I thought of Taryn back at home—home, as if it was my home, too. I knew I wouldn’t lay a finger on Amanda, no matter how wasted we got, and it was all because of Taryn. Because even if she didn’t see it as a betrayal, I realized that I did.
It was a strange thing to know about myself, brought up all sorts of hard questions. If I wasn’t going to fuck other women, and I was struggling to find the desire to ingratiate myself back into my old life, then what was I doing?
“I can control myself just fine.”
Maybe it could be fun to catch up with an old friend, at least. I felt like I was only just starting to open up, really discover myself and who I was, and my past was a good place to start.
Chapter Thirteen
Taryn
I didn’t hear from Mason again all week.
He’d warned me that contact could be dangerous. If he was ever being watched, or if someone got a hold of his phone and he’d forgotten to wipe it clean, he could implicate me in everything he was doing.
I had barely slept since the morning he left, his marks on my body still new and tingling. I tried to go about my days like usual: opening up the diner, losing myself in the customers, heading to Justin’s every evening to spend time with Daisy…
But, like an incessant mantra, Mason stayed firmly in my head.
Hearing nothing was a torment, even though I understood it didn’t automatically mean bad news.
I started to wish I’d never suggested this whole plan.
But then what? Ethan would’ve been killed, maybe even Anna. I didn’t put the wheels of this in motion, but that didn’t mean I could help feeling responsible for each and every turn.
I didn’t even know where Mason was. I didn’t know what he was doing, if he was in danger.
I’d never even gotten to introduce him to his child, and while it had seemed safer before, now it just felt cruel.
“If anything… happens to him,” Anna choked, “at least Daisy won’t have to miss him. At least you won’t have to explain what happened to Daddy all over again.”
As usual, the sun was relentless, and we sat in Ethan and Anna’s garden under a wide umbrella, cold lemonade sweating on the table. Even this felt fraudulent; Mason was out there saving us, and we were sat here drinking lemonade.
“I know,” I sighed. “I just keep doubting everything.”
“There’s nothing we can do, Taryn. Not without putting him in danger, or screwing up the plan, or bringing hellfire down on all of us.”
“So we just have to wait.” Bitterly, I scoffed. “Great.”
“That isn’t our world,” Anna pointed out miserably. For such a beautiful day, we sure were darkening up the place.
Ethan and Anna’s garden was as gorgeous as the house. It stretched for yards, surrounded by tall, trimmed hedges, thick willows, and cherry blossoms. The lawn was immaculate. I should’ve brought Daisy to play, but we were all too anxious and if she saw that, she’d have so many questions I didn’t know how to answer.
Anna went on. “Mason knows what he’s doing. He’ll be okay.”
I wasn’t so sure. The way he’d said goodbye… it had seemed so permanent, and not just like he was leaving by choice. He knew more about his chances of success than I did and even he seemed to have doubts he’d be walking away from Carl Monroe unscathed.
Anna squinted past me and I turned to see Ethan crossing the yard. He took a chair, kissing her on the cheek, and for a second I envied their quiet domesticity.
But even they didn’t have the promise of a future right now. It was something we all had in common.
“What if he fails?” Ethan asked. Nervous tension ran through every line of his body; normally such a sweet and laid back guy, he was barely recognizable now. There were dark circles under his and Anna’s eyes, and most likely my own if I dared to inspect my pale reflection long enough.
None of us had been getting much sleep. I wondered if Mason had been sleeping.
“He won’t,” Anna said firmly.
“But—”
“Ethan!”
“I think we need to talk about it,” I interrupted, wishing I didn’t have to be the one to say it. I didn’t even want to think it. “We need to be practical here.”
Anna’s face twisted. “God.”
“There’s only one thing we could do,” Ethan said decisively. “We’d have to get out of the city for a while. Hell, maybe even the state. You too, Taryn.”
“How?” I asked, honored that he’d included me in this. I knew he looked at me like a sister, but it was nice to know how much he truly considered me family.
“The private airstrip my father used to use is only a twenty-minute drive. I’ll have to charter a flight. We should all have a bag packed, just in case.”
The way Ethan said father was laced with disgust. It had always been there, too, I’d just never noticed it before. How blind I’d been. That man had ruined all of our lives, his legacy consisting of us, sat here, terrified for our family.
“Wow, you’ve already thought about this, huh?” I asked, impressed at his forward planning. He was a businessman after all.
“I think Mason will do everything he can,” he assured Anna. “But I know the kind of men he’s dealing with here. They’re the kind of men I was surrounded by as a kid. They’re nothing but roaches.”
“So that’s it? We just flee from our homes like fugitives?” Anna asked hoarsely.
“It’s just to give us some time to work out what to do next, until I can get the appropriate protection involved.” Ethan cupped her cheek. “At least we’ll still be alive to do all that.”
Anna sighed, leaning her head into his hand. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I know, honey.”
I looked away from their private moment. It reminded me again how much I wanted to hear from Mason, my head filled with all the things I should’ve told him before he left.
Would I get another opportunity to correct that mistake?
