Double Dare (A Neighbor from Hell Book 6)

by Mathewson, R. L.

  “I’m not kidding, Darrin!”

  Smiling that damn Bradford smile that she was really starting to hate, he walked over to her truck and stole her precious bakery bags while she stood there, helpless to stop him. “I never thought you were,” he drawled, making a show of inspecting her bags.

  “Don’t even think about it,” she bit out, needing her sugary baked treats more than ever.

  Shooting her a wink, the son of a bitch that she was going to kill, reached into her bag and pulled out one of the large glazed apple fritters that was rightfully hers and took a bite, all while keeping his eyes locked on her.

  “Let’s go,” Officer McCain said, giving her arm a gentle tug that had her moving.

  “This isn’t over!” she shouted as she was dragged over to the second police car. “I will get you for this, you bastard!” she promised him as Office McCain opened the car door and shoved her inside.

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, baby,” he said, sighing happily as he strolled past her, taking a huge bite out of her apple coffee cake and bringing her rage to a whole new level.

  Chapter 19

  “You’ll have to come out of there at some point, you son of a bitch!” Marybeth shouted, emphasizing her words by pounding on his door.

  “You do realize that she’s going to kill you, right?” Reese asked around a loud yawn as he absently scratched the back of his head while he scanned the pile of empty packages covering the coffee table.

  “Probably,” he said, unconcerned as he leaned forward and searched through the empty packages and wrappers for something to eat, uncaring when they fell on the floor.

  “I can’t believe you had her strip searched,” Jason said, shaking his head ruefully as he reached past him to pick up a package of Double Stuff Oreos only to drop it a few seconds later when he discovered that the package was empty.

  “She could have put a stop to it anytime she wanted,” he reminded them as he glanced at his watch, wondering where Aidan was with their food.

  “That probably didn’t help with your bullshit plan,” Trevor added, tossing an empty bag of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups aside and leaned back against the couch with a sigh, reminding Darrin of something that he’d been wondering about for the last two hours…

  “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Zoe kicked us out,” Trevor explained with a shrug and a sigh as he gave up his search and sat back.

  “That still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here,” he pointed out as he accepted a beer from his twin.

  “Grandma is having a dinner party and she didn’t trust us to behave,” Jason said around a yawn as he finally gave up his search for food.

  “Still doesn’t explain why you’re here,” he said around the same time Marybeth released a frustrated growl in the hallway a few seconds before they heard her door slam shut.

  He couldn’t help but shake his head in disgust. Did she really think that he was going to fall for that? He popped the top off his beer and took a sip as he watched the game, waiting for the moment when the frustrating woman realized that he wasn’t falling for this lame trick. It didn’t take long before she released a groan of frustration and was back to banging on his door.

  “Open the door!” she snapped, annunciating her demand by pounding on his door.

  “Are you ready to give up yet?” he asked around a yawn, because if this was all she had left then she might as well give up and accept the inevitable.

  There was a slight pause before she asked, “Will you come out if I do?”

  “No.”

  “I hate you!” she snapped, emphasizing her declaration by slamming the front door shut.

  “No, she doesn’t,” he said with a slight shake of his head as he watched her storm past his front window and head towards her car only to slow down when she spotted Aidan, climbing out of his SUV. He shot Marybeth a smile and a wink before he turned around and busied himself with loading his arms with the bags of takeout that he’d promised to pick up.

  “What is she doing?” Jason asked with a frown as they watched her abruptly stop in her tracks, turn around, walk back towards the house, grab the hose and storm off back towards the driveway.

  “Oh, shit,” Reese muttered.

  “She wouldn’t…..” Trevor said, slowly coming to his feet as they watched Marybeth storm across the yard towards Aidan and-

  “Shit!” he growled, racing for the door, praying that he was able to make it to the faucet and shut the water off before-

  It was too late.

  He’d barely managed to throw the front door open when Marybeth took her revenge out on Aidan, and more importantly, the delicious Chinese food that he’d been dreaming about all morning. Aidan tried to make a run for it, but the heartless wench that he loved more than anything managed to take his brother down with a jerk of the hose. While Aidan scrambled to save the last few morsels of food that had somehow survived her vicious attack, Marybeth calmly shifted the hose to the right and with her eyes locked on him, destroyed every last tasty morsel.

  The woman was heartless, he realized as he watched her drop the hose by her feet, step over Aidan who was searching in vain through the waterlogged food for any survivors, and walked towards him only to come to stop and noticeably swallow when she caught the murderous twinkle in his eyes.

  Absolutely heartless, he decided as he lunged for her only to find himself pinned down on the ground by his cousins as the cruel woman that he was more determined than ever to make his own made her escape.

  *-*-*-*

  God, she missed him, she mused absently with a pathetic groan as she lay there watching the alarm clock, waiting for the last minute to pass before she had to get up. She shifted in anticipation only to wince when the move caused one of the rusted old springs that were becoming more and more noticeable with each passing minute to poke her in the side.

