by E. K. Blair
“Just get lost, woman,” Logan snickered. He circled around her while Nate stayed in place.
Mason stepped back again and this time was effectively in front of me. He completely blocked me, even from her vision. I tried to shift to the side, but he moved back again and had me trapped against the wall. So I snuck a hand on his side and peaked around him. He didn’t stop me, but he tensed at my touch.
Logan moved again and all three had encircled her. She glanced around as panic started to set in her eyes.
Mason spoke, “We’ve been quiet, woman. We’ve taken your presence in this house like calm good little boys, but we’re not good little boys.”
“Not at all,” Logan’s hyena laugh came out. His eyes flashed hatred.
“What are you—what are you do..doing?” she stammered out.
Nate spoke in a calm voice, “We’re not going to hurt you.”
“No.” Mason shook his head.“But you are drunk. You’re wacko in the head and you’re being semi-abusive to your daughter.” Logan’s laugh gentled, but the sound still sent shivers down my body. “So we could say anything to you, do anything to you, and who’d believe you? Your own fiancé sent you packing tonight and went back to his dinner.”
“You guys wouldn’t...” She was white as a ghost and her eyes jumped between the three of them. Then she found me and held a hand out. “Sam, he—”
Mason moved again so she couldn’t see me. I heard a smacking sound and my mom cried out, “Ouch!”
I jerked behind him, but I didn’t know what to do. Help her or help myself? I burrowed my head in the back of his shirt.
“How do you think this is going to end?” Mason was back in charge, so cold. It was like he’d asked about the weather.
“I..I—I—what?”
“Do you really think we’re going to be bitches and let you talk to Sam like that?” Logan spoke now. “You’re screwed up in the head if you think you’ve got the power to do that, especially in front of us.”
“But—bu—you guys don’t even like her!”
Nate laughed.
Mason sighed. It was a pitying sound. “Don’t like her? We’d like anyone compared to you.”
She gasped. “But—I didn’t—your father—”
Logan snapped, “Stop choking like a little bitch. I thought you had bigger balls than that.”
“Wha—huh? You guys can’t talk to me like this...” But she didn’t sound so certain.
Mason taunted her softly, “What he doesn’t know, you’re not going to tell.”
“What?”
Logan came out strong, “Here’s the way it’s going to be. You’re going to leave—”
Nate jumped in, “You’re going to a hotel.”
“And you’re going to sleep off this drunk stupor,” Mason ended.
My entire body shivered as I listened. All three of them spoke as one unit. They moved as one and they had their sights on my mother. I pressed even closer to Mason, not sure what to do, if I could at all. Did I even want to? It’d been so long since someone protected me...
“I’m not that drunk.”
“You are.” He said it so smooth, so soft, and so chilling. Now he left me. I fell forward a step, lost from his warmth, but contained myself. He moved as a stalker, silent as a ghost. Then he motioned to Nate.
A second later, my mom whimpered out in pain. I had my hands in front of my face, but when Logan started laughing again, the sound was so delightful and so dark, I couldn’t hide anymore. I took a deep breath and looked up. He’d taken hold of the back of my mother’s head and tilted her head back.
Mason watched. He didn’t seem affected and then he motioned for Nate with his hand again.
“No-!” My mother screamed out.
“Come on,” Logan chided her and then forcibly pulled her jaw down. Her mouth snapped opened and Nate poured something down her throat. She convulsed forward, choking as liquid spewed from between her lips. Her back spasmed backwards then, but Logan didn’t let her go. He clamped her mouth shut again and ran a thumb down her throat. I watched as my mom fought, but in the end she swallowed.
They did it again.
And again.
After a fourth time, after Nate had almost emptied a bottle down her, he looked up. “I think that’s enough.”
Mason nodded and stepped back towards me again.
Logan swept my mother up in his arms. She’d grown weak during the ordeal and the fight had left her after the second time. Her eyes rolled back as she was cradled to his chest. When he turned for the door, Nate followed.