I hated this so much.
“When you say the appropriate protection…” I said, trailing off.
“The authorities.” Ethan looked uncomfortable. “And if not, there are other people who can protect us.”
“More shady characters,” I drawled, and Ethan nodded. “Our life is the fucking Godfather.”
It got a laugh out of him. “As long as we’re safe. That’s all that matters.”
He sounded like Mason when he said that. It’s how I felt, too, because if Mason had taught me anything, it was that people were capable of the worst things imaginable.
I knew I’d do anything to keep the ones I loved safe.
Anna picked up her lemonade glass to make an announcement. “You know what? I think this needs vodka.”
I couldn’t have agreed more, and she quickly ducked into the house to fetch a bottle and top us up.
If we were to be pessimists, we could at least be drunk pessimists.
We talked into the late afternoon, moving on from hopeless plans and schemes to memories and nostalgia. It’d been a while since the three of us had done this, and I’d missed it.
As the sun was setting, my phone started to ring.
“It’s Mason,” I told Anna and Ethan, scooping it up off the table and standing so abruptly my chair fell over backwards.
“Hey,” he said, and I felt my eyes sting, the soft buzz of a few alcoholic drinks and the low hum of his voice playing havoc on my senses.
“Mason,” I breathed. “God, Mason, are you okay?”
He chuckled quietly. “I’m fine. You really gotta stop worrying about me.”
The word escaped me before I could get a grip on it: “Never.”
“Look, I can’t talk for long; I just wanted to hear your voice.”
“Where are you?” I caught Anna’s eager gaze. “Are you safe?”
“I’m in my hotel room and yeah, I’m pretty certain I’ve stayed incognito. I planted a few false sightings back where you ar
e for good measure.”
I sighed, telling Anna, “He’s safe.”
“You’re with my sister?” Mason asked, and I told him the affirmative. “Can I speak to her?”
I passed the phone to Anna and ran a hand through my hair, pacing back and forth across a small patch of the lawn as they talked. Mason had her laughing in minutes, and I felt a watery smile tug at my mouth. The sun was starting to set behind the white walls of the house, the day cooling, and I felt so extraordinarily light that I only just realized how shitty I’d been feeling.
It was like I’d been carrying a weighted backpack around with me; my whole body ached with relief.
Anna told Mason, “Come back home, big brother,” before she handed the phone back to me with a smile.
I took it, walking away from the table and into the shadow of a weeping willow. “Hey.”
“Hey, yourself.”
His voice, again, had the most incredible effect on me. I didn’t think I’d ever get tired of it after this.
“How’s it going out there?” I asked softly, leaning my back against the rough bark of the willow.
“Tomorrow night it’ll all be over.”
It was really happening; my heart constricted in my chest. This wasn’t just like some action movie where the good guys won and the bad guys went up in flames, where people got shot and blown up left and right but still hobbled along to the happy ending. Tomorrow some real shit was going to go down and Mason was going to be right in the middle of it.
In real life, people died.
“What odds do you give yourself?” I asked, trying to make it sound like a joke and failing horribly.
“Oh, a hundred percent,” he said cockily. “I got this, babe.”
I laughed. “Babe.”
“I don’t even know where that came from.”
“I don’t hate it,” I said around a helpless grin. There was no way he couldn’t hear it in my voice. Despite everything, he was still keeping his good humor.
“I’ll call you again tomorrow night, okay?”
That felt like the end of the conversation and I couldn’t bear it. “Wait. Don’t go. Just… not yet.”
“About that,” he said cryptically, and then he went silent so long my heart started to pound.
“Mason?”
“What if—” I heard the click in his throat as he swallowed. “What if, after cleaning up the mess around here, I came back?”
“Came back here?”
“Yeah.”
“Came back home?” I asked hoarsely, hardly daring to believe what he meant.
“It was my home once,” he said softly. “I kinda want to see if it can be again.”
“You don’t have to ask my permission for that, Mason.”
He huffed an impatient sigh and I almost burst out laughing, awe and disbelief making me hysterical. “You know exactly what I mean.”
“And you already know I think it’s a great idea.” I tipped my head back, still grinning like a loon. “It was my damn idea.”
“Taryn.” His voice sounded suddenly intent, so full of promise, and I knew before he even started to speak again what he was about to say. “I lo…”
“No,” I said quickly, my heart in my throat. “Don’t say it, not now.”
“What?”
“You can tell me when you get home.”
He breathed a laugh, light as air. “Okay.”
“And I can say it back.”
“Fuck. Okay.”
“You are coming home, Mason,” I repeated, all the confidence I could muster pushed into that one sentence. Nothing seemed more important to say right now, not even the L word.
“I am,” he said, like he almost believed it. Maybe even like I’d made him believe it. “I’m gonna go now.”
I wanted to argue again but I knew he was right. “Okay. I’ll see you soon.”
“Bye, babe.”
That helpless grin came over me again as the call cut out. My elation warred with my anxiety, and I slumped against the tree feeling at odds with myself. To hear Mason was coming back, to me, to our family—it was almost worse. To have a future so close only to know it could be ripped away in the course of one night.
