The Price of Mason

by Linda Kage

  I shook my head, my eyes wide with worry.

  Wrinkling her nose, she turned her frown into a grin. “Though, I must say, your concern is seriously adorable.” Then she let go of my mouth so she could lean in and stamp a quick kiss to it.

  “So, anyway. She was all, ‘what’re you doing here? Get out of my house.’ And I was like, ‘no way, bitch. Not until you agree to stay away from my man, foreva.’ And, well, you can probably guess how that went down. Like a turd in a punch bowl, that’s how. You’re just too irresistible to quit, even for a deranged, psycho cougar witch like her. So I broke into her laptop—well, I’d actually broken into it before she realized I was in her house, but you get the gist, right—and I sent an email to Jeremy, right in front of her, giving him my address, with a how-you-like-me-now smirk. God.” She clutched her stomach and blew out an amazed breath. “I wish you could’ve seen the look on her face when I took away her ability to blackmail you anymore. It was so classic. I might come again just thinking about it.”

  I stared at her, not sure what to say.

  No, wait. Yes, I did.

  “You did what?” I cried. “But you…she…how could you send him your new identity? Are you insane?”

  She scowled at me, only to pause and gasp as if remembering something. “Oh, that reminds me. I’d better check my inbox of that new,” she paused to wink, “email account I set up this morning.”

  She lunged for her purse she’d dropped nearby and pulled out her cell phone. “I created it under the name Jeremy Walden. Need to check if I have any incoming messages.” After opening the app, she gave a gasp of mock surprise. “And what do you know, I do.”

  When she showed me the new message from one Patricia Garrison, my mouth fell open. “You faked her out.”

  Reese tossed her hair and lifted her face. “Yep. Now, how would Jeremy respond to this letter?” She drummed her chin and hummed to herself. “If you were a psycho stalker ex-boyfriend, what would you say?”

  “Thanks?” was all I could guess.

  She smiled at me and kissed my cheek. “Perfect.” After typing out her response, she pushed send and announced, “There. That sounds like something he’d say.”

  I shook my head and shuddered out a breath, afraid to let myself believe my problems with Patricia might actually be over.

  “This was dangerous, Reese,” I admitted. “I can’t believe you risked so much just to free me from her.”

  “Hey.” Cupping my face in her hands, she smiled reassuringly. “I would risk it a thousand times over to help you any way I could.”

  I leaned in and rested my forehead against hers. “I still don’t deserve you.”

  “But I’m here anyway.” Fluttering her eyelashes against my cheek, she murmured, “Whatever will you do with me now?”

  Drawing her in until she was as close as I could get her, I decided, “I guess I’ll just have to cherish you with every breath I have.”

  * * *

  I had an appointment with my advisor Monday morning before class. If I hadn’t set it up the week before and it was basically the only free hour we had open at the same time, I would’ve blown it off and stayed wrapped in Reese’s arms. As it was, I groaned in rebellion when I had to untangle my limbs from hers.

  “I have a meeting with my advisor.” I nuzzled my nose into the back of her hair before reluctantly letting go and sitting up. “I’m tossing around the idea of changing my major to psychology.”

  “Nooo,” Reese moaned, reaching for me, only to pause and open her eyes. “Wait. Really? Psychology?”

  “Yeah.” I shrugged, feeling bashful. “A client gave me the idea, actually. I mean, not a real client. We never had sex, but she’d call me anyway because she was lonely and depressed and just wanted someone to talk to, and—oh! I forgot I was going to tell you about her. It’s Ethan Riker’s mom.”

  “What?” Her eyes widened, and she sat up. “Ethan’s mom was a client of yours? Wait. You have clients who don’t actually want sex?”

  I shrugged. “Had. And yeah, a couple. Amanda was definitely a different sort of case.”

  “Amanda? That’s Ethan’s mom’s name?”

  With a nod, I told her about how Amanda had tried to commit suicide, and how Ethan had blamed me, and how I’d been worried that Riker might’ve only asked her out as some sort of revenge against me.

