Chapter Nine #2
I didn’t get the chance to ask Mason to elaborate before he turned on his boots and stalked away. I didn’t want to be impressed when Mason bent and hauled the mangled-face guy off the ground and hoisted him over his shoulder—but I was.
I didn’t have that option available to me, so I rolled my guy to his back, prayed I wasn’t going to get a flesh-eating disease when I grabbed him under his sweaty armpits, and, mostly bent over and walking backward, dragged him in the direction Mason was going.
I was looking over my shoulder to watch where I was going. Again, I didn’t want to be impressed, but with one vicious kick to the door, it flew open.
Damn, that gave new meaning to the term ‘door kicker.’
Pulling dead weight was harder than it looked, even when the weight wasn’t much more than your own. I tried to keep the huffing and puffing to a minimum when I towed my cargo through the rickety door that was hanging haphazardly off its hinges.
“Keep sharp,” he told me as I passed.
“Where to?” I asked, ignoring his insult. I might not have been able to hoist a man over my shoulder or kick in a door, but I wasn’t an idiot.
Mason moved deeper into the dim space and unceremoniously dropped his haul. With a thud and bounce, the guy hit the ground, producing a plume of dust mixed with some bacteria I was sure I didn’t want to think about.
“Seriously,” I complained, and choked back a cough.
“Stay here.”
Mason disappeared, leaving me in the darkened, germ-infested, empty storefront.
With only the streetlight coming in through the window, I could make out overturned furniture, boxes, miscellaneous trash, and broken shelves.
The place creeped me the hell out. I reached back in my pocket and fisted my knife.
The silence was starting to get to me when I heard footsteps. Not the kind when someone was trying to sneak up on you. The loud, angry kind of a beastly jerk.
He put his first attacker down next to the other two.
As annoying as it was, I waited for assface’s orders.
Like he had superhuman eyesight, he moved around the room riffling through boxes. Moments later, he came back with a shiny black shirt with gold paisleys on it. The thing was hideous in the dimly lit room; it would be downright offensive in the light.
Understanding dawned.
I pulled out my knife and held it out to Mason. “Here. Use this.”
Mason didn’t accept my knife. He used his hands to tear the fabric.
Well, okay, then—show-off.
Two more rips and he handed me a strip.
I got down on my knees, happy I wasn’t attached to these pants, because I would be throwing them away after tonight.
No amount of detergent would be enough to disinfect them.
I tied the makeshift gag around my guy’s head, wishing I could grow new hands so I could throw these ones away.
The boy-man was sweatier than I was, and that was saying something.
I was the one with a headscarf, and I was pretty sure I was having a hot flash, seeing as the lake of sweat between my boobs had turned into a hot tub.
Was I old enough for a hot flash?
Mason was done with his two by the time I was done.
Did I say show-off . . . ?
“Everything go okay when you went back out?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Great, not only was Mason being a jerk again, he was being a monosyllabic jerk.
The guy had the whole Jekyll and Hyde thing down to a science.
“You’re like a box of chocolates,” I mumbled under my breath.
“Come again?”
“You never know what you’re gonna get. Nice Mason. Dick Mason. Reassuring Mason. Bossy Mason.”
“Are you done?”
“I’m sure I can come up with more if you’ll give me a minute or two.”
“Should I order you a latte, too, while we wait for you to remember more ridiculous quotes from stupid movies?”
Someone was testy.
“I was needing a minute to remember your other personalities, since there seems to be so many of them. Not movie quotes. But are you saying that Forrest Gump is a stupid movie?”
“Not the whole movie, just the parts with that bitch Jenny in them.”
“Jenny wasn’t a bitch—”
“You’re right, she wasn’t just a bitch, she was a total piece of shit who took advantage of Forrest until she used him up, then she ran off, fucked who she wanted, smoked what she wanted, and injected shit into her body until she made herself sick.
Then when Forrest did something good for himself, her manipulating, selfish ass crawled back so he could take care of her kid. ”
The kid was Forrest’s, too, but I ignored that.
“That’s awfully judgmental.”
Mason’s body turned to stone, and his face twisted into a scowl.
“I’m judgmental as fuck, and people who tell you they’re not are lying.
” Mason paused and stepped closer. “You’re judging me right now, thinking I’m an asshole because I called Jenny a bitch.
You’re judging me because I’m honest enough to admit I judge the fuck out of every person who comes into my orbit.
“I protect my peace and my boundaries. If I deem someone’s character unacceptable, I don’t allow them close.
But just because I don’t want a certain behavior in my life doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
It just means it’s not right for me. And there’s where everyone gets it wrong—no one has the right to shove their judgment down someone else’s throat.
That makes them an asshole, and if they take that further, it makes them a piece-of-shit tyrant.
“Do not mistake me, Calista. I judge, but I will be the first one to call out an asshole who thinks their beliefs or opinions should be shoved down anyone’s throat.
” Mason yanked his phone out of his pocket, stared at the screen, and finished with, “Pete’s approaching the alley. We need to get upstairs.”
“You’re right. I was judging you. I think you’re an asshole, and not only because you think one of my favorite movies is stupid.”
“Right.”
I followed Mason to the far back corner of the abandoned shop, where there were two doors.
According to Fallon, one of those doors should exit into a passageway that connected all of the stores, as well as had access to the apartments.
Thankfully, that access was stairs. There was zero chance I was getting into an elevator in this run-down building.
The mere possibility of getting trapped in a small space with Mason was out of the question.