6. MASON
MASON
“Wouldyou stop fucking twitching and shaking so much? You’re making me want to shoot you in the leg,” Hunter groans out and I stop shaking said leg to narrow my eyes at him.
“Do it then dickhead and kill us all why don’t you? Since we’re on a plane you fucking moron!” I mutter.
“Can’t kill you now since I’ve kinda grown fond of you, especially after the warehouse and you’ve well and truly surprised the shit out of me.”
“How’d you come to that conclusion, oh weird one?” I ask with an eye roll.
“Well, for one, I didn’t think you actually had it in you to fuck those assholes up and for two, I never thought you’d be this broken up about someone ‘you hate.’ Quite frankly, if it wasn’t my sister, you’re so torn up about I’d think you were pathetic,” he says with a grin and I flip him off.
“Shut the fuck up asshole! Laugh at me all you want but your time will come. AndI don’t hate her. She’s my fucking life, so excuse me for being so fucking worried about the fact that my woman was taken by some psycho!” I snap. “AndI’ll fucking shake my leg as many times as I want to!”
“Geez! Pouting is so not cute on your ugly mug! Besides, she wouldn’t have been taken if she wasn’t constantly running away from your ass or if you were a better boyfriend to her, without being such a royal asshole. You should have been taking care of her,” he mutters.
“Are you done dickhead? I know I majorly fucked up but do we have to bring that shit up again? I already said I was sorry and explained everything to your dumbass and you heard what those two idiots said at the cemetery as well.”
“Yeah, I heard but I don’t know if I’m done yet or not because you deserve it. LikeI said none of this would be happening if you’d have used that big nut of yours,” he says with I can only call a sinister smile on his face. “But in the grand scheme of things, I’m not the one who needs the words and actions to convey how much you messed up. You better be prepared to grovel your fucking heart out when we find her.”
“Well obviously. I plan to make it all up to her and do whatever the hell she wants me to because I can’t fucking lose her man,” I tell him getting choked up, not at all caring that there’s other people around us.
I’vebeen on edge since we boarded the jet to NewYork and I have no clue what to do with myself. At the last minute we opted to use his jet and got one of the guys to go back home on mine, while pretending to be me. Hunter said it’s a precaution in case my father had eyes on me or was watching my every move and we didn’t want him to know what was going on if he is involved in all this shit.
Ilook around at the fifteen or so men that Carter, the guys, and Adelaide sent with us and they’re all sitting stoically like the soldiers they are, ready for battle.
Maybethere’s going to be one or maybe with some luck I’ll get my girl with as little complications as possible. Who the hell knows? ThoughI doubt that’s going to happen. I have no idea what we’ll be walking in on once we get to NewYork. I just hope we can find her as soon as we get there.
Thethought that there is a possibility that someone is hurting her makes my chest, hell my entire fucking soul ache and I know Hunter is right as usual. IfI had taken better care of her, then none of this would be happening.
Ijust want to murder the fucking asshole that took her. I want to make this person, or the people responsible pay for all this shit they pulled. As soon as we land in NewYorkI’m out of my seat and ready to get the fuck off this plane but Hunter stops me.
“Cool your jets, Romeo. We need to go to the hotel first and go over our game plan. We can’t just go in all willy-nilly without a plan because that’s how you get us or her killed and we don’t want that. Plus, we have no clue where we’re even going yet,” he tells me. Ugh! I hate it when he’s the one who’s making sense with his deranged ass.
“Fine. We’ll do it your way since you’re the expert,” I grumble.
“Trust me, I am, since I know my body count is way higher than yours.”
“Huh…”
Whenwe finally get off the plane, there are four SUVs waiting for us. Hunter and I hop in one of them with three of the guys and the others fill the other three. Hunt is the one driving and it doesn’t take long getting from JFK to the city, which I’m thankful for because it feels like something is finally going my way for once.
Huntertakes us to the CrowneHotel here in NYC. Of course, he does. LikeI need the reminder of how much I fucked up plaguing me. We make our way up to the penthouse via the back entrance. I can only imagine how crazy we’d look going through the front with fifteen guys all dressed in black from head to toe, looking ready to kill. Pretty sure that would be bad for business.
“Took you assholes long enough to get here!” I hear as soon as we step into the penthouse. I look up surprised to see my brother here, along with Royce, Nate, and Beck. Grayson being the one who just spoke.
“What? What are you guys doing here?” I ask.
