Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
Audrey
Somehow, Audrey managed to get David to put off asking his questions until the window was boarded up and the glass swept up.
Which didn’t take nearly as long as she hoped, even though Harris’ team returned to Black Fox to do whatever it was they’d been doing before they’d all come running to her rescue.
As reassuring as it was to know that she had two teams of trained and terrifying people who would literally dash down the street to save her, it was also somewhat mortifying.
Especially since they’d all witnessed Cash’s absolutely disastrous proposal.
What had he been thinking?
Scratch that, he clearly hadn’t been thinking at all.
That, or her parents had put thoughts into his head.
Audrey felt positively sick at the thought.
She was going to have to call them and confront them, ask them what Cash had meant.
Why he was so sure she would marry him. Why he thought she needed to talk to them after she’d said no.
Just saying no had felt like a monumental effort, especially with their audience. Though the audience was also those who had given her the courage to say no in the moment, rather than trying to put him off until later. She hated that she’d had to have the conversation at all.
Especially while wildly distracted by the fact that someone had thrown a freaking brick through her front window! Then, when Cash had just up to try to be protective, all she’d wanted to do was shove him off of her.
She’d wanted Mason.
Not Cash.
Then Mason had appeared, but so had everyone else, and…
She really wanted to go hide in the back office until they all went away, but she knew David would just come looking for her. She could only dodge him for so long, and he wanted answers.
As if the thought had summoned him, he appeared in front of her with his arms crossed over his chest, frowning.
“Okay. Window is boarded up. Police report has been made.” He glanced outside, where Lincoln and Ashley were talking to the cops who had shown up only a few minutes after Cash had left.
Audrey was glad they’d been a little slow because if they’d shown up while he was there, she wouldn’t have put it past him to try to have Mason arrested.
“The brick is taken care of. Let’s go check the cameras. ”
And have a talk.
His words hung unspoken in the air, and Audrey winced.
“Do you really need me for that?” she asked. “The office can get kind of crowded.”
David just stared at her, arms still crossed over his chest, and Audrey let out a huff of air, her shoulders slumping forward.
“Come on, Cupcake,” Mason murmured in her ear, his hand coming down on her shoulder. “Let’s go talk to your brother.”
The appearance of Mason beside her, his hand touching her, even if it was just her shoulder, had David narrowing his eyes. He wasn’t glaring at her, but he was glaring, and Audrey shrank away before he banked his hard look and turned away, stalking toward the office.
As he went past Claudia, she turned to look at Audrey and gave her a thumbs-up.
“You’ve got this,” she mouthed.
While she appreciated the show of support, Audrey didn’t feel so sure.
With her brother in front of her and Mason behind her, it felt like she was walking to her doom. As they went into the back, Alexis looked over. She had finished cleaning up but was still standing there, probably wondering what was going on.
“You’re good to go home,” Audrey said to her.
Alexis nodded, but still looked hesitant.
“Hey, Zeus,” Mason called out from behind Audrey. “Can you escort Alexis to her car?”
“Sure.”
Immediately, Alexis relaxed, and Audrey kicked herself for not realizing what the other woman was worried about. Alexis had walked to her car plenty of times on her own, but never after a brick had been thrown through the front window of the bakery. Especially when it was dark already.
Having a big, muscular security guy walking with her would help assuage any fears.
Zeus sauntered into the kitchen and gave Alexis a look up and down, as if assessing her. The young woman ducked her head, not meeting his eyes as she put on her coat. He was pretty intimidating.
“I’ll see you tomorrow?” Audrey asked. She knew Ashley wouldn’t quit over this, but she wasn’t so sure about Alexis, and she needed both of them to keep the bakery going with how busy it had been. Plus, she liked Alexis and didn’t want to lose her.
Despite her obvious nervousness, Alexis nodded her head firmly, glancing up to meet Audrey’s gaze.
“I’ll be here,” she said softly.
“Good. Thank you,” Audrey replied with relief.
