Fighting Heart: Fighting Heart Erotic Bad Boy Romance Series Book 1 (10 page)

After the showdown between Cody and Brandon outside the vegetarian café, I was more twisted up than ever. The way Cody challenged Brandon was foolish, and yet it was inspirational. I never knew he had it in him! It’s strange to say, but I felt kind of proud of him. But I couldn’t tell him that. I didn’t need any more guys trying to step in to control my situation. Right now that was the last thing I wanted. I called Purdy’s to see if they needed me on Wednesday night, having bunked off the night before because of Brandon. Purdy said “not tonight,” and that was that. Great. I was another night’s wages down, probably because Purdy didn’t like my no show the night before. Brandon tried to kiss me, and asked me in front of his friends to come home with him. By this point Amanda was radiating more cold than Frosty the Snowman. The bitch was welcome to him. I told him I had to study, but he knew I was being distant. “Playing hard to get won’t save you, gorgeous.”

“It’ll save me tonight, Brandon.” I replied. And it did. But it didn’t save me from my anxiety. Brandon had been a shining knight for all of a few days before revealing his true colours. It turned out that he was just another bastard hiding behind his good looks. He was a beautiful looking man, and we’d shared some sweet and tender moments together. When two bodies mingle like that, it’s hard to ever truly hate the other person even when you’re angry with them. I didn’t really hate him, how could I? But I wanted to.

The next morning I called Penny, but she had gone back to Surrey to see her parents. My only alternative was Cody. I just wanted friendship. I wanted to hang out with someone, and I was beginning to think he was pretty cool. What he dared me to do at the café was exhilarating and amazing. I wanted more experiences like that. We met at a coffee shop at the Lewisham end of town where I knew I was unlikely to see Brandon. I happened to notice that Cody looked kind of cute today. I noticed his style for the first time. He was all about fitted checked shirts, and thick smart trousers, either with a big belt or braces. His face was always shining with vigour and his eyes burned bright beneath his fringe of red hair. He was my study buddy and my friend, and he was secretly pretty cool. After talking aimlessly about a ton of stuff unconnected to Brandon, I needed to check in at Purdy’s just a five minute walk away to get my next shift.

The lights were off but someone was home. The door was ajar, resting on the snib. They would be cleaning now, and I would have been helping but they had never called me. I walked into the smell of beer and bleach and last night’s food. The mirror behind the bar reflected me and Cody as silhouettes in a rectangle of light.

“Purdy? Reggie?” I called.

No answer.

“Maybe they’re… indisposed.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Take a guess. Maybe they’re making the beast with two backs.”

I laughed. “They live together, Cody.”

“People get horny in the strangest places.”

“Speak for yourself,” I said with a smile.

I walked around the back of the bar and pushed through the door which led to the private part of the building and led up to Purdy and Reggie’s flat.  I called up the stairs to their door. They didn’t reply, but I heard creaking floorboards. It sounded like they were getting ready to come down again, so I went back through to the bar to wait.

I was about to walk around and see Cody when I heard the door open and feet pounding down the stairs. Purdy emerged with Reggie close behind her. They looked at me, and then they looked at each other, and I suddenly didn’t feel good at all.

“What are you doing here?” said Purdy.

“I just came in to see you… to get my next shift…” I said, floundering a little.

“Really? Why bother?” Purdy looked angry and I had no clue why.

“Because I work here?” I said.

“No you don’t, Ashley. Not anymore.”

A hammer of injustice hit me on the heart, and then the rage surged in.

“Why not?!”

“Because you don’t turn up for shifts. Because you play the feminist card with our customers. Because your boyfriend insulted us and told us you secretly hate working here. I’ve got to say it wasn’t hard to see. If you hate it so much, you didn’t ever have to bother coming back. We don’t want any prima donnas here, eh, Reggie?”

Big Reggie looked at me with his soft eyes, but he was angry too. He put his hands on his hips and shook his head. “That’s it Ashley. We’ll settle up with you next week. Time to go.”

I was furious and started welling up with tears, but I didn’t want to cry. I held back and made my voice as deep and strong as I could.

