by T. M. Cromer
Her raised voice had been drawing a crowd. While she apparently didn’t care, he on the other hand did. “Stop saying it like that. Can we take this inside? I don’t like that your neighbors are privy to my business.”
“No. If you don’t like it, leave.”
“Woman, you are getting on my last nerve. I—”
What he would have said was cut off by a text on his phone.
“Must be one of your other scores of women calling,” Shonda sneered.
Mason guessed her intention. As she tried to slam the door, he stuck his foot between it and the jam. “Look, I have to go, but I intend to finish this.”
Something in his voice must have given him away, because she opened the door wider and snatched his phone without a by-your-leave.
“Jesus! He’s going after her! Come inside while I get some shoes on.”
“Oh, no! You are not going,” his tone was flat and final.
“I am. You and I can go together and back each other up, or I can go by myself.”
“You forgot there is a third option,” he told her.
As he expected, she challenged him, “Oh, and what’s that?”
The threatening grin, when it came, made her gulp and uncross her arms. “I can tie you up.”
“Y-you wouldn’t dare,” she said. False bravado inched her chin higher and brought her to her feet.
“Oh, love, I would dare a great many things,” he whispered against her lips. “You might enjoy being tied up.”
Before their lips could meet, she shoved him back. “No. Next time you come to me, it better be because you want more than a casu—”
His fingers covered her lips. “Don’t say it. You’ve made your point.”
God, he’d come to hate that damned term.
“I’ve got to go. As it is, I’m going to be late.”
“I told you, I’m going too.”
Past experience told him she would follow him on her own. This was more than her being contrary. With the lost job, the near death, and her friend being kidnapped, Shonda had reached a critical point where she needed to take her life back. He understood that on many levels. He just couldn’t live with himself if she got hurt or, god forbid, killed.
“Fine. But you do exactly as I say.”
Her expressionless eyes studied him. “Fine.”
“You’re lying,” he said. “Have I ever told you how much I hate liars?”
“Have I ever told you how much I hate players?” she retorted.
“Go. Dress in all black and make sure they’re clothes you can move freely in.”
Suspicious, she asked, “You won’t leave me?”
“No. Now get dressed. We’re out of time. Zack is determined to end this tonight.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mason pulled over about a hundred yards from Zack’s house. He and Shonda had inched their way around the block in order to survey the area for the best approach. They’d been careful to avoid driving by Zack’s place, turning around and backtracking where they could. Once or twice they studied the nearest neighbor’s yards to be sure Christie hadn’t pulled the camera trick again.
When they’d formulated a plan based on Zack’s instructions, they shared one last long look before rushing into action. Mason was to go in the back way by disarming the alarm via an app he’d downloaded. His brother had made sure he had the code to shut it down and unlock the door. Once inside, he would sneak up and disarm Christie while Zack distracted her. Dane was also backup and intended to stay hidden until the last possible moment. Shonda was only to observe and get help if things went astray.
“You good on the plan? You listen from outside the window. If it turns south, you call for backup.”
“Why aren’t we trusting the police this time? Our last foray into rescuing Erica still gives me nightmares,” she said, referring to the explosion.
“Zack’s woman, Zack’s call,” he whispered and grinned. “Stay safe, love.”
Another connecting of their eyes, another shared emotion neither would ever speak of, and he disappeared around the back of the house.
Taking care to not make any noise, Mason inched his way toward the dining room sliders. As he was passing the kitchen, he chanced a quick peek. Zack had his hands half-raised and struggled to remain calm. Mason took a step to the right and saw Christie as she continually opened and closed her lighter. Jacob was tied to a chair, sitting inside a kiddie pool looking lost and terrified. Erica’s head lolled to one side as if she were unconscious. Not good.
After he shut off the chimes using the app, he waited the required three minutes for it to take effect and then tapped in the code. He was reaching for the handle to the back sliding door when the sound of a gun being cocked just beyond his ear froze him in place. Fuck! Zack had been correct all along in assuming Christie had an accomplice. Dane was their only hope now.
“Get moving,” Judith snapped in his ear.
“Neither you nor Christie will get away with this. You have to know that, right?” he tried to reason.
“Zack convinced my husband to commit my daughter to an institution. If she’s found, she goes back. Do you really think she’ll want to be taken alive to be drugged and locked up until the end of time? She’ll burn this whole place to the ground first.”
Mason was pretty sure his heart stopped at those words. Minus his mother, his whole immediate family was in that house. Shonda would be close enough to any blast or flame to be injured, and the thought had his heart restarting and beating double-time. He should have insisted she stay at home.
Judith had him halt just beyond the door to the living room. Christie taunted Zack a few more times before calling out, “Mason, you might as well come out now.” She lowered her voice and directed her next statement to Zack. “I know you’d never come here alone. You don’t have the balls.”
“Actually, I did come here by myself.” Zack spoke just a fraction louder than he normally did, trying to make it seem normal and relay the bluff to the other two men.
“Hmmm. Well then let’s see about that. Mother?”