  “I called and checked in to see how she was doing. She finally answered her phone yesterday evening after I got home from your place. She’d already checked out of the facility she’d been in by then, and honestly, she sounded better than she’d ever sounded before. She seemed embarrassed about calling me that first time to even start our acquaintance, and she promised she’d never bother me again, even though I assured her I would answer if she did. But I guess the scare really brought her son and husband around. She said they’d actually talked to her, like genuinely listened and tried to understand her, so I hope this is the beginning of a better relationship for all of them. Anyway”—I blew out a breath—“the good news is she’s getting help now, plus I’m pretty sure Riker genuinely did like you. He didn’t just ask you out to try to piss me off.”

  Throughout my story, Reese’s jaw just kept sagging lower and lower. “Oh my God,” she uttered once I was finished. “I can’t believe his mom was going through all that and he never mentioned a word of it. Wait, I can’t believe he asked me out while he was in the middle of a family crisis.”

  Even though I agreed with her, I shrugged. “Some people deal in different ways, I guess. Anyway, the whole thing left me thinking… I don’t know. Maybe I want to help people with problems like that.”

  “Aww.” She reached up and cupped my cheek. “You are just the sweetest. I think you’ll make the best, sexiest psychologist ever.”

  I chuckled, kissing her nose. “And you’re not being biased at all.” My mouth caught hers, gentling and then lingering before I finally pulled away. “But I really have to go if I want to make that meeting.”

  “And I really want you to become a psychologist so I guess I better let you.”

  The meeting lasted all of five minutes. I told my advisor my idea, and he said, “Sounds good. Next semester, we’ll start gearing you toward classes to fit that plan.”

  And that was that.

  I left his office, thinking I’d text Reese and convince her to meet me here on campus for a morning of lattes together. But as I was walking down the hall, I caught a flash of pale blond Malfoy hair. Doing a double take, I met the guy’s gaze, only for his eyes to widen in surprise as if he hadn’t planned on being spotted.

  Turning away, he turned down a different hall, trying to evade me. But I wasn’t having it today. Reese might’ve thought she’d stopped Patricia from contacting Jeremy, but if Patricia had gotten a hold of him before Reese had gone over to her house last night, then this still very well could be her psycho ex.

  I hurried after him in hot pursuit. What I wasn’t expecting was for him to be waiting on me when I rounded the corner.

  “Whoa,” I blurted, lifting my hands and skidding to a halt in order to avoid plowing him over. “What the hell?”

  When he just stared at me with wide, worried eyes, I furrowed my brow, slightly confused.

  “Have you been following me?” I finally demanded.

  “Shh,” he hissed, glancing behind me and then grabbing my arm to drag me further down the hall. Then he whispered, “I need your help. You’re Mason Lowe, right?”

  “Umm…yeah.”

  Maybe this wasn’t Reese’s psycho stalker ex, after all.

  Once he was satisfied we were alone and he had the right guy, he turned to me and said, “I messed up and slept with Patricia Garrison.”

  This time, it was my turn to glance around suspiciously, but I was looking for some kind of hidden camera because I had to be getting spoofed right now.

  “You… Why in God’s name would you think I’d want to know about that? Or care? I don’t even know you, man.�
��

  “I know you don’t know me but I know who you are, and you and her… I mean, you got free of her, right? She said her last toy was broken and she needed a new one. That would be you, correct?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not her fucking toy.”

  “Well, you were something, and now you’re not. So how the hell did you escape? Because she’s threatening to tell my brother if I don’t sleep with her again, except I’d rather pull out all my teeth than go back into that bedroom because, holy shit, man… Do you know what she made me do?”

  I winced, not wanting to know even a little of what they’d done. Lifting my hand to stop him when he opened his mouth as if he wanted to actually tell me, I said, “Look. I’m sorry you got yourself into this situation, but—”

  “Ted would disown me if he found out I fucked her. He and Patricia are supposed to get married next week.”

