Fractured Minds (Rebels of Sandland Book 3)

by Nikki J Summers

  After a few hits to the side of his face and his stomach, punches that didn’t even wind him, Brandon smashed his fist into Hazel, sending the kid sprawling to the hay bales. He reined blow after blow on the punk as Hazel held his hands up to protect himself. Then, Brandon powered a right hook into his face and Hazel faltered, grappling to stay upright as blood started to pour from his nose. The ref stepped forward and intervened, asking Hazel if he was okay, and the crowd jeered at the interruption. The ref didn’t care and he shooed Brandon away and ignored the crowds. I doubt he’d have given Brandon the same level of care and that made something click in my mind.

  “Did we choose the refs?” I leant over to ask Ryan.

  “Not this guy. He turned up with the others. Said Ron couldn’t make it and he’d come in his place.”

  Was it paranoia on my part to suspect that this ref might favour Hazel and could be working for the soldiers? I wouldn’t put it past them.

  The fight carried on and we watched Brandon out-smart the guy at every turn. Pound after pound his fist powered into Hazel, perfect jabs that sent him staggering around the ring like an idiot trying to claw back some dignity. Like he’d said to me back in the changing rooms, this was a done deal. The kid wasn’t even in the same league as Brandon and his lack of ability was painful to watch. Maybe this wasn’t going to go the way I thought it would after all?

  But then it all changed.

  Everything turned to slow motion as I watched Brandon drop his arms to his side and look straight at me. He mouthed something, either ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘It’s all right’ I couldn’t make it out, and then Hazel smacked him hard in the face and Brandon stumbled backwards. He didn’t drop to the floor, but he did a damn good job of looking punch drunk. So when Hazel went in for the second right hook, Brandon fell back like he’d been knocked out, giving the crowds the perfect performance, and the perfect reason to go absolutely crazy with anger at what they were seeing.

  The sheer madness of all the boos and jeers from the room was deafening. They couldn’t believe what they were witnessing here tonight, and we moved to stand under the cover of the corridor as things started to be thrown from the platforms above in protest. They shouted for Brandon to get up and called it a fix and a set-up. No one could believe that some scrawny punk with half-assed punches and zero power had knocked their hero out. I even shouted myself for him to get up and keep fighting. But he’d made his decision and he was sticking to it.

  Brandon chose friendship over glory.

  I would never be able to repay him.

  “Shit, this is bad. What the fuck is going on?” Ryan had his hand over his mouth in pure disbelief. When he surged forward to try to get to the ring and to Brandon, Emily held him back.

  “This is a fucking joke,” Zak shouted, mirroring all our thoughts as he shook his head. He didn’t even try to offer up any wise cracks. He was as speechless as the rest of us.

  “Thank God I wasn’t videoing that for Harper. It’d destroy her,” Emily cried, looking as white as a sheet.

  Ryan just stared blankly ahead, with Emily holding onto him to stop him making another run for the ring that was becoming over-run with crowds of irate people.

  “I’ve seen him take harder hits than that and come out of it laughing. I have absolutely no fucking clue what’s going on. I thought he said he was fit?” Ryan turned to look at me with a questioning frown on his face. “He’s been training non-stop since he announced his comeback.”

  I didn’t know what to say. Thinking about Brandon training, being so focused on this fight and winning, made my head swim even more with guilt.

  “I need to get to him. We can’t leave him out there.” Ryan tried once again to push his way through the crowds, but once again Emily pulled him back.

  “Please don’t go out there,” she begged.

  Zak patted Ryan on the back and told him, “I’ll go. You stay here with Em. It’s not safe out there.”

  Ryan wasn’t happy about stepping down and letting Zak take over, but he put his arm around Emily and kissed the top of her head, bowing in defeat. “Fine. Text if you need us,” he told Zak, and we all watched Zak disappear into the sea of people crowding around the ring.

  “Maybe we should wait for them back in Brandon’s room?” Effy suggested.

  “What if he gets carted away in an ambulance?” Emily’s eyes were swimming with tears as she spoke.

  “There won’t be any ambulances,” Ryan told her. “Even if he died out there, he’d come back to life just to kick our asses if we put him in one.”

