sweetheart,” he said in that damn soothing tone of his that made it difficult to keep her eyes open.

              It didn’t exactly help when he started to run his hands over her back and shoulders. God, it felt so good being in his arms, she thought sleepily as she felt herself start to drift off.

              “What did you do to the pizza?” he asked softly, pressing another kiss to her forehead as his hands continued to work their magic, lulling her into a deep sleep.

              “Hmmmmm?”

              “The pizza that you left in my fridge,” he said softly, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “What did you do to it?”

              “The pizza?” she mumbled, trying to focus.

              “The pizza that you left in my refrigerator, sweetheart. What did you do to it?” he asked with another kiss that made her very happy.

              “Black Jack pizza?” she mumbled with a frown.

              “Mmmhmmm,” he murmured, rewarding her with another kiss.

              “Nothing.”

              “Are you sure?” he asked after a slight hesitation.

              “Mmmhmmm,” she murmured, shifting to get more comfortable and so that she could press a kiss against his chest.

              “Good,” he whispered with another kiss, sounding relieved.

              “I coated the half eaten candy bar that I left on my kitchen table with Ex-Lax though,” she explained around a yawn. He really did make a comfortable mattress, she thought absently as she noted the exact second that her words registered.

              “What are you-
oh, shit
!” he said, gently shoving her off so that he could crawl off the bed with his hand pressed against his stomach and make a run for her bathroom.

              “I took all the toilet paper out of the bathroom before I left,” she informed him on a pleased little sigh as she curled up on her side.

              “Shit!” he groaned, stumbling towards her bedroom door.

              She opened her mouth to tell him that she’d taken it upon herself to remove all his toilet paper from his bathroom as well, but decided against it. He’d figure out the extent of her revenge soon enough, she mused as she blindly reached back and grabbed his pillow so that she could hug it.

              Delayed revenge really was the best, she decided with a smile.