The door closed behind them and silence filled the room again. I couldn’t stop from trembling. My teeth were chattering. My arms were jerking all over and then Mason swept me against him. He cradled my head to his chest and ran soothing hands down my arm.
My hands took hold of his shirt and hung on. I couldn’t let go or I’d fall. I didn’t want to fall. When I thought I could speak, I choked out, “What’s going to happen to her?”
His lips skimmed my forehead, so soft. “She’ll go to a hotel and sleep it off.”
“But...” I took a deep breath.
His lips pressed another kiss to my cheek.
I held on tighter. When his hand swept down and caught my leg, I climbed up him, grateful for the hold. I was going down otherwise. “What if she says something to your dad?” What would she do to me? I hadn’t stopped it.
Mason lifted me so my legs were entwined around his waist. I hung onto him. My arms were wound around his neck. He ran a hand down my back as his other held me in place, splayed out on my bottom.
Then he kissed the side of my mouth and whispered against it, “She won’t. She doesn’t dare.”
I sighed as he kissed the other side of my mouth. My lips moved against his. “What do you mean?”
“Your mom’s a bitch and now she knows what we think of her...”
She knew what they could do to her. My body couldn’t stop shaking as I realized this and pressed my forehead into his shoulder. I held on tighter, but a thought nagged me. Why had he done that? Why had all three of them done that?
Mason chuckled against my hair. “Because she’ll shut up now. That’s why we did it. And because she needed to know we could.”
I closed my eyes and felt him moving. I had no idea where he was taking me, but I wasn’t going to ask. My body had stopped shaking and a different feeling had taken hold of me, one I didn’t think I could fight off. I didn’t want to. Need.
***
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Mason sat me on the couch in my room and started rummaging through my closet. The need throbbed in me, it was slowly taking over when he started to lift my arms and pull my dress off. I blinked up at him. He seemed cold, hurried. This wasn’t how I thought it would be.
My arms dropped back to my lap and I stared up. Desire was thick within me, blurring my vision. Why didn’t he kiss me? I wanted him to and I reached up to palm the back of his head. Something was shoved down my arm instead. He slipped it over my head too. When he lifted my other arm and pushed it through a sleeve, I realized he was dressing me.
“What are you doing?” My voice was raspy.
Mason tugged me to my feet.
“Wha—?”
He pulled up some pants and I looked down at myself. I was fully dressed, even with socks and tennis shoes.
I blinked again. When had that happened?
“You couldn’t go in that.”
I spread my arms wide. “Like what?”
“We’re taking off.” He went back to going through my closet. More of my clothes were brought out and stuffed in a bag.
“We are?”
“When your mom wakes up sober, she’s going to freak out. She’ll call my dad hysterical.”
“What?” I sat up further to clear my head. “They broke up...”
“No, they didn’t.” His head was in my closet again. “My dad called me and asked if we’d handle your mom. She got d
runk at his business dinner and kept going on about you and your dad. He couldn’t let her stay and he had to keep the meeting so we got babysitting duty.”
I watched as he kept putting things in my bag and then disappeared inside the bathroom. “What are you going to say when he calls about tonight?”
“The truth.” He came back with my toiletry bag. It was bulging at the zipper. “She kept drinking. You came home. She attacked you and then she started on us so we took her to a hotel.”
“What are you going to tell him why we’re leaving?” Where were we going?
“Nate’s parents called to invite us up. We’ll be back Monday or Tuesday we took you along so your mom wouldn’t start in on you again. It’s a long weekend anyway.”
“What if she tells him what you guys did?”
He stopped and stared at me. His gaze was piercing. “She was drunk and crazy. We didn’t do anything except to help.” He narrowed his eyes. “It should be four to one.”
Clarity slammed into me. I heard the veiled threat and surged to my feet. “You think I’m going to rat?”