  Ryan was right of course. It was one of Brandon’s golden rules. No police. No ambulances. No fuss. If we could patch him up, then that was good enough for him.

  “He might have concussion,” Emily argued, looking truly heartbroken.

  “And if he does, we’ll deal with it. Come on. Let’s wait back there before it turns even nastier in here. Let security calm this mob down.” Ryan guided Emily away with his arm around her shoulder and we followed.

  The four of us made our way to Brandon’s room, and seconds after we got there, a group of security guys and Zak carried Brandon in and dumped him into one of the plastic chairs. He wasn’t knocked out, but he was acting dazed and confused. The minute the door locked and it was just the six of us, he snapped right out of it, reaching for a cigarette and then eyeing Ryan as he lit it.

  “What? Never seen a fixed fight before?”

  “You don’t fix fights. What the hell is going on?” Ryan stabbed his finger into Brandon’s face in fury. He was seriously pissed off.

  Brandon sat back and blew out smoke like it was nothing; keeping his cool despite the fact that his world had just crumbled at his feet only moments ago.

  “Em, will you ring Harper and tell her it’s over and I’m okay?” he asked, turning his attention to Emily who stood stunned in the corner.

  “And should I also tell her you just threw a fight, in front of hundreds of people out there?” Emily snapped back, her pale face now a bright shade of red.

  “She already knows,” Brandon announced drily, shrugging his shoulders.

  “It would’ve been nice if we’d known too. I’m still freaking out here.” Emily held up her shaking hand as proof of her shattered nerves. “Brandon Mathers, you’ll be the death of me. I swear I don’t know how Harper puts up with you.” She didn’t wait for an answer, not that Brandon was about to give one, she just flounced off to call Harper somewhere quieter and probably give herself some much needed space too.

  “Seriously, is someone going to tell me what the fuck is going on?” Ryan spat, but when the door flung open, I figured he didn’t need an explanation from us. He was about to get the low-down from the five fuckers that were walking into the room like they owned the place.

  Brandon’s nostrils flared and he stood up, charging forward to take them all on.

  “You’re fucking dead men,” he snarled, pointing at them from over Ryan’s shoulder as he and Zak held Brandon back.

  I just stood there frozen to the spot, praying that this whole nightmare would end. I had nothing left in me to fight anymore.

  “We knew you’d come through for us.” Adam Noble smirked at me and reached into his pocket then pulled out a wad of cash. “Your little stunt earned us a fuck load of money tonight. Thanks for that.”

  “It wasn’t a fucking stunt,” Brandon snapped. “You’ve been blackmailing him and tonight I put a stop to it. Do you hear me? This ends now.” Brandon looked ready to rain hellfire down on every one of them, but Adam wasn’t fazed at all. In fact, he had the balls to laugh at Brandon’s reaction and the other four followed suit, cackling like a pack of hyenas.

  “You should’ve made a few bets yourself. The odds on Hazel winning were ridiculous.”

  “Is that what all this is about? Money?” Ryan looked between Brandon and Adam Noble, trying to suss out what was going on between them.

  “Isn’t everything about money?” Adam replied, not
taking his eyes off Brandon. “Don’t pretend you’re different to us. You get blood on your hands and get paid for it. Only difference is, we’re smarter. We don’t get our heads kicked in for a pay day.”

  “No, you just do the kicking you fucking psycho freak.” Brandon tried to get past Ryan again to show Adam Noble how he really felt, but the wall of Zak and Ryan weren’t budging, and Adam cackled out a laugh, taking a step back and folding his arms over his chest.

  “I think you’ll find we kept our end of the bargain. We are men of our word, after all.” Brandon scoffed, but Adam ignored him, turning to face me, and his grin turned to an evil glare. “Check your phone. I think you’ll like what you find on there. We might be sadistic fuckers, but we step up when we’re needed.” He turned back to glare at Brandon. “Unlike some.”

  “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Brandon was like a rabid dog trying to escape his cage. “Your word doesn’t mean shit. Do you actually think you have honour when you fucked with my mate’s head like that?”

