Mason: Fallen Angels MC (9 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY

Mason watched as Jack hung up the phone. “Well? Where is she?”

He shook his head. “She wouldn’t tell me. But if she drove a couple of hours, assuming the main roads, and somewhere there’s a good vet… hold on.”

Jack turned to his computer, and Mason fought not to wrench the keyboard away from him and demand answers as Jack tapped away.

A few minutes later, he turned the screen and pointed. “My money’s on Belleview. It’s a mountain town, couple of hours from here, and it has a proper town center, which a lot of those little towns down south don’t. North isn’t an option,” Mason started to speak but Jack cut him off. “She’d be in Canada, and she doesn’t have a current passport. East and West—there’s no convenient way to get there. Blue highways would be a pipe dream.” He stared at Mason. "She went south. Try Belleview. And if you could, try and keep her from killing me for telling you. That would be awesome.”

Mason nodded, already standing. “I’ll do what I can.” He was still for a moment, thinking. “Can I borrow your car?”

“Why?”

“I don’t have a spare helmet with me, and honestly, all she’d have to do is refuse to keep it on, and we’d be stuck. If I can talk her into a car, I hit the childlocks, and we'll head north.”

“Yeah. Yeah, all right.” Jack dug the keys out of his pocket and passed them over. “Take care of her, okay?”

“I hear she and I have a date with you and your wife,” Mason said as he stood. “I’ll make sure it’s kept.”

Jack hadn’t managed a response before Mason was out the door.

***

After she talked to Jack, Caroline laid down for a bit to try and rest but couldn’t get her eyes to stay shut. Every time she did, she saw Declan’s hand flying at her face again, or felt his arms circling her, holding her down. Without Gloria’s comforting bulk to soothe her, it was hard to feel safe.

When she was finally drifting off, her phone buzzed on the pillow next to her. She picked it up quickly, hoping for good news. “Hello?”

“Ms. Lewis?” The voice was unfamiliar, but cultured, and female. It was the only reason she managed to choke out a response.

“Yes?”

“This is Dr. Watson. The vet?”

Caroline sat up in bed and forced herself awake. “Yes. How’s Gloria?”

“Better than I’d hoped, but not as good as I could wish. She’s badly bruised, and she has a cracked rib, but no internal bleeding. Still, there’s some generalized swelling, and she still seems fairly… shaky, for lack of a really better word. I’d like to keep her here to watch her if that’s all right.”

She chewed on her lip, not sure what to say or what the right thing to do would be. She should keep on the move, most likely. Drive further south or change direction and head west into New York. Get on a train, maybe. One of those trips where you crossed the entire country, following the historic routes that the settlers had used through the country. Clean out all of her bank accounts, and start over in Portland or somewhere. Somewhere thugs didn’t come into your house and hurt your dog and wreck the best thing that had happened in your entire life.

Let that bastard take away her entire life, and by doing so, making sure that she got to keep living.

“If it’s about the money,” Dr. Watson said, carefully and quietly, misinterpreting her silence, “Or about someone telling you not to use your credit cards—which is a good suggestion, if you’re trying to stay under the radar—then this is all off the books, and on me. I just want to make sure Gloria is okay, and see you safely on your way to wherever you go next. Home, or somewhere else.”

“I don’t know if I can go home,” Caroline said. “I don’t know if it’s safe. For either one of us.”

There was another long pause from the vet. “I don’t know, either. I won’t make a promise that I can’t personally keep. But I strongly believe that your chances go up tremendously if you go to the ER. Get that cheek seen to. The ER here… I’ve had to bring people there before. They aren’t going to shame you, or ask what you did to provoke him. I can call ahead, find out who’s on call, and tell you who to ask for. I’m happy to do that for you, if it will help. I’ll go with you, if you want. If you need someone with you.”

“I wasn’t raped,” Caroline said, shocked at the tone of her voice.

“Okay,” the vet said. “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be safe from the fucker.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said. “Take care of Gloria. Okay?”

This time, the woman read her mind perfectly. “She needs you, Caroline. She needs you as much as you need her.”

She wiped away a tear and forced strength back into her voice. “She needs to be safe. She’s a good dog. She loves kids. Thank you.”

The vet started to protest but Caroline ended the call with a sharp press of her finger. It rang again, almost immediately, and she turned the phone off. She thought about flinging it across the room, but as satisfying as it would be to hear it smash, she didn’t think she’d feel any better afterwards. And she wouldn’t have a phone.

The rage enveloping her was so intense that she didn’t think when someone knocked on the door. She stomped to it, flung it open, and snarled “What?” at the unlucky ass that’d interrupted the hardest thing she’d ever had to do.

