#HeTouchedMe – Chapter 20 – All Fun and Games until Someone Gets Hurt #amwriting #amreading #sylLit

by @SylviaHubbard1, posted in He Touched Me, Stories By Author, Uncategorized, Work In Progress

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 Author’s Notes…

I’m ready to go into a part of the darker side of the Literary World of Sylvia Hubbard, and I hope you are too.

Because we are about to go there.

You were warned at the beginning that this wasn’t the usual dark romance, and I hope you’ll keep that in mind.

If you’re ready, then keep reading and let me know where you think this is going.

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Chapter 20 – All Fun and Games until Someone Gets Hurt

As Magnum drove, his thoughts returned to the roof. The distant wail of a siren pierced the quiet night, growing fainter as it sped away, leaving behind an eerie silence. A chill wind swept through the car, slipping through a slightly open window, sending a shiver down his spine. At that moment, he had the powerful urge to drink, and it wasn’t alcohol he desired. When he commanded her to come to him, he expected her to make excuses, but she bounded to her feet and walked in front of him.

Her obedience to his command excited him, with his face right where he could drink; he couldn’t resist trying to press his mouth as tightly as he could between her legs, and she opened for him. However, beneath the excitement, a flicker of fear lurked. This control was intoxicating, yet it revealed an unsettling truth about his need for dominance. This need was born from a deep-seated fear of vulnerability that he could never turn away from. In this moment, her willingness wasn’t just desire; it was a tacit understanding of his inner turmoil. The craving for control masked his terror of losing it, a terror that he was even afraid to acknowledge. It was a constant battle within him, where the pursuit of dominance over her was a way to shelter himself from the agony of his own insecurities. The realization that he was using dominance to shield himself only deepened his internal conflict, weaving a web of confusion and self-doubt that trapped him deeper into his own psyche.

Every dip of his tongue to bring her sweetness into his mouth made him hungrier for her. The taste lingered with a bright, tender sweetness that contrasted sharply when, suddenly, a subtle metallic tang flickered in his senses like a ghostly whisper of danger. And when she gave him the essence he most desired, he wanted to start back over, but then…

Damn, when she had looked at him, he felt this strange surge from his groin to his chest, and then the burning shot down through the rest of his body.

Was it arousal? Or fear? The feeling didn’t sit right with him. So much so, he returned her to her room and knew he needed to get away from her.

Was this a weakness for her edging inside of him? That could not be allowed.

The moment FT knew Magnum had a weakness for anything, his brother would try to find a way to take it away. A woman was no exception.

‘Hurry TF up,’ the text message from the unknown number. ‘Stealth arrival.’

Magnum stared at his phone, feeling that something was off. He pressed the accelerator to quicken his arrival time, regretting his decision to allow himself to feel where his brother was. For their whole lives, this connection had been a bane in their sides, and they usually did everything in their power to ignore it.

Having this connection made it difficult for either to hide from the other.

Arriving at the massive graveyard, he turned the lights of his truck off a block before parking. Before leaving his vehicle, he reached into the back seat and put on a black coat. Not just because the night was cool, but also because of his white shirt, he knew when FT said “arrive stealth,” it was for his presence as well.

Magnum only needed to take a deep breath to know which direction to go in. There was a walking pathway, but Magnum felt that his body pulling him through the cemetery would be faster.

He tried to be as respectful as possible and came up behind FT in the barely lit section of the cemetery. FT sitting on a huge concrete plot commemorating a father and loving brother of someone. His brother was still dressed in the plaid shirt and dark pants, but with a black baseball cap pulled very low over his forehead.

“You ready for round two?” Magnum asked.

FT didn’t turn around from his perch, looking pensively into the rest of the cemetery like he was watching an exciting baseball game.

“Nah, but I thought you’d like to get some more of that anger out on me by beating his ass.” FT nodded into the darkness.

It took a moment, but Magnum leaned forward and saw a large, built man hiding behind a moseleum. The only reason Magnum could see him was that the guy was wearing some white, streaked sneakers when he peeked out of his hiding spot.

“Who the fuck is that, and why do you need me here?”

