59. Mason
FIFTY-NINE
MASON
Despite Lily’s battered body, she sleeps through the night, and I’m able to slip out of her bed in the morning before she wakes up. I stretch, making my way down the hall, the smell of fresh brewed coffee and the need for a cigarette tweaking my insides. Walking into the kitchen, I stop short when I see Alina staring at the pot of coffee like it insulted her.
“Morning,” I rasp, my voice still gravelly from sleep.
She spins around, a smile lighting her face. “Mornin’!” she chirps. “You want some coffee?”
I nod, rubbing the back of my neck. “I’d love some, actually. Thank you.”
She grins and gets down a cup, sliding it over to me. “I’ll get you a mug, but the rest is up to you. Your legs ain’t broke.”
I laugh, enjoying her candor. Her gaze flicks past me, her eyes sparkling as Chase walks into the room. He moves to her, his arms wrapping around her waist, bending her backward and diving his tongue into her mouth, obviously not giving a single fuck that I’m in the room.
Chuckling, I walk out to their back patio and pull a cigarette from my pocket, inhaling the sweet relief. The sliding door opens a few minutes later, Chase sipping his coffee as he stands next to me.
“So when do we leave?” he asks.
I look at him, quirking an eyebrow. “You’ll need to be more specific.”
“I assume you’re going to find this fuckface, right?”
Taking a deep drag off my cigarette, my head tilts toward the sky as I blow the smoke. Licking my lips, I nod, my insides tense with the anger I’m holding back for when I find the piece of shit. “Yep, that sounds about right.”
Chase’s eyes darken. “Good. I’m coming with.” His hands rest on top of his head. “Derek called, said there’s a warrant out for Darryl’s arrest for attempted murder.”
I huff a laugh, smoke flowing from my nose. “That won’t do shit unless he turns himself in or they find him.”
“Yeah, well. I won’t let her run away again, Mason. She’s here and she’s staying. And I need her to feel safe.” His arms rise to his sides. “So let’s do what we need to do to make that happen.”
Determination winds its way through my insides, and I nod in agreement. “Okay. Be ready in an hour. You’re driving.” I put out the butt of my cigarette, walking inside.
When I make it back to Lily’s room, she’s awake, frustration lining her features, her brows drawn and lips pursed.
“Need some help?”
She snaps her gaze to me. “I need to clean the wound, but…” She shakes her head. “Do you think it’s okay to take a shower?”
My chest spasms. “Yeah, little bird. Do you need help?”
Her chin lifts, eyes hardening. “No, I can do it. I just…I want my baby back here with me, but I—” She waves her hand down her body. “What will he think?”
My heart stutters, stomach tightening as I walk over to her, crouching down until I’m staring up into her face. Her hair falls in a curtain, and I reach up, brushing it behind her ears, before gently cupping her chin in my hand. “He’ll think that his mom is a fighter. A warrior. A survivor. ”
Wetness trails down her cheek and drips over my knuckles. Unable to take the sight, I surge up, kissing away her tears, my mouth trailing over her bruises and landing on the corner of her lips.
She inhales a shaky breath. “I’m still mad at you.”
I nod, my hands framing her face. “That’s okay.”
“I don’t forgive you.”
“That’s okay too.”
Her gaze flickers between my mouth and my eyes. “Does it make me weak if I want you to stay anyway?”
My heart jumps in my chest, spreading hope like ivy. I swallow, trying to find the right words to say. “I think that’s your decision to make, little bird. I could tell you a thousand reasons why I did what I did, but they’d all be excuses.”
“Just tell me the truth,” she whispers.
“The truth,” I repeat, something tugging my stomach up through my middle. “The truth is that I’ve been a PI going by the name Mason since I was nineteen years old. Your brother hired me, desperate to find you. The truth is that the moment I saw you, I needed to know you. And the first time we met, I knew, even then, I wouldn’t go through with the job.”
Her nostrils flare. “But you did go through with it.”
I lean my forehead against hers, careful to avoid her right side. “My father found me. Threatened you and Chase.” Emotion explodes from my chest, the memory of fear freezing my insides as visceral now as it was then. “I would rather die than let anything happen to you.”
