Mason:Inked Reapers MC(32)

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"



"That situation is being handled." I didn't like the evasive answers.  Why would Julio bring us down there if he had another solution planned?  Or did Jayson find out about the plan and send his own men down to take  care of it for Julio, or to save Bernardo?



"Thanks for the heads up," I spat, and clicked off the call. I wasn't  going to let the damn Disciples fuck with the plan, for all I knew they  were down here trying to make the same deal with Julio. I didn't really  give a fuck anymore who got the territory or who worked with the cartel,  but I wasn't going to get myself killed for fucking this up because of  some mysterious phone call.



"Who was that?" Tick popped the lock and pushed the door to the  apartment open. We both stepped back as the smell of mildew and rot  drifted out. "Fuck." Tick covered his mouth and headed into the empty  cell. The kitchen and living room shared the same space, and lucky us,  the people who had left the place hadn't emptied the fridge.



I pulled my t-shirt up over my nose and searched out the window that  overlooked the market. We were five stories above the crowd, and Carmela  had been right about the sun; it blared from behind us. I spotted  Carmela. Her twisted up hair was being held up with rhinestone pins that  twinkled in the sunlight. She stood at a merchant cart looking over  pelts of fabric. Why would the wife of a cartel family need to shop in  the crowded, dirty street market for fabric?



"There he is, just behind Carmela." Tick pointed over my shoulder. "Let  me get set up." He slipped the bag carrying the rifle Julio had given us  from his shoulder and began assembling it with the silencer.



I watched the crowd, looking over at the other buildings. Lucas said the  situation was being handled. What the fuck did that mean? Was there  another team out there aiming for Bernardo, too? Or did they know about  the hit and Bernardo was going to hit us instead?                       
       
           



       



"Lucas said that we might want to rethink this, that the situation was  being handled," I told Tick. He paused and looked up at me.



"What the fuck does that mean?"



"I don't know." I looked back out the window, they were getting closer.  "You know, I'm getting real fucking tired of this cryptic shit!"



"Fuck. If Julio would fuck his brother's wife, and kill his brother, why  the fuck are we trusting him that this is going to go down the way he  says." Tick growled, looking through the scope of his rifle.



I watched Bernardo and his wife make their way closer to us. Tick moved  next to me, getting more comfortable in his position. A band began  playing beneath us, a trio of guitar players began singing and making  their way through the crowd. People clapped. An argument broke out at  one of the merchant stands.



"What do you want me to do, Mason?" Tick nudged my knee with his elbow.  The stifling heat of the apartment didn't help clear up my thoughts.  Sweat dripped down the side of my face.



A shot rang out, echoing through the narrow street. Bernardo fell face  down over a merchant stand. Another shot, and a screaming Carmella fell  slack to the ground, her mouth still agape. I looked down at Tick, who  was looking back at me with just as stunned an expression as I felt.  "What the fuck?" He leaned out the window, looking for the shooter.



The crowd panicked. People ran in every direction, ducking into the  stores, down alleyways. "Fuck, there's Julio." I pointed at the lone man  walking steadily down the street, as though he had no cares in the  world. People flew past him, bumping him as they made their way down the  street, but he just continued to walk as though nothing had just  happened.



"Let's get the hell out of here. This isn't our fight anymore." I tugged  at Tick's shirt. He nodded and quickly unassembled the rifle and threw  it into the bag. "Just leave that here." I kicked the bag across the  room, watching it glide across the dirty floor and slide beneath the  couch. Tick removed his gloves and shoved them into his back pocket.  "Let's go."



"Where we going?" he asked as we ran down the stairs.



"Home," I yelled, and led us away from the apartment, down an alley. Out  of sight of the chaotic market place, we ran to the van we'd parked out  of the way. Once there, we jumped in.



"What about Julio?" Tick ran his hand over his smooth head. "Fuck! What the fuck happened?"



"I don't think we were meant to kill Bernardo." I shifted gears and turned down another dirt road. "I think we were a decoy."



"For what?"



"For Julio." I shrugged. "Let them all sort that shit out. I'm out. I'm  done. Marcus sent us down here for this shit. The club didn't take a  vote on this, this was his doing." Tick's eyes were on me as we bumped  along the rough road, but I had nothing else to say. I was done. The MC  would move on without me, and I was fine with that. I had a girl to get  home to. A girl to get the fuck out of trouble and get her safe and in  my bed. That was the reason I drove north like a bat out of hell. Lucy.





CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT



LUCY





I began to see the ribs about my car were completely valid. I only  managed to get fifty miles away before the radiator burst. Luckily, I  had already pulled off the highway to get gas when the smoke began to  billow from under the hood. The mechanic at the gas station said it  would only take an hour or two to get the hose replaced and fix up the  radiator well enough to keep going. The only trouble was, the labor  alone ate up half of what I had stashed in my purse. The parts took a  good chunk of the rest. If Mr. Doyle didn't let me work out a deal to  pay for the cabin, I'd be homeless real quick.



The texts from Jayson started right after I got my car back on the road.  Took him longer than I thought to figure out I wasn't coming back. At  first he just asked where I was. Then he started to demand I get back  home. By the time I turned my car into the narrow road headed up to the  cabin, he was slinging threats. Why he thought I'd come running back  after he threatened to slice my throat for being disrespectful made no  sense to me, but then again it was Jayson. He never made any sense to  me.



The only person I worried about was Mason. I still had no idea where he  was or what he was up to. I hadn't texted him, not wanting to mess up  whatever job he was doing. I knew he'd be mad when he got back and found  me gone. He had told me to stay put, and I had done the exact opposite  of that.                       
       
           



       



"Hey! Lucy!" Mr. Doyle grinned at me with his wide mouth grin. He'd  always had that smile for me when my mom and I would come up to stay in  the cabin. "I wasn't expecting you."



He stepped out onto the porch and gave me a big hug. He'd always been a  huggy type of person. Not in that old man creepy way, just in a genuine  nice to see you way.



"No, I didn't make a reservation. I was sort of hoping the cabin was free though?"



He looked over my shoulder at my car. "Where's your ma?" He got that  worried look on his face. I'd seen it before. He knew she'd been sick  the last time we had used the cabin, and now he was bracing himself for  the news.



"She passed. A few months ago." I took a deep breath.



"You in trouble?" He narrowed his eyes and looked me over.



"No. Not really. I'm just looking for a place to relax for a few weeks,  while I look for work and an apartment or something," I explained.



He gave me a slow nod. "The cabin's open. I'm real sorry to hear about  your mom. She was such a great lady. Never understood why no man ever  snatched her up." He felt around his pocket then pulled out a key ring.  "Do you remember how to get up there?"



"Sure do. Thank you so much. I can pay you-"



"No. I won't have it. I don't have any reservations until next month.  Stay until then. Everyone needs help getting back on their feet now and  then." He shifted his feet and looked back at my car. "You sure that  will make it up the road?"



"It will have to." I grinned. "It'll be fine. Thank you so much." I gave  him a quick peck on his cheek and jumped off the porch. If only I had  thought to go to the cabin months ago, I wouldn't have needed so much of  his help at that moment.



The car rattled the entire way up the mountain. Several times I worried I  was going to slide back down, or roll off the side and into the trees.  Finally, the cabin came into view. The two-bedroom log cabin looked as  cozy as it ever had when I came up here with my mom.