So she was completely unprepared for Mason as he pushed his way inside, shutting the door firmly behind him.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

She was too shocked to scream, but only for a second. She drew in a deep breath as she scrambled to pick up the rickety chair pushed under the moisture-stained desk in the corner of the seedy room, but before she could hit him or scream at him, she saw him press himself back against the door, his hands up in surrender. That made her pause. Declan had come at her, full-bore, and threatened her from the second that he was within range. Mason was saying something, words that she hadn’t entirely heard until she forced a few more deep breaths into and out of her lungs.

“I'm so sorry,” he was saying, “I’m so incredibly sorry that he hurt you. Jesus, baby, your face, are you okay?”

“Do
not
call me baby,” she growled. The chair was up over her head somehow, but his eyes were locked on hers. “I’m not your baby. I never was.”

“Okay,” Mason said. “I’m sorry, Caroline. I’m sorry I got you caught up in this. I swear to you, I never once thought that there was anything more going on than someone skimming from the garage. I’m going to deal with Declan, I swear it, but first, I have to know that you’re safe.” He reached out and touched her bruised cheek, and she flinched away from the pain of it, both physical and emotional. “God, your face. Did he break anything?”

The chair was heavy, anyway, and even if she broke it over his ugly, stubborn head, it probably wouldn’t do anything. She let it fall to the ground, and let herself follow. He went with her, though he was smart enough not to touch her. Not yet, anyway.

“He broke Gloria,” she said, and watched Mason’s face crumple. He deserved to hurt, but it felt like bad karma to lie about this. “She’s at the vet’s now. They think she’ll be okay, but…” She shuddered. “Why are you here? Are you just trying to drag me back to him?”

“No,” Mason said. “I’m here to keep you safe.”

“I’m safe,” she said. “I have a plan.”

“What are you going to do?”

“It wouldn’t be much of a plan if I told the person most likely to tell the guy who's about to come after me.”

Mason stared at her for a moment. “I told you that I was trying to fake him out. I told you to come to me. I gave you the damn address!”

“Oh, is that what you did? Because all I noticed was you being all buddy-buddy with the guy who assaulted me.”

She wasn’t sure exactly where all this rage was coming from. Some of it was about being assaulted in her own home, and some was about giving up her very best friend, and some was about the fact that he hadn’t punched the crap out of that jerk when he had the chance. Some of it was that he was even here. And why was he here?

“How did you even find me?”

The answer came all at once, and this time she did reach out and slug him on the arm, and he rocked a little bit, though she thought he might have moved on purpose, just to make her feel better.

“Jack ratted me out, didn’t he? That dirtbag.”

“That dirtbag is looking out for you, Caro. I don’t think Declan is going to come for you, but if he does, it’ll be without mercy, and I can’t handle that. I can’t take him down while I’m worried about what’s going to happen to you. You need to come back with me.”

“What? No! I’m not going back.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “You think you can stop me taking you back?”

“Since I imagine that you’ve got your motorcycle with you, yeah, I think I can.”

“Jack loaned me his car.”

Well,
that
put a different spin on her getaway plans, didn’t it? “That son of a bitch.”

“Caro, come on. Be reasonable.”

“No,” she said. “No, definitely not. I’ve been reasonable all my life. I just reasonably gave away my dog because it’s safer for her than to bring her with me, wherever I end up. I dated reasonable men, got a reasonable job, acted reasonably all the damn time, and look where I am now,”

“Where are you?” He reached out and touched her hand, his fingers tracing a pattern over her skin that he wasn’t supposed to know, some sort of mystical key that made her trust him, that told her he was safe, that unlocked her heart.

“I’m in a skeezy motel room with a guy I’m falling for, who is the worst thing who ever happened to me, and all I can think about doing is fucking kissing you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

They fell together, fast and hard, kneeling on the floor. His hands cupped her head, forcefully bringing her to the angle he wanted, and her mouth was already open for him when his tongue sought permission to enter her. His hands traced over her breasts, lifting them, then sliding down to her waist and pulling her into his lap. “Just kissing me?”

She reached between their bodies and traced her hand over the outline of his cock in his jeans. “No. I kind of hate myself for it, but no. There’s so much more than I want from you.”

He pulled back then, his eyes wary. “Like what?”

“Do we have to talk?” God, why had she said that?

“Sounds like maybe we should.”