  She also really missed her bed, she thought miserably as she slowly sat up and carefully untangled her favorite shirt from the sharp spring poking out of the ratty old cushion. Sighing, she shifted to the side, reached over and grabbed the roll of duct tape that she kept on hand for just such an occasion. She pulled off two short strips and covered the jagged metal tip, hoping that the spring wouldn’t see that as a challenge to pop all the way through tonight while she was trying to sleep and impale her.

  She glanced at Jake’s closed bedroom door and considered forcing the bastard to trade places with her, but….

  She’d seen his mattress.

  Not that she really wanted to know, because she didn’t, but she was pretty sure that was the same mattress that he’d had since he was fifteen. It was lumpier than the couch, stained from all those iced coffees that he liked to drink at night and had chunks missing from it. Until she figured out what she was going to do, she was going to have suck it up and deal with his lumpy couch and the possibility of contracting tetanus.

  “You’re up,” Jake said around a loud yawn as he stumbled out of his bedroom and headed towards the bathroom.

  “Do you think you could swing by my house today and pick up a few things for me?” she asked, pulling out the list she’d made last night, knowing that this made her a coward and not really caring.

  He shook his head. “Sorry, can’t. I’ve got a date tonight,” he said with a sheepish smile that could only mean one thing.

  “Crap,” she mumbled with a sigh.

  “Sorry,” he said with that boyish smile that usually had her rolling her eyes and laughing it off as she called him a jackass, but not today. Not when it meant that she was out of time. “Maybe you can stay with Mom?” he suggested with a shrug.

  Where her mother could bombard her with a thousand questions about why she wasn’t staying in her own house and why she looked like she was constantly looking over her shoulder? No, that really was not the best idea, not if she didn’t want to end up having to explain the real reason she’d come between a group of Bradfords and their food.
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  “I can’t,” she said with a heavy sigh, realizing that she had nowhere else to run.

  It was time to go home and face the music, she decided with a cringe as she was forced to shift to the side as another spring tore through the rough couch fabric and threatened to lodge itself in her hip.

  “Do you want me to talk with him?” Jake offered, as he grabbed his toothbrush that had been worn down to a matted mess and squirted an obscene amount of toothpaste on it.

  Since she knew who “him” was, she shrugged it off and shook her head. “I can handle this on my own.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked around his toothbrush and a mouthful of toothpaste, pausing mid-brush and looking like he wanted to argue with her, again.

  “Yeah, I’m sure that he’s over it by now,” she said, forcing a careless smile when all she wanted to do was to hunt that large bastard down and kick his insensitive ass.

  He hadn’t come after her to seek his revenge, texted her, dropped by to check on her, called Jake, her mother, or had one of his relatives ask if she was okay, nothing. Not that she wanted to see him upset or was in rush to find out exactly what he had planned for her, but still…

  Would it have killed him to at least pretend that he gave a damn about her?

  Bastard.

  As she stood up, gasping in pain when the spring got in one last poke, she walked over to the bathroom and shoved her brother out of the way, deciding that it was probably for the best that she confront the heartless bastard now and put an end to this dare before they ended up killing each other.

  *-*-*-*

  “Let me the fuck go!”

  Reese, the biggest fucking traitor in the world, shook his head while Jason and Trevor lounged on the bed on either side of him, finishing off the last of his cereal. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jason said with a soft sigh and a shake of his head that had Darrin yanking harder against his handcuffs, eager to kill the bastard.

  “I’d have to agree,” Trevor said absently as he tossed aside the empty box of Lucky Charms and grabbed the box of Twinkies that they’d found hidden in Marybeth’s apartment.

  “I’m not going to kill her,” he promised, because killing her was the last fucking thing that he wanted to do to her. She’d betrayed him, used his weakness against him and then ran off before he could get his revenge and he couldn’t remember ever wanting her more.

  “Uh huh,” Jason said absently as he stood up and tossed his empty cereal box aside. “Why don’t we go downstairs and give him a chance to cool off before we let him go?” he suggested, already heading for the door and bringing his rage to a whole new level.

  “Don’t. Even. Fucking. Think. About. It,” he bit out, emphasizing each word with a vicious yank on his handcuffs.

  “It’s for the best,” Trevor said, repeating the same damn phrase that he’d been using since yesterday when they’d all ganged up on him and dragged him up here.

  He knew that they meant well. He did. He even appreciated that they were trying to protect Marybeth, but they just didn’t understand what seeing her screw him over like that had done to him. He wanted her so much that he was actually in physical pain. He needed her and as soon as they released him, he was going to find her, bend her over and fuck her until it stopped hurting.

  Then he was going to have to come up with a new plan, because clearly this dare wasn’t working the way that he’d hoped it would. He was going to call off this dare, something that he’d never done before, take her to bed, put them both out of their miseries and then he was going to have to regroup and come up with a different plan, because-

  “Well, this explains a lot,” Jake drawled as he walked into the room.

  Darrin shifted his gaze past Jake, hoping to find Marybeth lurking in the hallway, desperate for a glimpse of her, but she wasn’t there. “Where is she?” he demanded, keeping his attention on the hallway, hoping that she’d magically appear so that they could put this bed and the handcuffs to good use.