Another tear drips from her eye, and I wipe it away with my thumb.
“The truth is that I needed to handle my father before coming back to you. That Olivia was my fiancée and pregnant with who I thought was my child but turned out to be his.” Her eyes widen and I suck in a breath. “The truth is that I paid off your landlord to force you out. I went to your brother in his motel and made him promise to take you home.” My stomach churns with my confession.
Her eyes flare and she jerks her head away, wincing. “You did what ?”
My eyes burn. “My father threatened your son, Lily. He isn’t an amateur. He was a powerful man. He could have done anything to either of you. So yeah, I’m the bad guy.” My voice cracks, my fist slamming against my chest. “I’m the asshole who fucked up your world. But I would do it a thousand times over if it kept you safe.”
She opens her mouth, but I keep going, desperate to get everything out in the open.
“The truth is that you are anything but weak.”
She sniffles, her palm smacking her thigh. “I don’t even know you.”
I grab her hand, pressing it against my chest, a tear finally escaping, hot as it trails down my cheek. “You know me. Little bird, you fucking know me.”
She shakes her head. “I just… Are you Alex or are you Mason? I don’t know. I need some time.”
Blowing out a breath, I nod, my insides tossing. “The people who named me Alexander are dead to me. Mason is the name I chose, the name that makes me feel free. But a name is just a name, little bird. You can call me whatever you want.” Kissing her lightly on the lips, I stand up and wink. “In case that was the last one I ever get.”
The corners of her mouth twitch. “You’re a prick.”
I move to the door, turning around to smile. “But I’m your prick, whether you claim me or not.”
My heart pounds in my chest as I leave her to shower, hoping she chooses to let me stay.
* * *
Tracking down Darryl was one of the easiest jobs I’ve ever done. He wasn’t even hiding. Mistake on his part. His rap sheet is a mile long, all of it public record, and after a little digging, I have a general idea of where I think he is.
So three hours after I left Lily alone in her room, her brother and I pull up to the curb of a worn-down house, with chain-link fencing around the perimeter and a rusted-out car on stilts in the driveway.
I glance over at Chase, noticing his tense demeanor. “You good?”
His brows are furrowed, his fists white-knuckling against his legs. “Yeah, I’ve just…I’ve been to this house before. Fuck .” He rips at his hair. “I’ve driven by this place so many times after she went missing, praying that she’d be around. But she never was.” He huffs out a laugh.
Grabbing the gun from my holster, I pull the slide back to chamber a round and click the safety off, just in case. “Well, it’s not his house. It’s registered to an Amy Landerson.”
Chase shrugs. “I don’t give a fuck.”
I grin, anticipation thrumming through my insides. “Me neither.”
Walking up to the door, I knock on it with my fist\ before standing back and raising my leg, kicking it off the hinges. Perks of having a large frame.
“Knock, knock. Anybody home?” I yell.
A young woman pops up from the couch, her eyes half-lidded and glossy, her body wavering as she tries to focus on Chase and me before landing on the broken door.
“Hi.” I smile wide, my heart smacking against my ribs. “Your man around?” I ask, twisting my body.
“You the cops?” Her words are slurred.
“I’m the person your bullshit boyfriend pissed off. Where is he?”
She scratches her head. “I dunno who you’re talkin’ about.”
Chase grunts before power-walking down the hallway. My chest seizes in panic, knowing he isn’t armed and chances are that Darryl is. I start to follow, but my eyes glance back at who I assume is Amy, noticing the fresh blood on her hands and the needle next to her on the floor. My stomach drops, knowing that at, one time, this was my Lily.
Yelling comes from a back room, and I rush down the hall, my heart twisting in my chest. I find Chase, his fist in Darryl’s face, his hand wrapped around his throat as he pins him against the wall.
“You think you can fuck with my sister and I wouldn’t come to fuck you up? You think I’d just let you go?” He slams his fist forward again, smashing into Darryl’s nose, blood spurting from his nostrils and spattering across Chase’s knuckles. “I’ve been waiting years for this.”
