by Apryl Baker
“Did Ray play?”
“No. He’s as unathletic as they come. It’s why I was so surprised to see him on the bleachers that day. He caught me before I face planted and embarrassed myself even more.”
“He was there to talk to you.” Mason nodded, a knowing look in his eyes. “I’d have done the same thing if you were alone.”
“Do all guys think alike?”
He winked. “I’m not giving away secrets. I’ll get thrown out of the club.”
“What club?”
“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
She stuck her tongue out at him. “Such a dork.”
He gasped and put his hand over his heart. “Why, Josephine. I’m hurt. I’m a charmer, not a dork.”
“You keep telling yourself that.” Had no one ever called him on his bullshit before? He was funny, but at the same time, he had a huge ego.
He picked up his soda and took a long drink, eyeballing her. “Continue your story while I nurse my hurt feelings.”
Jo rolled her eyes. He was such a cute egomaniac. It was hard to ever get mad at him, let alone stay mad at him. She truly did feel sorry for the girls who fell for him.
“He introduced himself, and he asked me what game I was playing, and we got to talking from there. We almost missed the first bell warning us lunch was over. He met me at my locker at the end of the day and asked if I wanted to go out Saturday night. He knew I had a game on Friday.”
“He knew your schedule, which means he did his research. Another good move on his part.” Mason nodded and tipped his cup to the empty seat as if Ray were sitting there.
“We went out. Just a movie and a quick bite to eat at Logan’s Steakhouse.”
“Did he make you pay half on that first date?”
“No, it wasn’t until we’d been going out for a while that we decided to split the bill. It wasn’t fair that Ray had to pay for everything. He worked part time at a grocery store. He wasn’t made of money, Mason.”
He grunted but didn’t say anything. She suspected he disagreed strongly.
“Ray was sweet, and he made me laugh. I fell hard for him.”
“Why does your family have issues with him?”
This was where she became cautious. She didn’t want Mason to dislike him any more than he already did, and if she were completely open about her family’s feelings, he might end up on their side of the situation.
“I think it’s more that no one is good enough for their little girl.”
“Bullshit.” He set his cup down and leaned forward. “It’s more than that, or Keith wouldn’t have called me in the middle of the night to beg me to be your FIBB.”
“I don’t want their feelings to taint yours toward him, Mason. I want us all to be friends.”
“I make my own judgements based on my experiences with people. I don’t fall in line with the crowd. Keith’ll tell you that.”
God, she hoped that was true. She couldn’t stand fighting about Ray with even one more person, especially Mason. He was fast becoming her best friend.
“They didn’t like him from day one. Dad said he was too smoozy. Mom got a ‘vibe’ off him she didn’t like. My sister Claire, the only one home at that point, told me he was cute enough, but she didn’t trust him. When I asked her why, she couldn’t explain it. It was just a feeling. And Keith? He hated him from day one. Said he didn’t treat me right.”
“Why would he say that?” Mason fiddled with the lid of the pizza box and sat back. Jo could only guess what was going through his head. And none of it good.
“He didn’t think Ray put me first. He especially got irritated whenever Ray would come over and then rush us out. He wasn’t one to stay for family dinners and things. Keith said it was disrespectful to leave when all they were trying to do was get to know him. I can understand that, I guess, but that doesn’t qualify as him not treating me right. More him not respecting my family…”
Mason quirked a brow when she said that, and she slammed her mouth shut. Well, hell. No wonder her family didn’t like him. Why should they bother if he didn’t even put in an effort with them?
She’d never thought of it like that before. Not until the words tumbled out had she even realized they were true. It was a little disheartening.
“Okay, he was shitty to them. I get it.” Jo shook her head. How had she not seen this before? Because you had no one to compare him to, her inner voice whispered.
“Ray the first guy you ever loved?” Mason’s voice was quiet, but not judgmental. She appreciated that more than she’d ever be able to tell him.
