by Dagny Rand
“When you’re me?”
“Yes, that’s right. I’m taking over. What do you think I’ve been doing this whole time? Getting in good with the family, the company, and your fiancée. I’m going to be better than just like you. I’m going to be you. After everything I told them and how you acted tonight, no one’s going to miss you. I’ll make sure of it.”
The hairs on the back of Leann’s neck stood on end. She should have realized that the only reason Susan would have told her all of that was that she was planning to get rid of her. She had been so stunned by everything that she had not had time to think of that. She was officially more afraid than she was angry. Susan was not that far away. Leann did not think that she could run out the door or into any room and lock the door behind her. She felt trapped. She could feel Susan watching her waiting to pounce. She felt like this was a moment of fight or flight. Since flight was not an option, it seemed she would have to fight.
Leann did not want to be a sitting duck, so she decided to make the first move. She began walking towards Susan. Susan prepared to pounce. Leann circled around the room trying to find an angle. When she got to the space closest to Susan, Susan sprang at her. She was a lot stronger than Leann was expecting. For such a slim woman, she packed a lot of punch. She was able to wrestle Leann down to the ground. She used her knees to force Leann’s legs closed and put her hands around her neck. Leann tried to fight her off, but she couldn’t breathe.
She was able to get her elbow lodged up into Susan’s ribs, knocking the wind out of her. When she loosened her grip, Leann flipped her off of her and began to grab at her. Leann had never been much of a fighter; she had never had to be. But now she was fighting for her life and she found strength she didn’t know she had. She pulled Susan back towards her end table. With her knees pushing down on her back, she reached for her lamp and brought it down on her head. Susan fell over with a thud and did not move. Leann felt horrible watching the blood ooze from the wound on her head, but she had no choice. It was either her or Susan. It was not going to be Susan. She realized that at some point she had lost her phone. She began to look around for it so that she could call an ambulance. They had begun their struggle by the couches so she got down on her belly to look underneath. She spotted the phone on the far side by the wall.
As she began to reach for it, she heard movement behind her. Just as she was about to come back out she felt something wrapping around her neck. It felt like Susan was using a belt to choke her. She struck out, grabbing at it and trying to get it loose. She could hear her phone going off beneath the couch. Her mind began to focus on her lack of air. The strap was pulled so tightly that her eyes began to blur. She could feel herself starting to lose consciousness. She heard Susan sneer, “That’s right. This is perfect. It’ll make your suicide by hanging that much easier to sell.” Leann tried to buck back into her, but she was locked up tight. It felt like her world was coming to an end.
Just as she thought she could take no more, she heard a commotion from somewhere in the room. The belt loosened a bit around her neck as Susan jolted up in surprise. In the next moments she could feel Susan getting off of her and the belt sprang loose. She fell forward on her stomach, coughing and gasping for air. She vomited on the floor in front of her. She could still hear struggling behind her. Susan was screaming at the top of her lungs. She turned around to see what was going on and she saw Ryan holding Susan down trying to get control of her. She wanted to help, but she could barely move, still trying to refill her lungs with air. Just as she thought she was regaining herself she began to fade.
The next thing she knew she was being shaken. She blinked her eyes open and looked up to see Ryan over her. It took a few moments for her to understand what he was saying. As the buzzing went out of her ears she could hear him saying her name. She tried to answer him, but the words wouldn’t come. It took her a few tries, but finally she felt his name leaving her lips. He pulled her into his chest and rocked her. Her body ached all over. Even his embrace hurt. She kept blinking and trying to figure out what was going on. The lights were on all over her house and there were other people moving around the room. She tried to see who it was, but Ryan was still holding on to her.
Then she saw a hand pulling him back and reaching for her. It was her mother. Her face was streaming with tears as she pulled Leann out of Ryan’s arms and into her own. Leann muttered a weak, “Mama?”
“Yes baby. I’m here. I’m so sorry, baby. I am so sorry. Your father is on his way.”
Leann sat up a bit to see who else was in the room. She realized that there were a few police officers and most of her family. They all began to gather around the couch where she had been laid. Her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents all loomed around her, offering soothing touches. She could see towards the back, the devastated faces of Natasha and Stacey. They were both sobbing and didn’t seem to want to come any closer. Leann drew a few deep breaths and said, “Susan and Stacey, come here.”
They looked at each other and slowly moved forward until they were standing at the front of the group. Leann reached a hand out for her sister. Still shaking with tears, she stepped forward and took it. She leaned in and said, “Leann, I’m so sorry. I should have never believed her. I feel like this is all my fault. I love you so much.”
“It’s okay. I understand. I love you too. And you Stacey.”
