Mason:Inked Reapers MC(28)

       
           



       



She responded softly in Spanish, but I could tell by the tone of her  voice that she was giving him her excuse for disregarding his  instructions. He raised an eyebrow at her and sighed. He turned to us  then, his arm slipping around her waist. "As you can see, Carmella would  like to join us. Obviously, you can see which side of this disagreement  with my brother she is on." He led her around his chair and pulled out  the empty seat to his left, next to Tick.



"Bernardo doesn't know his wife is with you?" Tick asked, keeping his eyes off of Carmella.



"My husband is a blind fool," she spat. I remembered at that moment her  husband walking Lucy into the back rooms at the clubhouse. The urge to  run across the room and rip out his throat for even looking at my girl. I  had sat by and let him take her, let him put his hands on her. Another  of my failings.



"He thinks I don't know he fucks every woman he meets. He thinks I'm the  fool. Julio has told me of the sex trafficking those other men do. It  is bad enough my husband allows drugs to be sold to children, but now he  wants to do business with men who steal women and rape them, and allow  others to rape them." Her voice hardened as she spoke, though her eyes  never left Julio. He reached across to her and rested his hand on top of  hers. "I won't have it."



"Of the two evils, we are the lesser?" I looked at Julio. He watched  Carmella with love. The rage she showed in her voice echoed in his  expression.



"Everyone has evil in them, Mason. I'm not an idiot. But your club, you  deal some light drugs, you run guns for a few gangs. Nothing that hurts  your community like the Disciples. Community means a great deal to my  Carmella." He squeezed her hand and smiled. "Dealing with your club,  that will continue to produce the profits we enjoy, and if at some  future time we want to expand it will be done with not guns and blood,  but with the help of the other cartels."



Politics weren't my thing. The lies, the games, it was all too much for  me, and I knew Julio was dreaming. There would always be spilt blood  when it came to expansion of territories. There wasn't wheeling and  dealing to make that happen. At least not so far. Maybe he could do it,  maybe he couldn't. To be honest, I didn't give a fuck. I had a job to do  and then I had to get home.



"That sounds all fine and dandy." Tick sat back in his chair and crossed  his arms over his chest. "But that still doesn't explain why Mason and I  are sitting here."



"Marcus has agreed to continue with the deal he made with my brother.  Short runs through your two towns and up through the neighboring three.  Providing safe travel for my men. The Disciples will be gone. Closed  down, wiped out-whatever the term is you Americans use."



"Okay." I leaned forward. "And what does all that cost Marcus? This big run?"



"Oh, there is no run." He smiled. "I don't need American boys coming  down here to get my product over the border. No, your job is much  easier."



"What is it?" I chose to ignore the insults and just move forward with finding out what the hell was going on.



"You two are going to kill Bernardo."





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR



LUCY





I wasn't going to last another night with Jayson. Not one more. I got  lucky last night and he came home after I'd fallen asleep, drunk and  stoned. He passed out in the living room of his apartment, missing the  couch on his way down and landing on the floor. The booming thud of his  fat body hitting the ground woke me up. I found him face down in the  carpet and left him there.



My luck was going to run out, though. Soon. Lucas stopped me in the  motor pool to ask me more questions about Mason. Did I know where he'd  run off to, when was he coming back. To everything I denied knowing  anything.



"You told me to stay away from him, remember?" I slid my key into my car door.



"I know I did. And I know you didn't." He looked around at the other  members working on their bikes. "Jessica's taking some time off," he  announced, not looking at me.



"Is she okay?" My spine stiffened. I knew they were hanging around each other a lot but I hadn't known they were that serious.



"Yeah. Fine."



"Maybe I'll go see her today." I shielded my eyes from the sun as I  looked up at him. His eyes caught mine and he took a deep breath.



