MASKEDBrian had seen Gonzalez fight in several competitions over the years. In fact, last fall he watched him win 3 bouts in less than 10 minutes.Billy had promised Gonzalez that the job he had in mind would be simple.He told him they were just going to scare a woman and not hurt anyone at all.It was just as bad luck that Brian Maxwell had turned up when he did.They've looked at Brian and started to crack his knuckles.Then the lady inside the car “Now we talk”, he said.Catherine looked at him.He was so big that he made Brian look like a chicken.She was convinced that he would kill her best friend's husband.She made a decision. “Billy, leave him alone and I'll get back together with you”. She shouted in desperation.Billy stopped dead in his tracks. “Do you promise?” He asked warily. “Yes, but you must promise to let him go.This is nothing to do with him”, she said, thanking her lucky stars that Samantha had been too busy to witness such a sorry spectacle.“Let him go”, Billy laug
SUSPECTED“What's that?” He asked. “Why do you pretend to be a loser when you're so obviously not?” She asked.She realized that she was slightly envious of Samantha being married to such an amazing man, not that she ever intended to admit it.Brian saved her life more than once, and since her benefactor refused to say anything to his wife about his true abilities, she knew it wasn't her place to tell her either.Brian was surprised by the question.It wasn't something he thought about much.Not wanting to answer it, he changed the subject.“I need to get back”, he said as he got her suitcase out of the trunk.Samantha will kill me if dinner is not on the table when she gets home.Have a nice trip.Catherine stood on the sidewalk as she watched Brian's car drive away.As the car disappeared out of sight, she did not attempt to walk inside the terminal.She had no idea how long she stood staring into space, but it was an announcement calling passengers for her flight that intruded on her rev
ELATEDIt annoyed her that he was wasting his skills on low paying work.For the first time, she felt his lack of income was through his own laziness rather than an unfortunate absence of skill and intelligence.He opened his mouth but couldn't find any words to improve the situation.“Did you come up with this yourself?” She asked quietly.“No”, he replied impulsively.“Then how do you know so much about the workings of the company?” She asked.“I noticed some things from your notebook and paid attention when you told me about work, " he said, hoping it sounded like a decent explanation.“So you put this together from random scraps of information?” She asked.His heart raced as he tried to talk his way out of the corner he had backed himself into.“Plus, jeffery talks about business stuff with me a lot. He mentioned a method like this the other day, so I thought it could be applied here”.Relief filled Brian as Samantha's expression changed.She looks disappointed that he hadn't had a s
JAZZYShe offered her cell phone .The energy in the room buzzed with the implied intimacy between the two.They couldn't understand why Brian was being so cold toward her.Brian didn't accept the phone from her.If she wanted to send the photo to Samantha, she would have done it already, he thought.“No thanks, I'll take your word for it”, He said in a flat tone. “Great”. She said in a trippy voice. She stood up from her seat, proving the only reason she had joined the group was to talk to Brian.“You have my number.Don't forget to use it”, she said as she winked invitingly.Brian felt baffled as he watched her walk away.“When did we exchange numbers?” He wondered. He looked at Brandy’s retreating figure and saw her grab a cell phone from the bouncer.She turned toward Brian and waved the cell phone at him before disappearing.“She set me up”, he realized.Brian cursed under his breath.He stood up to follow and confront Brandy, only to have his path blocked by 5 young men that apparently
CAUGHT“Don't tell me that you haven't been listening to me talk this whole time”, she playfully admonished him.In reality, she had been patiently waiting for him to take himself off of mute.“How did you get my cell phone number?Why are you calling me?” He asked.The car speedometer steadily inched forward as concern for Liam filled Brian. He wanted to ask about Liam, but he didn't wanna risk exposing him if he hadn't been caught.“I already told you that I had your number, remember?”She reminded him smugly. “Speaking of that, did you know some guys tried to jump me at Raymond's Pub because of that?” He snapped.“But did I lie? Look, we have each other's numbers”, she said in a singsong voice.Brian realized it was pointless to argue with her, so he switched subjects.“So why did you call me?” He asked.“Security noticed the guy sneaking around my room.I recognized him from Raymond's Pub.I thought you might know him, but it sounds like you're busy. No big deal”, she said.“Who is it?