“Yes, but I did have one other boyfriend I broke up with because he wanted sex and I didn’t. Ray was the first guy I loved, the first guy I had sex with, the first guy I moved in with. He was my first everything.”
“First loves can blind you to a lot of things.”
“Who was your first love?”
“Nadia in second grade. She was always taking my candy, and I didn’t think anything of it until I caught her giving it to Peter. My first love and my first heartbreak.” He adopted the saddest expression known to man and let out a heavy sigh.
“Poor guy.” Jo reached over and patted his hand, doing her best not to laugh and to ignore the electricity running along the length of her arm from that simple touch.
“Tragic, I know.” He pushed out his bottom lip much like she’d seen his niece do over the weekend. It was adorable on her, and on him, it was sexy as hell.
The doorbell rang again, and Mason jumped up and ran before she could even think about who it might be. He looked way too eager…her surprise! She followed him and found his brother Viktor with a box in his arms.
“Hello, Jo.” He shot her a quick smile. He still looked tired and worried, but there was a bit of relief in his expression. “There’s more in the car. Get your ass out there, Mase. I’m not carrying all this shit by myself.”
“What is this?”
“Your surprise.” Mason gently pushed her toward the box Viktor set down. “Go take a look while we unload the car.”
Jo stared after them as they went back outside, beyond curious. When she turned her attention to the box, she couldn’t stop the shriek from escaping when she opened it. He didn’t…how…no.
Hands shaking, she lifted out a 1080i graphics card. Then she noticed the best capture card currently on the market, along with a new webcam sitting in the box. She sank to the floor, the video card gripped so hard in her hands, she crushed the box.
“Hey, now, what’s the tears for?” Mason squatted beside her, alarmed. He thought she’d be happy. He hadn’t meant to upset her.
“Why did you do this?” Big blue eyes full of confusion and something akin to pain looked at him, and his heart clenched. A heavy pressure settled in his chest, threatening to cut off his air supply.
“Because you needed it, moye dragotsennyy.” He cupped her cheek, his fingers splayed out over her neck. “I did this because I wanted to see you smile about something today.”
“I can’t take this, Mason.” She tried to move away, and he tightened his hold on her. “It’s too much.”
“No, it’s not.” The feel of her skin made him want to run his hands all along her body, but he kept a tight control over himself. “I’m your FIBB, remember? It’s my job to look out for you and make sure you have everything you need. And that equipment in your studio is junk. I have this shit just laying around, so let me do what a big brother does, okay?”
She blinked, and a single tear escaped. He caught it with his thumb. “No more arguments, Josephine. Take this box upstairs while I talk to my brother for a minute. I’ll be up as soon as he leaves. And do your best not to break your neck going upstairs.”
Mason stood and helped Jo up, pushing her gently toward the stairs that led up to the spare bedroom she was using as a studio. He went into the kitchen, doing his best to ignore his brother’s troubled expression.
He shoved the unopened box of pizza at Vik
tor. “You hungry?”
“When am I not hungry?” Viktor asked and took the box from him. “What is it?”
“Supreme minus the mushrooms.”
Viktor took a slice and leaned against the sink. “Mason…”
“Don’t.” He held up a hand. “Don’t start in, Vik.”
“I’m your brother. It’s my job to take care of you.” He threw the words Mason just told Jo right back at him. “She has a boyfriend.”
“I know that.”
“What you just did for her was your equivalent of a dozen roses and a box of chocolates.”
“It was nothing, just shit I had lying around.”
“Bullshit. That’s some of KSI’s equipment. It’s a state of the art security system in there. I know you asked for it because you’re worried she’s here by herself, but you don’t borrow that for just anyone. You’re falling for that girl.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He turned away from his brother so Viktor wouldn’t see the pain he was feeling. Jo wasn’t just anybody. He wasn’t falling. He’d already fallen so hard there was no going back.
“I don’t want to see you get hurt, brat.” Viktor set his paper plate down and walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “This might not turn out the way you want.”
