Candy Crush (27 page)

Gabriella’s eyes widened. “Did he bring
someone home?”

Brandon scowled as he nodded. Gabriella
giggled. “I guess I don’t have to be embarrassed about having sex
with him in the house anymore. Are we that loud?”

“I’m glad you think this is so amusing. And
no, we are not that loud. At least not when he’s in the house. Too
bad he and his partner couldn’t be so considerate.” His body was
rigid, practically vibrating.

“Do you think it’s that Chareese woman?”

“I’m sure of it.”

“Why are you so unhappy about that?”
Gabriella asked, worry making her tone clipped.

Brandon smoothed a hand across her hair.
“Chareese is bad news. Your brother shouldn’t have gotten involved
with her.”

“I highly doubt he’s
involved
. I’m
sure it’s just a one-night stand.”

“That depends on what Chareese wants.”

“What does that mean?”

“She’s bad news. Chareese does everything
for a reason. She picked up your brother for a reason. I just don’t
know what it is.”

“Maybe sex?”

“Maybe.”

Another series of short shrieks drifted
through the closed door. Even Butter perked up her head. They heard
a long, drawn-out moan, followed by more short shrieks that
increased in intensity until there was an ear-splitting scream and
finally, blessed silence.

“Wow,” Gabriella said when it was all over.
She looked at Brandon’s face. He still looked grim and his body was
still rigid. Gabriella ran her fingers across his chest and he
sucked in a breath and looked at her. She smiled sweetly, with faux
innocence, as her fingers skimmed his abdomen and came to rest on
his erection. She watched as his pupils dilated and his eyes
darkened.

“Since we’re awake…” Brandon closed his eyes
and smiled as Gabriella leaned over and pulled a condom off the
bedside table.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Gabriella woke up at eight-thirty on
Saturday morning. She stretched and smiled. Her body was still
tingling from the after-effects of an incredibly vigorous
lovemaking session at three in the morning. She looked at Brandon.
He was sprawled on his stomach, his head buried in the pillow,
still sound asleep. She slipped out of bed and pulled on a pair of
fleece pants and a t-shirt. She pulled her hair into a ponytail as
she stepped into the bathroom. A few moments later, she quietly
padded downstairs, with Butter on her heels.

Gabriella let the dog out and started the
coffee maker. She poured herself a cup, doctored it with a little
creamer and sat down on the kitchen bench, savoring the quiet and
solitude. She barely took three sips when she heard a deafening
crash from upstairs.

She scrambled to her feet and rushed to the
staircase, reaching the bottom just in time to hear, “Get the fuck
out of my bedroom!” It was Brandon’s voice.

Gabriella watched as Chareese scurried past
her line of vision, from the end of the hall where Brandon’s
bedroom was located, to the other end of the hall where the guest
bedroom was located. She was naked. After the door closed,
Gabriella hurried upstairs. By the time she reached Brandon’s
bedroom, he stood next to the bed pulling a t-shirt over his head.
He was already dressed in a pair of warm up pants.

“What happened?” Gabriella asked.

Brandon’s head popped through the hole in
the t-shirt. He looked furious.

“That – that woman tried to sneak into my
bed.” He didn’t bother to keep his voice down.

Gabriella looked startled. “Are you
sure?”

“Do I look like an idiot? I think I can tell
when a naked woman slips into my bed, Gabriella.”

He stalked past her and walked across the
hall and began beating on the bedroom door. “I want that woman out
of my house in ten minutes,” he yelled through the door. Then he
turned and stalked into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
Not knowing what else to do, Gabriella went back downstairs and sat
down to finish her coffee.

Five minutes later, Chareese strolled into
the room. She wore the same outfit she had on last night. She
hadn’t washed her face before going to bed, and her mascara had
run, leaving dark smudges under her eyes. Most of the rest of her
makeup had worn off during the night. She looked much older than
she did yesterday. She walked over to the coffee maker, poured
herself a cup of coffee and added a generous amount of cream. Then
she slipped onto the bench across from Gabriella.

“Your brother is quite the man,” she
commented conversationally.

Gabriella blinked.

