Chapter 16
Elijah
He was making me dinner. Enyo and I were sitting at my kitchen table, watching him work.
He was wearing a tank top and I was drooling over his tattooed arms while I was pretty sure Enyo was drooling over the food.
He could have been one of those guys making videos of themselves cooking some simple meal just to have people thirsting after them.
Where the hell had he learned how to cook anyway?
Watching him, I realized I hadn’t even asked him about his life in Chicago.
Despite how he seemed, I didn’t know Mason anymore, or what he was capable of.
I hadn’t questioned him at all, and for all I knew I was fucking someone’s man while they were waiting for him to come home.
“So,” I said, trying to figure out how to word it. “Did you live alone in Chicago?”
He glanced back at me, but then went back to the food he was making. “Yeah. Why?” He didn’t understand what I was asking.
“Did you . . . were you seeing anyone?”
He glanced back again, this time with a little smile.
“No, I wasn’t. I’m not some complete asshole who’d come down here and cheat on a boyfriend.
I had hookups when I lived there, but life was busy, and I definitely didn’t have time to have as many as you.
” The smile turned into a smirk, and he turned back to the stove.
“You’re an ass,” I muttered, but my mouth was watering as I looked at the plate he was making me. I hadn’t eaten anything all day, and my stomach was making up for the hunger it had lacked earlier.
He put the plate in front of me then grabbed his own and sat down across from me minus the smirk.
It felt weird being waited on in my own home.
I couldn’t remember the last time anyone had made me dinner.
Even as a kid, with my mom raising me alone and working so much, I was usually fending for myself.
I was the one who’d kept the house clean too.
I’d grown up fast, even though she loved me deeply and had always done her best. She’d had no choice but to work a lot, and I’d never lacked anything.
I took a bite of my food, and managed to suppress the moan at how good it was because I didn’t want it to go to Mason’s head.
He took a bite and looked at me before elaborating on his earlier words.
“So, I didn’t really have time for a relationship.
You know that saying about being married to your job?
I guess that was me. A couple of years ago I had a semi-serious relationship that lasted a few months, and he was always at my place, which is why I’m pretty sure my parents are aware that I’m gay even though I haven’t told them.
He got sick of it after a while. They all do.
I was gone all the time, and there was stuff I couldn’t talk about.
He was worried, too, about where I was and if I was safe when I was late getting home, which was often.
It was easier to just go out to a bar and hook up with someone, without the attachment. ”
He got a faraway look in his eyes.
“My partner. He wasn’t gay, but he was always there for me.
He was my wingman whenever we went out, always trying to find me someone, always making sure the guy who caught my eye was worthy of me.
He was always trying to help me out, always had my back.
” His voice broke. “Then I fucked up when I was supposed to be watching his.”
I reached across the table and touched his hand.
His pain was palpable, and I felt it as strongly as I had the first night.
I didn’t react to it. “I’m sorry, Mason.
” I wasn’t sure what else to say. There was nothing that would make it alright.
He placed his other hand on mine as we sat there silently for a moment.
He finally cleared his throat. “Okay, let’s eat.
You must be starving.” He tried to shake off the pain, but I could tell he’d never worked through it.
He looked up at me and sighed. “I can tell you want to help me, but right now we have more pressing issues. I’ll figure it out.
I’ll talk to someone, okay? My parents are trying to get me to go to my old psychiatrist anyway. ”
He paused and glanced at me to see if I caught it. I had. “Your old psychiatrist?”
He looked down. “Yeah, I was seeing one in high school. I told you my head was all fucked up. It was even more fucked up after I hurt you. But I know I deserved it.”
“Mason . . .” I touched his hand again.
He looked up and attempted a smile. “So I’ll go. I know I need to. But I can’t rest and take care of myself until we figure out what’s going on in this damn town and I know you’re safe. Let’s eat, then we’ll work on figuring it out, alright?”
I just nodded and went back to my food because he was right, I was famished.
