Everyone stilled. Again.
Matteo murmured behind us, “Fuck.”
The only one who didn’t seem surprised by my question was Mason. An unreadable mask fell over his face, and I knew he was guarding himself.
“Yes,” he said.
“You knew my boss would be insulted by the way you talked to him. A kid telling him what to do—you knew that’d slam the door on me working here.”
“Yes,” he ground out a second time. “I’d do it again, too.”
“Uh, guys.” Matteo moved away from us, guiding Adam and the girls. “Maybe we should give them some space, huh?”
I was aware of them leaving, but my blood boiled. I couldn’t look away from Mason. “Why? Why did you do that?”
“You know why.”
Oh, no. I shook my head, shaking a finger in his face. “You don’t do that. You don’t soften your tone with me, like you’re giving up this fight. You already sabotaged me in there. Don’t back down now.”
“I can’t protect you here.”
“You just made a whole argument that you could.”
“I can’t be here every single day.”
“So? He could have me work at night, when you can be here.”
“Every night?”
“Yes!”
“Every minute? Every time you have to take the garbage outside? Every time you forget something in your car and have to run to get it? I’m supposed to shadow you all of those times?”
“Yes!” Why was he fighting this? “We’ve had worse threats.”
“Caldron’s gone after you twice now. The first time I was right there. He’s worse than Budd Broudou. He knows who you are. I can’t trick this guy, and as much as I’d like to, I can’t be with you at every moment. He’s the type who will lie in wait, and he’ll grab you the second I’m not around.”
His arms were shaking, and he took a calming breath.
“Sam.” He stepped forward, touching my arms gently. “This guy will hurt you.”
I searched his eyes, trying to read his next move. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to hurt him first.”
“You already did.”
Mason didn’t reply. Maybe that was the problem? Mason had already knocked him down, and Caldron just attacked again. If he kept coming, what could be done? I chewed on the inside of my cheek, keeping all those questions to myself. If I was thinking them now, I knew Mason had already processed them.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“I’m going to cut off his knees so the fucker can’t walk.”
I let out a shaky laugh. “That sounds like a good plan.”
Mason chuckled, his eyes softening as he drew me against him. He folded his arms around me, and I felt his lips graze my forehead, tenderly, before he found my lips. I closed my eyes and let myself melt into that kiss until we heard the office door open.
“Well, kid, you talked me into keeping your girl around.”
Mason tensed and lifted his head.
Keifer stood in his office doorway, arms crossed over his chest and a smug grin on his leathery face. Petey stood behind him, chewing on the inside of his cheek.
“You start in the beer garden tomorrow night,” Keifer told me. “Eight o’clock sharp. Petey’s going to be working with you.” He turned, clapped Petey on the shoulder, and disappeared back inside.
Mason’s plan had just backfired on him.
Every morning for the next week, I got up.
Every morning I went for an hour-long run, sometimes an hour and a half.
Every morning I stretched, then crossed the street to Malinda’s house, and she met me with coffee on the porch.
Every morning we sat and stared at the gate two houses down.
And every morning that gate remained shut, so I would start another day with knots in my stomach, tense about the moment I’d see her.
At the end of each day, I finished my shift at the beer garden and slipped into bed with Mason. Then I’d wake the next morning, reach for my running shoes, and begin the process all over again.
MASON
“James is free to see you now.”
I gave my dad’s receptionist a cursory look as I passed by. He was the one who’d called me in, so yeah, he’d better be free. But the new girl seemed overwhelmed, despite her professional greeting.
“Mason.”
My dad started to stand, but I shook my head and tossed some papers on his desk.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Those are the promotional ideas and plans Adam Quinn and I put together for the hotel’s opening, and sorry, Dad…” I dropped into the seat across from him. “I hate to tell you this, but in all the time I’ve spent with him, I haven’t gotten a whiff of anything illegal. He’s annoyingly pleasant to work with, and happily in love with his woman. That’s all I’ve got.”