FT answered casually in a particularly good mood. “That is the man who almost tried to assault your girl with her fiancé. She described him loosely, and the cops aren’t really trying to find him. I was giving him grace because I wanted to see him and her ex-fiancé together to take care of both of them. Handling this myself means I can ensure they don’t slip through the cracks of justice. It’s personal for me, too, because leaving this unresolved gnaws at me, and letting her see they won’t escape us.”

His brother’s calm tone made the hair on Magnum’s neck stand on end. FT was never in a good mood unless it had to do with something evil. “I thought you wanted me to handle things.”
“I can’t wait that long.”

“I was getting information out of her tonight. I was going to ask about the assault tomorrow. I didn’t want to-“

FT interupted him. “See what I mean about handling things.”

“What proof do you have to assume it was this guy?”

“I’ve been following her since you assaulted her in the elevator,” his voice was deceptively casual. “I had to wonder why I didn’t feel you. Like you were dead, so I rushed my ass up here, found your drunk ass barely able to stand coming into work, and then you followed her on the elevator. You know they have cameras on those elevators, but you were so lit you didn’t care, or you’re already obsessed with her. Once I saw you alive, I knew it was a girl, but I didn’t know it was her.”

Magnum moved around to the front of the large marker and leaned up against it with his eyes on the guy hiding behind the mausoleum to see what he was waiting on.

“That’s the second time you mentioned you didn’t feel me, FT. What do you mean?”

His brother growled, “I love the luxury you have of ignoring us. When I have to deal with every fucking emotion you feel and all the shit you think twenty-four seven. The alcohol really got you twisted up.”

“I was like this before the alcohol.”

“How would you know when you’ve been drinking since you were twelve?”

Magnum ignored his brother’s rebuttal. “When don’t you feel it?”

Whenever you’re with her. I can’t find you. Even when you think of her a lot lately, I can’t sense you like I usually do. It’s like there’s a fog over our connection, something that makes you vanish. I thought I was coming up here to recover a body, but instead, I see you groping my girl.

Magnum looked at FT directly now. “What the fuck does that mean?”

FT gritted his teeth and snarled. “Her father paid me to find her down south. She was trying to ingest every drug known to man. You know she’s a part of that stupid Carter found family fuckers. They’re just as messed up as we are. The Carter clan dabbled in darker shit than our parents did and held onto grudges like sacred treasures. I’m betting her mother whispered hexes in her ears since childhood, treating her like a pawn in their games just to see what would happen.”

Magnum grimaced and wondered whether her Carter blood was the reason he had been attracted to her trauma when he initially saw her. Now he understood why she was so fucked up when she was young. Yet, his brother was getting off the subject. “HOW is she yours?”

“I found her ass for her father, and just like you, I saw the trauma… past the drugs, past how she looks, I saw that trauma and decided to help clean her up, by helping her get addicted to something else. You aren’t drawn to her, Mag. You’re locked in to her.”

“That’s not-” Magnum stopped and frowned, looking back to the mausoleum to see the big, brawny idiot talking on a phone.

Where they were, the idiot was about forty feet away. FT had found the perfect dark spot to hide, but also to see almost the rest of the cemetery as well.

“I’m not locked in to her, FT. She’s just-“

“Intriguing,” FT finished. “And you get focused, and she tastes like liquid gold.”

Magnum shifted uncomfortably and suddenly could feel his muscles tighten up to shiver, while his mouth was dry. The lack of alcohol was taking a toll on him, but his brother’s pouring out past years’ information about Zuri was keeping him there.

FT reached behind him and handed Magnum a water.

“If you connected to her, why aren’t you still?” Magnum asked after taking a large gulp of water as his mind raced to remember what their connection was all about. He hadn’t thought about it in so long. For a long time, he thought it was some supernatural thing, but by the time he was twelve, he couldn’t deny what he felt. The alcohol made him not feel so much, but also, he knew he was much stronger than FT, and there was probably so much animosity running through him for his brother, he could relate those feelings to his hatred.

“What makes you think I’m not? But her father saw her addiction had transferred to me, and he found a way to break her connection.”

“No one can-” Magnum started to say, but was cut off.

“Old man Balen,” was all FT said.

