I stood and left the table in search of Maxine. I saw her popping the hood of a car. She had a lot of bags in her hand, and she had to put the keys on the hood of the car so she could grab the bags on the ground. I snatched the keys from the hood. Then, as she turned to see who took the keys, I closed the trunk. Maxine turned all the way around and gave me the evilest eye I had ever seen.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Give me my keys, Mason.”
I put them in my pants pocket and looked at her.
She frowned and said, “What? You think I won’t go in your pocket for them?”
“I hope that you do. He misses your touch.” I smirked at her.
She sighed, and I could see the emotion creep up in her eyes.
“You don’t understand, Mason. I need to leave.”
“Actually, I do understand. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me about being kidnaped.”
She stepped back slightly and looked over by the hotel. “Who told you that?”
I walked closer to her, not caring that my rage was surfacing. “Does it fucking matter? The point being you should have told me.”
“And what good would that have done?”
“What good would that have done? Allura, I’ve shared with you my deepest secrets. For you to have kept something like that from me…”
“Oh please, Mason. Don’t act like you give a shit that I didn’t tell you.”
“What the hell do you mean by that?”
“Please, let’s not pretend I meant anything to you. If I did, you wouldn’t have lied to me.”
“What are you talking about? I’ve never lied to you.”
I walked closer to her. She moved closer to me.
“Fuck you! Yes, you have. Every fucking day you lied to me. You had me believing that I was the most important person in your life, that you couldn’t breathe without me, that your life was meaningless without me. You said no one has ever made you feel the way I did. But it was so easy for you to throw me away like I didn’t matter. You sent your fucking brother to tell me you didn’t want me anymore because you didn’t have the guts to tell me to my face. So, yes. You fucking lied to me.”
“Look at me,” I said to her. But she wouldn’t, so I raised my voice. “Look at me, Allura.” She did. “I want you to take a good look at the man in front of you. Do you really think I’m living without you? I miss you so fucking much it hurts. I’m empty and lonely and a miserable son of a bitch because you’re not with me. But I had to let you go.”
“Why?”
“Because I couldn’t come back to you the way I was. I couldn’t take seeing the sadness in your eyes that no doubt would’ve turned to pity, and then to loathing. I know you would have done everything you could to help me, and I was so far gone, I would have taken you with me. I was trying to protect you from me. So yes, if you want to say that I broke a promise to you, then fine, I did. But I have never lied to you about how I felt. I did some unspeakable things in the name of revenge, and the man that came out of that jungle wasn’t worthy of you.”
“So, you took it upon yourself to determine what I was capable of handling? You knew how I would react to you without asking me? You didn’t even give me the chance to say I couldn’t handle it. You broke my heart, Mason.”
She leaned back against the car, and I moved closer. I touched her arm, knowing that I would no doubt want to touch more.
I said softly, “I’m sorry, Allura. All I wanted to do was keep you safe from me the only way I knew how. And now I’m going to keep you safe from your father and anyone else the only way I know how.”
She shook her head.
“Mason, I can’t let you do that.”
I backed away.
“You really don’t have a choice, now do you?”
She grabbed my arm.
“Please, Mason. I can’t let anything happen to Tiffany or Cory. Please, I have to protect them.”
“What? You want to protect them, even if they don’t agree on how you’re going about it?”
She looked at me for a second and then realized what I was getting at. I’ve done the same thing, and she wasn’t in agreement on how I went about it.
How quickly the tables have turned.
She sighed deeply.
“I don’t want anyone to get hurt, Mason.”
“They won’t. You’ll just have to trust me, Allura. I will not let anything happen to you or anyone else, for that matter.”
I reached down, grabbed her bags, and headed back to the hotel. I didn’t wait for her to follow me. I just kept walking. I got to the lobby and was greeted by a crowd that apparently got an eye full. Diane looked at me skeptically, but I didn’t care to entertain whatever thoughts were going on in her head.