The door behind her opened, and Mason entered, followed closely by Judith, who had a Glock jammed against his lower back. His fury at being caught was palpable. Unless he wanted a bullet in his spine, there was nothing he could do for anyone. What he hadn’t expected was his brother’s dry sense of humor.
“Dude, you let an old woman get the jump on you?” he asked. Apparently, his inner child couldn’t resist.
“Fuck off, dickhead.”
Zack grinned to show Mason no hard feelings.
“Come out, Dane, or my mother shoots Mason where he stands,” Christie called out.
“He’s not here,” Mason told her, trying to buy their younger brother time and hoping that she believed the bluff. “That pussy’s home nursing a broken nose.”
“Is that right?” she asked skeptically. Three heartbeats passed before she whipped her gun around and shot him in the thigh.
“Jesusfuckingchrist!” he groaned as he dropped like a stone.
Zack took three steps toward him before she’d spun around and aimed the weapon at him. “I told you not to move.”
While he’d seen action heroes take a bullet or two in the movies, Mason had to acknowledge it was a helluva lot more painful in the real world than portrayed on screen. He lay there, trying to put pressure on his wound, afraid he would bleed out by the sheer quantity of blood pumping from the hole in his leg. He hoped to hell she hadn’t hit a vein or artery. He’d be dead in minutes.
From his vantage point on the floor, he saw Zack’s fingers move. He appeared to be signaling someone in the hall. Mason prayed Christie and Judith didn’t see or understand what he was doing. He also prayed Shonda had heard the shot and called the police.
“Christie, call this off. Please. I’m begging you. Surely the neighbors heard the gunshot. The police still routinely patrol this block looking for you,” Zack tried to appeal to her logical side.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Dane move into position. He stood posed, shovel raised high above his head, ready to strike. Judith’s back was half-turned so she didn’t immediately see him. For that, Mason was grateful.
“Christie, for fuck’s sake. Light the damn match already. I need to sleep,” Erica snapped, in an effort to distract her.
She’d awakened and seen his brother also.
Red-faced, Christie took a single step toward her. The shovel in Dane’s hands came down on Christie’s wrist, effectively sending the gun skittering across the floor to Zack. As Judith pivoted and aimed at Dane, Shonda stepped from the hall and squeezed off a round. Judith dropped next to Mason. Realizing this was his chance, he scrambled for her weapon.
As the scene played out, Zack rushed to get Jacob out of harm’s way, urging him to run for the back door. When he spun back to get to Erica, Christie was there, flipping open her lighter to set the gasoline in the pools ablaze.
“No!” Zack screamed, trying to gain purchase on the now gas-drenched floor.
Mason squeezed off a round in sync with Shonda’s next shot. Stunned disbelief crossed Christie’s face before she fell. The whoosh of air extinguished the flame of the lighter. Erica slowly straightened up, walked the few feet to Christie, and promptly kicked her in the ribs.
“I hope you’re dead, you fucking piece of shit!” Whack. “Rot in hell!” Whack.
She got off two more well-placed kicks before Zack pulled her to him.
“I think my ribs are broken,” she panted. “I forgot for a second.”
Sirens sounded in the distance, much to the relief of everyone in the room.
Zack held her head in his hands and dropped a soft kiss on her split lip. “Don’t you ever go off on your own like that again.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think you h-have to worry ab-bout that happening,” she struggled to say. If possible, she was even more gray. Zack lunged to catch her as her eyes rolled back in her head.
Feeling a little woozy himself, Mason closed his eyes. He felt movement to his right. A crack of his eyelid showed Judith trying to inch toward Christie’s discarded gun.
“Don’t you even think about it,” snarled Shonda.
Mason laid on his back and observed her from his place on the floor. Shonda was like a Viking princess—tall, stance wide, blonde hair escaping her braid. Yet, it was her fierce expression that told him she’d willingly shoot Judith a second time if she had to. He knew then and there, he’d never seen a more beautiful woman, and was likely never to see another of her caliber again during his lifetime.
Dane helped to tie up Judith and Christie as the police cars came rolling to a stop on Zack’s lawn. Shonda had taken off her outer shirt and was using it to apply pressure to the hole in his leg. A good thing too because he was lightheaded from loss of blood.
Later, he would blame it on the dizziness, claim he was out of his gourd, but just then, he lost his temper for the reckless way Shonda had come charging in.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he ranted. “You could have gotten us all killed, yourself included!”
“Mason!” Dane snapped, enraged as he’d ever seen him. “Shut the hell up! She saved your ungrateful ass along with everyone else in this room. Her shot was true. Twice!”
Shonda didn’t say a word, continuing to press on the wound in an effort to stem the flow. She neither defended her actions nor cried. When the police showed up, she told her version of the story.
Bucky talked to her at length and apologized for needing to take her into custody.
“Where the hell are you taking her?” Mason scowled in outrage, hoping Bucky would understand it wasn’t all right to take her away after she’d been so instrumental in stopping the planned human barbecue tonight.
“Procedure, Mason. Shonda has to come down to the station for questioning. There are reasons for the protocol,” Bucky informed him.
“I don’t gi—”
“It’s fine,” Shonda said to no one in particular. Since he’d spouted off at the mouth, she hadn’t so much as spared him a glance. “Let’s go Bucky.”