“Are you saying Brandon came in here and told you that?”

“Yeah. The rude son of a bitch came in here late last night and told us exactly what you’ve been saying.
Purdy’s is a dive, they’re so mean to me, the customers are lechers, it’s beneath me
…”

“Beneath me! Those are just cold stone lies! I never said that.”

Reggie looked surprised, but Purdy’s face was set to mean.

“It doesn’t matter now. We don’t need your kind of trouble. We’ve got a business to run here, not a psychotherapy service. Now leave us to work. Reggie will pay you next week.”

I was stunned.

“Come on. We’re working here. It’s time to go. Get out.”

Purdy opened the gate on the bar and pointed for me to go. Open-mouthed, furious, I walked away. I looked back but I didn’t know whether to holler or scream. Instead I walked back into the pale daylight with Cody trailing in my wake. Brandon knew how much I valued my independence. But last night he had chosen to destroy my last vestige of freedom. He’d taken away my opportunity to get away from his dominance. But I wouldn’t let him win. I started walking towards New Cross at a fierce pace. I couldn’t help my boiling anger.

“Wait up!” said Cody. But I wasn’t waiting for anyone.
 

Brandon didn’t answer the door at his flat. No one answered. I wanted this out with him face to face. Text messages and howling down my phone in the street wasn’t going to cut it. We had a lecture this afternoon, so I planned the confrontation for beforehand. There was no way I could endure two hours of lecture and seminar before I could ‘thank’ Brandon for all the ‘help’ he had given me. Cody walked with me, staying way back when I visited Brandon’s flat. He came with me to college and he stayed quiet even though I knew he was desperate to speak to me. I’m glad he knew not to speak. I could barely contain the rage and upset within me, and if he comforted me I think I would have roared at him again. It could have been tears or screaming in his face, and I knew now Cody didn’t deserve any of the treatment that Brandon did.

Brandon was a no show for the lecture and the seminar. Was he frightened of me? I couldn’t believe that, but his absence seemed too much of a coincidence. I texted him. No reply. I even called him during the lecture, but he didn’t pick up. Eventually a single line text came through. “Hey babe. I’m not feeling good today. I’ll call you soon. Stay gorgeous.”

The creep. He’d probably seen who was knocking at the door of his flat and left me hanging outside. He could avoid me for a while, but soon he was going to have to face the music. Brandon - my deliciously good looking lion king, with the body to die for, and kisses which sent me into another dimension – my opinion of him had never been lower. He’d fallen from status of sexual demi-god to cretin in less time than it takes to change a light bulb, and it was all down to him. Cody looked at me a few times, stealing glances throughout the seminar. I was a good girl and listened to Professor Cantor and threw in enough appropriate comments to keep him at bay. But I could see Cody wasn’t thinking about my academic performance today. He was worried about me and it showed. Penny had finally returned from her stint away with her parents and I sat with her and Cody in the canteen after class.

“How’s everything been? How’s your job?” she asked.

“Oh, I it’s not for me really so I handed in my notice,” I said.

Cody glanced at me.

“Really. That’s a shame. Hopefully you don’t feel under too much pressure now?”

“Me? Feel the pressure? When did I ever give you that impression,” I smiled. Penny looked a little troubled but said nothing. It was like she was sensing that I was holding back but wasn’t sure.

“Brandon must be disappointed that it didn’t work out for you. He wanted to help you so much. I think he likes you, you know.”

“Yeah. I thought that too.”

“Lucky you!” said Penny.

I smiled and changed the subject onto Penny’s home life and her visit to the parents in Surrey. So much had happened in such a short time, Penny had missed most of it. And as stupid as it sounds, a tiny and totally idiotic piece of me resented her a little for introducing me to Brandon in the first place. But more than that, I realised that I felt I had the close friend I needed in Cody. He knew everything, my shame included and I didn’t want to go through sharing that twice. Penny happily talked about her parents and their dogs and we sat and nodded and drank our coffee. And all the while I knew my life had turned on its axis since she’d been away. Cody’s eyes met mine for a fraction of time, and his eyes said he knew what I was feeling. He knew what I knew – and it was something beyond words. I looked up at the big fancy clock on the canteen wall and counted down the minutes until my next possible meet up with Brandon. He wasn’t going to escape and he wasn’t going to schmooze me into bed this time. Those times were over. Now I needed to set the ground rules this bastard was going to live by. And I needed to do it now before he wrecked my life. I just hoped he was arrogant enough to do what I hoped he would. The clock said it was only a short time until I could find out. My heart began to stir at the thought of our confrontation.