  Adam chuckled to himself and shook his head, then walked right over to where Ryan and Zak were holding Brandon back. His eyes were demonic in the way he stared at them all.

  “I did what you couldn’t. I took out the paedo scum of Sandland. I cleaned up your mess.”

  They didn’t call him psycho for nothing. This guy had balls of steel to stand up against us and talk like that. I moved to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with my brothers, completing our unit. They were always there for me, so I wanted to show the soldiers that despite keeping their game a secret, that hadn’t changed. But when Adam saw me, he sneered and side-stepped to stand in front of me.

  “You think you’re a big man now you’ve got these three next to you?”

  “I’m not scared of you.” I held my nerve and looked him dead in the eyes, but nothing fazed him. He pushed his face right into mine, grinning from ear to ear.

  “Like I said before,” Adam hissed. “You should be. In fact, you should be thanking me. After what that paedo fucker spilled to us about you when we gutted him like a fish, you should thank your lucky stars we took care of him. Filth like him doesn’t belong in Brinton.”

  “But filth like you do?” Ryan butted in, stepping forward.

  “We look after our own,” Colton King piped up, moving closer to Ryan to exert his dominance. “If scum like his uncle come onto our manor, we deal with it. You should take notes. You might learn something.”

  “We don’t need to learn shit from you,” Ryan spat back, looking Colton up and down like he was dirt.

  “Then shut the fuck up and let us finish this,” Adam snarled, cutting Ryan off. Then he snapped right back to calm mode like the psycho he was and looked at me with a smile on his face, like he was telling me I’d won the fucking lottery. “We won’t say a word. Not about Alice, you, or any of the others.”

  The rush of adrenaline that shot through me when he mentioned others made me falter where I stood. My ears buzzed with white noise and sparks danced across my eyes, making it difficult to keep my balance. I felt truly sick to my stomach. In my heart, I always knew there might’ve been more victims, but I’d hoped and prayed there wasn’t.

  “We feel proud of ourselves,” Adam carried on like he hadn’t just shattered my soul. “If we hadn’t seen you that night in Brinton, lurking around in the shadows, we’d have never known to go looking for the filth that was hiding close by. And just so you know… he was dead before we’d even sent you the first message.”

  The final stab to my heart.

  They were even crueller than I’d realised.

  “You fucking bastards.” Brandon lurched forward, and this time, it took all three of us to hold him back. Not that I wanted to protect them, but I didn’t want Brandon starting something that could end in tragedy.

  “They’re not worth it, mate,” Ryan growled.

  “Think of Harper,” I added.

  “Yeah, Mathers. Pipe down. We did the job you couldn’t. Get over it. It’s done.”

  Brandon’s nostrils flared like he was ready to breathe fire. Adam stepped back to join his boys, and then with an evil glint in his eyes, he said, “Enjoy watching the video, Knowles. Colton gets a little carried away at the end, but I think that added to the overall effect. Who’d have thought a neck would spurt so much blood like that? I thought the films were exaggerating.” He spoke so flippantly. Taking another man’s life, despite who that man was, was obviously nothing to him.

  “I think you’ve outstayed your welcome.” Ryan folded his arms and we all stood strong, waiting for the five of them to leave, but they didn’t. They wouldn’t do anything they were told to. They’d leave when they decided and not before.

  At that moment, Emily and Liv came bounding into the room. Both girls frowned when they saw the soldiers, but Emily bypassed them, heading straight over to Ryan and calling out to Brandon, “You need to call Harper right this minute. She’s having pains. She thinks she might be going into labour.”

  “Shit,” Brandon cursed, and didn’t hesitate to grab his phone and head for the door. Before leaving, he spun round and growled, “This ain’t over. I’m fucking coming for you,” at the soldiers, and then he was gone.

  We wanted to follow too, but from the look on the soldiers faces, this wasn’t over yet.

  Adam Noble leered at Emily, looking her up and down and licking his lips on purpose to wind Ryan up. Ryan pulled her to him protectively, which made Noble cackle out a laugh. But then he spotted Liv, who had gone over to comfort Effy, and his face froze. I guess leggy blondes in tight red dresses was his thing, because when he took a few steps towards her, he stared at her like she was the only person in the room. Instinctively, I moved closer towards them. I didn’t want him anywhere near Effy, or Liv for that matter.