“No! No!” Mason shouted as two paramedics and an officer restrained him. “You aren’t going to treat her like a damned criminal for being a hero tonight.”
“Mason, if you don’t knock it off, we’re going to have to restrain you.”
He looked up at the paramedic treating him and met eyes the same azure shade of all the McAdams clan. “Lip, she did nothing wrong. She shouldn’t have to go to the station to be interrogated. That’s the only reason for removing her from this scene.”
Philip “Lip” McAdams laughed and shook his head. “Tommy told me you had it bad for her. I didn’t believe him. She’ll be treated like a princess, cuz. No worries, okay?”
“I don’t have it ‘bad for her’ because we—”
Again, Lip cut him off. “You can deny it all you want. We all have eyes and ears, man.” Lip and his partner lifted the gurney on the count of three and pushed him out to the waiting transport.
Mason opened his mouth to argue again, when he was cut off by his cousin for a third time. “Hey Mike, you have any elephant tranquilizers in that bag?” At Mason’s glower, he laughed and misquoted Shakespeare, “Ah, the man doth protest too much.”
“Bite me.”
The detectives were courteous. They offered her the chance to call a lawyer, and Bucky left the choice to her, claiming this was an informal inquisition. The officers needed to be able to line up all the events of the night with the crime scene. Detectives were sent to question Mason, Zack, Jacob and Erica at the hospital if, or when, they would be able to provide details for a statement. Dane was in another room here at the station going over his own account of the events.
Shonda supposed it was the old divide and conquer routine to be sure they were getting the truth. She just wanted to get home, take the hottest shower known to man, crawl into bed, and sleep for about a month. She’d never been so exhausted in her life. These last weeks had been a whirlwind of non-stop chaos.
When all was said and done, four separate officers asked to take her out for coffee or a drink sometime. Perhaps they were all turned on by her Dirty Harriet routine. She politely declined their attentions. The thought of dating anyone while she felt the way she did about another man left a bad taste in her mouth.
She was walking through the main lobby of the PD when it occurred to her that she had no car to drive home. Again. How the hell she was supposed to get there? Mason had driven to Zack’s, and Bucky had brought her here. Her apartment complex was a good five miles away, and because it was late in the evening, she’d freeze to death before she ever made it home. Eyeballing a set of empty plastic chairs, she wondered if she’d get in trouble for crashing on them. She supposed she could ask one of the guys who’d wanted to take her out if he wouldn’t mind giving her a lift. She didn’t even have her cell phone to call Eva or Luigi. She’d left her purse in Mason’s car.
“Need a ride, babe?”
Shonda spun around to see Dane lounging against the exit. “God, yes! I’d sell my soul for a way home right now.”
He laughed and flung an arm around her shoulders. “I think you can safely keep from having to make a pact with the devil for a warm car ride.”
“Have you heard any news on how anyone is faring?”
“Erica was getting X-rays and CT scans last I heard. Jacob is dealing with dehydration and exhaustion.”
She let a few heartbeats pass before she asked after Mason.
“He’s in surgery to remove the bullet and repair the damage.” Dane must have read some of the conflict she was feeling. “We have time for you to shower and change if you want to head over.”
“No point really. I can see Erica in the morning. I’m sure with Zack, Mary and Pete it will be crowded enough.”
“And my brother? He has no one there for him.”
“His own fault wouldn’t you say?” The quest
ion was rhetorical. She didn’t expect an answer. “Besides, he has you and Connie to care for him.”
“Not me. I’m not looking after his cranky ass. My face still hurts.”
She laughed because it was impossible not to. Dane was adorable and easy to be around. She imagined long before Mason had become embittered, he’d probably been as flirty and lighthearted as his younger sibling. There had been glimpses along the way. It’s what had drawn her in. What still did.
“Okay.”
“Okay, what?”
“Okay, I’ll get a quick shower and meet you at the hospital in about an hour.”
For the next three days, Shonda took a turn at the hospital in order to help care for Mason. Each day his mood got uglier and he became a little meaner. The only plausible explanation she could think of was because he was trapped in one place and getting it from all ends regarding their “relationship”.
Connie was relentless, wanting to see him settle down with a nice girl, rattling on ad nauseam. She didn’t realize she was doing more harm than good.
Dane, on the other hand, just liked busting his brother’s balls. He took every opportunity to throw an arm around Shonda’s shoulders or touch her waist. It didn’t matter if she’d shrug him off or tell him to knock it off. Mason would still fall into a black mood and become surly.
His retaliation against Dane’s childish behavior was to flirt with the nurses as if he couldn’t care less. Finally, Shonda’d had enough of their stupid games. She banished Dane from visiting.
“You need to go, too.” Mason told her coldly.
“This again?” she tried to tease.
She hadn’t been prepared for the backlash of that one simple question.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Jesus, Shonda! When are you going to take the hint? I don’t want you here.”
Their eyes clashed. His were more gray and dull than she’d ever seen them. She tried to blank her own, but she imagined her pain was apparent. Her chest ached. Literally hurt to breathe. But she’d had enough. She’d take his “hint” and run with it.
