MASON (Second Chance Novels Book 2) (6 page)

"Ok, knock knock time," I announce grandly.

"Here we go," Jacks smiles.

I nod gratuitously. "Knock knock."

"Who's there?" everyone except Dig answers in unison, smiling or rolling their eyes…or both.
 

"Waiter."

"Waiter who?"

"Waiter minute, I forgot my joke…"

Everyone laughs and Ledger calls "Booo" at my pathetic joke. I throw my hands in victory before I call out another joke.
 

"Knock knock!"

"Who's there!" everyone answers a little louder.

"Luke!"

"Luke who?"

"Luke, out! I'm only getting funnier!"

More laughs and eye rolls.

"Knock knock!"

"Who's there?" they all laugh at my antics. Dig is barely smiling and shaking her head at me.

"Sarah…"

"Sarah who?"

"Sarah reason you're not laughing at my jokes, Dig?"

Everyone is chuckling and looking over at my partner. Dig finally smiles widely at all of us. "Ok, if I make myself laugh, will you stop?"

I grin. "Doubt it."

The next night I drive to Second Chance, distracted. I've got the project filtering through my brain, as well as the emerging inner-conflict between two women I care about. Seeing Dig like that last night showed me yet another impressive side of her. I want to spend all my time with her and our investigation, but that's not a realistic option. I shake my head at myself until I walk into the bar at 6:30, ready to open. Ledger is standing there with a smile.
 

"Hey," I smile with genuine happiness. "Where's Cam?"

"She's hanging with Shelby tonight," he grins, certainly glad things are returning to normal. "Last night of freedom before she starts her classes again."

I smile with him as life moves forward for both of us. We open the bar and fall into our routine easily. I'm glad Ledge is back. Working with him is simple and helps me clear my head. Still, thoughts of Dig dance through my brain strongly, frustrating and exciting me. Ledger seems to be watching me the whole time. I return my focus to my task, until Ledger opens his big mouth.

"You better watch it," he says, shaking his head during a lull at the bar.
 

"What?"

"You better watch it," he repeats pointedly. "The road you're on doesn't end well, and I'm not talking about your project."

I stop and stare at him. Damn his skill at reading people and situations.
Shit
. If Ledger notices my budding conflict so easily, I'm not going to be able to hide it from anyone else very long. Especially Dig. Shelby probably won't see this coming, not with her general fun-loving self and her trusting nature. God, I don't want to hurt her, and I won't if I keep my focus.

Midnight finally hits and Ledger tells me to kick off. Shelby and Cam are having girl time so he volunteers to close for me. I nod and get into my truck quickly. Soon I'm walking through my door to see Dig in my chair sipping a beer. My heart skips a beat like a fucking teenage girl's would.
 

"Hey," she says, not looking away from the board.
 

"Anything new?"

"Not a damn thing. We're going to have to up our game if we want to accomplish anything this century."

She hands me a beer she has waiting for me and I sit on the arm of the chair and try not to notice that her hair is down again or that her shoes are off. Shit, she's even got cute toes.
 

"You're in my chair," I say.
 

"Deal with it," she answers plainly, but I see her crack the tiniest smile. I shake my head and stare at the pictures of all the assholes we want to take down.
 

"How do you suggest we up our game?"

She looks at me with a wicked grin. "You ready to go public?"

"Really?" I say, shocked. "I'm good with it, but what the hell happens with your job if you tell your superior officer that you're after him?"

"I talked with my union rep today. My record is clean, and he downloaded a copy. He's going to have it notarized or some shit so no one can go back and add things. I've got a copy at a lawyer's office for the same reason. There will be no grounds to fire me or turn me in to IA. I talked with them, too, and they promised their support."

"Miller's going to harass you. Worse than before."

"Bring it," she says with her kick-ass attitude. "I'm tired of rolling over for these spineless assholes."