She sighed and pushed herself away from him, even though it made the ache in her belly a thousand times worse. “I don’t know what to say, Mason. I don’t know what you want from me, from life, from this situation. I’m totally in the dark. And it’s been a handful of days, so it’s not like that’s completely shocking, but at the same time—it’s been a really bad handful of days. If this is how the rest of my life would be with you—”

“Rest of your life—?”

She stared at him. “Is it really so shocking that I think in terms of the rest of my life? I’m a financial consultant, for God’s sake. I have a mortgage and a dog and a 401k.”

“Yeah, and I’m a filthy biker, right?”

“I didn’t say that, Mase, didn’t even think it.”

“Not at all?” His tone bit sharp and harsh.

“No. Not even a little bit.”

“So what do you want in your life, then? A marriage, a house, white picket fence, 2.4 kids, or whatever the hell it is?”

Caroline knew she needed to sit, or she was going to throw up, right here on the floor. “That’s what I would have said last week, definitely.”

“And now?”

“Why are you pushing me so hard to say that I don’t want you?”

“Because you shouldn't want me! And I don’t blame you. I couldn’t protect Anna, I couldn’t protect you—” His hands clenched into fists fast and hard, his pupils tightening into tiny dots, his breathing fast and rushed.

Everything in her heart and her brain told her to run, that this man was dangerous, that she needed to get away.

Yet she pushed all of that aside and stepped carefully into him. He looked down at her, his jaw working as his teeth ground together—God, what a terrible sound—but he wasn’t really seeing her. She didn’t know what was in his head. A scene from one of his tours, his half-sister’s grave, the bastard who’d put her in the ground… but she couldn’t bring herself to turn away from him. Not when he needed someone—anyone—this badly.

She brought her hands up to touch his jaw on each side. He pushed them away with a rapid ease that made her belly flip again, but she brought them back and tried her best not to flinch. He pushed her away again, and she touched him a third time. “Don't,” he said.

“And what are you going to do?” she replied. “If I’m making it worse, I’ll go, but if you’re just scared, if you’re scared you’ll hurt me—I’m a big girl. I can keep myself safe.”

He blinked twice, too fast. “You’re doing a bang-up job so far.”

“True. But I’m not scared of you.”

“You should be.”

“Maybe. But I’m not.”

He fell into her then, the way he had that first night, his hands twisting and teasing and taunting her with movements so fast that she could barely keep up with them. “I need to fuck,” he growled into her ear as he dragged his hips over hers. “I need to fuck or I need to fight and I don’t want to fight with you, Caroline. Please, can I fuck you? I’m sorry for what happened, I’m sorry I didn’t keep you safe; can I make it up to you?”

“For the love of God, tell me you have a condom, because I didn’t grab them in my rush to leave.” She laughed, short and brutal. “I didn’t think I’d have any use for them.”

He rested his forehead on her sternum for a moment, then leaned down and nipped her nipple. He sat back on his heels, looking around. “This place is skeezy, but not too skeezy. Even odds…” He stood up, then pointed one very stern finger at her. “Don’t move an inch.”

“Not even to take my jeans off?”

“No. Because if I’m wrong, I don’t want to be tempted.”

“Yes, Master.” She winked at him, but he didn’t laugh; his breathing was harsh and rapid.

“Not ‘Master,’” he said. “But
sir
… I wouldn’t mind
sir
. If you wanted to play that game.”

“Yes, sir. Absolutely, sir.”

“Jesus fuck,” he said, reaching down and rearranging his cock in his jeans. “If there aren’t condoms in a machine in the office, I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do with this thing.”

And then he was gone, and she waited on the bed, wondering what in hell she was doing to herself. The man had gone into a full on panic attack at the barest conversation about what might come next in a relationship. There was no way that this relationship was going to work long term. But the way he touched her, the way he made her body come alive—maybe they could work something out. She knew she wanted to try. For now, that would have to be enough.

He came back after a few minutes, and she’d never been so happy to see a little foil square in a guy’s hand. “I am the happiest man alive.”

“Not yet,” she said, reaching for his hand and pulling her down onto the bed next to her. “But you will be.”

“I like the sound of that.”

Something in his eyes shifted as he reached for her. He’d always been so eager as he touched her, a force of nature that was irresistible. This time, his hands were soft, gentle, tracing her body instead of teasing it.

He pulled her to him as he laid back, easing her into his lap. Her hair was up in a ponytail, messy from her nap. He pulled her shoulders down a bit, then reached up and pulled out the hair tie, letting her locks fall loosely around her shoulders.

“You’re incredible, Caroline Lewis.” He smiled. “You make me think there might be some hope in fucking the universe.”

“There’s hope for everyone,” she said, and leaned over to steal away his words before he could argue.