Penny said she didn’t want to drink tonight and I was glad. She’d been drinking free wine all weekend around her parent’s house and now she needed to detox. It suited me fine. Penny didn’t know about what a diabolical bastard Brandon Lynes had become in my life. I would update her soon over a bottle of wine with some quiet tunes somewhere and we would laugh and cry and get back to being good friends again, but tonight I had a mission.  It was six pm. What did I care about the time? I didn’t have to work tonight because of him. This fact made me free enough to track him down like a stalker, which wasn’t hard to do. Like I said, I hoped he was an arrogant fool, and it turned out he was.

“You need to stay back, Cody. I know I have your support, but this is my mess and I have to deal with it alone.”

“Fine. But if he does anything, anything bad, then I am getting involved straight away. Okay?”

“Okay. Brandon’s an idiot and a cretin, but I don’t think he beats on girls.”

Cody nodded. He looked a little intense, sweeping his red hair back across his head, his eyes fixed too tight ahead.

The music in the Union bar was loud tonight, and it shook the concrete building and reverberated down the metal staircase. It was early but they were getting ready for their Wednesday club night. The Union bar was open until 2am on Wednesday nights. By 10pm it would be heaving with sassed students. It was just past six now, and the early-birds, good time people and heavy drinkers, were already engaged in the serious business of getting blitzed. I skipped up the first level of steps toward the bar, my heart racing so fast I thought I might collapse. I burst through the double-doors before my fear could stop me and scoped out the bar from the door area, which led down a few steps towards the tiled bar room floor. The room was buzzing and loud already. The pool tables were in play with macho players smashing the balls like the Hadron Collider across the blue felt. There were audiences packed all around the small pool table space. Every drinking table had a gathering of students, while others perched with their drinks at the side-shelves along the walls and the bar itself. Girls and boys were getting merry, side-stepping between the tables on the way to the bar or the toilets downstairs.  This didn’t look like a good place for a messy show down. It was far too busy and public. But when I saw Brandon hauling a trio of pint glasses and laughing with the big bald bartender I knew I had no choice. It was now or never.  I walked down into the bar area. Brandon’s whole crew were sitting in a side area of the bar shaped like half a hexagon, with couch seats pressed against the wall and tables nestling around them. I saw all of Brandon’s chums. I saw Amanda chuckling and acting girly for the men ranged around her, doing a flirtatious dance with pumping her bare slender arms in the air. I could tell it was supposed to be part of a joke, but I could also tell it was ‘hey, look at me, I’m pretty sexy’ kind of thing. She dropped her arms from above her head when she saw me and her smile dropped into a monumental pout.  Amanda giving me the silent and moody crap wasn’t helping my state of mind any. I was getting angrier. I wanted to tear the whole pathetic pretentious drunken mob in half.  I stomped towards them. But I had a long standing problem which was coming on stronger with every step. When I get into a serious rage, I tend to cry. I don’t actually weep, I don’t blub, but the tears well up and overflow and I seriously hate that. I felt the glisten of tears form over my eyes in preparation. I wiped them away quickly and stood close before the tables as Brandon laid his trio of pint glasses on the mosaic table top. “Seconds out, round two,” said one of the other guys and picked up his pint glass and started to chug it.  Brandon was grinning, and turned to sit down. But then he saw me and all the grinning stopped.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he said with a new saccharin smile.

“Hey, you feeling better, handsome?” I said, feeling cocky, and for the most part, in control. He did still look damn good though. Those big shining eyes sucked you in like a black hole.