He grinned and the tense moment was gone. “I didn’t think so. Check to make sure I got everything. I need to get my own stuff.”
“Where are we going? I don’t know what to pack.”
“Nate lives in the mountains, but he’s got a Jacuzzi.” And he left with those parting words.
My butt plopped down on the couch and I held my bag with numb fingers. It dangled from them to the floor. All I could do was sit there. What the hell had happened? And then I realized it didn’t matter. He had everything covered for me, even my clothes. All I had to do was go downstairs and go for a ride. Did I go?
An hour later as I stood in the foyer, waiting, I knew that question was irrelevant. There’d never been a question not to go.
A bag crashed next to me and I jumped back. Then a second later, another bag followed with a third beside it. Logan and Nate peered down to me from the stairway and Logan waved. “Sorry!”
I frowned up at them, but they disappeared. It wasn’t long before both were downstairs and in the foyer with me.
They looked happy, not happy—radiant. Logan was bouncing in place and Nate was bent over laughing at something. The two were full of adrenalin and excitement.
I shook my head. What was happening? It was all such a daze to me.
Then Logan threw his arm around my shoulder and jerked me against him. He breathed on me. “Are you ready to par-tay?”
“Party?” My eyes got big. “I thought we were going to the mountains.”
“Uh, yeah...with thirty others.” Logan sighed in exasperation and then frowned before he barked out, “Hey!”
I jumped again.
“What about your friends? You want to invite some of them?”
“My friends?”
“Yeah, that nerd girl and the quarterback who wants to bang you.”
“He doesn’t want to bang me.”
Logan squeezed me against him and tipped his head back. His hyena laugh came out. Nate started to join in.
“He doesn’t.”
Both kept laughing and shook their heads.
“He doesn’t.”
Mason appeared with two bags in one hand and a black duffel bag on his back. He rolled his eyes and pulled out his keys. “You can’t even lie to yourself. The douche bag has wanted to get in your pants for a long time.”
I looked around. All three gave me knowing looks. Then I threw my arms in the air. “I don’t even know why I was saying that.”
Logan reached out and caught my shoulders when I started to leave. He pulled me back against his chest and enfolded his arms over my chest. “Ah, our little sister, trying to be all nice and saintly.”
Mason snorted and opened the door. “Saints don’t set cars on fire.”
We all piled out behind him and Logan chuckled. “There’s that, yeah.”
When we got to Mason’s Escalade, my bags were picked up and thrown inside. Logan nudged me with his shoulder. “If you want to invite your friends, you better call them now. We’re picking up some others and heading out.”
I pulled out my phone. “What do I say?”
He shrugged. “Tell them we’re going to a kickass cabin for two days, but they have to be at Joe’s Gas Station in thirty minutes. A minute late and they’re dust.”
“Give ‘em forty. We have to swing by and pick up Marissa. She’s in town at her aunt’s.” Mason brushed past me for the driver’s seat. His hand swept against my thigh.
A small tingle shot threw me, but I frowned. Marissa again.
Logan gave me a knowing smirk, but headed to his own Escalade. After Nate and I got in Mason’s, they tore out of there. When I called Becky, her response was to scream. She didn’t say anything else, just started screaming and threw her phone aside. I could hear banging in the background, but disconnected the call soon after that. I could only imagine what she was doing. Adam’s response was more reserved. He didn’t respond for a moment, and then he said in a gruff voice, “I suppose I should make sure Becky gets there. We’ll take my car.”
After that was done and I’d put my phone away, the guys were quiet. Nate was looking at me and Mason kept glancing at me in the rear view mirror.
“What?”
Mason snorted again and looked away.
Nate gave me a polite smile. “Nothing.”
“What?” I asked again, but I knew they wouldn’t respond. And they didn’t. Neither said a word as we drove around town. At each house they stopped at, people would come out with bags already packed. A few got in Logan’s car, but soon two others drove their cars and filled them up. No one else got in Mason’s and then Logan’s Escalade pulled up next to ours. Each rolled down their windows.