Alexis flashed her a quick, shy smile before ducking her head again as Zeus gestured for her to precede him to the back door. Audrey was relieved that he was there. She knew there were some issues with him fitting in with the team, but she trusted him to keep Alexis safe.
As soon as Audrey was in the office with Mason and David, her brother stepped behind the desk, though he was frowning at Mason rather than looking at the computer where the security camera feed would be.
“Why did you ask Zeus to take her?”
“Because it’s something I could ask of him that allows him to contribute to the team. Plus, it’ll give him a break from Drew.”
David’s lips pressed together.
“What’s going on?” Audrey asked.
“That’s what I want to know,” David countered, looking between her and Mason.
Yeah, so she’d walked right into that one. The best course of action was denial.
“Nothing.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“I’m teaching her about kink,” Mason said, sitting down at the computer chair to boot it up, apparently unbothered that her brother was now glaring at the back of his head.
“What does that mean?” David’s expression was turning pained.
“Nothing,” Audrey said again, contemplating kicking Mason. Not that he was within kicking reach.
“It means exactly what you think it means.”
“Weren’t you engaged to someone else a week ago?” David ran his fingers through his hair, shaking his head.
“No, I got un-engaged to someone else a week ago.” Mason clicked through the programs, pulling up the feed and rewinding to earlier in the evening while they spoke. Audrey considered melting into the floor as her brother looked at her. She turned her gaze to the ceiling.
What she got up to in the bedroom wasn’t any of his business. No more than it was her business what he and Cassidy did in the bedroom.
“You know you don’t have to use Mason as a teacher; I can find you another Dom,” David said, switching his attention to her.
That made Mason’s head swing up, and now he was the one glaring at her brother.
“Don’t even think about it; she’s with me.”
Was it wrong of her heart to flutter at his statement? Sure, they’d agreed to friends with benefits, but she couldn’t help reacting to what seemed like a show of possessiveness on his part. He cared about her, at least a little. He didn’t want to stop teaching her.
“Only if she wants to be.”
“I do,” Audrey said hastily. “I’m very happy with Mason’s, um, tutelage.”
“Shit.” Mason shook his head, and her heart dropped for a moment before she realized he was reacting to the camera footage. “I think this is the same guy as last time.”
The person who had thrown the brick had done so from a motorcycle—launching it clear across the sidewalk from where they straddled the vehicle. Then they took off.
After having been chased by Mason the last time, they were now working from a distance.
Audrey felt her heart drop. Who could be doing this? And why?
Mason
Poor Audrey. Ignoring David, Mason reached out to pull her onto his lap. She needed a cuddle, and David could suck it.
Her brother groaned, but didn’t protest.
“What do you mean, the last time?” David asked, sounding resigned.
Mason gave him the full rundown, holding Audrey on his lap. She curled up against his shoulder, trembling. Possibly a delayed reaction to the shock of the brick coming through her window or possibly just overwhelmed from everything that was going on.
It was a lot.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” David complained once Mason came to the end. “I should have known about this.”
“I didn’t want to bother you,” Audrey muttered.
“You are never a bother.”
At least David and Mason were on the same page about that. But Audrey wasn’t wrong that David had a lot on his plate already.
“I had it handled,” Mason said. “She knew that you had a lot going on and didn’t want to add to it. Neither did I. Claudia was my backup.”
David grumbled and leaned over to examine the footage again. There wasn’t much to go on.
“I want to know what Cash meant about Audrey talking to our parents.”
Ah. Well. Mason cleared his throat.
“I might have an idea on that.” Something he hadn’t realized mattered until tonight.
“You do?” Audrey sat up on his lap. She was no longer trembling and seemed a lot calmer, though still upset. Now, she was frowning at him.
“Yes, well. I did some digging on Cash. I didn’t come up with the fact he’d cheated on you, but it always makes sense to check out the ex-boyfriend when a woman is being harassed.
” Mason cleared his throat as Audrey’s eyes widened in surprise.