THE PICTURE Jeffrey and Jordan shook their heads. “Not sure it's really any of our business”, Jordan said. Liam rolled his eyes. “In that case, I guess I'll go return the phone. Stealing is wrong after all”, he said. Liam reached for the phone, but jeffery smacked his hand away. “Stop messing around”, jeffery snapped. “Let's just go through it together”, jeffery suggested.Nobody objected to his idea.Liam grabbed the phone, even though he was the most eager to go through it, he still felt nervous about what they might find.He tilted the screen toward his friends and swipe to unlock it. The four men simultaneously recoiled in surprise.The home wallpaper was a picture of Brandy and Brian eating together.Brian wasn't facing the camera, but Brandy had a MW smile. Based on her expression alone, they looked like a deeply in love couple dining together.It was no longer difficult to understand how some people could get the wrong impression. Brian's three friends all glanced at him cau
PRETENCEWhat was it?It's fine, she said, rolling her eyes.It turned out that being late had saved Brian from an argument.She had gotten so angry because he hadn't returned as she was ready to hit him.Though she calmed down by morning, she no longer felt the need to talk too much.A good night's sleep had put the problem into perspective.She realized she didn't need to discuss it, she only needed a little more time to solve it.Besides, Brian wouldn't know enough about what had happened that day to be of any help to her.“No, tell me, please”, said Brian.“OK”, she said reluctantly.“There were two things, actually.Firstly, Catherine told me she was going to be away for awhile and not to worry about it”.“OK”, said Brian carefully.Not sure what the problem was.“Surely it's normal to say that to your friend?I definitely say that to my friends.But she also told me that I should be nicer to you”, she continued, ignoring his reply.“Why do you think she would say that to me?”Brian was su
SUBMISSION“Please come in, Sir”, a guard said, his attitude changing instantly. “Mr. Parkinson is waiting for you in his office on the third floor.Good luck”, Shadow, One of the guards said after him. “We're counting on you to keep our company afloat”.Brian wave to the three of them and drove into the parking lot. He got out of his car and found a staircase inside a nearby door. He ran up to the third floor, two steps at a time. Doug's office was the largest room on the floor. Seeing no one was at the assistance desk. He entered the office without knocking.Not worried about formalities.He looked round the door to find Doug in a compromising position with his personal assistant.The man jumped up and smoothed down his suit. His face brims in with embarrassment when he saw a strange man walking in.“Who are you? What do you want?” He demanded, pushing his personal assistant away.She ran out of the room, buttoning up her blouse. Never before had anyone entered his office without kno
JELOUSYRoss shoved him aside. “You want me to give you another chance? “If I keep providing protection for you and your store, how am I going to explain that to Mr. Maxwell when he finds out? it's best for you to just shut the whole store down at this point, otherwise, next time He comes here, he's going to be offended that you're still here, and then you don't want to offend Mr. Maxwell”. He said to the manager. “I'd laugh if anyone else said that. But if it's what Ross thinks is best that would only mean I'm done for it wasn't easy to get to this point. I thought with Ross providing protection, I could do whatever I wanted. I never thought I would offend someone that even Ross is afraid of”. Ross just looked down at him, “Let me give you one last piece of advice”. He said, “try to be a good person from now on if you know what is good for you”After leaving them all, Laura was in no mood to continue their day out, so she and Brian got in the car to head home.Laura was clearly p
THE MANAGERBrian tilted his head thoughtfully “Ross? he asked.“you're not talking about Ross Gilmore, are you? the same guy I had a little chat with yesterday” he thought.“I think I left quite an impression on him”.“ you know Ross Gilmore?” the manager asked. “You could say that” the manager was surprised but then he saw Laura’s panicked expression clearly showed she had also heard of Ross or at least she knew of his reputation.“that's right,” he said “My shop is under Ross Gilmore’s protection so if you two both get down on your knees and beg for mercy I’ll consider asking for less compensation, otherwise you'll have to beg Ross for mercy” “and at this point, the compensation is the secondary”. he thought. just look how pretty that girl is, Ross, is going to be very happy when he sees her”. many people in the crowd had also heard of Ross and his reputation as a local thug they were not surprised that someone as Petty and nasty as the owner of this store had someone as vici
CHAOS Brian smiled at her but did not comment.The shop manager returned in short order with a Gray scarf draped across his arms. “Go on, Brian, Laura said. “Try it on and see what you think”.She lifted her hand, but the manager turned and held the scarf out of reach. “What?” She asked. “ Aren't you going to let us see it before we buy it?” The manager replied. “You've already seen and handled the other one.Isn't that enough?Except for the color, the two scarves are identical. Come up to the register and I'll get you checked out”.He smiled arrogantly. “They Caused the most trouble”, he thought. “They really need to put their grubby hands all over a genuine branded cashmere scarf.The rich ladies who come in here just point at what they want, pay the bill and leave without any fuss”. Laura's eyes flashed with anger. “Is that how you do business?” She asked. “If you don't try on clothing.How will you know if you like it or not?Maybe we won't like the feel of it.But we won't know until