“Hunter filled us in on what was going on and we figured we’d show up here to help support and help you with whatever you needed,” Gray says and I don’t even care if I sound like a pussy when I say that I feel tears threaten to spill out. I look over at Hunt and give him a nod. He shakes his head in understanding as the guys and him start spreading equipment out on the table.
“I appreciate you guys coming all the way here but I can’t let you get involved. It could be dangerous,” I tell them.
“I don’t care. I’m helping! We have to get her back! I won’t be able to live with myself if we don’t find her, not after everything that she went through,” Grayson tells me in no uncertain terms.
Iwalk over to him and pull him in for a hug. I know he’s still feeling like shit after everything that went down. He’s especially been having a tough time after he was the one to find Winter in the bathroom after she almost killed herself. Not going to lie I still have nightmares about walking in on that scene.
“Yeah bro, we’re here to help no matter the cost. I mean we kinda helped put her in that headspace after the shit we helped you pull,” Nate says.
“Yeah man, we’ll do anything to help get her back. This is kinda our fault too,” Royce chimes in.
“She doesn’t deserve any of this shit brother. I want her to be our Winter again,” Beck mutters. I let out a sigh, knowing that I won’t be able to change their minds. Once they get it into their heads to do something, they will stop at nothing to get it done. Hardheaded as fuck assholes, just like my girl.
“Conference call!” Hunter shouts from the dining area where he has all of his shit set up.
“Let’s get to it then guys! Just promise me that if any of this shit gets to be too much for any of you, then you’ll back out,” I tell them as we head over to where Hunter is.
“We’re not fucking pussies’ asshole! Besides, we all fucking owe it to her to see this through. Before you two were an item, she was our friend too, even though we haven’t been acting like it lately,” Beck says with a defeated sigh. I just nod my head, knowing arguing further would be futile.
“My brother and the guys are on the line,” Hunter says as we finally make it to him.
“We’re all here,” I say a moment later.
“We haven’t gotten any new information about where they might have taken her, but we have everyone we can looking,” Carter says on the screen and I feel my heart sink at his words. This is definitely not what I wanted to hear.
“Thanks man, I appreciate everything that you guys are doing,”
“Talk to you later, bro. I have a friend who I think might be able to help so I’m going to give him a call,” Hunter says before cutting the video call and then grabbing his phone to call someone.
“Who is he calling?” Grayson asks.
“No clue,”
“HeyCole. Yeah man I’m in NewYork. No, I”m here on business and that’s what I’m actually calling about. I need your help,” Hunter says into the phone. “Yeah, I can be there in an hour. I’m bringing some friends too.”
“Who was that?” I ask him once he’s cut the phone off.
“ColeMancini, head of the ManciniMafia and a friend of mine,” he tells me.
“Remind me not to piss you off again,” I mumble jokingly.
“Better not forget it because as you can already tell, I can have you murdered or tortured, which happens to be Cole’s specialty, and they’d never find your body,” he says with a smirk on his face. “We’re meeting him at his club in an hour.”
Fiftyminutes later we’re pulling up outside of an upscale club. I think this is the hottest one in NewYork and it’s supposedly extremely hard to get into. Which, when you think about it, makes sense, since the guy is the head of the Mafia and all.
I’mtotally not fucking nervous or anything. I square my shoulders back as we walk inside. We’re instantly met by security who escorts us to the VIP area upstairs of the club.
“Don’t be nervous, I won’t feed you to his sharks.” Hunter says grinning.
“He has sharks?!”
“No idea. But if I asked him, I’m pretty sure he’d find some for me,” he says with a smirk on his face.
“You’re real fucking funny asshole!” I grumble.
“He wants to see you in his office,” One of the security guys says to Hunter a moment later.
“Sure. But this one is coming with me,” Hunter replies back.
Weleave everyone else at one of the huge VIP booths and follow along with the security guy into an elevator that takes us up another two floors. Exiting, we walk to a door that’s directly in front of the elevator and the guy scans his eye on a scanner before the door opens up and he walks inside.
Westep in after him and I look around the huge space. The office screams money and the guy who just got up from his chair behind the desk absolutely looks like a cold and ruthless killer. He walks to the front of his desk and Hunter and him do the whole hug and pat on the back thing.
“Hey man, it’s good to see you. It’s been a while,” Hunt says.
“Good to see you too. It has been a while indeed,” Cole says before turning to look at me. The intensity behind the guy”s eyes makes me feel really lucky that I’m not on the wrong side of his gaze. Then again, that could change at any second, if Hunter decides to play with me and from the smirk, he’s currently giving me, I’m sure he knows what I’m thinking.