Another uneasy feeling stuck in his gut because Magnum knew exactly who his brother was referring to. “That old man tried with us.”

Yeah, but since she wasn’t blood, hypnotizing her was easy peasy. After the drugs, her mind was a complete playground for him. Balen used a technique that blurred the lines between psychological manipulation and powerful influence, distorting her memories and making it seem like she was some nympho getting over her drug and sex addiction. She can’t remember faces, places, or even moments. FT huffed. I didn’t know how to find her once her old man took her. I wanted to shake all that shit Balen did out of her, but if I couldn’t find her, then how the fuck was I supposed to do anything? I’m looking all over the fucking south all these years because that’s where I thought her old man was from. That fucker fooled me. If I knew all this time she was up here with you, I’d have been back in Detroit like yesterday. Too bad her old man is dead for me to exact revenge on him. FT pulled out an assault knife from his ankle and started to clean his fingernails, but his eyes were still on the stranger at the mausoleum. That fucker would have died screaming for what he took from me.

“And you’re here to collect her?”

FT sniggered. “Did you hear what I said, Mag. She can’t remember shit, and if she does, she’ll hate the fuck out of me.”

Yet Magnum saw his brother adjust himself and knew FT wanted to fuck her. A protectiveness enveloped him, but at the same time, that burning in his chest increased.

“And you know how the fuck I feel about anyone close to me,” FT grumbled. “The more I had of her, the more I hated her. Almost as much as you.”

“Of course,” Magnum said. “Closeness is weakness.”

“And weakness will never be tolerated.”

Words that had come from beatings so raw that FT and Magnum could never sit down after them for days when they were younger. “If you saw her, you should have recognized her before tonight.”

“I wasn’t sure until I watched you with her on the roof.”

“You were there? I had that locked off all day.”

“You tried,” his brother said with a shrug. “I was far away, so I couldn’t hear you two, but I could see everything. Back in the day, she was skin and bones, her hair falling out, and, hell, I swear it had turned almost gray and brittle from malnutrition. She didn’t look at all like she looked now. Her father spent a lot of time erasing her past and erasing how she used to look during the worst part of her life. Her face was sunken and-“

“You fucked her like that?” Magnum asked, appalled.

“Fuck you. You can’t control-“

Cutting FT off, he said, “You can’t control it.”

“So you haven’t connected to her at all?” FT questioned.

“I haven’t connected to anyone, FT. You’d know.”

“But if you haven’t, why can’t I feel her when she’s with you? What aren’t you telling me, Magnum?”

Remembering when he was so close to Zuri and their eyes had locked. Everything in him wanted to kiss her, but something deep in him had stopped him. He’d moved away from her to prevent himself from giving in to whatever that feeling was and returned her to her hotel room. Magnum couldn’t figure out the deal with how he was feeling with her himself, so how could he explain it to his brother?

“Maybe once she sees you, she’ll remember you,” Magnum said, changing the subject.

“Balen was powerful in that shit, but maybe if I jar her. I-” He stopped, and Magnum felt the burning in his chest disappate as he followed his brother’s look to see…

“Why the fuck is she here?” Magnum asked.

“You should be explaining that to me. Did she tell you what her plan was?”

The woman in question was walking along the cemetery’s outer path as if she had walked it a million times. Although she was looking around, trying to be cautious, Magnum knew there was no way she could see that danger was all around her.

FT jumped down from the large concrete marker beside Magnum, adjusted his crotch, and put on gloves. “Why don’t you find out why the fuck she would duck from her security to come here?” he ordered and tossed some gloves to Magnum. “While I scare the shit out of that fucker?”

Magnum grabbed FT’s arm to stop him from leaving. “No killing FT,” he warned.

His brother snatched his arm away. “Just because you’re the oldest doesn’t make you in charge, Magnum. Get her,” he ordered and jogged into the darkness.

Magnum put on the gloves and pulled his cap down low as he walked over to her. She was wearing the blue dress, and he could see she had put on pants underneath, plus some comfortable walking shoes. A rosemary scent carried over to him, and he knew she’d taken a shower since they were last together. That annoying twitch returned, reverberating up his spine and spreading to the rest of his body.