Stacey fell forward and put her head against Leann’s. Leann turned her head and planted a kiss on her forehead. Then she turned to Ryan and said, “Where is she?” No one had to ask who she was referring to. Ryan took her hand and said, “The police took her. Don’t worry, you won’t be seeing her again. There are outstanding warrants on her.”
Leann shook her hand in understanding. She still couldn’t believe it. Someone who she had held as a dear friend, almost family, had tried to kill her and take over her life. She would later learn about Susan’s history of psychological problems and the slew of crimes she had left behind her. The real reason she could not go back to her home town was that she had been tied to three assaults and at least two murders, the murders of her grandmother and her older sister. Leann felt blessed just to have made it out alive.
Ryan moved up the wedding to the first available date. He said he had almost lost her and he was going to keep her close to make sure that it didn’t happen again. She moved into his house. She had always loved it anyway, but it was decidedly better than her condo now with everything that had happened there. In most ways things went back to normal.
The one thing that did change was that Leann decided not to be so naïve. She realized that everyone trying to be in your life is not your friend. Some people are not there to add to your life, but to take away from it. She would try not to be bitter or paranoid, but she would be cautious. From now on she would be careful with anyone coming around trying to flatter her by saying they wanted to be just like her. They may just mean it…
*****
THE END
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A Bad Boys fake Fiancée
A hardcore football romance novel
By: Dagny Rand
A Bad Boy Fake Fiancée
Jack stretched as he reached for the towel after his shower. The steam swirled around the bathroom, and h
e swiped his hand across the foggy mirror and tied the towel around his waist. The image before him was the one that he saw every morning as he gave himself a once over. Tall and lean, check. Shoulder length dark hair, currently stick to the back of his neck from the shower, check. Muscles, honed by football practices, daily workouts, eating habits and being the equivalent of a walking Mack truck on the field, check. Bright almost sky blue eyes, double check.
“Jack?” a female voice said from the next room. Jack paused in the mirror. Oh holy hell, what was her name? He had not even the slightest idea and that wasn’t going to go over well at all.
“I’m in the bathroom, babe. I just got out of the shower,” he said. Maybe it would be okay if he just avoided calling her anything concrete. Otherwise, she was what’s-her-name. Most girls didn’t like that. He needed to start making them wear name tags or something. It wasn’t like he had to keep it up for long anyway, he had to be at practice soon. That was why he’d slipped out of bed and gotten into the shower already.
“Are you leaving?” she cooed as she came into the room and slipped her arms around his waist.
“No, hon. But you are. I have to be at practice in an hour and I need to get ready,” he said. What’s-her-name froze.
“What? I have to go already?” she said.
“Yeah, I’ll give you cab fare to get home. There’s no point in you showering here anyway, you don’t have clean clothes,” he said to her through the mirror reflection.
“Well hell, you just brought me here to screw and put me out?” she said. Jack sighed and turned to face her. He hated it when women got the wrong idea.
“Honey, you met me literally thirty minutes before you left the club with me. You don’t know anything about me other than what you’ve heard from the media, and you introduced yourself by rubbing your hand against my crotch. Exactly what kind of deep and profound relationship did you expect this to lead to?” he asked. The woman took a step back, clearly outraged, reared back and smacked the hell out of him. Or as much hell as she could manage. Then she turned and stormed through the bedroom, out into the living room, got dressed and grabbed her clothes and slammed the door as she stormed out. Jack sighed and shrugged. Seriously, what had she been thinking?
He didn’t really have time to think about it right then, it was time for him to get dressed. Jack had a few reputations, one as a womanizer and a bit of a bad boy who partied nightly, the other was as a bit of a fashion plate. That meant that if he stepped out of the front door of his house, he was always dressed perfectly, whether it was jeans or slacks. It was one of the burdens and perks of being Jack Carson.
Jack walked out of the house in sun shades, since it was pretty sunny outside, and climbed into his Land Rover Evoque and the only baby girl that he was really worried about in this world, and pulled out of his driveway.
An hour later, after being given a once over and sent to the gym for a pre-practice work out, Jack looked up into the head coach, Ben Fontaine’s frowning face. That wasn’t really out of the ordinary, Jack was pretty sure that the man never got laid and was just back the hell up. What concerned him was the team’s PR head, Yasmine Peterson, and the General Manager, Kevin Bates, walking in behind him, all three of them with their eyes locked on him. He racked his brain trying to think if he’d screwed anything up recently, and came up empty. He was pretty sure that he was good. Pretty sure…
“Jack, can we have a word with you in private?” Coach Fontaine said. The look on his face said that Jack didn’t really have a choice.
“Sure. Lead the way,“ he said, setting his weights to the side and standing up.