“This here is Mason,” Hunter says, introducing me to Cole.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I tell him, shaking his hand. His grip is firm and he holds it for a second longer than necessary while staring at me before letting go and walking back behind his desk.
“Mason is probably going to be my brother-in-law someday but the jury’s kinda still out on that. I need your help; someone kidnapped my sister and things are moving too slow for my liking. You own NewYork so I was hoping that maybe somebody somewhere saw something,” Hunter explains, while I do my best to ignore his jab.
“Was she brought here?”
“We believe so, my brothers are helping too and they got info that she might have been brought to NewYork.”
“Let me make a few calls,”
Wesit and wait for a few, while Cole makes those calls and tells someone that he wants to know what’s up within the next hour and nothing less.
“I have all of my men working at the airport looking. They’re going to run through everything on the tapes and I should have something back for you soon,” Cole tells us.
“Thanks man, I appreciate it. How’s the wife and kid?” Hunter asks him.
Itry to mask my shock but I don’t do it fast enough because Cole smiles at me and it’s not a nice one either, it”s more like a wolf on the prowl for his prey or something. I’m just shocked because I didn’t think he’d have a wife or a kid.
He’sjust about to answer Hunter when the door to his office swings open. He has his gun up and out in a flash, aiming it at the door. Holy shit! This guy’s reflexes are like a ninja or some shit.
Isee his face and eyes soften when he realizes who it is and I’m surprised because I was just looking into a killer’s eyes. The switch was so fast, I don’t think even myself or Hunter could switch emotions that quickly.
“Oh, I’m so sorry baby. I didn’t know you had anyone in here. I’ll come back later and what did I tell you about that gun around my kid?” the woman’s voice asks sassily.
“Sorry baby. No one else was supposed to be here tonight but I had an impromptu meeting and I didn’t know you were stopping by. Come.”
Iturn around to see a beautiful woman carrying a toddler in her arms with a heavily pregnant belly in front of her too. She walks around his desk and he pushes his chair back to make room for her so that she can sit on his lap.
“Daddy!” the little boy squeals.
“Hey little man,” he says, giving the kid a kiss on his head before turning to look at me. “Keep looking at her and I’ll gouge your eyes out with my bare fingers.” Somehow, I believe he could absolutely do that.
“I’m already taken man,” I say, lifting both arms in a surrender motion.
“Be nice baby! Sheesh! Not everyone wants me,” she says with a roll of her eyes.
“Hunter here was just asking about you and little man,” he tells her instead of replying to what she was just saying. That’s when she finally looks over in our direction and squeals before getting up and out of his lap and rounding the table again.
“Hunter! I’ve missed you! Where the hell have you been?” she squeals as she hugs him, well tries to hug him, since her belly is quite big like she’s about to pop at any moment.
“It’s good to see you Addy,” Hunter tells her as he hugs her again and squeezes her for good measure.
“I’m huge now, so this is the best of a hug I can do. Your hands can barely go past me,” she says with a laugh.
“You’re still as beautiful as ever. If you ever get tired of this hump, my offer to run away together is still on the table,”
“Hands off my woman dickhead!” Cole growls and both Addy and Hunter roll their eyes. Then he turns to me. “This is my wife Addison and my son Matteo. Addy, this is Mason, Hunter’s supposed soon to be brother-in-law.”
“What? Carter is getting married to this guy? LastI heard, I thought he was with the Romanov heir. This one looks a bit young if you ask me, but whatever is floating his boat at the moment, I guess,” she says and Hunter bursts out laughing.
“I think my brother has his hands full with Adelaide and Blaze and won’t be adding anyone else to the mix. I, uh, I actually have a sister and this is her—” he says but cuts himself off.
“Boyfriend, dickhead!” I grumble, which has Cole laughing.
“Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that,” he mutters and I don’t even answer his ass.
Wetalk for a while more, Hunter catching Addison up on everything including what a shithead I’ve been. I can’t help looking at her and Cole right now. I’m not jealous or anything, but when I look at them and see the love, they clearly have for each other and the bond they share with their son, I realize that I want that and so much more with Winter.
Iwant to be able to look at her every day when I wake up and just bask in her light and warmth. I want to do whatever it takes to make her happy every single day for the rest of her life and yeah, I want kids with her someday too. I just want my forever girl back again and I want her to be happy. I don’t even realize that I’m staring, lost in my head until Cole’s voice cuts through my thoughts.
“Is this kid trying to get himself killed?”