Whatever his dick was trying to do, years of alcohol and his own physical dysfunction were not going to be cured in four months, no matter what she did to his senses.

Since he stayed on the grass coming from the darkest side, she didn’t hear his approach, and it wasn’t until he was arm’s length away that she took notice of him.

At a high pitch frequency, Zuri screamed, turning around to actually hit him, but it hurt her fist more than his chest.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he raged.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she retorted, at the same time, just as angry.

***

Zuri clutched her fist to her chest and stomped her foot, angry as she recognized Magnum in front of her.

“This is not where I left you, and where the fuck is Lucas?” Magnum demanded.

By then, he gripped her shoulders and shook her.

She was still disoriented by the knowledge that he had followed her. Pushing away from him, she said, “You followed me?”

“That’s neither here nor there, Zuri,” he spat. “Answer my questions.”

“I don’t have to answer you,” she said, knowing that if her mother saw Magnum, Brenda would leave. “Go away. I’m fine. And no, Lucas isn’t here. I snuck out of the hotel-“

“Are you fucking insane? You can’t be this silly and think they aren’t trying to kill you?”

Zuri rolled her eyes and started to walk to her father’s grave site, frantically looking around. “You’re being ridiculous. My mother is meeting me to give me the answers that I want and need, but if you’re here, she won’t. Go away, Magnum!”

He yanked her behind him just as she heard heavy, fast footsteps approaching her. Suddenly, there was a moment of intense silence—no words, only the sound of Zuri’s breath forming clouds in the cold air. The quiet stretched, amplifying the tension and foreboding. Then, Magnum’s other arm swung around, clotheslining a huge guy who had been rushing at Zuri with a large kitchen knife. The guy flew back to the ground, disoriented.

“W-who-” she started to ask, still in shock, but the guy jumped up and tried to tackle Magnum with the knife. Since Zuri was still so close to him, she was knocked back to the ground.

Magnum threw the guy off, then punched him in the side of the face. “I fucking thought you were taking care of him, FT!” Magnum snarled.

Another guy, about Magnum’s height and build, emerged from the darkness with a sinister chuckle. “She needs to understand how much danger she’s in.” He wore a dark cap pulled low over his face so she couldn’t see his features, but everything in her told her this was Magnum’s brother, FT. The one no one liked to speak about.

Their voices were alike, but this one had a cruel edge, giving her gut a funny pull, a mix of fear. Every sense inside of her told her to run, but her muscles locked in terror, not because of the danger she was in, but she felt this old, mesmerizing, soulless lock inside of her as if she couldn’t escape herself. Zuri’s eyes widened in shock as she looked from Magnum to the other guy, recalling the plaid shirt.

“You!” she exclaimed breathlessly, scrambling up. “You were at my hotel room door! I saw you!”

But she was sure it was Magnum.

The brute who had been trying to attack her started to moan, and FT punched the guy in the face to knock him out entirely. FT drew up the guy like he weighed nothing, and shone a flashlight in the brute’s face. “You still think your mom is not doing you harm?”

She gasped, now seeing the brute’s face as one of her mother’s coworkers. Dazed and hurt without a shadow of doubt, she stepped back away from all of them.

“Let him breathe, FT,” Magnum snarled. “I said, don’t kill him!”

“She fucking has to see they don’t give two shits about her.”

They continued to growl at each other, but she pushed them out of her head. The fog of the past was trying to inch in, giving her a big headache, while reality was slapping her in the face.

Her mother was trying to hurt her!

In a few steps, Zuri was standing at her father’s marker and saw the envelope on top. Taking her phone out, she shone a light down to see that, on the envelope in her mother’s handwriting, the words “Thank you” were written.

Opening the envelope, she saw hundreds of dollars inside and a key fob to the car she had given to Rodney.

She dropped the envelope to the ground, put her face in her hands, and started to cry. Why was this happening to her? Why couldn’t she get her normal back?

Magnum came up behind her, and she knew it was him as his arms circled her body, pulling her back against him. For a moment, she treasured this, but then grew angry and pushed him away.

