Chapter 16

Alyssa

It's been a few hours since King and Niko left, and Mason is just sitting in an armchair, reading a book. Like, a physical book. Dressed in jeans and a dark-blue dress-shirt, he looks a lot hotter than I remember. I really didn't think I had a thing for forearms, but here we are. His sleeves are rolled up, exposing sinewy muscles and a dusting of hair that catches the light just right, making my heart do an annoying little flip.

It's not surprising that he has barely uttered a word to me. Even in high school, he rarely spoke. He just followed the other dumbasses around, ruling the school and finding time out of their day to fuck with me.

I still find it so strange that I'm allowing my former bullies to protect me and my child. They were so cruel to me. Now they're pretending to care about my well-being. I can't help but feel like I need to brace myself for when they revert to their former selves and stop with this whole charade.

I can't let my guard down with them completely.

I