“You think I don’t fucking know that?” He turned away from Viktor and his sympathy, clenching his fists at his sides. The need to punch someone or something simmered under the surface of his skin.
“Whatever happens, you know I’m here for you, da?”
“Da,” he whispered. “Spasibo.”
“You’re welcome.”
Mason walked his brother out then went upstairs to find Josephine, his heart aching. They spent the next couple hours setting up her studio, and for once, he was grateful to escape. Being around her right now hurt more than anything else, but he knew he’d not be able to stay away from her long.
But for tonight, he needed the breather.
Chapter Eleven
All four of them met the plane. It had been years since Mason had seen his parents and his grandmother. He paced, as did Kade. Nikoli sat in one of the very uncomfortable chairs by the baggage claim working on his new game that was very hush-hush. He wouldn’t even let Lily, his wife, test it out. She was as big a gamer as Nik and Mason were.
“The plane’s landed, brat. Calm down,” Dimitri said, looking at the terminal boards. “They have to get through customs, and then they’ll be here.”
“I know. I’m just so worried about Papa.” Anxiousness ate away at his sanity thinking his father could die. It was a worry that never left him. He’d probably spent the most time with their father, including Nik. Ronin had taken the base job about a year before Nik left for high school, but Mason had stayed longer. He hadn’t moved to Virginia until his sophomore year. It gave him time to get close to his father. Just the thought of losing him nearly broke Mason.
They’d scheduled an appointment with best oncologist in New York, but it wasn’t until next Thursday. How were they supposed to get through nearly a week without knowing what was going on?
“How’s Becca doing?” Dimitri’s wife was close to the due date of their first child. No one knew if it was a boy or a girl because the baby had decided to be stubborn and not cooperate.
“Cranky, miserable, and ready to be done with being pregnant.” He sighed. “She swears if I ever put her through this again, she’s leaving me.”
Mason laughed despite his foul mood. Becca was the sweetest person he’d ever met. She never had an unkind word for anyone. If you didn’t know her, you’d think Dimitri could walk all over her, but that woman bossed his brother like nobody’s business. Mason adored her.
“You fuckers will be coming over the day the kid is born to help me paint the damn nursery. Becca has picked out two colors, pink and a soft blue. She refuses to let me paint it a neutral color like yellow. We have everything for the room, but until we know the sex, it’s an empty shell.”
“You put the furniture and shit together, didn’t you?”
“No. Becca won’t let me until the room is painted for fear we’d get a drop of paint on something.” He shook his head. “That’s what plastic sheeting is for.”
“Didn’t she tell me yesterday her brother is coming to visit when the baby’s born?”
Dimitri’s face went from disgruntled to unsure. “Yeah.”
“But?” he prompted.
“But I don’t know. Her brother just got out of jail. He’s an ex-con and a member of an outlaw MC. How do you tell your wife you don’t want her brother around because of all that?”
“Wait, her brother’s in a motorcycle club?” His eyes widened. Mason was fascinated with motorcycle clubs. He watched every show he could on bikes. He even had an old, rusted out frame of a bike in his uncle’s barn. Once he got his own place, he wanted to start restoring it.
Dimitri rolled his eyes. “Leave it to you to skip over the ex-con part and go straight to the motorcycle aspect.”
“Dude, chill. Becca loves her brother. From what she told me, the two of them looked out for each other growing up. I think if you try to keep him away from her, Becca will put the fear of God in you. He’s family. Ex-con or not, he’s always going to be her family, which means he’s our family too. Deal with it, brat.”
“Tío Conner!”
They both turned to see Kade’s son, Mateo, launch himself at Conner. The man picked the boy up and hugged him, a grin spreading across his normally stoic face. The kid loved Conner more than he did both his parents. Mason kept that observation to himself, though. He wasn’t sure what happened between Conner and Mateo down in Florida, but it left a lasting impression with the boy.