“RelaxMr. GrumpyMafia man. Can’t you see the poor guy looks lost over there,”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare. I was just lost in thought thinking about my girl and what hell she must be going through. I feel like a complete failure that we haven’t gotten to her yet,” I say with a sigh.
“Don’t worry we’ll find her. And don’t forget you have a lot of powerful people lending you a hand now,” she says, giving me a smile.
“Thanks, Addison. I appreciate it,” I say.
Hunterchats with them for a few more minutes before we decide it’s time to leave. Cole lets us know that he’ll call us as soon as he hears something from his men. We make our way back to the VIP area to get the guys before we head out, back to the hotel to wait.
* * *
We’re all just sittingaround the suite doing something or other while we sit, not so patiently waiting. We’ve been back at the hotel for an hour and a half already and the wait is killing me slowly, at least that’s what it feels like.
Hunter’sphone finally ringing cuts the conversation all around the room as we all turn to focus on him.
“Hey man. What do you have?” he asks as he answers the phone. He listens to the person on the other end for a few minutes before hanging up. “Let’s roll boys!”
“What did he say?” I ask as I hop up from my seat and make my way over to him.
“One of his men spotted an unconscious girl being taken off one of the planes, but he couldn’t make any sort of identification because none of the cameras caught her face,” he tells me.
Thesoldiers and Hunter all suit up and get their guns ready while me and the guys just look on in fascination. I mean it’s not every day you see guys with big guns getting ready for battle. Hunter throws a bulletproof vest toward me while the soldiers do the same to the guys.
“Suit up! I don’t think my sister would want your stupid ass to die,” he tells me. I ignore his ass but do as I’m told. I mean I have to be cautious, since I want to make it back to her alive and all.
“I need a gun too just in case,” I tell him. He looks at me like he doesn’t want to but then he nods and one of the soldiers gives one to me.
“We need some firepower too. And if you’re worried, don’t be. We all know how to shoot,” Beck says when Hunter is about to probably tell him no. Hunt just sighs and shakes his head before nodding to one of his men to hand them each a gun.
Weall hurry out of the room after that and make our way down the elevator. We take it all the way down to the underground parking garage of the hotel. When we step out we head for the SUVs and get in.
Hunterand I along with Grayson and Beck get into one of the vehicles while Nate and Royce get into another one with some of Hunter’s guys.
“Where are we heading?” I ask Hunter as he begins to drive out behind one of the SUVs. We’re going with four vehicles, the one with us and the guys in the middle while the two with just Hunter’s men take up the front and back.
“LongIsland,” he says in response to my question.
Afterwe’ve been driving for about ten minutes, I notice two SUVs pulling up on the right and two on the left, keeping pace with us. I look over at Hunter to see if he notices.
“Cole’s men,” he tells me without taking his eyes off the road.
Itfinally feels like things are going my way because we don’t run into too much traffic and make it to LongIsland in just under an hour. We pull up about a block away from what looks like an abandoned warehouse.
Hunterjumps out of the car and we all follow. Thankfully, we’re all wearing black so we blend into the darkness.
“All of you make sure to stay behind either one of my men or one of Cole’s. I don’t need you pretty boys to get killed out here. Got me?” Hunter says to all of us.
“Yep,” we all answer in unison. I mean I don’t know what we’re walking in on so it’s best to follow his instructions, since he and his men are pretty much the experts here.
Hunterdoes that pointy thing with his fingers and some of the men break away from the group to make their way to the warehouse. Royce and Nate follow them and then the rest of us split up into two groups to make our way there too.
Westart to run in the direction of the warehouse, making sure to keep ourselves hidden in the shadows.
Isee Hunter raise his gun and shoot the two guys that were guarding the gates to the warehouse. We storm in and gunfire erupts from both sides. Holy shit! Things just got real! I raise my gun and start to shoot too. It isn’t long before the fire ceases and I can see bodies littering the compound but I don’t pay attention to that. because the only thing on my mind is finding my baby.
Westorm through the warehouse, making our way through the corridors and making sure no one else is here. Hunter and I along with my brother, Beck and some of the soldiers make our way to the basement and another gunfight starts the moment we step inside.
Wemanage to kill all the men down here, while I hear more gunfire going on upstairs. There are what looks to be about twenty cells down here and I don’t have a good feeling about this place.
Iwalk along the corridor and look into every cell, seeing one or two girls in each cell. They all look dirty and scared and I feel sick to my stomach. I literally want to puke my guts out. I look into each and every cell as I make my way down the corridor. I see girls, but no Winter.
“Fuck!” I scream in frustration. “She’s not here!”
