by Laura Day
“You sleep really soundly,” he said. “Or at least, you were then. I carried you out to the car. You barely even blinked.”
“I don’t sleep soundly,” Caroline said, and she knew she sounded completely petulant, and didn’t care at all. “I’m a very light sleeper.”
He finally glanced up and made eye contact in the rear view mirror. “You’re kidding, right?”
“No. I wake up at the littlest things.”
“Okay.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean okay. Like I said.”
“If you don’t believe me, then put up an argument, say something.”
“You’re delusional.”
“Am not.”
“I’ve never yet met anyone in my life who slept more soundly than you. Granted, I know a hell of a lot of soldiers, people who pass out the second someone says at ease, and are back on their feet before the word attention is finished, but still. I carried you out to a car. You sleep just fine.”
The only sane response was to stick her tongue out at him. He caught the expression in the rearview and snickered. She slumped against the seat again, then reached over and buckled herself in. “You could have at least given me a book to read.”
“I’d hoped you’d sleep longer. You looked like you needed it.”
“I’m fine,” she lied. “So what’s your plan?”
“Same as it was before. Confront Declan. Force him to admit what he did. Identify those who were helping him, toss them out by their ears as well. And then deal with the fall out.”
“That’s more of a plotline, and less of a plan. How are you going to even do any of that?”
“That’s my problem, not yours,” he said. “Now, what are you doing with Gloria?”
“The vet has her.” She was on the edge of tears again. “I told her to find Gloria a new home. With someone who can keep her safe.”
“You can keep her safe,” he said. “Call her back, tell her that you need to be scarce for a few days, but that you’re really okay, and you’ll be back.”
“It’s a lie, though. I can’t keep her safe. I couldn’t keep myself safe, and she doesn’t even understand why that dirtbag hurt her.”
“We’ll take care of him, Caroline. I promise you. This isn’t forever. We’re going to take care of this.” Mason reached over to the passenger’s seat, then handed it back to her. Her phone. “Do me a favor—don’t call 911 and tell them I kidnapped you or anything? That would get awkward quickly.”
She considered it, and then decided he was right. Because really, where was he taking her? Most likely back to his place, or hers, or a hotel closer to home, or somewhere Declan couldn’t find her. Which was her goal. And he’d expect her to run, so being in town might actually be safer.
She turned her phone back on, saw the six missed calls from the vet’s office, then sighed and called her back.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
“Caroline?” She answered before the second ring was complete. This thing where everyone answered the phone with her name was fancy, but she’d have to tell everyone to knock it off. She’d get a complex.
“Emily? I’m—yes, it’s me.”
“Thank god,” the vet said. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. I really am. I was—a little out of sorts before. I’m sorry.”
“Well, you scared the shit out of me, and I didn’t know that was still possible.”
“How’s Gloria?”
“Holding her own. I gave her some fluids, and that’s definitely helped her perk up a bit; other than that, she seems to miss you.”
The tears rolled down her cheeks, but her voice stayed steady and soft. “I need to go out of town for a couple days. Would you keep her for me? I’ll be back, I promise, but I need to… take care of something.”
“I understand,” Emily said. “I’ll take care of her for you. But make sure you’re back soon. I don’t think she’ll understand if you’re not.” A long pause, and Caroline didn’t know how to fill it. “Take care of the bastard. Make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else.”
“That’s the plan,” she said.
“Good girl,” Emily replied, and the line went dead. She offered the phone back to Mason, who waved it away.
“You wanted something to read, there you go. Hell, you can even sit up in the front seat, if you want to. I just thought you looked like you needed rest.”
“Did you screw me just to get me in the car?”
His face crumpled, like she’d punched him in the groin, and then he recovered fast, that neutral mask right back in place. “No. I needed you in the car, but—” he paused, then continued, “—making love to you was a pleasant surprise. I didn’t think you’d ever be interested in touching me again after what I did.”
She didn’t want to answer. It was too much to think about right now, anyway. She unbuckled and crawled carefully into the front seat, then buckled in again. “So where are we going? I’m not going back to my house.”
Mason snorted. “Obviously not.”
“Your place?”
“Too close to the garage. I live just across the street. Getting you in without anyone seeing you would be impossible, and I seriously doubt that Declan’s going to go peacefully. I don’t want you caught in the crossfire.”
“So where, then?”
“Jack and his wife say you can stay at their place.”
“No,” she said.
“Yes.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No,” She insisted.
“We can keep doing this, or you can accept that I can pick you up and carry you inside if I need to. I know I don’t look like a weightlifter, but I’m no lightweight.”