Mateo had been stolen from his parents at birth and raised in the Los Muertos cartel. Conner, Kade, and Angel went after him as soon as they discovered this, but a lot of mental damage had been done to the kid. Mason wasn’t sure Mateo would ever be truly all right.
“You’ve grown a foot since I saw you, sobrino!” Conner’s black eyes twinkled. Mateo was helping to bring Conner back from whatever dark place he’d been in when he came back from Afghanistan. They’d all feared they’d never get their brother back, but Mateo was helping to pull him back into the light. Mason would always be grateful to the kid for that.
“No tengo.” The little boy grinned with his denial. Mateo still spoke a lot of Spanish, but with everyone’s help, his English was almost as good as his grasp on his first language.
Mason spotted his mother first and all but ran to grab her up. Irinia Kincaid was tiny. She was barely five feet, but that never stopped her from bossing all the men in her family who towered over her by over a foot. She looked like Dimitri, all blonde and blue-eyed. Dimitri was the only Kincaid brother who hadn’t inherited their father’s black eyes and hair. Fucker stood out like a sore thumb in family photos.
“Mama.” He hugged her so hard she gasped. “I missed you.”
“My beautiful boy.” Irinia cupped his face and kissed his forehead. She’d never be able to do that if Mason hadn’t picked her up. “I missed you too, syn.”
“Don’t hog Mama, brat.” Kade tapped him on the shoulder. “The rest of us need a hug too.”
Mason released her and looked for his papa. The difference in his appearance from the last time he’d seen his father nearly crippled Mason. Ronin Kincaid had always been an imposing figure. His black hair was now a salt and pepper color that made his pale face stand out even more. He’d lost weight. Not just a little, but a good sixty pounds. He looked small and fragile. The cough that rattled out of his lungs made Mason’s hands shake.
Ronin was very, very sick.
“Mason.” His papa held out his arms, and he went right to him, letting him enfold him. He fought back tears. His papa didn’t need to see him break down. He had to be strong for him.
“I love you, Papa,” he whispered right by his ear. The familiar smell of Old Spice and tobac
co assaulted his nose. His father smoked all his life, and he was paying for it now.
“I’m not dead yet, boy,” Ronin grouched and pulled back. “Don’t you all start acting like I am.”
“You no be ornery to my deties, Ronin Kincaid!” His grandmother, bless her soul, was shaking her finger at his papa and demanding respect for her “babies.” God, he’d missed the old woman.
“Love you too, Babushka.” Nikoli swooped in and stole a kiss. “You ready to go trolling the old folks’ homes for your new man?”
“I need to find me some booty.” She winked at Nik when Irinia gasped. “You and Mason are still taking me, da?”
“Da.” Nikoli laughed at his mother’s outraged expression. “We have a date for next Friday night at bingo.”
“Do not encourage her!” Irinia’s lips thinned, but Mason saw the sparkle of laughter in her eyes.
“But, Mama, if we don’t encourage her outlandish behavior, who will?” Viktor asked mildly.
Irinia rolled her eyes but smiled when Viktor hugged her. “When do we get to see the rest of our grandbabies?”
“We’re headed to my house. All the women are there with the children.”
“Mateo, do you remember your abuela?” Conner was behind Irinia, and she jumped when he spoke. Fucker was always quiet as a cat. He still held Mateo, who was watching the reunion with curiosity. He’d met his grandparents once before but hadn’t seen them since.
The smile that graced their mother’s face could part the heavens when she turned and saw Mateo. “Hello, sweetheart.”
Mateo didn’t say anything; he just watched her. It reminded him of Kade. He was a trained FBI agent, and he tended to watch everything without trying. His son had picked up on that particular habit. The kid looked just like him too. A mini Kade with his mama’s piercing green eyes.
Eyes that sometimes looked dead. It didn’t happen so much anymore, thanks to Delia, but when that look appeared in his nephew’s eyes, it was a punch to the gut for Mason. Especially since he didn’t know how to help the kid.