“Keep it together man,” Hunter says as he walks up to me and puts a hand on my shoulder.
“She’s not fucking here man! What the fuck? Where is she?” I ask on the edge of hysteria.
“We’ll keep looking. But we have to get these girls out of here man. They’re scared,” he says and that snaps me out of whatever spiral I was just on. I can panic later, but I need to focus right now. I walk over to the dead guys and check them all until I find the one with the keys. I look up at the girl in the first cell.
“We’re here to help. We’re going to get you out of here,” I tell her because she looks so scared. She looks at me with distrusting eyes, but she slowly gets to her feet and cautiously takes a step forward. “No one here is going to hurt you.”
Ileave her to walk out of her cell and rush to start opening the others. Cole and Hunter’s men begin assisting the girls by taking them out of here. Hunt grabs his phone and makes a call.
“I need some more vehicles that will transport about twenty girls to your rehab building,” he says into the phone. “Yes, it looks like we just fucking uncovered a trafficking ring here.”
“What happens now?” I ask when he gets off the phone. I see him counting his men and us—me and the guys—to make sure we’re all okay before he answers.
“Cole’s men that are already here will clean up and they’ll look after the girls until the other vehicles get here. Addison started a rehab place for girls who have been abused or abducted a while back so I’m sending them there.”
“That sounds good.”
“We need to get out of here though. I’m sure someone somewhere must have heard the gunfire and it won’t be long until the cops show up,” he says and then begins to walk away. I follow him along with the guys and we quickly make our way back to the vehicles.
Cole’smen are busy getting rid of the bodies and they’re working so quickly I have no doubt that they’ve done this a million times before. We make it back to the hotel in record time and I’m exhausted by the time we do.
“What the fuck just happened?” Nate asks as soon as we step into the elevator.
“Fuck if I know. This world is a fucking sick place to be in. That’s all I know,” I mutter.
Assoon as we get up to the penthouse, I head straight for the liquor cabinet and grab the cognac, taking a long gulp directly from the bottle. I just need something to numb me from the pain I’m feeling right now.
Thepain of not finding Winter there and then seeing all those girls, was really fucking eye opening. It made me sick to my stomach at the thought of what would have happened to them if we didn’t get them out of there tonight.
Everyonehas left me alone after I stormed in here, guess they know I’m in a mood right now. I’m in the middle of taking my next swig from the bottle when my phone chimes with an incoming text.
Ipull it out of my pocket and open my messages to see a video has come in. I press play and feel my entire world crumble from under me. It’s a video of Winter being chased in the woods or something.
She’srunning and a moment later I flinch when the sound of a gunshot echoes through the phone and I see her go down just as the video cuts off. I don’t realize that the screams echoing across the room are coming from me.
Everythinggoes hazy as I drop my phone and fling the bottle across the room. I hear it shatter as I begin to tear apart the room. It feels like I’m having an out-of-body experience right now. I feel like my heart is shattering into a million pieces.
Isshe alive? Is she dead? I don’t fucking know because the asshole who sent the video cut it off before I could tell.
Apunch to the jaw has me coming back to the present to focus on the room in front of me. The room is trashed and blood is dripping down my hand. When and how the hell did I get injured?
Inotice the guys are holding me up against the wall and Hunter was the one to punch me in the face.
“I’m fine. You guys can let go of me now,” I say, feeling the exhaustion weighing me down.
“What the fuck just happened?” Hunt questions me.
“My phone,” I say nodding to where it is on the ground. I’m surprised that I didn’t destroy it during my freak out just now.
Theguys let go of me and I slide down the wall until I’m sitting on the floor with my elbows on my knees and head in my hands. I feel the tears stream down my face a moment later as I think about all the implications that video means.
Someonehas her, which I already knew but they aren’t just keeping her captive. No, they’re playing fucking games with her and it’s all my fault. Right now, she’s hurt. IfI was a better boyfriend, hell even a better person I would have been taking proper care of her, but I let the lies from other people become our truths and I took it all out on her.
NowI don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to tell her how fucking sorry, I am that I didn’t believe her or for the asshole I became. I don’t even know if I’ll get to make it right for her. I don’t know if I’ll ever get the chance to give her the love she deserved all along, the love I took away from her when she needed it the most. I’m finally bleeding, just like she did. I finally know the true extent of what my anger and hate did to her and I fucking despise myself for being the reason she’s so broken and alone.
“Fuck!” I hear Hunter curse from across the room.
“You were right man,” I tell him, hearing the hollowness in my voice. “I don’t fucking deserve her at all…”