“Have a seat,” Coach said, closing the door behind the four of them as they ducked into one of the small conference rooms off of the main hallway.
“What’s going on?” Jack said as everyone settled in.
“Jack, you realize that your contract is coming to an end next year, correct?” Yasmine said. Jack nodded and grinned.
“Yeah. Are you trying to talk about renegotiating already? It’s a bit early,” he said with a rather self-satisfied smile.
“We aren’t interested, Jack,” Kevin said. Jack’s cocky grin wilted around the edges a bit.
“Of course you are, I’ve carried this team on my back since I got here,” she said. Coach sighed heavily.
“Look, you’re a good player and you know the game well. The problem is all of the other bull that comes along with having you here. That’s what we aren’t interested in anymore,” he said.
“What?” Jack said.
“You’re a pain in the ass, Jack. Hell, other teams that know how well you play aren’t even interested because they don’t want to have to deal with your antics ending up in the news every other day. It’s not worth it to them anymore, just like it isn’t worth it to us,” Kevin said.
“We’ve already told your agent about this, but we decided to tell you think ourselves instead of leaving it to her. She’s under enough pressure without having to worry about you going off on her about something that you brought on yourself,” Yasmine said.
“I’m sorry about all this, Jack. I hope you get it together. You’ve got a year, that’s plenty of time,” Coach said. Jack was pissed. Super pissed. He stood and walked out of the room, his hand already dialing his manager.
“Paula, what the hell is going on?” he said as soon as she answered.
“Look, I’ve got a meeting, so I don’t have a lot of time. You need to redeem your reputation, Jack. Tone down the partying, maybe get yourself a girl or a kid. Preferably both. Something to show stability. I’ve got to go, think about what I said and we’ll meet later,” she said before hanging up on him. Jack stared at the phone for a moment.
“A kid?” he repeated.
Chapter 2
A month had passed. Jack was partying less now, not that he liked it. That also meant less women, which he really didn’t like. He would admit that his game had gotten better, or he thought it had. Who the hell knew anymore, he was bored. Paula had been adamant about him settling down. If he wanted to party, he needed to get one person that he partied with. Meaning, a steady girlfriend. Otherwise, once every two weeks, and he’d better not be caught drunk and stumbling out of anywhere or anyone on the news. Them’s the breaks, kid, she’d said. He didn’t like it, but he abided by it because Paula had never steered him wrong in the past. That, and he didn’t really want to leave his team in a year. He liked it where he was, he like the dynamic that he had with the guys when he wasn’t busy being a total prick. He was working on that too.
Tonight, he’d decided that he was going out, but not to party. He was going to a nice jazz club that he’d found out about a few weeks ago. Tonight was the night that they had a live band, and he could get down with that. You know, dressing nice, sipping something fancy like scotch instead of beer, and listening to something mellow and smooth. It wasn’t a party, so it didn’t count against his every two weeks, and it got him out of the house, so he was going. After he decided what to wear, he wasn’t going out without looking his best, as always.
An hour later, he pulled up in front of the club, a small but classy place that actually served a pretty impressive menu of food and had what he’d heard was one of the best bartenders in the city. He let the valet take is car and walked inside, to the chorus of whispered and looks that he always got when he went somewhere. It didn’t even affect him anymore, he was used to it.
“One, please,” he said to the girl serving as hostess who looked as if she may pass out. She stumbled through something that Jack couldn’t really understand, and then grabbed a menu and walked off. He assumed that he was supposed to follow her, so he did.
The table gave him a great view of the stage that the band would eventually be performing on, and the small dance floor set up for those who wanted a twirl. His waiter wasn’t quite as start struck as the hostess had been, and quickly came back with his drink and a small salad that preceded a surprisingly good chicken parmesan dis
h. He’d have to remember this place the next time he had cabin fever, this was turning out to be a good choice.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the young man serving as announcer said through the microphone. “Please welcome to the stage Moonlight, featuring Willow Jackson,” he said as the house lights dimmed just a bit and the band came out onto the stage. They began playing something low and soft that made Jack tap his foot a bit, but it was the sultry voice that was singing suddenly that made him look up again.
The woman singing was breathtakingly beautiful. Her hair was full and dark, hanging almost down to her waist behind her as she sang, her eyes closed. Her skin was a warm mix of gold and tan, and was fitted to a frame that probably had the attention of every man in the room. Her voice was so full that it almost felt tangible as she sang along with the band. Jack’s food lay forgotten in front of him as he watched her, enraptured.
“Hey, wait a second,” he said, snagging his waiter on his way past.
“Yes sir,” the kid said softly, so as not to drown out the music.
“The singer, Willow, right? Can you send her a drink from me when they finish their set?” he asked.