Walking closer, I pull Chase back. He releases him, and Darryl falls to the floor in a heap, his hands coming up to cover his face.
I crouch down next to him, pulling the gun from my holster and tipping up his chin with the barrel, his eyes unfocused and hazy. High as a kite.
“Darryl,” I croon.
“What do you fuckers want?” he spits.
My eyes gleam, my chest burning with the rage I’ve been biting back until now. “It seems you’re confused.” I turn toward Chase, who’s rubbing his busted knuckles. “Does he seem confused to you?” I ask.
Chase smirks. “Yeah, he does.”
“Yeah,” I repeat. “You see, you must be confused, thinking that I’m here to answer any of your fucking questions.” Removing the barrel from under his chin, I bring it back, slamming it across the side of his face, the crack sending a rush of satisfaction through my veins.
Darryl screams, his entire body whipping to the side and falling, a chipped tooth flying out of his mouth, and landing on the ground next to him.
“Doesn’t feel so good when it happens to you, does it?” I lean in close, my hand grasping his head by his greasy hair, wrenching his neck up and back until it’s bent at a ninety-degree angle. “You think you could touch her and I’d let you walk away?” I slam him face first into the ground.
The carpet muffles his groan of pain. He rolls on his back and grins, his teeth stained red. “You talkin’ about Lily? I shoulda fucked her ’fore I killed her.”
“Don’t say her name, you piece of shit,” Chase seethes, coming forward and planting his boot into Darryl’s side. Darryl yelps, curling in on himself.
He coughs, spitting up blood, a maniacal laugh piercing through the air.
This guy is so gone, he’s barely human.
“Maybe next time I’ll catch that bastard kid. She ever have it?”
Rage floods through my insides, and my vision goes black. Gripping him by the nape of his neck, I hoist him up and shove him into the wall, my gun to his temple, and my forearm against his throat. “You want to test me, motherfucker? Is that it?”
His eyes widen, his hands scratching against my arm as I press it against his windpipe, feeling it crush under the pressure. His mouth opens, gasping for air, his eyes bulging from their sockets. I push harder, enjoying watching the life drain from his eyes. His face turns pallid, blue rimming his mouth from lack of oxygen, and I’m gone. Determined to wipe this piece of shit from the planet so he can never reach them. So he can’t even take a fucking breath to try and say their names.
A hand grips my shoulder tight and jerks, snapping me out of the haze. I turn, Darryl dropping to the ground, wheezing and clutching his throat, whimpers leaving his pathetic mouth.
“Don’t kill him,” Chase says.
I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose, trying to calm the storm raging inside of me.
“If you kill him, you’ll be the one who gets taken away.” He runs his hand over his face. “And fuck it, man. They need you, okay? She loves you. She’ll forgive you, and Baby C needs you too.”
My heart swells.
I spin back around, peering down at Darryl’s crumpled form. He struggles, pushing up on his skinny arms, attempting to stand. Chase and I are shoulder to shoulder, watching his effort. As soon as he gets himself upright, I move forward, coldcocking him across the temple again.
His limp body collapses to the ground.
Grabbing the zip ties I brought from my back pocket, I secure his hands and feet, picking him up and slinging him over my shoulder before walking out of the room.
Chase follows, his eyebrows at his hairline. “Came prepared, huh?”
I grin, adjusting Darryl’s dead weight as we approach the car and throw him into the back seat. I revel in the sound of his head smashing against the door.
“Where the hell are we taking him?” Chase asks.
“If you won’t let me kill him, then we sure as shit can make sure he gets locked up and kept far away. Let’s drop him on a street by the police station and we’ll call in a tip. They’ll pick him up. It’s not like he can run.”
Anger still swims in my gut for all the shit he caused, but I feel confident that justice will be served.
As we kick him out into an alley by the Sweetwater police station, I breathe a little easier.
I can’t help but feel like this was a turn for the better with Chase. There’s an acceptance that he didn’t show me before. A common cause that brought us together, showing us that in the grand scheme of things, maybe we’re not so different after all.