Chareese rolled her eyes. “Oh please, what
do you think, he’s a virgin? Well, if he was, he isn’t any longer.
Sorry if we were too loud last night. Damn, I’m surprised I can
walk straight today.” She practically purred as she smiled.

“I’ll tell you a secret though: you got the
better end of the deal. Brandon, now there is a
man
. Damn,
but I have vivid, vivid memories of him.”

Gabriella swallowed. She had suspected, of
course, that Chareese and Brandon slept together in the past, but
Brandon hadn’t confirmed it and besides, she would be happy to
pretend he had never slept with any other women before her.

Unfortunately, it was hard to pretend it
hadn’t happened when the woman sat across from her, expounding on
Brandon’s bedroom prowess.

“I’d love to get a little more of that, I’ll
be honest with you. I bet he’s only improved with age.”

She narrowed her eyes at Gabriella. “I’m
sure this is only temporary with you. How long have you been
sleeping with him? It usually only lasts a few weeks at the most.
Is he about done with you? Because I’d sure like a crack again
before I leave.”

Gabriella contemplated throwing her coffee
at the woman.

“What’s the matter? Cat got your
tongue?”

Gabriella did throw her coffee at Chareese.
Unfortunately, it was luke-warm by that point.

Chareese screeched as she jumped to her
feet. “Bitch!” she screamed. She snatched her purse off the table
and stalked out the back door. Gabriella heard Butter barking up a
storm so she rushed to the backdoor to make sure the woman didn’t
kick her dog.

She didn’t. She simply stalked to the
driveway and down to the street, where her car was parked at the
curb. Gabriella sighed and walked back into the kitchen to clean up
the spilled coffee.

“What happened in here?” Brandon asked when
he walked into the kitchen a few minutes later.

Gabriella made one last swipe and tossed the
coffee soaked dish towel into the laundry basket sitting on top of
the washer. “I spilled coffee.”

“Is Chareese gone?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” He turned and poured himself a cup
of coffee. “You’re brother’s pretty pissed. He swears she made a
mistake and was looking for the bathroom.”

“No, she wasn’t. She told me she wants
another romp with you before she leaves town.” Gabriella watched
him as he brought the coffee carafe to the table and poured fresh
coffee into her cup. He then poured creamer into both cups and slid
onto the bench next to her.

“I suppose you want an explanation?” Brandon
asked.

“Only if it will make me feel better instead
of worse. I’ve never had violent tendencies before but that woman
is bringing them out in me.”

Brandon ran a hand over his face and sipped
his coffee. “Christ. I can’t believe she’s back in town. Chareese
lives in New York. She’s a small time model. She’s from somewhere
down near Detroit, but her grandparents bought a house on the lake,
near my parents, about ten years ago. I met her the summer I moved
back and took the DDA job. She’s not usually my type. She likes to
control everything, and I don’t particularly like to give up
control.”

He glanced at Gabriella. “I don’t mean in
the bedroom, I mean everywhere, everything. Where we go, what I
wear, that kind of crap. I think it’s safe to say I was one of her
conquests, not the other way around.

“We screwed around for a couple weeks, but
it got old quick for me. I wasn’t into dating, per say, and she
wasn’t the type to just leave in the morning. I couldn’t seem to
get rid of her. I finally told her I didn’t want to sleep with her
anymore, and she left town again shortly thereafter, to go back to
New York.” He paused. “This is slightly embarrassing.”

“Continue,” Gabriella prompted.

“After that, she would pop back into town
every few months, to check on her grandparents. And every time
she’d show up, she’d try to get back into my bed. Usually I was
trying to hook up with someone else at the time, and she always
managed to blow it for me, and I’d end up falling into bed with
her. I still don’t even know how it happened. I wasn’t even
attracted to her anymore. She has such a crappy personality. Fun
for a roll in the hay, but not on a regular basis.”

“I don’t like hearing that you ended up
falling into bed with her without knowing how it happened,”
Gabriella said as she stared at her coffee cup.

Brandon slid across the bench until their
legs were touching, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He
kissed her on the neck, right below the ear, and Gabriella tried to
stifle a shiver.

