Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
Knox slid a file folder Mason’s way and gave him a little nod.
As soon as he got back to his computer, Mason knew he’d find an audio file to match the paper copy he held in his hands.
Though most of the words made sense, he occasionally missed something, and he couldn’t afford to slip up. Dyslexia was a nightmare.
He could memorize anything and was full of trivial information that no one would ever care about.
But hand him a book and tell him to read it?
That was a hard no. The more stressed he became, the worse it got.
The letters and numbers jumbled together until they were almost unrecognizable.
It had gone undiagnosed for most of his school years without a mother around and a father who didn’t care about them as long as he and his brother kept their asses out of juvie.
On top of his inability to decipher words, he had been a troublemaker.
The teachers had shoved him into special education classes and left him to flounder, unwilling to deal with him.
It pissed him off because he knew he wasn’t stupid, even though the other kids had teased him mercilessly.
He got tossed out of school for more fights than he could count, and he skipped so much school that he barely graduated.
He refused to play sports for fear of looking like an idiot if he got confused between his left and right. He could have learned the plays through muscle memory, but to be put on the spot? It was something he hadn’t been willing to risk at fourteen.
He hadn’t figured out what was wrong with him until his sophomore year of high school. His girlfriend, Samantha, mentioned her brother being dyslexic. When he inquired about the symptoms, he found that he experienced a lot of the same things.
He looked more into it and finally spoke with the school nurse. She quietly reached out to a teacher willing to tutor him, and with his help, he was able to control it well enough that he got into the military and left home the summer after he graduated.
For the first time in his life, he wasn’t the kid from the wrong side of the tracks.
He did well in the Marines, and he and Samantha planned to get married once his tour was up.
Except, it hadn’t quite worked out that way.
About a year and a half in, he found out she was sneaking around with some other guy.
When he confronted her, she blamed him for being gone despite the fact that they’d talked about it repeatedly.
After Samantha’s betrayal, he turned his focus solely on his work in the military. He had quick, easy hookups but never anything serious. He didn’t need that in his life. He couldn’t stand to be cheated on again, passed over for some other guy who worked an average nine-to-five.
The girl from the hotel came to mind. Those several hours he’d spent with Virginia had played on loop in his mind for the past forty-eight hours. He wasn’t sure he’d ever enjoyed a woman so much.
The way she’d made him feel was dangerous in more ways than one.
But maybe it was a sign. She’d stirred something inside him when he’d thought his heart had no room for anything serious.
Life growing up had been tumultuous, to say the least. With his bipolar mother, they never knew which side of her they would get.
His father was constantly on guard. It wasn’t really a surprise, but it hurt when she took her own life when he and Miles were twelve.
It seemed like all the women in his life left without a second thought. A woman like Virginia was long gone, and even if she came back through, all it could ever be was a short-lived affair. He wasn’t the settling-down type.
Besides, she was obviously brilliant, and she deserved way better than him. He had a good job but a lot of baggage. He’d never be able to give a woman like that what she needed.
He cursed himself again for not getting her information before she left the hotel Saturday morning.
But they’d both stuck to the original agreement.
She never asked his name, and he hadn’t offered it up.
But maybe he could find her. There couldn’t be too many women named Virginia, right?
Even if she lived on the other side of the country, he could…
What? Ask her to consider a long-distance relationship based on one night?
He must be out of his mind. She’d given no indication of wanting more.
He had no idea who the woman really was or where she lived.
But that didn’t stop him from wanting to reach out to her, no matter how crazy it sounded.
Maybe she lived close by. Maybe she would—
A pen hit him in the chest, ripping him from his thoughts of the little brunette bombshell and making him jump.
He winged the pen back across the table at Knox, who hiked up a brow at him. “Nice of you to join us again.”
“Sorry.” He fought the urge to slouch down in his seat like a kid. “My mind was… somewhere else.”
Knox nodded. “Any news on Morrison?”
He shook his head. “I spent Friday night at the Hilton, got a few images of them together. Tom Morrison was at the bar for a while before she showed up. I wasn’t able to follow them out of the bar.”
He’d been too busy stripping Virginia out of her clothes to worry about that worthless cheating guy.
“Have you gotten anything else so far?” Knox asked.
“Caught him making out with the secretary in the parking lot of their building.”
“Keep at it. I’ll touch base with Mrs. Morrison and let her know. All right,” Knox continued, “let’s break for lunch.”
He dipped his head in acknowledgment, and his brother, Miles, leaned in. “Looks like Morrison’s getting plenty of action. What about you?”
He fought the urge to react, the memory of the woman from the bar Saturday night flashing to the forefront of his mind. “Why?”
Miles shrugged. “You were in a hotel bar. Figured you’d have picked up some chick in town for the night, shown her a good time.”
He kept his face neutral as he nodded. “Maybe.”
His hand automatically went to his shoulder, and he rubbed the spot where her teeth had left small crescent marks in the flesh. Just thinking of her made him hard.
“Come on,” Miles needled as they stood and made their way to the door. “You’re seriously gonna hold out on me? Was she that good?”
He bristled at the question. It had been that good; that was precisely why he was keeping his mouth shut.
Even though she was probably thousands of miles away at this point, Virginia was his and his alone.
He wanted to keep those memories locked up in his mind where he could play them back over and over.
His brother could read him like an open book and smell his lies from a mile away.
He drew on all his acting skill, letting out a derisive laugh as Miles pushed open the door that led into the lobby.
“You know how it is. It’s not exactly hard to pick up women when they’re practically begging for it. ”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the hairs on the back of his arms and neck lifted. His head snapped toward the reception area at the front of the lobby, and his body went hot then cold as his gaze collided with a familiar pair of eyes.
Eyes that had stared into his own as he’d been with her long and hard the other night in the hotel.
Eyes that were soulfully deep and dark—and full of fury.