2. Mason
2
MASON
C ops were everywhere. I felt like when I closed my eyes, I would see those flashing red and blue lights forever. They were ingrained to the insides of my eyelids.
The police questioned us, together at first, then separately.
Samantha showed up.
When she got out of her vehicle, I hated seeing the lights flashing over her face. My wife should never have to look like that. She was devastated for me.
Fuck.
My dad killed himself, and in front of us.
She rushed to me, opening her arms. Her voice hitched on a sob. “Mason.”
I caught her, folding her against me. I needed this. I needed her. I bent my head down, nuzzling her neck and shoulder. “The kids?”
She shivered, raking a hand through my hair. “The twins are asleep, but Taylor’s there. She was awake. If Maddy wakes up, she’ll be there for her.”
Logan’s wife.
I nodded. That was good.
We both checked on Logan, where he was standing. He looked like death. My brother usually looked full of life, full of attitude. His brown hair was trimmed. He’d been keeping it cut how I usually kept mine short. His lean and defined build was in shadows tonight, from the overwhelming oppression of what we both witnessed.
I guessed that was appropriate, considering what happened. Dad . The image of him flashed in front of me again. The look in his eyes right before he lifted the gun.
How determined he’d been. Fuck . How relieved too.
That was going to haunt me.
Another vehicle rolled in, and when it parked, both doors opened. “Sam,” someone called. Heather and Channing had arrived.
Heather ran to Sam’s side, who kept one arm around me as she reached up to hug her best friend. Channing headed to Logan and gave him a hug. They talked a little before Channing moved back to survey the scene. Heather frowned my way, and I gave her a small nod in return. She was here to support Sam, who was here to support me. And right now, I needed to deal with business. That’s what was going to help me.
I stepped to the side, letting go of Sam.
She put a hand to my chest, stopping me. “You okay?” She swore, shaking her head at her own question. “I mean…” She moved closer, cutting everyone else out for a moment. She reached up, catching my face, and tilted my head down to look at her.
I resisted. I couldn’t get lost in her. Not yet. I needed to talk to Channing. I had to know who this fucker was that had driven my dad to suicide. But I also needed my wife. I’d always need my wife. “Tonight,” I told her, my voice gruff. “I’ll lose myself in you later tonight.”
She nodded. That’s what she’d been looking for. Her hands left my face. “What do you need now?”
God, I loved her. She was my ride-or-die, and right now, she was riding with me. “I need to talk to Channing.” I glanced over to Logan. “Take care of Logan. He’s worried about Taylor and now this.” I shook my head. “I’ll handle business, but he’s on the edge right now.”
She pulled in a breath. Logan and Taylor had lost their first kid. There were problems in the pregnancy, and they’d been told their child wouldn’t live. They just didn’t know how long they would get with her, or if they’d get any time. They got a day.
The next time Taylor got pregnant again, that little boy came out kicking and screaming.
Now Taylor was pregnant a third time. Things had been iffy, so my brother was already dealing with that stress. He didn’t want to lose another child and now this?
Sam turned to go to him, but I caught her pants pocket and pulled her to me again. My hand slid up to her throat in a gentle hold. I tipped her back, speaking into her ear. “He needs to feel his shit. He’s pushing too much down, and if he doesn’t deal with some of it, he’s going to explode.”
Sam drew in a shuddering breath. Her pulse fluttered. “Got it.”
Another goddamn reason she was my perfect fit. She always knew what I was saying, probably without me even needing to say it. Sam was about to take my brother somewhere, and she was going to piss him the fuck off. We could both see that he was about to take our dad’s death and add it to the shit pile inside of him he wasn’t dealing with. He was only able to focus on not losing Taylor and not losing their third baby, which made sense, but Taylor was fine right now. If he didn’t process some of his emotions, it’d be bad.
“I’ll talk to Chan, but call me if you need me,” I told her.
She nodded. I felt the movement through my hand.
“Mouth.” I growled.
A shudder went through her, and she tipped her head back. I caught the lust swirling in her eyes, but that was for later. That’s how I was going to handle my shit. Until then, she met my lips with hers and gave me a taste to get me through.
Then she pulled away from me and motioned for Heather to follow her.
As they approached Logan, Channing moved around to me, grazing Heather’s hand as she passed.
“What do you need?” he asked me.
Fuck. This guy. We’d gotten close over the years. We’d always been friends, but the last few years, a tightness had formed between us, and I knew if I needed someone dead, Channing would handle it without blinking.
I didn’t answer him. Not yet.
I watched how Heather and Sam had a little brief meeting before they went in separate directions. Sam went to Logan, and Heather broke away to talk to one of the cops.
Channing settled in next to me where I was standing to the side. I was watching everything. He asked me, “Cops already talk to you?”
I nodded. “That same one your wife is talking to now. Tell me about him.”
“Ah, that’d be Detective Arroyo.” He moved a little closer, lowering his voice so no one could overhear. “He’s decent, but I’ll be honest, shit wasn’t good around the time my sister was in high school. It got better. Now it’s bad again. There are other players moving onto the scene, and Fallen Crest is in a tug-of-war between those players. There’s one cop I trust for what I need, but I can’t tell you who else I’d trust.”
“Arroyo?”
Channing shrugged. “Time will tell. I can have someone look into him.”
“No.” As we continued to watch, Heather broke away from the detective, and he headed toward me as Heather returned to Sam and Logan. I could see the torment in Logan’s eyes.
“Fuck.” He didn’t know what to do. I pulled my phone out and texted him.
Me: Go with Sam. Get drunk. Do what you need to do to let out some of the shit inside of you.