“Go to the gas station and deal with all that stuff. I’ll pick up Marissa.”
Logan nodded and craned his head to meet my gaze. “Hop on over here, little sister.”
“What? Why?”
The two brothers shared a look, but Logan responded, “We need you there to meet your friends. You’re going to ride with them.”
“Oh. Okay.” And since that made perfect sense, I climbed out and got into his backseat. Two of his friends scooted over while another two jumped in the back with the bags. We took off one way and Mason went the other way.
When we got to the gas station, the sight was almost unbelievable. Twenty different cars were parked in the back lot and people were milling around. Bags were on the ground, some were being strapped on top of other cars, and then I caught sight of Adam’s car. He had parked in the far corner, away from the frenzy. When Logan parked, I hopped out, but he hollered at me, “Don’t go too far.”
I turned around and kept walking backwards. “You aren’t actually my big brother, you know.”
He flashed me blinding smile. “Not my intent, Sam, not my intent.”
I frowned and opened my mouth to ask what he meant, but he was pulled away by two of his friends. The smell of booze was ripe in the air and I knew the festivities had already started. As I got to Adam’s car, Becky yelled my name and I turned around. She had two plastic bags in her hands and she ran the rest of the way from the station.
When she got to me, she started to jump up and down. Her hair bounced with her. “I’m so excited for this! You can’t even believe me.”
I grinned at the sight.
“My giddy radar exploded at the top. I had to beg my mom to let me come. She almost didn’t, but I told her I’d do dishes for the rest of the year. I’m not sure if that was a good idea, but I don’t care right now.” She dropped both bags on the floor and grabbed my shoulders as she started to bounce around me. “I don’t care if I look stupid. I’m so excited, so excited.”
Adam’s car door opened and he stood up. He was watching her with wary eyes and ran a hand through his hair. “You wouldn’t be able to believe the sight I found when I went to her house. I swear the entire place had been thrown around. It
looked like a hundred raccoons stormed through it.”
She kept giggling and her eyes got bigger. “I don’t know what I’m more excited about, the cabin, that it’s a Kade party, or that we got invited and not Lydia and Jessica!”
“Yeah,” I had to admit. “There is that.” I glanced at Adam. “Your parents let you come?”
The small smile he’d had was wiped clean. His shoulders stiffened and I saw how his jaw clenched together. “They don’t have much say in me anymore.”
I was about to ask what had happened, when Becky gasped and stopped bouncing.
I closed my eyes. Oh no. It’d been too good to be true. A sense of doom filled me and I turned...
Becky’s mouth dropped and she pointed over my shoulder. “Look!”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Jessica, Lydia, Jill...and Ashley Decortts piled out of a car. Each of them had different expressions on their face, but none could hide their own excitement.
The ground fell out from beneath me. If they went, I wasn’t. Bottom line.
At that moment, Mason’s Escalade breezed to a halt. He parked beside Adam’s car and when he got out beside me, he saw my face. “What is it?”
I nodded at them. “If they go, I’m not.”
He followed my gaze and shrugged. “Consider it done.” Then he nodded at Nate, whose grin couldn’t be wiped off his face as he went in search for Logan. Mason stood next to me, but I couldn’t look away from what was happening. Nate found Logan and the two bent their heads together for a second. Logan’s head snapped up and he found me instantly. An evil grin came to his face and he snapped his fingers before he gestured to their car.
“Get ‘em out,” he hollered.
“No, no, no...” Jessica, Lydia, Jill and Ashley all started to shake their heads and hold their hands up in surrender. It didn’t matter. They were ushered out of there in record time. One of the guys pounded on top of the car. Jill poked her head out and snarled at them, but the guys started laughing and chucking bottles at them. Garbage was thrown next. They hurried to raise their windows, but it didn’t matter. Someone threw paint inside. Jessica was drenched and Lydia screamed from the back.