  “At work,” Jake simply said as he grabbed the chair away from the wall and dragged it over to the bed.

  “Then why are you here?” he asked, yanking on the cuffs as he shot a hopeful look back at the hallway, damning his cousins and brother to hell and back when their large backs blocked his view as they filed out of the room.

  “We’ll be downstairs if you need us,” Reese said, but he wasn’t listening.

  “Because you and I need to have a talk,” Jake said as Darrin continued to glare at the hallway, willing Marybeth to appear so that they could put an end to this dare and move on.

  “About what?” he asked absently as he shifted on the bed, trying to get a better look at the hallway so that he could see the exact moment when Marybeth came upstairs.

  “The reason why you need to leave my sister alone and move on.”

  Chapter 20

  “How many nights will you be staying with us?” the cute guy working behind the front desk asked, giving her a warm smile that did nothing to help her frayed nerves.

  “I’m not sure yet,” she said, somehow resisting the urge to look over her shoulder, again.

  He nodded as he returned his attention to his computer screen. “Very good,” he murmured softly as he continued to type. “Would you prefer two doubles or a king?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” she said, giving in to temptation and looked over her shoulder to make sure that the coast was clear.

  “Third or fifth floor?”

  “Fifth,” she mumbled absently as she looked around the large foyer, making note of all the exits just in case.

  “I’ve placed you in room 517 with two double beds at the rate of one-seventeen a night. Is there anything else that I can do for you?” the clerk asked.

  “No, I’m good,” she said, forcing a smile that felt a little strained as she accepted the key cards and her license back, “thank you.”

  “If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to call,” he said, giving her an inviting smile that barely registered in her paranoid mind.

  “Thanks,” she said, shooting the double glass front doors a glance as she hefted her backpack over her shoulder and headed towards the elevators.

  Four minutes later she was closing her hotel door behind her and flipping the locks shut before she stumbled back and dropped down on the small love seat with a groan as she finally faced the truth.

  She was a coward.

  She’d planned on confronting Darrin and putting an end to this dare this morning, but one thing led to another and by the time that it was time to go home and face the music, something occurred to her. She’d not only willingly come between a Bradford and his food, but she’d actually destroyed it with glee. Over the years she’d done some really stupid things, but this was by the far the dumbest thing that she’d ever done.

  Even if she managed to convince Darrin to forget about this dare, something that she’d never been able to do before, there was no way that she was going to be able to get him to forget about the “Incident,” as she now liked to think of it, until he’d avenged the Chinese food that she’d destroyed. Since she’d seen what happened when someone came between a Bradford and their food, it was understandable, at least in her mind, why she wasn’t in a rush to face Bradford justice.

  They both just needed a few days to figure some things out and-

  “I’m done,” Darrin said, startling a blood-curdling scream out of her as she jumped up, tripped over her bag and landed with a wince on the floor.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” she managed to ask between gasps as she willed her racing heart to calm down when she spotted him leaning against the wall, staring out the large window.

  “Apparently a lot of things,” he said, continuing to stare out the window instead of issuing a dare to get back at her for what she’d done to his precious food, letting her know that something was very wrong.

  “How did you get in here?” she asked, realizing that her paranoia had been justified.


  Then again, it usually was when a Bradford was involved.

  “Devin overheard your phone call to the hotel and decided to give me a call,” he explained as she stood there, silently cursing his cousin to hell and back.

  “That really doesn’t explain how you got in the room,” she pointed out.

  “It doesn’t matter,” he said with a shrug.

  “What’s going on, Darrin?” she asked, slowly pushing to her feet as a weariness that she couldn’t explain spread through her.

  “Jake came to explain a few things to me,” he said, destroying her entire world in a matter of seconds.

  Oh, God…

  “What did he tell you?” she asked, placing her hand over the hollow ache in her stomach.

  “Don’t play games with me, Marybeth. Not now,” he said, finally looking at her.

  She nodded numbly as she sat down on the edge of the loveseat and buried her face in her hands. She took a shaky breath before she told him the reason why this had to end now.

  “I can’t have children.”

  *-*-*-*

  Oh God, he was going to be sick.

  Of all the things that he’d expected her to say, that hadn’t been one of them. He turned his back on her and gripped the windowsill until the backs of his knuckles turned white.

  “There’s more to it,” he said tightly even as he prayed that was the end of it, because honestly, he wasn’t sure that he could handle anything else.

  “What did Jake tell you?” she whispered after a slight hesitation.

  That he should move on because Marybeth wasn’t interested in anything serious with him. As long as he was in the picture, Marybeth wasn’t going to be able to find someone that she could settle down with. Darrin needed to do the right thing and end things, because Marybeth deserved better than to be some guy’s fuck buddy. If it had been any other guy looking out for his sister, Darrin would have felt like an asshole, but this was Jake, who couldn’t lie to save his life. He’d known the second that Jake opened his mouth that he was trying to bullshit him, but he hadn’t known why.