Page 1 of The Final Say

Chapter One

Julie AKA Constance

Nobody had fought over me, and it felt like a double-edged sword.

They both have the ability to take my breath away, but one was forgotten and replaced with the other. It wasn’t like I was searching for anything. Taking a break from men and concentrating on the task of renovating my new home was the only thing I was thinking about it until Cameron came into my life again.

It bothered me in a surprising and shocking way to see them face off with deadly weapons ready to go to war.

That heavy sense of testosterone was all around me—thick enough to cut with a knife.

“I’m not going to let you hurt her again by promising something you can’t deliver. She told me a little bit about you and I’m not impressed. You think you have the right to push her around because of your badge. I’m going to protect her from you. We both know you haven’t changed a bit,” Cameron stammered with spittle flying from his mouth enraged by the whole thing.

They were on opposite ends of the island using psychological torture to give the other an advantage over his opponent. They both looked bad. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve sworn they had tangled with a cougar and barely survived.

“I know your background” Bryan said with venom. “You stand there on some moral high ground thinking you are better than me. My research was rather extensive. You have never been able to hold a steady job from the moment you left high school under a cloud of darkness. You`re not man enough to stop me from taking what is rightfully mine.”

I certainly didn’t like the way that Bryan considered me some kind of property. It proved one undeniable fact. As much as I wanted him to have changed, it wasn’t true.

He was still egotistical with this idea women were his to use in whatever way he desired.

I learned the hard way to accept my place until I finally had enough. Cutting the cord wasn’t easy but it was made even more difficult when he came looking for me. He expressed his concern and compassion, but it was all an act to fool me into a false sense of security. Giving him an inch would’ve allowed him to take more than a mile until I was under his thumb once again, complacent, barely much more than a whisper.

Bryan twitched and lunged at the same time feinting to the right when he was coming in from the left in a wide arc. The knife was one of my best steak knives which I had acquired during one of those infomercials in the middle of the night. They were surgical sharp—quite apparent from the long horizontal gash deep enough to cut through Cameron’s skin.

Cameron waffled and took a step back with a pained expression on his face. His upper lip was quivering but his eyes remained fixed on Bryan. It was admirable of him to come to my rescue, but I was strong enough to fight my own battles.

Despite what had happened in my relationship with Bryan, I had come out of it stronger. I was now able to see through his bullshit. It pained me to realize how little he had changed. I continued to give him chances, but he always disappointed me.

I couldn’t believe he had gone to all the effort to say everything I wanted to hear.

Bethany had called me earlier with distressing news about Bryan. The one thing I could always count on was for her to be a straight-shooter. The text message was forwarded to me, and I was able to read between more than the lines. My ex-boyfriend had claimed to have feelings for Bethany with words sickeningly sweet.

“I’m taking the badge off the table. It’s not fair to dangle it in front of you threatening to bring Johnny Law down on top of your head for assaulting an officer. This is personal, and we will deal with this like men. That’s going to leave a nasty scar, and it’s not going to be the only one you have by the time I’m finished with you,” Bryan stated before making a bold move which resulted in a cutting example of Cameron’s expertise when it came to brandishing a knife.

Cameron used a stabbing motion with the blade moving fluidly through blood and tissue until the tip was decidedly on the other side. The nerves were damaged, momentarily leveling the playing field. Bryan laughed and took a step back assessing the damage with his eyes narrowed in a hatred I had never seen coming from him.

He caught the blade, wrenching it out of Cameron’s hands, leaving him practically defenseless.

Bryan was unable to exact the measure of revenge he wanted when his fingers could barely hold onto the knife.

Cameron had used his to get his point across literally and figuratively.

A left cross came out of nowhere with Bryan using his inferior hand. His dominant one had been decimated, but he wasn’t letting that slow him down. He landed one punch followed with a glass smashing against Cameron’s skull. The fragments and slivers went everywhere, scattering on the floor in a minefield of broken shards.

“You’re not even a man. How can you call yourself one when you treat women with disrespect?” Cameron wanted to know. “They might fall for your nice guy act at the beginning, but that face only lasts so long before you finally show your true colors. It looks like I’m not the only one that is going to need stitches. God damn…I hate you.”

Wasn’t Cameron expressing similar traits in the way that he considered me some kind of trophy? Or was that something else?.

It was time for me to say something in my own defense. “I hate to interrupt. I wish that I could be appreciative of this Neanderthal behavior, but I think you need to understand one very important thing before you continue this insanity. The both of you can leave me alone. Take this masochistic attitude and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine. I would paint you a picture, but you wouldn’t like it,” I professed without getting in between them, afraid of becoming an unfortunate casualty of this angry tirade.

They both looked at me at the same time staring with defiance, as though wondering how I could say that.

“After he is gone, things can get back to normal with the two of us,” Bryan seethed, baring his teeth. You can’t say you haven’t missed the way that I kiss you in the middle of the night. Nobody is ever going to treat you the way I do. You’ll come back to me one way or the other. It would make me very happy to see him dying at my feet, groveling one last time with that final breath.”

“Do you even hear yourself? I wonder what you see when you see yourself in the mirror staring at the reflection back at you. Do you really see a good man? You sure didn’t get into law enforcement for the right reasons. It was all about the power and authority you could wield over others to make them feel small in your presence. Apparently, this translates into your personal life. You thought you had the upper hand, and then Julie left your sorry ass,” Cameron described his behavior with blinding accuracy.

With his shoulder bleeding, Bryan huffed. “I don’t have to stand here and listen to this drivel. I’ll make sure that you never speak again unless it’s through a straw after I break your jaw in so many places. I was Golden gloves back in the day, and it’s like riding a bicycle.”

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