“Yeah, much better now. I slept it off. I was going to call you, but I know you just prefer our one-on-one time. Like I do. But it’s so good to see you. Draw up a chair.”

He looked past me and saw Cody somewhere back behind me. I turned round and saw him lingering up near the doors, holding a railing. He was pretending not to look over, but it was obvious. I wished he had gotten a drink or something.

“What’s he doing here?”

“Cody? He’s a student here too. He’s in some of our lectures.”

“I know that part, but what’s he doing here,
now
?”

Brandon was smiling, but his smile was losing its lustre. I wasn’t going to dignify his question with a proper answer. “Back in a minute guys,” he said to his entourage. One of the poor fools gave him a mock salute. I mean, just how dumb could you get? Brandon curled his hand gently around my upper arm and led me a few feet away to the side. I peeled his fingers off my arm and gave them back to him. I could smell the beer on his breath and I could detect the faintest beginnings of drunkenness in his manner. Brandon must have been drinking fast.

“Are you okay, Brandon, honey? Is this girl upsetting you?”

Amanda appeared at our side, curling her own hand around Brandon’s exposed bicep.  He looked around at Amanda and gave out his standard issue cheesy smile. Her lingering hand turned into a stroke which trailed along the length of his arm. This girl was all flirting desperation and bitterness. Jeez, she was nasty.  I was still protective of my claim on Brandon but only because this bitch was on my territory.

“Back off, we’re talking,” I said.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t talking to whoever you’re supposed to be.”

“It’s okay, gorgeous. We’re fine. Just go and have some fun.”

Amanda did a flirtatious half turn, smiled at him and walked away. I turned on Brandon.

“Okay, so now
she’s
gorgeous?”

“Well, she is kind of pretty. But she’s not in the league of gorgeousness you’re in. You’re the international title holder for hotness.”

Cheese, pure unadulterated bull, but in some stupid way it was still working on me a bit. Damn my hormones – I had to fight them as well as Brandon.

“You’re such a charmer, Brandon.”

Brandon didn’t bite on my sarcasm.

“Maybe that’s why I didn’t see you had such a sting in the tail,” I said.

His face changed. “What are you talking about, Ashley. What sting in the tail? Who am I supposed to have stung here?”

“You mean you can’t remember? I skipped my job for you in Greenwich, remember? I went to see Purdy and Reggie this morning to smooth things out and they told me I’d been sacked. Sure, they mentioned my argument with those horny idiots, and they mentioned me skipping my shift… but the main reason they gave for sacking me is because of a little visit you paid them last night. Do you remember that now?”

I watched him and took a breath. I was just getting into my stride.

“Yeah, I remember. But that job is beneath you baby. Why should a gorgeous girl like you haul your ass around a dirty old bar for tips? You’re much better than that.”

“You told them what you said about the place was
my opinion
, Brandon, but it was yours and yours alone. I liked that job. I was going to pay my way out of my debt and do it all by myself. I was grateful you got me that job, Brandon, but I
never
asked you to pay off my debt and I never
ever
wanted you to lie to my bosses about what I think and say. You hurt them and now they hate me. I can’t believe you did that. Seriously, what the hell were you doing?!”

Brandon tipped back his pint and drank a third of it in one go. “Are you serious? I paid off your debt…” His volume was increasing and his eyes were moving around. He was playing to the tables near us. I became aware of his people listening. “I paid off £9000 of student fees for you in the blink of an eye, and you are criticising me for it? Come on! Do you think that’s grateful? Do you think that’s reasonable after what I’ve done for you?”

I decided to take the opposite tack. I stepped close to him and stared hard into his beautiful eyes.  I whispered. “Brandon… I liked you. I liked you a lot. But now I know you and let me tell you - you are a total jerk.”

“How dare you? You give me all the come-ons, you let me pay off your debt, you throw yourself at me three times and now this…?” Brandon lowered his volume to match. He lowered his jaw to my shoulder and put his lips against my ear, I was tense, ready to pull back by I wanted to hear him too.

“You are mine, Ashley. Don’t do this. You are
all
mine. I saved your ass. You would have been out of here, kicked to the gutter if it wasn’t for me, so don’t you ever forget that.”

