Men in Control: Special pack: The Smith Brothers Series

by Brenda Ford

  “Fuck!” I yell out as the pain shoots all the way through me. “Fucking hell. That’s… shit, argh!”

  A blackness threatens to come for me. I can feel it shrouding me and itching to come for me, but I refuse to let it in. I can’t. The moment that takes me, I’m fucked and so is Tami. I care much more about her life than mine. Every time my eyes threaten to close, I prize them back open. I fight every instinct inside of me.

  “You’re a fucking idiot, Brad!” Maria screams. “Why are you trying to fight this? Why are you acting like me and you aren’t destiny? What is your problem? No other woman would do this for you. No one else would fight so hard to be with you. I love you. I have shown that I love you over and over again. Has Tami? No, of course not. She hasn’t been on the scene long enough for that. She doesn’t know you like I do.”

  This is ridiculous. Tami knows me better than any other woman but I’m too weary to argue this. I barely have enough energy to even breathe, never mind anything else. I just can’t do it anymore. Everything is ebbing away from my body. I don’t have a damn thing left to give. Maria is getting just what she wants from me… silence. Giving up. Handing all of the control over to her to let her do whatever the hell she wants.

  Please be safe, Tami, I think desperately. Please don’t let her hurt you.

  “Tami, you wouldn’t act this way for Brad, would you?” Maria continues. “You wouldn’t do all of this to prove to Brad that you love him as much as I do, would you?”

  “No, of course not. But that’s because I’m not an animal. I would act in a normal way, just like everyone else. People don’t do this sort of thing. People don’t stab those that they love. People don’t lock those that they care about away. They don’t threaten the lives of those who are in their life. This is just something else.”

  A guttural growl flies out of Maria’s mouth. I really do think that this might be the final straw. She has snapped and I’m too screwed over to help her. I can’t do anything. Sounds surround me, ones that chill me to the bone and I honestly can’t do anything. I’m stuck here, helpless and hopeless as my world crashes down around me.

  Chapter 23 – Tami – Saturday

  Maria has become a wild animal. She’s feral as all hell as she comes towards me and she smacks me. There’s such an intense hate in her gaze, like I am the source of all her issues. She doesn’t seem to understand that it’s her. She has created all of this mess for herself. Over a guy who really doesn’t want her. How mental is that?

  As my body hits the wall hard, the hopelessness overcomes me. I don’t know how the hell I ended up in this mess, and I sure as fuck don’t know how we’re going to get out of it. I stare at Brad, desperately wishing that I could do something to help him, but Maria just won’t let me. She’s determined to finish me off.

  I can’t help but wonder if I would have still gone anywhere near Brad if I knew that it was going to end up like this. Would I have wanted this if I knew that it was going to be a constant drama? It really has been never ending. None stop bullshit ever since we first hooked up. It’s been crazy. My time with Daniel was so straight forward, so tame, so simple until he ended up cheating on me. I never felt this roller coaster, this up and down wave of never quite knowing what was going to happen next. I suppose it wasn’t better though, but I do kinda wish that me and Brad could have something a little calmer so we can just be us.

  I don’t know if he can see me. His vision is probably a bit blurry because of the blood loss. But I need to say it anyway. I need him to at least know that my feelings for him are stronger than anything. “I love you, Brad.”

  “I just saw that,” Maria groans. “Honestly, you two are pathetic. The worst. Love. That’s absolutely crazy. You can’t know anything about love. You haven’t been in his life long enough. And it’s pointless anyway. Don’t you see? Loving this man only turns you into me. He won’t ever love you back.”

  “Then why do you want him so much? Why not just let him go?” I demand. “What is the point of risking your life for him if he isn’t ever going to be able to give you what you want? That’s pointless, Maria.”

  For a second, it seems like Maria might actually be listening to me. I think my words might be sinking in. I really hope that she is starting to see just a little bit of sense in all of this. It will only take me one moment of her eyes widening to the truth for us to shut her down and get out of here. A warm hope blooms through me. I even step forwards as if I might just run away from this, or maybe charge at her or something.

  “You wouldn’t understand,” she snaps back, her expression turning to one of madness. “You don’t know what it’s like to see the man that you love give everything to someone else. Imagine that you really do love Brad and you have to watching him fall in love with another person. Can you even think of that?”

  To be fair, that does cause some pain in my chest. It would be difficult to see Brad in love with someone else. But that still doesn’t mean that I would want to hurt that person. I would just be sad.

  All of a sudden, a stinging sound hits. My right cheek this time. Last time when she slammed me against the wall, it was the left, so now the red hot agony radiates around me. This smack makes me angry. She can’t keep abusing me like this just because the guy she likes doesn’t feel the same way about her.

  “Fuck you, Maria,” I spit out. “You’re a fucking bitch. This is ridiculous.”

  I slide to the ground and scoot across the floor until I am near enough to Brad for him to reach for my hand. I can already tell that there isn’t even a scrap of energy left in his body. This asshole is killing him. She would rather him be dead than with me. I squeeze his hand, trying to reassure him, but there isn’t anything coming back the other way. He would definitely want to reassure me if he could.