Mason paused in the middle of dinner to text someone, and even though I didn’t ask, he looked up right after he did.
He got a sheepish grin and said, “My mom’s worried about me.
I had to tell her I’m staying here with you.
I told her I was worried about you, but I have a feeling she already suspects what else we’re getting up to here.
” I just laughed. He went on. “She was so disappointed in me in high school. Probably almost as disappointed as I was in myself. She loved you, you know? She’s really glad we’re talking again. ”
I looked him in the eye. “Yeah. I think I am too.”
He gave me a crooked smile. “Well, I definitely am.” We finished our dinner in silence, like we hadn’t eaten all day, because we hadn’t.
◆◆◆
I tried to clean up the kitchen, since he made dinner, but he shooed me into the living room and told me to turn on the TV and he’d join me in a minute.
He said I’d had a long day and needed to chill.
I sank onto the couch, unsure of how to handle someone taking care of me, and my guard was up because this Mason had to be too good to be true.
Was it all a fever dream? Maybe I was actually dying, all those warnings had already happened and I didn’t even know it.
Was my brain dreaming up this Mason, the one I’d always hoped he was, back when I told him I hoped we would live together in a cottage in the woods?
I knew the other shoe would drop eventually, but I’d try to enjoy it while I could.
Enyo curled up on the chair beside the couch, purring.
Mason joined me after putting the food away, filling my dishwasher, and wiping down the counters and table.
I half watched him from the corner of my eye, because it couldn’t be real.
I’d made dinner for guys in the past, but I always did all the cooking and cleaning, no matter whose house we were at.
Almost as soon as he sat down, Mason said, “Okay, I know you don’t want to think about any of this, but your life is literally on the line here.
” I groaned inwardly, wondering if all the cooking and cleaning had been to butter me up for the detective that was coming.
“I have access to more info than the average Joe thanks to Chris. We know they found a bracelet, your bracelet, but if you never had it there, we need to figure out how it got there. So first, are you absolutely certain you never had it there?”
“Yes, I’m certain.” I rolled my eyes. “I lost it before I started hooking up with him. I know that because I was sad when I realized it was gone. But I told you, I don’t remember for sure where I had it last. I could have lost it anywhere, but the last place I remember being aware of it on my wrist was at the motel in Greenview. ”
“With Will.”
“Yeah.”
“I want to know more about this Will guy. Tell me everything.” There was that detective voice again.
The deep, demanding, do not argue one that had me almost climbing into his lap.
I hated that he could elicit that reaction in me so easily, and I had a feeling he knew he could, especially as he watched me with a little smirk.
The smirk made me want to push his buttons a little bit.
“I don’t know what you want me to say about him.
I hooked up with him a couple of times there.
A few.” He raised a brow. “The last time was when I remember having it last. What do you want to know? He was older than us. Late forties, probably. I don’t know much about him other than that he was a good lay.
He had salt and pepper hair, a trimmed beard.
He was good-looking and in good shape physically.
He was always nice to me, and attentive. ”
Mason’s eyes were boring directly into my soul.
“What the hell do you want me to say?” I cried.
“He was a good fuck. Why else would I have kept going back there? I don’t know anything else about him other than that he said he lived in Greenview, and he wasn’t out so he didn’t want anyone to find out about us.
That was fine with me. I didn’t want anything more from him. ”
I could hear Mason’s teeth grind together, but he said, “So you don’t know anything about some guy you met in a sleazy motel on the highway. Fine. Can I see his profile? His messages to you?”
“It’s gone.” I shrugged, and he wrinkled his brow. “He either deleted his account or blocked me a long time ago. I don’t know why he’d have blocked me, it’s not like we ever argued, but whatever the case, I can’t see his account anymore.”
Mason dug in his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Well, let’s check to see if you’re just blocked,” he said.
I watched him pull up the app and I chuckled. “I see,” I said, trying to sound as judgmental as he did.