“I can’t do this! I can’t! I need to go back! This is all a misunderstanding!” she cried, not wanting to face reality as tears came down her face.

“Zuri, that’s stupid,” he said. “You have no doubt now they are going to hurt you.”

“You don’t know this. She’s my mother. You don’t understand because you don’t have one. I’m going to her tonight! Right now!” She started to storm away, but Magnum grabbed her and pulled her to him. She opened her jacket to get out of his hold, letting him tear it off her.

“I’m not going to let you kill yourself.” He grabbed her around her waist, tearing the slit in the dress higher.

She stomped on his foot and twisted out of his grip. He was stronger, but she knew he didn’t want to hurt her, so he let her go, and she started to run, but ran right into FT’s arms. As hard as she could, she tried to stomp on his foot, but he avoided it, and grabbed her around her neck and with one hand slammed her back against a concrete headstone, almost disorienting her.

“She needs punishment, Magnum!” FT growled. “And a good hard fucking.”

Zuri shivered from the cold, cruel sound of Magnum’s brother’s voice and was about to scream, but FT applied pressure around her neck so she could barely breathe. She clawed at his arm and kicked out as much as she could until she felt dizzy. His hat was still low, and she still couldn’t see all of his face, but she could see a maniacal smile curl on his lips.

Magnum only stood there watching his brother choke her, and she gurgled a plea to him.

“Let her go!” Magnum ordered.

FT immediately let her go, and Zuri dropped to the ground, gasping for air and crying.

A good hard fucking. FT’s words terrified her but also aroused some wild, dark feeling inside of her. Fucked in a cemetery! Never! They wouldn’t! Yet, a question gnawed at her: Why does danger taste like desire? This raw, unwelcome thrill simmered beneath her fear, stirring a moral struggle she couldn’t ignore. Her mind flashed with memories of being drawn to risky situations, as if she had something to prove to herself. Stop thinking you want that! A far-off voice in her moral consciousness ordered, echoing the shame of it all, but the voice was far away while her arousal was getting stronger from the thoughts. What the hell was happening to her? Her internal war raged on, battling the storm of emotions—a fear of who she was becoming and a desire to dominate the chaos within her. How could she feel both repulsed and intrigued by the danger, all at once?

Zuri crawled slowly away, sobbing until she came to rest on a bench. Confusing, salacious thoughts muddled her mind. Coughing between sobs, still feeling dizzy but strangely aroused. She shivered as the intense migraine barely let her see straight, all the while she could hear them arguing.

She fucking needs to understand disobedience,” FT growled, his voice dripping with an unsettling nostalgia. Magnum instinctively rubbed a faint scar hidden beneath his side, and she saw him adjust his groin as if something had suddenly pained him there.

“Fuck that, FT!” Magnum sneered.

“Look at her, Mag. Her body is ripe and ready.”

What the hell? How could FT know that?

The far-off voice came back a little stronger. Get away from them. Get away from all this!

Zuri steadied her legs to get up, but FT grabbed her from behind with his thick arm around her neck, ripping open her dress slit higher to her midwaist with his other hand.

“You fucking put yourself in jeopardy, little queen, and this is what you get!”

Zuri felt the cold grip of fear tighten around her heart as FT’s words echoed in her ears. It was as if time slowed down, her mind racing through the chaos. But then, a flicker of defiance sparked within her. She thought desperately, remembering she’d put her phone in the pocket of her torn dress. Without hesitating, she gripped it with a corner sticking out. Despite the terror, a newfound determination surged through her veins. ‘No!’ she cried out, her voice piercing the night. The raw force of her scream startled both men, creating a brief window of opportunity. This was her chance to change the narrative, to control her own fate. With her heart pounding like a war drum, she swung up, clutching the stone as her unexpected weapon. She would not go down without a fight.

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He Touched Me (c) 2026 Sylvia Hubbard All Rights Reserved

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AUTHOR, MOTHER, SPEAKER, JOURNALIST, CONSULTANT & MORE! Divorced Mother of three, Detroiter, Sylvia Hubbard, is not only an award winning best selling author of over 28 books, but also founder of one of Michigan's largest interactive literary community, The Motown Writers Network/The Michigan Literary Network.

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