He looked down at his phone and drew in a deep breath. His fingers moved over his phone in a response.
My phone buzzed.
Logan: Got you. Sam will pull me back from the edge if I go over too, but once I let out enough of my shit, I want to be looped in. Got me?
Me: Without a doubt. Go get drunk. Rage. Do what you need to do right now.
He lifted his head. I hated seeing the anguish he now wasn’t holding back.
I sent another text.
Me: Go.
His shoulders slumped a little. Sam moved in and took his hand as she walked him with Heather to her car.
“You want me to call Monson?” Channing asked.
That question sucked me dry of every last semblance of… I didn’t even know. What Logan and I had just witnessed, what we’d heard, it was life-changing, and I’d been trying to deny some of it. At Channing’s question, I couldn’t deny it anymore.
Nate Monson was our other best friend. He’d been my first best friend growing up, and the two of us had gotten into too much trouble so his parents took him away for a while. I was too much of a negative influence on him. As soon as he could, he came back, but the dynamics were different. Sam was in our lives and Logan and I had gotten closer.
Eventually, Nate and I got close again. But bottom line? He was family. We were all family.
Lifting my phone, I pulled up his contact. As I hit his name, I put the phone to my ear and said to Channing, “Call Matteo.”
Nate answered, alert even though it was either fucking early or fucking late for him, “What’s happened?”
Channing was already moving away, his phone at his ear.
Nate knew. I didn’t know how, but it shifted something in me.
My voice went gruff. “How’d you know?”
“A gut feeling. I kept getting this bad feeling all night long. I couldn’t sleep and I’ve been driving Quincey nuts. We’re already packing our shit up and heading to the airport in twenty minutes.”
Jesus . I half laughed, wincing at the sound of my own voice. Hoarse. “You’re psychic now?”
His own voice went soft. “Tell me what happened, Mase.”
I readied myself, shoving my grief and shock aside so I could get the words out without fucking falling to pieces. The family was circling the wagons. As I told him, a part of me slipped away so I didn’t have to witness it all over again. “My dad shot himself tonight.”
He drew in a breath. “Fuck. Fuck.” He needed a second to process that too.
I waited, hearing his ragged breathing.
“Okay.” His voice came back, clearer. “Does Sam need Quincey there?”
I frowned, thinking. “Uh… I don’t know, to be honest. She and Heather are handling Logan right now.”
“I’ll ask her. This is what we’ll do. Babe…” His voice moved away. I heard his wife in the background, saying, “What?”
“Change of plans,” he told her. “Mason and Logan’s dad died tonight.”
“What?” she gasped.
It was hard, hearing her shock at the news.
Nate’s voice stayed even. “I need you to text Samantha, ask her if she needs you to come now or if you can hold off enough to take care of shit here.”
“What are you thinking?” she asked.
“I’m going to fly down tonight. If Sam needs you, you come with me. If we do that, I was thinking your brother could bring the kids down with him.”
“Graham?”
“Yeah. Or I can call my sister. She’d fly over to do that for us and drive the kids down.”
“No,” Quincey replied. “That’s too much to ask Aspen to be away from their kids. Graham will do it. He’ll bring his kids with him.”
Nate’s voice came back to the phone, clearer. “Quincey’s calling her brother right now, but I’ll be heading down. She’ll either be with me or if he can’t help, she’ll bring the kids down in a few days. Are you okay?”
No , I wanted to bite out, not at him but because of the question. “He shot himself in front of us. Logan and me. I’m not going to be okay for a long fucking time.”
Nate was quiet for a beat, and then his voice wavered. “I’m coming, brother.”
That meant a lot. A whole hell of a lot.
I had a hard time swallowing. “Thanks,” I rasped out before I ended the call.
There was a wall inside of me. I’d built it the second my dad pulled the trigger, and I was hiding behind it right now to deal with all of this shit. But he was coming. The wagons were circling. I needed them. Logan needed them.
That meant so much .
Despite all this, I knew how fucking blessed I was. Logan was always there. Then Nate. Then Logan. Then Logan and Sam. After that, Nate returned. Heather joined. Channing stepped a foot in, and over the years, he’d come all the way in. Matteo joined in college.
I felt the support around me. I needed more of it than usual.
Channing returned when he saw I was done on the phone. He held his own up. “Matteo will be on the first flight. He’s in Hawaii with his family right now.”
That was good. That was real good.
“What about David and Malinda?” Channing asked.
I shook my head. “Not yet. Maddy will wake up. She’ll know something’s wrong. I want to wait until the kids are awake tomorrow. We’ll have them come over. I’ll tell David and Malinda outside before we tell the kids. They can be there for Maddy and the twins.”
“Max will want to be there.” Channing’s son, who was a year younger than Maddy.
That sounded right. “Bring him.”
“Your mom?”
Christ. My mom. Would she even care? I shook my head. “I don’t want to deal with her bullshit. She’ll make everything about her.” I’d tell her. I’d have to tell her, but not yet.
Channing looked down at his phone, probably typing out instructions to the rest of the group.
I texted Logan, because he was the only one who might have a different opinion about our mother.
Me: If you want mom to know now, you can tell her. I’m not up to dealing with her on the phone.
His reply was immediate.
Logan: She should know, but that doesn’t mean we have to tell her. I think she’s in New Zealand anyway. We can have Malinda call her tomorrow.
That was a good idea. Relief flowed through me. One less thing to manage.
“Anyone else we need to notify right now?” Channing asked softly.
I ran through our immediate circle. There was no one else. Everyone else could wait.
It was time to handle business. “I need to know everything you know about someone named Kai fucking Bennett.”