28. Mason
28
MASON
I sat and waited for my stalker to wake up. He’d started to move around while Taylor was working on him, so we’d used some medication to knock him out.
My phone buzzed.
Sam: Nash is home. Nolan is here. Maddy is not.
I frowned, standing to call her. When she picked up, I asked, “She’s gone?”
“Yeah.” There was some rustling on Sam’s end before her voice came back clearer. “She texted earlier asking where everyone was. She got left behind when Malinda and David took the kids to the movies. I asked if she wanted to hang out with us at Manny’s, but she said no. I’ve not heard from her since.”
“Did you check her phone?” I was going to lose my shit on my daughter real soon. She’d been grounded for two days. She’d violated it both days. If she’d left without her phone, she was on my last nerve.
“It says… That’s weird.”
“It’s not in the house?” I asked.
“No. I think it’s with her, but I don’t know this address.”
Zeke was starting to stir, finally. “Text me the address. I have to finish something up, then I’ll go get her.”
“Okay.”
I frowned, hearing an edge in her voice. “What is it?”
She sighed. “I—I just don’t know if I should be worried, annoyed, or ready to murder her. This week’s been a lot. She’s grieving, and she’s doing it in her way, but this is the second time she’s slipped out without telling us.”
Well, fuck. “Third time.”
“What?”
I coughed, now seeing Zeke’s eyes open. “She snuck out last night too.”
“What?” she clipped out. “How do you know this? When did you know this?”
“She came to the office earlier today and came clean, but only because she had to explain something she needed to ask me about.”
“What did she need to ask you about?”
I turned away and lowered my voice. “Let’s talk about this when I get home. When we’re done here, I’ll get her.”
“How long is that going to be?” There was still an edge to her voice.
I winced. My wife was not happy, and I wasn’t sure if waiting for our homecoming would calm her down or work her up.
Zeke was sitting up now, and he had a hand to his head, grimacing in pain.
Logan returned after walking Taylor back outside. She’d not been happy with us. I saw him process the situation in one second. An indifferent mask fell into place, and he moved around to sit across from Zeke, a mocking smirk on his face. I knew my brother. He was still hoping for some fun to be had. Our weird torture earlier hadn’t been enough to quench his thirst for destruction.
“I don’t know,” I told Sam. “Just…” I let out a breath. “Go to sleep if you can. We’ll tackle this tomorrow.”
“Fine,” she bit out before ending the call. She didn’t say goodbye.
I frowned at the phone.
“She’s pissed?” Logan asked.
I pocketed the phone, approaching him with a grim look.
He flinched. “Sorry.”
“Thinking your doghouse isn’t too far from mine.”
He snorted before leaning forward in his seat. He cocked his head to the side. “How’s your head?” His voice rose. “Does it hurt? I’m hoping it hurts. Along with your stomach, you crazy motherfucker .”
Zeke winced, leaning away from Logan’s intensity. “Jesus. Lower your voice. I’m in pain here. What happened?”
Logan shook his head. “Don’t play fucking dumb.” His restlessness was back. He was pissed, and he was about to unleash on Zeke Allen.
I leaned back against the wall, getting comfortable.
Zeke looked around the room, but his eyes never strayed far from me. An unfocused and blank expression filled his gaze every time he saw me, as if he was making sure I wasn’t an apparition. He blinked a few times, then rubbed his eyes.
When he saw the discarded ski-masks on the ground, some of the confusion left him. “What the fuck?” he ground out. His eyes hardened. “You guys did that shit to me? What the fuck ?”
If he hadn’t been in so much pain, I would’ve been waiting for him to swing at us.
Logan shoved to his feet and began pacing. “Oh, fuck off, you piece of shit.” He rotated back and leaned down in Zeke’s face. “You’re hacking? Are you serious? Hacking ? Do you know whose shit you were hacking into? Did you stop to research the fucking maniac whose private accounts you accessed? Whose family’s accounts you accessed? A killing maniac who would have no problem letting you continue to impale yourself on a fucking knife. They would have no problem nabbing your wife and kids and using them as collateral against you. You’re fucking stupid .”
Zeke tried leaning away from Logan, but he was stuck.
“You want to know how we know? Because Kai Bennett came and told Mason himself.”
Zeke froze, his eyes shooting my way. “He did?” His face drained of color again.
I studied my brother, checking to see if he was legit losing his cool or what he was doing. He started pacing again, his jaw tense. Okay. It was my turn. Logan was truly pissed at this guy.
I spoke up, raising my chin. “He came to the office today.”
Unlike Logan, I was going to make sure everything I said to him hit home. I waited until those words registered. He blinked again, losing a bit more color.
“My daughter had come to see me at the office,” I continued. “My daughter. She was there. We were leaving, and he waited for her to leave first in her car. Once she cleared the gate, his SUVs drove in and circled me. Another one got between Maddy’s vehicle and mine. Pinned me in. Mighty nice of him. Letting my daughter leave.” I gritted my teeth. “Don’t you think? You brought that here. You brought that to my daughter. Different guy, different family and my kid might not be alive. You getting that?”