I grin. "Then we do this" I smile even wider. We spend the next twenty minutes discussing the best way to 'out' ourselves so to speak. We do everything but high-five over our plans. The clock reads past one before we're done and Dig excuses herself with an apology.

"I'd love to stay longer, but I have to work in the morning."

"Yeah," I say, seriously wishing she could stay longer. I walk her to the door and she stops again right beside me. The two of us are almost wedged in my doorway as she looks up at me, this close. Shit, I want to touch her.
 

"Thanks again," she says with a nod. "What we're doing here, this is a big deal."

"Yeah," I nod back. "Good night."

She stares up at me a moment longer and the tension between us pulls at me. She
must
notice. The energy is too intense not to, and I wonder what the hell she's thinking. I wave a goodbye when she finally steps away from me and to her car. I close the door and run my hand across my hair.
 

One more beer is calling to me from the fridge. I reach in and chuckle at a nearly-full pan of lasagna waiting for me with a note: "Chew this time. Check the freezer." I laugh before I open the top door of my ancient fridge. I see a glass bowl with a lid on it. A note on top of this dish reads, "Homemade gelato. Be happy. I usually don't share."
 

I'm damn happy. Too damn happy. I shake my head at myself and warm up an over-sized serving of Lasagna, and I look forward to dessert from my freezer. She is one fucking hell of a woman.
 

Once I'm stuffed full of lasagna and gelato, which was also superb, I feel like shit. I should be spending my time with Shelby, wanting to see
her
and appreciate things about
her
.
 

Needing to get my head straight, I drive to Shelby's house at nearly two thirty a.m. I know she'll be awake because Cam will be there with her. I'd like to see Cam, too. I park in front of Shel's house and knock. Typically I walk right in, but I don't want to interrupt their girl time so rudely.

"Mason?" Shel asks with a wide smile as I walk in. "What are you doing here?"

She greets me with a hug around my ribs and a kiss on my neck. I'm reminded that Shelby makes me feel like I'm in the kind of home I want to be in. I take a deep breath and smile. This is where I'm supposed to be. This life may not offer the heart-racing thrill I used to know, but remains the sweetest, most stable place I can conceive of. I'm so fucking confused.

"Hey, baby," I grin. "Hi Cam. You're looking good. I like that smile."

Cam comes to hug me too, which is exactly when Ledger walks in.
 

"Oh, now I have to kick your ass," Ledger says to me with a smile as Cam walks straight into his arms.

"I would love to see you try," I say with a grin. "Now get out because I want to get on my woman over here."

Shelby smacks my shoulder and Ledger shakes his head as he walks out the door. I bend down and heave Shel over my shoulder and walk to her bedroom where I drop her flat on her bed. I'm on top of her in a second, ready to remind myself where my heart is, where my path is leading, and why Shelby's my girl.
 

Simms obviously doesn't know he's being followed, or he doesn't know how to effectively lose a tail. Either way, getting close enough to watch him is so fucking easy it hardly counts as intelligence work. I only need two days of an up-close view before a manila envelope is passed from a deputy councilman to Simms. I snap pictures of him thumbing through the money inside. I record a conversation of Simms promising to fix an assault charge for the deputy councilman's son. I smile the minute Simms tucks the cash in his breast pocket, making the transaction official by concealing the money on his person.
 

Yes, and fucking yes. This is the part I love. I'm running the damn show, fighting an enemy who doesn't have a chance, no matter how important they perceive themselves to be. Hell yeah! I fire off a quick text to Dig and we meet so I can pass along the evidence.

"We can't use the recording," she says, looking at the two men's surroundings. "That booth offers a reasonable expectation of privacy, but that's damn fine camera work. The pictures are enough to get things going. I'll take them to IA, and then head back to the precinct to play the recording for Simms, just to make him sweat and show him how close we're getting."

"Do you think he'll play it tighter?"

"I don't think he's smart enough to know how," she says with disgust. Ineffectual superior officers are difficult to respect.
 

I chuckle. "Good point."