“Gabriella,” he whispered, his breath
rustling her hair. “No one could take me away from you.” This time
Gabriella didn’t stifle the shiver. Brandon kissed her on the neck
again.

“How long has it been since she’s been back
to town?” Gabriella asked curiously.

Brandon thought about it. “As far as I’m
aware, she hasn’t been back in over a year, maybe even two. Or if
she has, she finally quit looking me up, until now. I actually
thought her grandparents had died, or were put in a nursing home,
closer to her parents. But she said last night she was in town
visiting them.”

***

By the time Emmett climbed out of bed, it
was well after noon and Gabriella and Brandon were outside, raking
leaves. Emmett stumbled out the back door and flopped onto a chair
on the patio. Gabriella stopped raking and walked up to sit next to
him.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Is it still morning? What’s so good about
it? I feel like my head is going to explode. I gotta go get some
fast food.” He stood up and walked into the house. Five minutes
later, he walked out again, keys in hand.

“Hey,” Gabriella said, “Are you okay?
Besides the hangover I mean.”

Emmett shrugged. “Yeah. Probably shouldn’t
have brought her home. Tell Brandon I’m sorry. I’ll try not to do
it again.”

“She’s bad news.”

“She’s fucking psycho.” He turned and walked
down the driveway to the rental car parked behind Brandon’s
truck.

Brandon called it quits on the yard cleanup
after a couple of hours and went inside to watch the football game
with Emmett, who hadn’t moved off the couch since he returned with
a bag full of McDonald’s food and a large fountain Coke.

Gabriella was bored, so she decided to take
Butter for a walk. They ended up standing in the alley behind the
candy store. Gabriella pulled out the key had absentmindedly
pocketed as she left the house. She used the key to unlock the back
door. The yellow caution tape had been pulled off, so she reasoned
that maybe they released the storeroom as a crime scene and hadn’t
bothered to tell her.

She stepped inside and flipped on the light
switch. She sucked in her breath at the sight of the graffiti. She
had been half hoping someone would have painted over it, which of
course was silly.

She wandered around, inspecting everything,
not really sure what she was looking for, but feeling the need to
look nonetheless. She poked her foot at the pile of boxes in the
corner and told herself she would throw them all in the dumpster at
the first opportunity, even if she had to do it herself. She
wandered around for a few more minutes, and opened the door,
flipping off the light as she walked out. Butter started growling
and Gabriella looked up to see a police cruiser slowly driving down
the alley. “Uh oh,” Gabriella said out loud, suspecting she was
about to get in trouble for disturbing a crime scene. The car came
to a rolling stop in front of her and Gabriella saw Daniel Franks
sitting behind the wheel. He rolled down the passenger side window
and leaned over the seat to look at her.

“Hi Daniel.”

“Gabriella, what are you doing here?”

“I was taking my dog for a walk and I ended
up here. Just looking around, making sure nothing else has been
disturbed.”

“You can have your storeroom back. We’ve
come up empty handed again. Are you still planning to open the
candy store?”

“I’m thinking about sitting on it for a
while, until you guys catch whoever is doing this.”

“You sure you don’t want to just sell it,
get it off your hands? I understand you’re working at the Chamber
now.”

It annoyed Gabriella how fast news traveled
in this damn town. “While that sounds like a tempting idea, I would
have to at least break even, and I doubt I could convince anyone to
buy it from me for what I paid. Plus, it’s not really fair to pawn
off the problem onto someone else. Someone doesn’t want a candy
store open on Main Street, so I figure if I just don’t open it,
that person will have no reason to continue to bother me or the
store.”

“I’m not sure that criminals operate in a
logical manner, Gabriella. You should just cut your losses. Put it
up on Craig’s List for a couple thousand bucks and walk away,
lesson learned.”

Gabriella looked appalled. “Couple thousand
dollars? That’s ridiculous. If it could ever be opened, it’s worth
ten times that. Besides, I told you, I don’t want to pawn my
problem off on someone else.”

“You’re making a big mistake, Gabriella.
Someone’s trying real hard to scare you, and I think you should
listen.” Daniel scowled when his radio started crackling. “Watch
yourself,” he said just before he rolled up the window and cruised
through the alley, turning left at the end of the block.