“I didn’t mention it before because I didn’t think it mattered, but apparently he’s nearly broke. ”
“What?” Audrey’s mouth dropped open in shock.
“Not just him, but his whole family. However, there’s some kind of business deal going down between his father’s company and yours…”
“Dad always wanted a piece of that company,” Audrey murmured.
“Are you saying our parents made Audrey into some kind of business deal?” David asked, sounding pissed as hell.
“I don’t know, but I know it’s possible.
” Mason shook his head. “I didn’t really look any further because it didn’t seem to involve Cash at all, and it didn’t give him a reason to be harassing Audrey.
He doesn’t have any kind of history of bothering his exes that I could find, so I stopped looking any deeper.
I have no idea what the conditions of the deal might be. ”
“But it gives him a reason to come and propose.” Audrey huffed. “Do you think he and his parents could be behind the guy harassing me?”
“Possibly. I think Ashley had him pegged when she said he doesn’t seem like the type to get his hands dirty,” David said, frowning.
Mason tightened his arms around Audrey’s waist. Under the circumstances, having her on his lap wasn’t nearly as fun as it could be, but he was still happy to have her there.
After the way today had gone, he didn’t want to let her out of his sight.
It made more sense that Cash was the reason someone was harassing her and the bakery than Devlin did, but he still didn’t like the timing. What were the odds of two incidents in one day from two separate sources? On the other hand, sometimes when it rained, it poured.
Mason didn’t want to make any assumptions and have them blow up in his face because he thought something was too coincidental to be true. Fact was often stranger than fiction, after all.
“I guess I have to call my parents.” The sheer amount of reluctance in Audrey’s tone made it clear that she did not want to. “I need to find out more about this deal.”
“Do you want to do that now?” David asked, reaching out to put his hand on her shoulder. “I can be right here while you make the call.”
“Me, too,” Mason said firmly, pressing his fingers into her hips to remind her of his presence. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The look David gave him said that he didn’t know how he felt about Mason’s statement, and they weren’t done talking about what Mason was doing with Audrey. Apparently, he didn’t want to have that conversation with Audrey in the room, though. That was fine. Mason wasn’t afraid of David.
He hoped this wouldn’t end their friendship, but if David was going to let Mason being with his sister change things between them, that was on him, not Mason. Although if Mason hurt Audrey, he would understand why that would change. Not that David had anything to worry about from him on that score.
He gave David a flat stare in return, doing his best to communicate some of those feelings to his friend.
Something in David’s expression changed, though Mason couldn’t exactly read what. David looked at Audrey again, who was still sitting tensely on Mason’s lap.
“You can’t put it off forever, Audrey,” David said gently. “I know you. You can’t bury your head in the sand over this, not when Cash might be trying to scare you out of Pittsburgh. And if it’s not him, then we need to know that so we can figure out who it is.”
“I know.” Audrey rubbed her hands over her face. “I’m sorry I’m such a coward.”
“You’re not,” David and Mason said at the same time. They were starting to sound like a freaking Greek chorus when it came to her. David’s glance at Mason was more measuring this time, as if he was trying to decide how he felt about the fact they were so much on the same page.
“Um, you guys literally served overseas and put your lives in danger.” She shook her head, hugging herself, and Mason tightened his grip on her. “I’m chickening out over making a phone call. It’s not like I’m in physical danger or anything. I’m just a wuss.”
“I would much rather face another enlistment than piss off my mom,” Mason admitted. “Trust me. Making the call to let her know that my engagement with Yasmine hadn’t worked out was way worse than any mission we went on.”
“I don’t want to tell our parents anything they’ll disapprove of so much that I stopped talking to them entirely,” David offered. Audrey didn’t look convinced. “Unfortunately, we do need to know.”
“Okay.” Audrey nodded, squaring her shoulders. “I’m calling them. Right now.”
“Good girl,” Mason murmured, making her flush.
David gave him a look of death.