I pushed away and stared into his eyes. I kept my tone low and hard. “You think you bought me? Is that it? I never had a price, Brandon. Not ever. And you may be a good looking guy, but now you’re acting psycho and cost me my job, let me tell you the debt is paid in full. I didn’t want your money. I didn’t ask for it and you took away my means to clear the debt. Just in case you didn’t hear me, I’ll repeat it for your audience.
The Debt. Is. Paid
.”

Brandon’s face went red as if someone had flicked a colour switch. His nostrils flared and his eyes widened. Something bad was going to happen and it was too late to do anything about. He roared and pushed my shoulder. Brandon was strong, and as much as I wanted to stay still, I fell back, my shoulder hitting the wall. I grunted and set myself aright. People all round were looking at us. Brandon had lost it and he knew it. He poured another third of the beer down his neck and set the glass down on the table, then rushed towards me shaking his head with his face all changed.

“I’m sorry babe… but those things you said… they hurt me.”

“I don’t care. It was true, Brandon. Every word.”

A body flew past me. Too late I saw it was Cody, snatching at Brandon’s throat. Brandon was bigger and wider than Cody, and made of around 50% more muscle. Cody didn’t have a chance. “Cody, no!” I said.

The rage returned to Brandon’s face as he smashed Cody’s hands away, and yet Brandon wasn’t his only problem. Two of Brandon’s wing men jumped up from the table. One with spikey hair stepped forward and swiped at him but Cody blocked it, only for the other boy with the blow dried quiff to land a brutal smashing fist across his face. I got between them when Cody fell back. He put his hand on his mouth, but there was no blood to be seen.

“That’s it!” came a deep shout from behind us. “You lot. Out! Now!”

The big bald barman was joined by a stockier shaven headed guy in a black bomber jacket. They seized Cody and the Quiff and pulled them towards the stairs. “You too Brandon and your chum, and the girl. You’re not coming back in tonight, do you hear? Get out!”

How uncool. We were unceremoniously dumped outside in the curling lane between the Union bar and the college. It was still light and still quiet compared to the bar, even though the smokers were gathered outside already. The bouncer and the barman looked out from behind the window of the bar door as the battle lines were redrawn.

“Ashley, let’s go now,” said Cody. He was right. Enough was enough.

“Wait, don’t, Ashley. Don’t listen to him.”

“There’s nothing and no one here for me, Brandon.”

“You got that right, you trouble making little…”
said the spikey blond guy.

“Shut up!” said Brandon. “Ashley. Before you go, hear me… please...”

Cody shook his head, but if this was closure, I wanted it. I turned back to Brandon.

“You got something to say?” I challenged him. He nodded and walked to the side of the group. It was a kind of invitation to follow. Slowly, as a sign of resistance, I followed him. He sniffed and pinched his nose then he whispered again. He whispered close to my ear. His breath was warm and teased my earlobe and my hair. His words were sweet poison.

“I know about your problems. I know more than you think. I know about your brother. You’ve got enough problems to make anyone fail, but I can make sure you won’t miss out on your dream. I have the influence and the contacts to make it happen for you. You know I do. But sweetheart, if you try to desert me, if you ever try to make me look like a fool again, your college days will be over before they even begin.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He smiled like he was telling me a joke, then leaned in and stole a kiss on my cheek before I could move away. After he took his kiss, he looked across at Cody.

Cody stayed stern and impassive.  I looked at Cody and saw his commitment to defend me, to stay resolute even though these guys could beat his ass every day of the week. He was the one who had listened to me, and supported me, and gave me a moment where I was the equal with every other student in this college. Cody wanted to show me my potential. Brandon wanted to own me, to beat me down. In short, he cared. For the first time I saw him differently.  He was oblivious to my thoughts, his eyes caught up in the danger with Brandon and his boys.

“You don’t fool me one bit, Brandon. I know what you’re doing,” said Cody.

“So, what am I doing, stick man?”

“You want to control Ashley. You want to destroy her. And I swear Brandon, I’m not going to let that happen.”