We finalize our plans and Dig grins. The next day, shit gets serious. The flashdrive recording, pictures of the bribe, and shots of Simms with a few select bigwigs, all of those will be intimidation tools against Simms. This will also make some higher-ups nervous. The bribe pictures alone will be given to Internal Affairs. The rest is simply the icing on this little tier of the cake. I can't help but grin with her.

Waiting for her all day nearly killed me. I knew she wouldn't call and giggle over the victory, but I also know she won't call if things get rocky, either. Unable to take the waiting, I pull out my phone.

Dinner here. Been too long since I've used my grill. See you after your shift?

Sure.

As soon as I hear Dig's car pull up, I start the rice and take the main dish out to my grill. By the time I'm back inside, Sofia's in my chair again, scanning the board.

"Hungry?" I ask.
 

"Starving," she says as she starts searching my kitchen.

"What are you doing?"

"Helping. I'll set the table." I notice she hasn't smiled yet. I won't push her to talk, but this doesn't bode well.

I shake my head at her. "Take a break. I got this. Enjoy a few minutes to sit back while you can."

She puts here hands up in an 'I surrender' position and backs away so I can finish prepping dinner. She untwists her hair as I get beers for both of us and lay out the table just in time to get our dinner off the grill. Only a moment later I'm serving Sofia an excellent steak dinner. I fucking love the look on her face when she breathes deeply. The tension in her face eases slightly from the aroma.
 

"Perfect," she says after her first bite.
 

"Thanks," I nod. This conversation is shorter than our usual these days.

We take a few bites in silent and I notice her pulling at a strand of her hair from behind her ear. Nervous habit? I haven't seen that from her before. "So how bad is it now that you're on Simms so heavy?" I ask rather seriously.

She shakes her head. "Come on, Mase, this is a nice meal. Let's keep it that way."

I furrow my brow slightly and nod. The minute dinner is over, however, I'm going to find out what made her tug at that hair.
 

We indulge in average conversation for the rest of our time at the table, but when we make it to my chair, which I manage to get to first, I see her tugging her hair again. Her 'tell' is rather obvious, and I appreciate the chance for a little insight. I have no intention to point out the fact that I'm able to read her a little more easily every time we have a chance to work together.

"So—" I try to start as she cuts me off only one syllable into my question.

"Don't bother," she says with her jaw strongly set, obviously prepared to shut down my line of questioning. "Work sucked. Simms didn't react well. End of story."

"Fuck that," I toss back. "We're partners, right? I'm not letting you shut me out of the investigation. Their behavior on-shift is important, and I need all the information."

She takes a slow breath and narrows her eyes at me. I stare her down with just as much grit.
 

"They simply attempted a new level of intimidation to the usual."

"Intimidation?" I repeat with anger. "What the fuck does that mean? If these minute little insects think they can threaten you with anything—"

"Don't you dare," she says. She's staring me down now, and suddenly
I'm
the target of her anger. "If you so much as
think
about trying to go all alpha-male and rush to my defense, I'll kick your ass myself."

"What part of the word
partner
do you not understand, Dig?" I say, trying very hard not to get in her face. "You don't have to put up with their shit alone. And I'm not trying to stand over you like some caveman dragging you around by the hair. We attack this the way we have with this entire investigation."

She's still staring me down.

"Seriously, Dig," I say. "You have to let me help, that's all there is to it. If not, they why the hell are we working on this together?"

She paces a few steps then turns to me, still angry, and hisses sharply, "I told you from the beginning, I'll handle things at the precinct."

"And I told you from the fucking beginning that we do this together," I grit, now getting genuinely angry. "You're pissing me off."
 

Does she not trust me to be beside her on this? Does she think she's taking this investigation on by herself now…and shut me out? Either choice is bullshit.

Getting louder, Dig retorts, "Don't even try it. You're not
in it
like I am, Mason. So go get behind your little camera and let me know how much your ass hurts from sitting so long." She starts walking to the door.