  “Holy shit,” I blurted. “That’s who your brother is. Wow.” I started to tell him how douchey he was for doing such a thing to his own blood, but then a question I’d been dying to get answered since I had learned she was engaged spilled out of me with, “Why in God’s name would anyone want to marry her, though?”

  “Because she owns all the best development land in the county,” Ted’s brother said. “Now can you give me some pointers of how to shake loose of her or not?”

  I merely shook my head. “I can’t believe you slept with your brother’s fiancée. Dude, that’s hard core.”

  He scowled. “She got me drunk; I had no idea what I was doing.”

  “Look,” I said. “Just come clean to your brother. Trust me, that’s the absolute best path you could take.”

  Ted’s brother chewed on his lip thoughtfully. “But he’ll never talk to me again if I do.”

  I made a face. “The guy’s your brother. He’ll get over it and forgive you…eventually, and hey, he might even thank you if he ends up not marrying her because of it, because he’ll have dodged a major bullet. You both should get as far away from her as possible. The woman is a viper, a bloodthirsty, blackmailing viper.”

  Gripping his blond hair, the guy made an uncertain face. “Man, I don’t know. It’s such a risk.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “It is. But that’s how I did it. She kept holding things over my head and forcing me to do what she wanted, month after month, until finally I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had to risk everything. It was scary as shit, but…” I lifted my hands. “I made it through to the other side, didn’t I?” When I saw a woman walk past the hall we were talking in, only to pause and back up to glance at us, I sighed. “And…you just got made.”

  The Malfoy wannabe glanced at me confused. I pointed toward Dr. Janison just as she disappeared again. “That was Monica, Patricia’s sidekick, right there. And she just saw you talking to me. They’re going to know something’s up.”

  “Shit,” he hissed. “Maybe I can talk to her, ask her not to tell Patricia that she saw me anywhere around you?”

  As he started away from me, in full pursuit of the English professor, I just shook my head. “Yeah, good luck with that,” I called, hoping he didn’t turn out to be quite as stupid as I’d been.

  It had taken me way too damn long to learn my lesson.

  Suddenly, I brightened, because hey, I really must’ve learned my lesson, and I was free of Patricia now, wasn’t I? Ted’s brother seemed to think I was, and she’d told him her last toy was broken. Did that mean she was done messing with me? God, the mere idea left me lightheaded with hope. And double perk: he hadn’t been Reese’s psycho ex, either, which gave me even more faith that maybe things were going to be okay.

  Reese and I could be together with no more worries haunting us from either of our pasts.

  Malfoy had taken up most of the time I would’ve used to meet with Reese before class, so I went ahead and headed to sociology without seeking her out. The hour dragged by; I swear I glanced at the time once every thirty seconds. And politics seemed to go even slower than sociology. Speech wasn’t so bad, but that was only because the shyest girl to ever walk the planet was scheduled to give her talk in front of the class. The poor thing had been able to fumble out maybe five stuttering words, sweat pouring down her bright red face, before she passed out cold on the floor. I felt awful for her, but at least she’d kept my attention.

  After that was calculus, and I hurried that way, hoping to bump into Reese as she was leaving. Felt like I had a million and one things to tell her, from fainting shy girls to guys sleeping with their older brother’s fiancées.

  So when I actually caught sight of her up ahead, I shifted my messenger bag on my shoulder, excitement leaping in my stomach. I winked at her when her gaze caught mine.

  Her eyes widened as if she’d never seen me before. Then she threw herself forward, stumbling to a stop in front of me. At the same moment I noticed she was as white as a ghost and shaking like crazy, she wheezed, “Professor McGonagall! Thank God I ran into you.”

  Uh…okay.

  If this was some kind of kinky foreplay, I was so down.

  She slipped her backpack off her shoulder and fumbled to unzip it, needing about four tries to get it open.

  “I know it was due last Friday,” she told me, “but I finished my paper and I would really appreciate it if you’d reconsider accepting it late.”

