43. Mason
43
MASON
I had two hours to deal with this prick, but I’d lost the bloodlust when Maddy showed up—well, Sam and Maddy. Things had started to shift when Sam slid in like the Rapunzel of bedsheets, but I’d really had to stomp that shit down when my daughter made her entrance.
Everyone left so it was just me and this abusive waste of space now.
I squatted near him, considering what to do. I wanted to kill him, but in this latest chapter of my life, it turns out that I was the good guy. Murder was my hard line. Logan was in the air. If I was going to blackmail this guy, I wanted to wait for my brother to be at my side.
After a moment, he began coming around, coughing and moaning. Then he seized, twisting in the air, and a scream ripped from him.
I rolled my eyes and stood, grabbing his shoulder. “Stop whining.” I left the cage, dragging him behind me. He bounced on the steps, and I let go when he hit the bottom so he landed with a good, hard thump. He looked around, then at me, blinking.
“Relax. I didn’t go to town on your ass like you did on that kid.”
He groaned, rolling over. He coughed up some blood. Nope. He looked at his fingers. It was just saliva.
Grabbing his ankle, I continued dragging him out the door.
“Wait! Wha—” He twisted around. “Is anyone here? Help? Help !”
I walked to the middle of the parking area and dropped his ankle.
He continued to look around, panicked. “He-help!” He coughed again. More saliva. “Help! Help me ! He’s going to kill me.”
I squatted again. What a shitshow . “You’re so fucking dramatic.”
He just kept looking around.
“No one’s here.” I shook my head. “Or at least no one who’ll help you. No one’s coming, Moreaux. You’re all fucking alone. Are you hearing me? Alone.”
Wariness tightened over his face. He lifted himself to sit cross-legged, still coughing. “What do you want, Kade?”
I sighed. “That’s what I keep asking myself.” I studied him. Maybe… I tried a bluff. “We called you the night my brother and I crashed your kid’s party. Remember that? We called all of those kids’s parents, and we waited until each one showed up to pick up their child. Except you. You never showed. Since it was your house, your kid, there wasn’t much more we could do, but then we tried your wife. The number your kid gave us was out of order, and the number Logan found in the kitchen didn’t work either. But my point is, we were in your house.” I tilted my head to the side. “We were in your house .”
I waited. I wanted to see what his reaction would be to that information.
His eyes narrowed.
Finally some reaction.
He was thinking. His mouth opened. “Wha…” He shook his head and blanched.
“Yeah. I hit you hard. I wouldn’t make sudden movements with your head like that. If you’re concussed, you don’t want to make it worse.”
“What?” He coughed again and moved slowly, lifting his feet so his knees were bent. He braced himself, hands curling around the front of his legs.
Smirking, I stood up, just to make him hurt more.
He cursed under his breath, paling. “Wh-what are you inferring? What about that party?”
“That we were in your house.” I raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah. So?”
Fuck . He really didn’t get it. Or there was nothing there he cared that we might’ve found. Still, I had to play my card. I wanted to see if there was something there. I lifted an eyebrow. “Do you think when we got to your house, we immediately went to where the kids were?”
“They would’ve been in the basement. Bell knows to only have his parties there. Everything else is off-limits…” He went rigid, his voice trailing off.
“We were in your house, Phillip. Me and my brother.” I lowered myself to his eye level. I was nice like that. “You think this is the first time we’ve had enemies like you? Granted, high school enemies were a little different. It was simpler back then. Whoever beat the others up the worst was usually the winner. Then there was the guy who wanted to rape my girlfriend, so I set that fucker up. Got him sent to prison. We’ve had other enemies—took down a secret society and put it all on one guy. That worked out. Turned out he was a serial rapist. But here’s the thing. My woman wanted me to change. We couldn’t keep going the path we were going. That’s what I did. I changed. Got a career. Grew up. Became an adult. I was a different person. I am a different person, but here I am, back in Fallen Crest. Back where I’m doing everything I can not to keep beating the shit out of you, even though that’s the only thing I want to do.”