"She's not at her place. She's at mine." He nearly growled and I knew  that sound. That possessive tone. Mason had only been gone two days and I  already missed that about him. When he hung around the clubhouse, I  knew I'd be safe. Even when Bernardo walked me back to my room, I knew  one scream from me and Mason would have barreled into the room, ready to  kill.                       
       
           



       



"Mind if I stop over there, then?" He wanted to keep her away from the  clubhouse for a reason, and I hoped that reason had nothing to do with  me, or Mason.



"Do you know where Mason went off to?" he asked again with more heat and  narrowed eyes. He'd never used that tone with me before, and it put my  guard up.



"No, Lucas. I don't know where he is, only that he was going out of town  for the club. He said he'd be gone a week maybe two." His jaw tightened  and for a moment I thought he was about to lay into me, but he shook  his head and nodded instead.



"Do you know if it was his club or our club he was doing business for?" His tone lowered, the concerned Lucas was back.



"I don't know. I didn't ask questions." I felt my phone vibrating but I  ignored it. Jayson was still passed out and Mason was the only other  person who had the number.



He eyed me silently for what felt like several minutes as my phone  vibrated again. "You can go see Jessica. But if Jayson looks for you,  you get your ass back here and you don't bring her with." Again he  hardened his tone.



"What's going on, Lucas? Why are you hiding her away?" I also wanted to  ask why he was so willing to throw me to the wolves, but better not to  piss him off.



"Things aren't going as planned. That's all you need to know. I want her  off the compound for a little while I figure this all out. If we go  into lockdown, she'll hightail it here with you."



"Lockdown?"



He gave a small snort and shook his head. "Sometimes I forget you aren't  really one of us." With that he walked away. Not really one of them.  Mason had that same look in his eyes when I had to question something he  said, or when he grinned over a word I misused.



The fact was, I wasn't one of them. None of them would protect me if  shit really hit the fan. Hell, none of them did anything when Jayson  refused to let me leave and started using me as his personal whore.



This life. This was Mason's life. He said he wanted out of it, to live  outside the MC, but could he? From as far as I could tell he'd been a  member for over ten years. Nearly his entire adult life. Could he really  walk away and just live like normal people? And in two months, when we  were working dead end jobs, struggling to pay the rent, would he look at  me with resentment because I pulled him away from all of this? The  money, the excitement, all given up for me? A girl who had turned into a  prostitute not more than three weeks after living on her own in the  world?



My mother would be more than ashamed of the situation I lived in.  Getting paid for sex, taken as an old lady for a fat, old biker, and  trying to keep my head above water to get a grasp on the whole  situation.



As I drove through the gates I felt more alone than ever before. Never  had I wanted my mother back more fiercely than that moment.





***





Jessica opened the door to Lucas's house with a wide smile. "Thank God!"  She pulled me into the house and into her arms, hugging me hard. "I was  about to go crazy sitting in here by myself."



I laughed at the irony of her situation. "At least your jail is a whole  house." I wandered down the front hall, looking at all of the posters  Lucas had hung on the walls. Different makes and models of Harleys were  framed and hanging all over the house.



"Does Lucas know you're here?" Jessica passed by me and showed me to the kitchen, where the smell of coffee caught my attention.



"Yeah. He gave his permission." I made a face then gestured toward the  pot of freshly brewed coffee. "I'll love you forever if I could steal a  cup."



She laughed and plucked two mugs out of the cabinet above the coffee maker. "Lucas is just being overly cautious I think."



"I knew he had a thing for you, but I didn't' realize you'd become such  an item." I took a seat at the round kitchen table. The kitchen was  simple in decor and design. White walls brightened the room that was  situated in the back of the house. A small window over the sink  overlooked the backyard, and the patio doors a few feet away from the  table let in most of the light from outside. The countertops were basic  and bare except for the coffee maker and a paper towel rack. An equally  bare peninsula separates the kitchen work area from the eating area. As  simple as it all was, it came as close to a home than I'd been in since  leaving behind the apartment I shared with my mom.