“Reason one: he’s a rat bastard. Reason two: I don’t want to risk bringing that kind of hell down on Jack’s family. Declan could have killed Gloria. I can barely stand that. What do you think he’d do if he found out I was staying with friends?”
“Hopefully? Think that it had nothing to do with me, so that he still thinks I’m on his side, and I can get close enough to stab him in the back. It makes sense that you’d be scared after he broke into the house, and you’d run to a friend. It makes more sense than you picking up and heading south, actually. So you’ll be safe there, and I can take care of things.”
“And your big plan is that you ride into the garage like a cowboy, and somehow convince everyone that Declan is a big bad monster, and then they all fall in line behind you, and Declan wanders off like a kicked puppy with his tail between his legs, and there’s no consequences for anyone?”
His jaw was working hard, and he didn’t say anything at all.
“Because I’m sure I’ve heard of worse plans than that. Somewhere. It's a terrible plan and it's not going to turn out the way you think it will.”
“What would you have me do?”
“Same damn thing I’ve been suggesting from the beginning. Take this to the cops.”
“Dammit, Caroline, we’ve been over this. The cops are dirty. The fact that Declan knew we were asking questions proves it. We turn this over to them, it all goes to hell. And one of the few things that’s keeping him from doing even more disgusting things than he’s already doing goes away.”
“And what if he ends up dead? Do you think dirty cops won’t know who to pin that on, too?”
His eyes flicked from the road to her for just a moment, then back again, as he adjusted his grip on the steering wheel.
“Didn’t think of that, did you? It’s not going to be easy, Mason. I don’t know how you’re going to pull this off.”
“Yeah. I don’t know either.” His eyes locked on the road, then, and he turned the radio up loud enough that conversation was impractical. She thought about calling 911 and telling them that she’d been kidnapped, but what was really the point? This was annoying, and she would have preferred doing things her way, but Mason—so far, he was a “his way” kind of guy. And if she was really thinking
that she wanted him in her life in any capacity at all, she was going to have to accept that. At least, to some degree.
She smiled as she rested her head on the window and closed her eyes. He’d get a surprise or two, eventually. She wasn’t always this easy to push around.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
When Caroline gave in, resting her head against the window and relaxing back into sleep, Mason breathed a sigh of relief. She was a spitfire, and he loved that about her, but the possibility of her calling the cops on him was not nonexistent. He was pretty sure, once she’d calmed down and stopped shouting, that it wasn’t going to happen, but it wasn’t until she went to sleep that he believed he was safe. From her, at least.
She was right about Declan. The jackass wouldn’t stop. He was like a rabid dog; he needed to be put down the same way. The rest of the guys who’d been working with him—Mason was fairly sure they’d just vanish into the night once Declan was gone, leaving behind the club that had been his family these past few years. But Declan. Declan had to be stopped.
It’d have to be quick. It’d have to be somewhere where the body wouldn’t be found. After all, it would just be a missing persons case until they had a body, and a guy like Declan—no one would be looking too hard for him. Hell, they might give him a medal for getting rid of the asshole.
But before he could do anything, Caroline had to be safe. Jack had promised to watch out for her, and as much as it went against the grain of everything he’d learned since he came back from deployment, he had to trust someone. He couldn’t go after Declan again without knowing that Caroline would be okay. When he’d gone to the house where he’d hoped she’d meet him, and she wasn’t there, his heart had dropped into his stomach; when he’d gone back to the house, and seen the destruction left in the wake of her rapid departure, he’d panicked. He couldn’t go through that again.
Sooner or later, he was going to have to admit to this woman that he was falling in love with her. His stomach twisted at the thought of it. He was fairly sure that facing down Declan would be easier.
***
Caroline woke up as the car slowed down. She rubbed her eyes and wiped the drool off her chin, blinking around blearily as she waited for reality to catch up with her. Yes, they were in Jack’s neighborhood, on the other side of town from her. She stretched as best as she could in the car, and then glanced over at Mason again. His grip on the wheel was still white-knuckled; if possible, it was even tighter.
“We're here,” she said, and he nodded once, too fast. “You okay?”
His laugh was quick and brutal. “If it were just me and the dog, Caro, We’d be driving west as fast as this little import would go. I’d put together a new bike in Seattle and we’d start over. But it’s not just us. I wish to hell it was, but it’s not.”
“Of course it’s not,” she said, and she read surprise in his face as she laid her hand on his thigh. After a moment, he covered her hand with his, squeezing tight. “They’re your family. You need to protect them. I get it.”
The surprise was even thicker on his face now. “I didn’t think—”
“That a suit like me would ever get it?”
He snorted a laugh. “Yeah, basically.”
