55

Leilani

Mason said he was fine to take me to work, but he definitely didn’t look fine. I wasn’t in the mood to argue though, so he slapped a few bandages on the cut and we headed out. At least he wasn’t actively bleeding anymore.

Work crawled along like usual, especially considering it was a late shift. I hated doing the dinner rush and then getting some of the drunk idiots that came in late. I got off at one in the morning, and poor Mason was stuck sitting in a booth for eight hours doing absolutely nothing.

Not that he complained. He ate dinner, and then he ate a second dinner a few hours later. I tried not to stare at him too much or spend too much time at his table, but it was hard. The anger had long since faded, and that anger was replaced with this gnawing need.

Not to mention guilt. I hadn’t told him about the wedding getting moved up yet, because I was afraid of how he’d react.

I didn’t want to hurt him. Actually, I didn’t know if I could hurt him. Sure, we were fucking, and he said things that made me think it was more than just that, but I didn’t really know what he wanted. Maybe he was just using me for sex for a while, until I was finally married and not in his charge anymore.

Maybe I was overthinking this by a mile.

But I couldn’t help it. Mason didn’t exactly make any of this easy for me. He was a hard man and impossible to read, and I had no clue what he wanted.

And forget about what I wanted. Was he just a hard cock that made me feel good? I’d thought that at first, but the more I was around him, the more I realized it was much more than sex between us. We had something in common, were kindred spirits in a way.

It was all so messed up. As my shift wore on and the night got longer and later, I resolved to tell him. I was going to tell him as soon as it was over.

The clock hit midnight. I took a few orders, waited on a few tables, and suddenly it was one in the morning.

My feet ached as I gathered my stuff up. Mason was absently playing with a stack of saltshakers as I walked over to him.

“You all done?” he asked without looking up.

“Yeah, all done.” I sat down in the booth across from him. “But hold on. I want to talk before we go.”

“Talk away, princess.”

I took a deep breath. “Phoenix called me before we left my apartment earlier. They’re moving the wedding up. It’s two days from now.”

His face didn’t react. “Okay,” he said.

I was a little taken aback. I had expected a bunch of different reactions from him, but ambivalence wasn’t one of them.

“Um, okay, yeah. Just thought you should know.”

“Thanks, princess.” He slid out of the booth. “Where to now?”

I stood up, confused and a little hurt. “Back to the clubhouse,” I said. “I need to talk with Phoenix.”

“Got it.” He headed out to the parking lot.

I followed him slowly, not sure what that was all about. I didn’t need him to break down and beg me not to marry him or something crazy like that, and besides, Mason wasn’t that kind of man. But I thought he might be surprised or angry at least. Instead, I got nothing.

Maybe it was better this way. Maybe it was for the best if Mason didn’t care either way. I followed him out into the deserted parking lot, and we made our way over toward his bike.

I suddenly got a strange feeling. There was a large black van parked two spaces over from Mason’s bike. The lot was empty otherwise, and the streetlight seemed to be out.

“Mason,” I said.

Two men burst out from the van suddenly, coming at Mason.

I couldn’t believe how fast he reacted. The first man came at him with a knife, and he quickly dropped backward as the second man went around them both, heading right for me.

Mason stepped around the knife attacker and tackled the man heading toward me. I heard a struggle and saw Mason covered in blood. I dropped back, ready to run, but I couldn’t leave him there. The two men rolled again and someone grunted. Mason rolled away from the man, and I saw a knife sticking out of the man’s chest.

The knife attacker was heading toward me then. I didn’t see any vest or patch on his body, but his eyes were crazy. He was short and hairy, and he had this wicked grin on his face.

“Come here, girly,” he said. “I won’t hurt you.”

I couldn’t see Mason. I had no clue if he had been stabbed too or what had happened. I couldn’t think, so I simply turned and started to run as fast as I could.

But the man caught me. I felt him grab me from behind and lift me up. I tried to punch him and landed a blow to his nose, but that only made him curse and hold me tighter.

“Don’t fucking fight, you stupid bitch,” he said. “I’ll cut your pretty fucking face if you hit me again.”

“Help!” I screamed. “Rape! Help!”

“Fuck cunt,” he said.

And then he gagged and dropped me. I fell to the ground and looked up.

Mason had him in a chokehold from behind. The man tried to swing his knife, but Mason grabbed his wrist, twisting it, making the man lose the weapon.

“Leilani,” Mason said, “call the club. Get Noble, Dow, whoever down here right now.”

“Okay,” I said, breathless, and fumbled for my phone.

The man was struggling, but Mason dragged him back toward the van. I called Dad, and he answered on the second ring.

“Hey, sweetie,” he said. “What’s up?”

“Dad,” I said, “send some guys. It’s Mason. We were attacked.”

“Where?”

“The diner.”

“Stay there.” He hung up.

I put my phone away and walked toward Mason. He was struggling with the guy but had managed to throw him to the ground. Mason had his gun out and had it pointed at the man’s head.

“Mason,” I said.

He glanced at me. “I’m okay.”

His head wound was bleeding again, but he looked okay otherwise.

“You’re bleeding,” I said.

He grinned at me through the blood. “I noticed.”

“The guys are coming.”

“Good.”

I glanced back at the other man, lying motionless on his back.

“Is he dead?” I asked.

“Yes,” Mason said. “And you will be too if you make a move or a sound,” he growled at the other man.

The man just smiled at him silently, not moving a muscle.

I took a few steps back, my head spinning. Another corpse. Another dead body because of me. Mason had saved me again, and this time in a much harder, more violent way. He had stabbed a man to death, plunged a knife into his heart.

All because of me. Everything was because of me.