The bloodlust was stirring. “I want to make you bleed, and I want you gone. You’re a cancer. You’re the kind that won’t go away. You’ll keep eating away until you’ve rotted everything that’s good. That’s what you’re going to do to your kid. You’re going to infect him until he’s just like you.”
Shit . The way he was glaring at me, if he’d had a gun on him, he would’ve already shot me. Point blank and right between the eyes.
My amusement died.
Just like my fucking dad.
“What do you want, Kade?” He gritted his teeth, blanching as he tried to move.
“I told you.” I held him back in place, and he winced under my hold. “I want you to go away. Can’t use my old ways. I have a feeling if you got set up or charged with something, it would’t stick. You’ve got money. You’ve got lawyers. Still, though…” I eyed him. Now was the time to play my bluff. “We were in your house, Moreaux. We had access to every room. Open access. What do you think we did before we went downstairs?”
The alarmed look was back.
I wanted to see it grow. “Are you putting the pieces together? We got into your files.”
His eyes were panicked, and then, bullseye. He lost all color in his face. There was something on the computer.
“What do you want?” he sputtered, trying to regroup. “I’ll—I have money hidden. I have information on the other shareholders. I was using it to blackmail them, but I’ll give it to you instead. You can do what you want with it. I’ll give it all to you. Just…”
He was scared.
Fuck . What was in those files?
The roar of engines came from behind me. I looked, but the sound hit me before the headlights peeked over the hill. Motorcycles. They were coming down the road, two by two. Twelve total.
“Oh shit.” Phillip suddenly jerked forward. “Hide me. Quick. You can have my shares. I promise. I’ll…” The motorcycles slowed, turning down the road toward us. “Please! They’re going to kill me.”
Well, fuck. They got closer and I could see who exactly was headed our way. The Red Demons. They ran the other fighting ring. Was this their turf?
“Mason, please.”
I shook him off like he was a flea and stepped away. I didn’t know what was about to happen, but I reached into my pocket. Unlocking my phone, I turned the volume up and made quick work so when I hit the call button, it should be going to Logan. This would be a second gift when he landed.
Their headlights had both of us in the spotlight. They would be watching everything now so I kept my hand in my pocket.
Their charter’s president got off his bike first. “Mason.”
I lifted my chin. “Ghost, right?”
His face was grim. Eyes were empty. Mouth was in a hard line. Taking off his gloves, he motioned to me. “Let’s take a walk.”
I got a weird sense of déjà vu from another time a guy wanted to go on a walk with me. I kept that to myself. We walked past the circle of Harleys toward Max’s truck, the vehicle left behind so I could drive myself home.
“Got a call thirty minutes ago,” Shane spoke casually, like it was a good day to go to the beach. He kept strolling along, and I heard a thud behind us. I glanced back, seeing one of the bikers had kicked Moreaux. They circled him.
“Focus here, Mason,” Ghost said.
“We’re on a first name basis? Should I call you Shane?” More thuds were heard from behind us. My pulse spiked. If they killed him, I was a witness.
He clipped out, “Don’t you want to know who called me? Or what the call was about?”
I tried to concentrate, but they were really laying into Moreaux. And I really didn’t want them to kill him when I was here. “Not particularly. I’m thinking the less I know of your business, the better. Also figure the only person who’s got a right to ask those questions is your wife.”
Ghost stopped in his tracks.
I tensed, waiting.
Then he laughed. His whole face transformed. Jesus . Now he looked like a Shane, like a regular kind of guy—just one who was capable of ordering murder. “That’s funny, but no. My wife wouldn’t ask that question unless it has something to do with someone she knows. All bets are off because she’s fucking merciless sometimes. Who called me was a friend of yours.”
I frowned. “What?”
All lightness melted from his tone. He stared at me. Hard. “How do you know Kai Bennett?”
I did a double-take. I’d heard him wrong. “Who?”
We had a conversation.