  He’s really losing too much blood now. I need to act soon. My eyes scan around the room and soon find my cell phone still on the floor where I dropped it earlier on. I had almost forgotten that existed! My pulse speeds up. I don’t get any sense of hope this time, but I know if I can get hold of it, we have a chance. I squeeze Brad’s hands a couple more times, hearing Maria’s tone droning above me. If I move too quickly, she will get suspicious and probably go for it before me, so I need to be extremely careful. I need to make sure she’s distracted by something else. I wonder if Brad will be able to help me with that.

  “You okay?” I breathe out leaning close to him. “Are you able to help?”

  “Huh?” He blinks a couple of times, clearly not really in the room. “What?”

  “What are you two bitches whispering about?” Maria snaps, letting me know that I’m definitely going to be alone with this one. Brad isn’t in a good way anyway and Maria is sharp. “If you have something to talk about then why don’t you share it with me, huh? I would like to know what’s so important.”

  She glares at me and I stare right back. Since she isn’t going to back down then I won’t either. I ever so slowly rise to my feet, letting go of Brad regretfully as I do, and I step closer to Maria. She stiffens, not knowing what way I’m going to go with this, which is good because I haven’t got a clue either. I just know that I need to do something to distract her for long enough for me to grab my cell phone.

  “Maria. This is my apartment,” I tell her firmly. “And I never invited you here. This has gone on for long enough now, it’s time for this to end. You need to get the hell out of here.”

  She tips her head back and laughs nastily. “Oh yeah, because the chick with the knife is going to listen to you. Sure. Nice try, you stupid slut. Honestly, did you really think that was going to work out for you?”

  I dart down quickly, acting as if I’m going to go for the knife which is probably what she thinks I’m going to do. Then as she swings it back to make sure I can’t get hold of it. As she does this, I dive under her arm and slide on the ground towards my cell phone. My fingers out stretched grab on to it, but as the wind is knocked from my body, I can’t do anything with i
t right away. I need to sort myself out first.

  My stomach aches, my body hurts, the weariness is really getting to me now. This has been going on for far too long. I don’t even know how long. It’s ridiculous really. I should have gotten her out of here ages ago.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Maria screams. “Are you kidding me right now? What the hell are you doing? You must have lost your damn mind. Coming at me like that. Like you don’t think I will stab you too. I didn’t stab Brad to kill him because he’s going to be with me after all of this, but you… well, you I don’t give a shit about. I wouldn’t even be worried about going to jail to get rid of you.”

  I really think she might mean this which is terrifying. But I have my phone now, so this is something. I try to turn over to see where she is, but I don’t get to see anything. A pain smacks hard against my head. This time it doesn’t feel like a hand. She has hit me with something. Something hard, it hurts like hell.

  “Argh, fuck,” I yell out as she hits me again and then a third time. She’s going to keep on hitting me until I’m out cold. Thank goodness I still have the ability to think fast enough to know what to do for the best. I lay my head back and slide my eyes closed, acting like I’ve been knocked out. It’s scary because I can’t see where my next attack is coming from but it’s the only way, I have a chance of getting her to stop.

  My heart beats hard. It thumps so powerfully against my chest I fear it might explode, but it does the trick and she steps away from me. I hear her footsteps go towards Brad then she begins murmuring to him. I don’t know what her words are, she’s saying it so I definitely cannot hear, but that doesn’t bother me. I’m not interested in anything that she has to say anymore. I peek ever so slightly and see that she has her back to me, which means that I don’t have long. I pull my cell phone up to where I can see it better… blinking through the blurring which has come from the smacks around the head, and I type out what I can as quickly as I can. There’s no chance I can explain the whole situation. I will just have to get the main details out.

  Tami: Ruby, help me. I need cops. My house.

  It isn’t much. I don’t know how much she will understand of it all. I can’t read it enough to check that my words are correct but that’s all I can do right now. This is a message that she needs to see. She hasn’t seen any of my emails, clearly, because she hasn’t come to help me, so I really hope this time she does. I’m relying on her. I don’t know what time it is in the morning, but there’s a chance. She might be awake. Sometimes, she is depending on what time she needs to get to the salon. Luck might be on my side today and help me out.

  Perhaps I should message some other people as well, just to be sure. Brad’s brother, Wesley, seems to always be on hand, and I do have his phone number, but it’s more time and it’s risky. I glance up and see Maria sliding backwards away from Brad because she’s finished saying what she needs to. She might be coming back for me now. To finish off what she started. I don’t know if my head can take any more smacks.

  I lean my head backwards and act again like I have been knocked out. My heart continues to pound, it races rapidly, but there isn’t anything else that I can do now. I have at least reached out to someone. There is another human in the outside world who now knows about the danger that I’m in.

  Now, it’s just more of a waiting game.

  “Well, well, well.” Maria sounds far too pleased in herself. “Looks like I’m right where I need to be. The slut knocked out; Brad all fucked up just as a little punishment for what he has put me through… so what should I do now? Maybe I should take some pictures of the scene that I have created to send to the girls. See what they think about all of this. That could be fun, couldn’t it? They might even want to come along and help me…”

  Oh God, I don’t know how much hate the girls from work have for me. Would they really want to do this?