I wanted, more than anything, for Daisy to meet her father.
I looked up as Anna came across the yard and under the shade of the willow branches. “You okay?”
“A little better.”
She nodded, seeming to agree. “Nauseous?”
I laughed. “Yeah, that too.”
At least I knew the nausea wasn’t anything to do with pregnancy this time.
“He’ll be back,” Anna said confidently. I hadn’t seen her so sure of anything up until this point. Perhaps it was simply a conscious decision to be positive: if we kept saying it, to ourselves, to each other, then we could make it true.
“I know I won’t be sleeping tonight,” I told her.
“You can stay here if you want,” Anna offered. “This is your home as much as it’s mine.”
The word home sent a streak of warmth through me. “Thanks, Anna. I really appreciate it.”
“We’ll get through this, no matter what happens.”
I had to cling to that. I knew that wherever Mason was, he was clinging to it too. It gave us a connection, a feeling of solidarity. Even though we were miles apart, I felt like we were close in spirit.
Anna took my hand and pulled me back to the table, pouring me another hefty slosh of vodka.
Maybe if I had enough, I’d pass right out and sleep through the entire thing.
As I watched Anna fill up her own glass, I knew she was hoping for the same thing.
Chapter Fourteen
Mason
I drove for hours to the meeting place.
It was set for ten PM, under the cover of darkness. Six trucks would arrive filled with the drugs, Monroe and his best guys would be there to test and collect, the payment would exchange hands, and then they’d all be on their way.
Or so they thought.
The sun was just starting to go down, giving me plenty of time to set up what I needed to before anyone else got here.
I parked my rental—paid for with cash—a mile from the old factory loading building, and then I hiked the rest of the way, keeping off the road and under the thick shroud of trees.
I made it there with hours to spare, sweating from the warm night and shrugging my duffle bag off my shoulder.
Ian had gotten me the plans for the building. It was a fairly large space, an annex of the factory itself with enough room for a dozen trucks and plenty of men to load them. There were wide metal doors spanning the whole front of the building’s east side, and two other small doors: one leading outside, and one leading into the factory itself.
Monroe’s guys wouldn’t be using the conveyer area that brought goods back into the factory once upon a time, but I decided to secure it anyway, in case anyone tried to exit that way.
Windows covered the whole north-facing side of the building, most of them smashed and the night breeze flowing freely through them, and next to the building was a hill with a rocky outcrop at the front where I’d be able to watch, clearly, as everything went down.
I’d picked the location myself, with Ian’s help. It hadn’t taken much to convince Monroe’s people this was a good place to make a deal, considering how hidden and out of use it was.
It was a perfect spot for an ambush.
Out of my duffle, I pulled the first square of C4.
This shit wasn’t cheap, but I hadn’t scrimped on the amount. Luckily the old loading dock still had barrels of oil lying around, which would help the place go up in flames quite nicely.
I tucked several pieces around each way in or out, covering them with random scrap metal and garbage that was still lying around from the factory’s old days. Then, I strapped a couple pieces to each of the huge loading doors, pushing them into the overlapping metal slats to hide them.
There was no workin
g electricity here these days, and so whatever lighting the guys at the meeting had would come from the truck headlights. There’s no way they’d be able to see any of the C4 I’d placed.
The problem was how to hide it around the floor space.
I surveyed the area, trying to work out where Monroe would place himself. I didn’t want to hurt the delivery guys, either; only Monroe’s guys would die here tonight.
A rustle and crash outside startled me and I pulled out my silenced handgun.
I slipped quietly across the building, straining to hear the low shuffling sound. It wasn’t just the wind, that was for damn sure.
I steeled myself, moving low along the wall to the outside door I’d left half open. I reached over, touching it with my fingers to let it swing outwards, and then I threw myself into the doorway, gun poised.
A clumsy possum snuffling around the piles of junk outside looked me dead in the eye like I was an idiot.
I huffed a laugh, shaking my head.
“Get a grip,” I told myself. I’d only been out the game a few weeks but I was already ready to gun down passing animals.
Everything in me knew I was making the right decision, going back to Taryn after this.
How quickly I’d become a stranger to this world, whilst becoming so comfortable with Taryn’s. A month ago I would never have foreseen it. I would’ve scoffed in the face of anyone who dared suggest it, even.
I’d never been so eager to get a job wrapped up.
I tucked my weapon away and went back inside, contemplating several grates in the concrete floor. I pulled a screwdriver from my duffle and got to work.
Once the grates were loosened, I planted the C4 underneath and replaced them back on top, screwing them into place. Then I dragged a few oil barrels on top of them, for added direct damage.
It looked like enough to blow this whole damn place to kingdom come. Any security that came in to check out the building wouldn’t see how I’d rigged it.
I left, shutting the door and making my way up the hill overlooking the factory.
It was almost fully dark now, closing in on the meeting hour, and I made myself comfortable at the edge of the outcrop.
Out of my duffle, I pulled my rifle, sniper stand, and binoculars.
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