  She thrust forward an already graded essay with a bright red A at the top and notes in the margins, then bit her lip expectantly when she met my gaze.

  Not really sure what I was supposed to say, I played along as best I could, narrowing my eyes like the stern teacher I was supposed to be. I mean, I guess stern was my role, right? I wouldn’t get to bend her over her desk like the naughty student she was being and punish her with a good paddling unless I was the stern type. A guy had to stay in character, after all.

  “I told you no late assignments, Miss Randall.”

  She got a little too deep into her own role when tears glistened in her eyes. “But I worked on it all weekend.” Damn, she even managed to put a worried tremor in her voice. How did she get that to sound so real?

  Not wanting her to surpass me, I lifted an unimpressed eyebrow. “All weekend, hmm?” Oh, yeah, she’d definitely worked hard all weekend long. “On a paper you were supposed to be working on all semester?”

  For a moment, she looked like she might strangle me, making me think that wasn’t the line I was supposed to deliver.

  “Please,” she said with so much desperation I wondered if something else was going on here entirely. “Could you just give it a look?”

  I nodded. “Okay, fine. But this is the last time I’ll make allowances for you.”

  I reached for the essay, only for her to pull it back to her chest. “Wait. I… I need to sign my name.”

  Her name was already there; I’d seen it clearly next to the A. When I watched her hands shake as she searched her bag, I swallowed, because something was wrong about this. Then she wiped at a tear, and I grew downright terrified.

  “Here,” I said, giving her one of my own pens.

  I tried to meet her gaze, ask her with my eyes what was going on, but she didn’t look up as she took the pen, rasping, “Thanks,” before she lifted her knee and scribbled Jer is here right below her name.

  She handed the paper to me, but I’d already seen what she’d written.

  “I see,” I said, trying to remain calm, even though I was freaking the fuck out. Because, what the hell? When had Patricia contacted him? Was this all my fault? And where exactly was here? In Waterford, or in this very hallway?

  Then I realized he had to be pretty fucking close if she was talking in code?

  Dammit. I couldn’t believe he’d found her. As soon as she pointed him out, the guy was dead. But first, I had to get her somewhere safe.

  “You know,” I said, dropping the essay to my side and looking her straight in the eye. “Maybe we should go to my office and discuss this in more detail. I have an idea how you ca
n make up some extra credit points.”

  “No.” She shook her head adamantly, fear making her eyes big and her lips press flat. She took a step back, probably thinking to protect me, the silly girl. “No, I need to get to my next class.”

  “Reese.” I caught her arm, not about to let her deal with this by herself. “Where?” I murmured.

  And that’s when some dude I’d never met before in my life came up behind her and wrapped an arm around her waist as if he owned her. For a moment, I could only gape at him, dumbfounded to see someone else touching my Reese.

  “There’s my Reese’s Pieces,” he cooed, making her jump and flinch, another tear trailing down her face. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, baby.”

  I lifted an eyebrow at him, taking a moment to figure out the most painful way to break his face.

  The dickhead touching her lifted his chin my way as if we were pals. “So, you’re one of Reese’s professors, huh? You look kind of young to be a teacher.”

  “That’s because I’m not,” I said dryly.

  “Huh?” he said, tilting his face in confusion.

  Seeing red, I whipped the strap of my bag up over my hand and threw it to the ground.

  Jeremy was so busy blinking down at where it landed with a thud on the floor that he didn’t see my arm wind back before I swung it forward, punching him full in the jaw.

  * * *

  My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. As the sterilized scent of the hospital clogged my nostrils, I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against the wall, wishing this was all a bad dream.

  When I heard footsteps approaching behind me, I looked up, thinking it was someone with news, but it was just a nurse walking by. She sent me an encouraging nod I wasn’t able to return. I was still trying to process what had happened in the last few hours.

  After I had punched Reese’s ex in the jaw, scoring a direct hit, he’d lost his grip on her and went stumbling back in a daze until he fell flat on his ass on the floor.