Zeke swayed on the couch. “Holy fuck,” he whispered, his head hanging down.
“Guess what he had to say?” Logan snarled. “Spoiler: it was about you .”
Zeke gulped, still swaying on the couch.
I cursed. He was about to keel over. “Logan.” Two steps and I caught Zeke just as he was about to go down.
“What?” Logan snapped. “This little fucking hacker. Kai Bennett is in the mafia .” He yelled the last word at Zeke, who clutched my hand before giving me a nod, assuring me he was okay to sit by himself again.
I waited another beat, but he gave one more nod, so I moved away.
“The fucking mafia, Zeke. You hacked into his brothers’s accounts. Into their partners’s accounts.”
My eyebrows rose. I’d not expected this from Logan. He’d been annoyed. I knew that much, but he was pissed about what Zeke had done to himself. I had no idea Logan cared for this guy this much.
“Tell him what he said to you. The other part.” Logan turned swiftly, glaring at me. “The part about what would’ve happened if he’d gotten into Kai Bennett’s accounts.”
Zeke had slumped over again, a hand on his stomach. He grimaced, trying to sit up straighter. “You can tell me.”
No.
Fuck.
No .
I shook my head. We’d done enough to him. It could wait.
“No! No, Mason. Fuck no.” Logan thrust a hand at me. “You fucking tell him.”
I hesitated, but Christ, Zeke looked about two more shouts away from passing out. I shook my head.
Logan growled. “Come on!”
I narrowed my eyes. “Look at him. He’s going to fall over. We still need to take him to the hospital.”
“Taylor looked at him.” He resumed his pacing, muttering, “He’s fine.”
“He’s not.”
“Uh…” Zeke tried lifting his hand.
“Taylor checked him out with the assumption we’d be taking him to the hospital,” I noted.
“No, she didn’t.”
“Logan!” I barked.
He stopped mid-pace.
“Look at him. Fucking really look at him,” I demanded. “He’s normally a smartass douchebag.”
“Hey.”
That proved my point, because that was weak coming from Zeke.
Logan stared at him, and some understanding finally dawned, some of the haze began clearing. “Goddammit.”
I grunted. “We need to shelve this.”
Logan glared at Zeke as I pulled out his phone, tossing it to the hacker.
“You will not breathe a word of this to anyone,” Logan warned. “In case you know anyone with telepathy, you won’t think a word of this to anyone. You won’t write a word of this. You won’t learn morse code. You won’t text a word of this. Use your computer—”
Zeke’s face was twisted in pain as I went over to help him stand. He put an arm around my shoulder, the other over his stomach. “I got it. I have selective amnesia for all of this. Got it. Fuck, Kade.”
Logan growled, but he didn’t reply. He also didn’t move to help us.
I’d expected to be the one laying into Zeke, and Logan would have to call me off. But he’d gotten so up his ass that there was no room for both of us. I was kinda pissed at Logan for that.
As we walked slowly outside, Zeke groaned. “I went a little crazy, huh? Did this to myself.”
He tried giving me a slight grin, but I didn’t respond. There was nothing to say.
We’d broken into his house. Assaulted him. Kidnapped him. Strung him up. Logan brought the knife out, and Zeke went into a frenzy. Then again, if he hadn’t been hacking into Kai Bennett’s family, none of this would’ve happened.
Zeke swallowed, his hand clenching my shirt.
I unlocked my Escalade and helped get him up in the backseat. “Go ahead and lie down.”
He didn’t, but he did lean his head against the headrest and close his eyes. Fresh sweat beaded on his forehead.
I didn’t think any of that was a good sign.
Logan was just coming out as I rounded to the driver’s side.
He’d locked up the warehouse. I held off before opening my door. “You lost it in there.”
He shrugged. “Just pissed about the whole thing. If he’d pushed harder and gotten through, he’d be dead. What then? His wife would be burying her husband. His kids would be without a dad.” He cursed again, savagely, looking away.
A heaviness came down over me. I reached up, resting my hand on his shoulder. “I need to get him in. I think maybe that knife wound is infected. I…” I hesitated, not knowing what to say. Get Zeke to the hospital, stick around and hope for a decent prognosis, and then collect Maddy. It was going to be a long night.
It had already been a long night.
“I’ll meet you at the hospital.”
“You sure?”
Logan nodded, his eyes shooting behind me again. “Yeah. I’m his lawyer. I’ll come up with a better lie than you will.”
He was right about that. I’d forgotten that we’d have to explain the knife wound when we dropped him off. The hospital might call the police. I looked over my shoulder to the hacker again, who seemed focused solely on breathing and sitting upright, still holding his stomach. “Let’s hope he took your warning to heart.”