  “Come outside,” Noble barked at Liv, and when she didn’t react, he leaned closer to her, running his nose along her hair like he was breathing her in and said in a low, demanding voice, “I said, outside. Now.”

  Liv jerked away from him in disgust.

  “Like I’d go anywhere with you, you freak,” she spat back, and I held my breath. I think we all did.

  “Liv, don’t,” Effy hissed quietly.

  “Don’t what?” Liv laughed out loud. “He’s a fucking creep.”

  “Liv.” Adam said her name like he was trying it out on his tongue, seeing how it felt. He wasn’t expecting a response from her. No. Instead, he wrinkled his forehead in confusion, like he was debating something in his sick, fucked-up mind and then he laughed to himself.

  “You’re not fucking funny,” Liv snarled. “I don’t know why you’re laughing.”

  I watched Noble closely for his reaction, waiting for the impending fireworks to explode. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed and he tilted his head and furrowed his brow like he didn’t know exactly how to react, but the fireworks I thought would go off didn’t. I guess he’d met his match, or he simply couldn’t work out what to do next.

  “I don’t think you understood me.” He spoke calmly and folded his arms across his chest. “It wasn’t a question, it was a statement. I want you to come––”

  “I heard what you said and the answer’s still no.” She leant forward, going right into his face. A move that he usually did on others, but now he was on the receiving end. “Do lines like that work on girls in Brinton? Because they don’t with me, so jog on. Cunt.”

  There was a snigger from across the room, and Adam took a step back, keeping his eyes on Liv. Liv was no pushover, and if she didn’t want to go anywhere or do anything, she wouldn’t. She wasn’t scared of men like Noble. Plus, she hadn’t been in here to hear what he’d done to my uncle, so she still had her nerve and balls of steel firmly intact.

  “You heard her.” Zak suddenly found his voice. “She’s not interested.”

  “Who asked you, Atwood?” Adam whipped his head around and then moved like a panther, stalking across the room, ready to rip Zak’s throat out
for daring to speak to him. “Growing some fucking balls there, huh?”

  “Just fuck off out of here,” Ryan snapped.

  He was reaching the end of his already short fuse, judging from the way he clenched his jaw, but with no Brandon, and only me and Zak for back up, his chances of taking these guys on was slim to none. “You got what you came for, now fuck off.”

  Adam looked back at Liv and narrowed his eyes at her, like he was calculating his next move.

  “What I want just did a one-eighty. But she’ll keep.” Liv huffed as he said that and he grinned. “I’ll be seeing you around… Olivia.”

  “Oh fuck off,” Liv shouted as the five of them walked out with Adam laughing to himself.

  Ryan kicked the door shut behind them.

  “Who the hell does he think he is?” Liv whined. “Come outside. I’d rather eat my own toenail clippings.”

  “He doesn’t care, Liv,” Effy replied, wrapping herself around me. “He’s disgusting.” She buried herself further into me and whispered, “Please don’t watch it… the video, I mean.”

  I knew what she meant. She didn’t need to explain.

  “I don’t know if I can make that promise,” I answered truthfully. Part of me needed to see it to know it was all over, even if it did scar me even more.

  “But if you watch it, it’ll mess with your head, and I don’t want that.”

  “Neither do I.” I sighed and decided to go with a compromise. “What if I watch until I can’t? I promise I’ll stop if it gets too much.”

  “I really don’t think you should, but I trust you.”

  Truth was, I didn’t even know if I could watch it, but I had to try. I had to put this to rest.

  None of us spoke about the shit-storm we’d just weathered. Instead, we all made our way out of the room, leaving the elephant in there behind. I don’t think any of us could stomach facing any more drama. Not tonight.

  Ryan hugged Emily and Zak tapped away on his phone, moaning about shutting shit down before it went viral. I assumed he meant Brandon’s fight. Liv came to the other side of Effy, and where I had my arm around her shoulder, Liv snaked her arm around her waist and said, “This is a party I’ll never forget.”