  Chapter 24 – Brad – Saturday

  Everything is destroying me, the agony is far too much, but Maria is getting worse. She has just whispered to me that if anyone else comes here, they won’t want witnesses so Tami will end up dead. I don’t really think that someone I have had sex with could be this insane, but there’s just no telling anymore.

  So, with everything that I have left inside of me, I push my ailing body upwards and I just about manage to get to my feet. Everything wants to lie back down already and give up, but I strongly resist that urge.

  “Maria, I can’t say this enough times, but I will repeat it in case you don’t understand it. Your problem isn’t with Tami, it’s with me. You are angry because I don’t want to be with you, and that isn’t Tami’s fault. It’s just the way that it is. I don’t feel that way about you and I honestly never will.”

  “You could have been with me if it wasn’t for her. She ruined it all.”

  “But Maria, I wasn’t with you even when I wasn’t with Tami. What does that tell you?”

  “You just weren’t ready then, that’s all. Now you are and it’s our time to be together.”

  “Maria, I don’t want you. I want Tami. That isn’t going to change. It doesn’t matter what you do to me, what you do to her, I will never want you. And if you do anything to harm Tami, more than you already have…” I glance over to her, my heart bleeding as I see how harmed she is. It destroys me. “Then you will be in jail for the rest of your life. What do you think is going to happen then? That I will visit you in jail and be with you after you harmed the one person that I really want to be with? The person that I love?”

  It feels weird to fully admit that aloud. I’ve told her that I’m falling for her already, but to say love is something different. But you know what, I do love her. There isn’t any point in pretending otherwise. I don’t even think that it’s my hazy state causing that thought. I’m sure that it’s the truth. I don’t have anything to compare it to because I haven’t ever been in love before, but if this isn’t love then I don’t know what is.

  “Fuck you, Brad. Don’t feed me that bullshit.” Maria shakes her head. “What a crock. You wouldn’t ever do anything to harm me because you know that you have feelings for me as well. As soon as all of this is over, you will understand. You will admit it and we can just move on from all of this. We will get a happy ending.”

  “You can’t believe this. Seriously, Maria, you can’t. I would be mental to remain with you after this. Who knows what you’re going to do next, huh? I would never be comfortable with you. I could never relax..”

  “You would also never be bored. Not like you are with little miss basic bitch.” She looks at Tami who is still completely out of it. “Look at her. She doesn’t even have any fight left for you. She’s gone.”

  “You knocked her out! Of course she isn’t fighting any longer. Have you lost your mind?” I roll my eyes. “Stupid question. No one in their right mind would do anything like this.”

  “Brad, don’t you remember what it was like being with me?” she asks wistfully. It’s almost like she is reminiscing over something amazing that happened long ago. “We had such a nice time together, didn’t we? Me and you. We shared a sense of humor, we had a lovely time watching movies and stuff, and I treated you well, didn’t I? I was basically like a wife to you. Cooking you meals and everything.”

  “I don’t remember, Maria. It didn’t mean anything to me. I don’t want to be an asshole, but I don’t know how else to make this clear to you. The only person who I have ever felt a connection with is on the floor.”

  “But that action movie… I only watched that for you. Because I wanted you to like me.”

  I gulp feeling like shit as I realize that my bad boy behavior of the past has created this. It doesn’t matter that I was always honest, it makes no difference to anyone. This has happened anyway.

  “I’m sorry, Maria. That’s all I can say to you. That I’m sorry. I wish that I could go back in time and change what happened, but I can’t. So, what we need to do is focus on the future and where we go from here
.”

  It isn’t easy to keep my focus when in so much agony, but there’s a laser sharp need to keep my attention.

  “What would you have changed?” she demands. “If you could go back, what would you change.”

  “Well… sleeping with you. Wasn’t that much obvious?” I furrow my brows confused.

  Maria gasps in sheer shock as if she wasn’t expecting this at all. She still isn’t getting it, this is impossible. “I thought that you would say that you would change breaking things off with me and losing me. You wouldn’t even want to be with me? You would lose those three days? Those three magical amazing days.”

  For a moment, it looks like tears might explode out of her eyes, she might actually break down which could be the start of the end, but instead it’s an intense yell that breaks free from her instead. A shrill sound so loud it practically shakes all the walls in the house. I half hope that it might disturb some neighbors enough to call the cops or something. I’m actually surprised that someone hasn’t already heard the whole incident.

  “Fuck you, Brad. You fucking asshole. How could you do this? How could you?”

  She grabs a vase from the side and tosses it towards my head. Thankfully, her aim is terrible because I don’t know if my reflexes would be good enough to move away. It smashes loudly on the wall behind me, creating a damn mess everywhere. This unleashes something in Maria. She grabs everything that she can get hold of to break it. Now, she’s on a mission to create as much damn mess as possible.

  “Maria, stop!” I scream out. “Stop this already. Just let it go.”