OUTBURST Laura looked up from her plate of eggs and watched her sister confused. She glanced at Brian, who shrug. “I don't know exactly what's bothering her, but I can guess” he thought. “But I don't wanna talk to Laura about the whole situation with Brandy.That's too much to get into this morning”. “Hey, sis.Did you forget that Brian and I were going out for a fun day today? You should come along.Change your clothes. I'm gonna leave right after breakfast”. “No thanks”, Samantha replied. “I have some important things I need to get done today|”. “Is there anything more?Important than.Quality family time”.Samantha stood up. “You've got Brian, you don't need me”. She left the kitchen.And they heard her bedroom door closed a few seconds later. Gary Wandered into the kitchen, still half asleep.He looked from Laura to Brian. “Where's Samantha?” He asked. “I thought I heard her voice”. “Well, she's not here”, Laura said. “She's having a hissy fit or something”. “Come on Brian, let's
STILL IN LOVE“I'm glad to hear it”, said Brian. “If you'll excuse me”.With that, he walked over to the backstage door. He was determined to see Brandy, and Ross had held him up long enough.He could hear the sound of television through her door, it sounded like a cartoon and you could hear her laughing loudly at it. He Knocked several times before she heard him. “Come in, She shouted once she finally heard his knocking. “Ohh, it's you. Hello”.She walked over and gave him a huge bear hug.She squeezed him so hard he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He said eventually. “Are you trying to kill me?” It took him a moment or two to disentangle himself from her grip.“You never change, do you?” He said, his words full of affection.He always spoke to her with the affection of an older brother talking to his favorite sister. Annoyed, Brandy pounded him on the chest.Always hoped that Brandy would stay as innocent as a child, but that was never going to be the case.Uncle Sam had already to
BRIANAs he realized that Brian had seen right through him, anger began to take over.He had a powerful urge to kill him.The slower and more painful death, the better.However, that was something that would have to wait.Murdering Brandy Hall's friend in a busy bar wouldn't win him any popularity contests. It was a plan he would have to save for another day. “Don't be so quick to criticize me”, he said. “You may have gotten away with it this evening, but I will get my revenge on you soon”.“I wouldn't be so sure about that”, said Brian.“But I can be sure”, said Ross, a smile starting to appear on his face. “I have a Big Brother and plenty of friends to help me.Next time you might not find the bartender quite so helpful”.“You're going to hide behind your Big Brother?” Asked Brian. “Why is he someone special?”The door to the bar opened.A man walked in.Ross smiled. his Big Brother had just walked in and his timing couldn't have been better.The man saw Ross and walked over.Ross began to s
THROW HIM OUTRoss was surprised that the bartender knew him, but he certainly wasn't complaining.He knew they had backup when it came to making Brian's life even more miserable than he had hoped. “He's the scruffy man over there”, he said, pointing to Brian's back. “He's trying to go backstage to see Brandy, which surely is a serious offense.My advice is that you have him evicted immediately”. “Well, we could always ask Brandy what she thinks”, said the bartender. “After all, she's the star performer.It's only fair that she should decide if she wants a visitor”.Ross was not impressed it wasn't the answer he had wanted to hear. “However”, continued the bartender, winking at Ross. “If she doesn't want any company, young Rossier gets to decide what to do with the unwanted visitor”.Everyone in the room held their breath, listening very carefully. “What's the punishment?” Ross asked one.Ross smiled. He made a choking gesture to the crowd, much to their delight.A huge cheer went up, sig
CODY’S BAR“Don't worry, maybe Brian will come with me”, said Lynn.Samantha looked at her. “Since when have they had such a good relationship?” She thought.But she didn't bother to ask Laura directly.“What's happening tomorrow?” She asked instead.“I thought you were busy”, said Laura. “But seeing as you're asking, it's a social event organized by the college. I thought you might have wanted to come with me”.She sighed.“If you're busy, I'll ask Brian. he won't mind coming with me. he'll make sure I'm OK”.It's sorted Laura, Take Brian”. Being her brother-in-law, she could go out with him without arousing suspicion.Samantha looked at her suspiciously, not convinced that Brian could keep her sister safe.In her mind, it was almost funny.Much more importantly, she was sure they were keeping something from her.Pretending that nothing was worrying her, she decided to go too, despite the pressures of her job. “I think I'll come too”, she said. “It'll be good to have a break from work”.Sh
UNEXPECTED His friends started to laugh mercilessly.By that time, Samantha was in earshot.When she heard laughter, she relaxed, thinking they had already resolved their differences and made-up.Deciding not to get involved, she stayed out of sight around the corner and listen.Has she gone around the corner, she would have realized that she had gotten it drastically wrong. Brian and Ross were staring at each other. Neither had any intention of backing down.Ross threw his cigarette butts on the ground and stepped on it. “I've had enough of your nonsense. It's time I taught you a lesson.Lesson”. Brian repeated questioningly. “A student?,I don't need to be taught a lesson.I think you've got it the wrong way around”. With that, he stepped forward and landed a blow in Ross' stomach”.Ross doubled up, completely taken aback by the punch.As he struggled to catch his breath, he couldn't believe such an unassuming looking man could be so strong. Started to feel nauseated and his vision st