Mason_ Inked Reapers MC(1)(52)
“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.
“Hey. Why so glum?” Jessica placed the mugs of steaming coffee on the table and sat across from me. “I know you’re in a shit situation, but you don't usually look so down.”
“I was just thinking about my mom.” I waved a hand in the air, and reached for the sugar bowl.
“It must have been so hard for you, taking care of her all those years and going to school and working.”
“Yeah. But it didn’t feel that way. It just felt normal. But after she was gone, when it was all over with, I don’t know—I freaked. Like I didn't know what to do.”
“Is that when you called Kerri?”
I snorted. “Yeah. We’d gone to high school together, but she moved away senior year. Most of the friends I hung out with had gone off to college, or I hadn’t talked to at all since my mom got real sick. That turned out great, didn’t it?” I tried to smile, but I didn't have the energy to force it. Staying up most of the night listening to the silence, and praying not to hear the drunken sounds of Jayson making his way to the bedroom, had drained me of what little energy I had had.
“Hey. It’s gonna be okay.” Jessica laid a hand over mine and her voice softened.
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“We’ll figure something out. There’s shit brewing in the club and I think once it’s all over with you’ll be free of Jayson.”
I looked up at her with a new sense of hope. Something I’d told myself to forget. “What do you mean? Is that why Lucas doesn’t want you on the grounds?”