She shrugged. “For what it’s worth, I didn’t think I would, either. But...yeah.” She squeezed his hand again. “So...if you’re leaving me at Jack and Missy’s, and they’re going to enforce your crazy lockdown...you realize what’s likely to be the evening's entertainment?”
“I’m counting on you telling me all about it later.”
Caroline laughed out loud. “Just make sure there will be a ‘later’ when I can tell you about it, all right?”
“Agreed.”
They pulled into the driveway of Jack and Missy’s two-story Colonial. She’d been there a few times, for office parties and such, but she’d never really managed to socialize outside of that. It felt odd, that this was her refuge, but where else was she really ever going to go?
Mason pulled the car into the waiting garage, then turned off the engine. After a moment, he touched Caroline’s hand again. “There’s something I need you to know—”
The door to the house opened, and Jack was standing on the top step. Mason pulled his hand back so fast that Caroline almost thought she might have given him a burn. “Did you find her? Was she okay?”
Caroline stepped out of the car, and Jack nearly ran around to her side to hug her.
“I need to go,” Mason said, walking back over to his bike, which had been stashed against the front wall of the garage. “I need to talk to some people, get some information. We need to deal with this, as quickly as possible. Before anyone else gets hurt.”
He reached a hand out to Jack, and there was no hesitation before Jack shook it firmly. “I got her up here. You guys make sure she doesn’t run off and do something stupid, okay?”
“Hello,” Caroline said. “Standing right here.”
Mason reached forward, curled his arm around her waist, and pulled her into his chest with one quick motion. “Be here when I come back.”
“Okay,” she said, her heart rabbiting in her chest. She expected his kiss to be hard, forceful, and passionate. Instead, it was feather light and sweet, a delicate butterfly brush of his lips over hers.
“See you soon,” he whispered, and then he was walking to his motorcycle and gone. She had the strangest, nearly overwhelming urge to cry.
“Come inside,” Missy said. “Let’s get some dinner.”
She stayed still until she couldn’t hear the engine of his bike any more, and then she followed Missy and Jack inside.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
They’d made grilled chicken, roasted corn on the cob, and potato salad—the quintessential New England summer meal. Jack reached into the fridge for another hard cider, and Caroline accepted it with a nod, joining them at the picnic table in the backyard and trying to smile.
It felt incredibly fake to be there, and she'd felt a tug under her belly button—an almost magnetic pull—towards the direction that Mason had taken. Letting him face this down alone seemed incredibly wrong. She’d set him on this path; abandoning him to face the dragon alone seemed as much a problem as being the princess waiting in the tower. Gross, either way.
She didn’t know how much Jack had told Missy. From what she knew of their marriage, and what she knew about Jack, he’d probably told her the basic outline, but downplayed the danger. Which was just another reason to feel guilty.
“So, Caroline,” Missy gave her a wide smile that Caroline forced herself to return. “Jack tells me that he made a bargain with you to do a favor for you?”
Caroline felt heat wash through her cheeks, and she tried not to spontaneously combust. She wasn’t sure she’d felt this awkward or goofy since high school, when she’d forced herself to ask a guy to prom and he’d laughed at her in front of the entire lunchroom. “Yes,” she made herself say.
The look on Missy’s face was an odd mix of trying not to laugh and—trying not to be disappointed? “I just want you to know that I’m not expecting anything. I consider it a joke between friends, unless you choose to take us up on it. If you do, well, then that’s just fine.” She reached out, hesitated, and then laid her hand over Caroline’s. “I’m sorry he brought it up that way. It was extremely rude of him.” Her eyes stayed focused on Caroline’s, but her words were entirely for Jack, and it gave Caroline space to giggle.
Jack was utterly unbothered as he cut into his chicken. “I’m not complaining, either way,” he said. “For the record. I’m just glad that everyone’s here, and safe.”
After dinner, Jack conscripted Missy to help make brownies, and Caroline took a shower. Her brain was spinning a mile a minute. The sex with Mason earlier had been wonderful, but right now, her skin was crawling with the urge to be touched, the need to touch someone and garner reassurance.
She’d never felt this way before, and she both liked it, and didn’t. It was easier, being on
her own, just her and Gloria. So much easier. Relying on people got people hurt. Falling for people, and then not having then in your life hurt. Everything fucking hurt.
She scrubbed her skin like she could scrub the feelings out from under her fingernails, but nothing changed.
She liked the way Missy looked at her. Polite, respectful—and interested. Even Mason hadn’t looked at her like that, not until she’d made herself interesting. Missy saw something in her. That was intoxicating, all on its own.
There was a tap on the bathroom door. Caroline wiped off her cheeks--not that anyone would be able to see her through the frosted glass--and called out. “Yeah, come in.”
