AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Of course not,” he grits, brown eyes flaring with aggravation. “I’ve come to take you home.”
The room falls silent. Even the garage is silent as ice fills my veins.
Home.
“What?”
He sighs, rubbing a hand over his face. When he surfaces, he shoots me that Dad look that makes me feel like a petulant teenager and not a capable grown woman. An adult making her own choices, despite what everyone seems to believe.
“It’s not safe for you to be out on the streets. Not with who your mother is.”
“Mymotheris part of the problem. She won’t look for Missy.”
He takes my hand, a look of desperation flashing quickly across his face. “Let the cops handle Missy.”
“Missy’s my sister,” I snap, tugging my hand free of his. “And I’m not giving up on her. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“Yeah, your neck proves that.” he grits angrily, attempting to reach for me, again. He only misses because I stumble back into the counter. “While it’s admirable that you feel like you need to save her, Missy made her own bed, Hannah. I can’t protect you here.”
“She doesn’t need your protection.”
Both Michael and I fall silent as I turn to see Mason crowding the frame of the garage. It shuts behind him with a deafening metallic thud that seems to echo throughout the room. He looks at me only once, his stormy gaze searching my face like he can read me like a book before his eyes lock with Michael.
“Jesus Christ, Hannah,” Michael mutters, gaze sinister as Mason steps up behind me. I canfeelthe volatile rage seeping off him like black smoke. Michael looks about as thrilled as Mason does and the two do their little dick measuring showdown right over my head. I wish I could see Mason’s face, but I can practically feel the possessiveness radiating against my back.
Jesus.Men.
I’ve read about moments like these in romance novels. The two love interests face off for the main female character. I’ve always found it alluring, but this is not that and I don’t want to be stuck in a romance novel love triangle. Especially since Mason barely tolerates me and Michael’s just my best friend. Nothing more.
“So, you’d rather stay here than come home, Hannah Marie?”
Ihatewhen Michael takes that fatherly tone. As if I didn’t watch him eat a bug when we were nine years old because I dared him to. As if we didn’t grow up side by side all these years.
“Don’t call me that andyes. He’s actually beenhelpingme look for Missy instead of just telling me to sit back and let the men handle it.” I cross my arms over my chest because I’mangry, then quickly uncross them because I realize, maybe I really do look like an angry teenager.
“I didn’t say that.”
“No, but you implied it,” I bite.
Michael’s jaw hardens as if he has the right to be angry. I’m the one that keeps getting blindsided. I’m the one who’s standing in between two men who act like I’m the favorite toy at a preschool.
“I won’t go back to Sacramento,” I tell him quietly. He knows my reasons. I’m surprised he even thought to try. “It’s final.”
Michael stares at me for a long moment, as if he’s memorizing my face. As if he knows something I don’t. If I know Michael, though, he won’t tell me. Not unless he thinks I’m in real danger.
“Hannah, I need to take you home—”
“She said, no.”
“I didn’t ask you,” Michael grits.
“You didn’t ask her, either.”
Mason’s voice is cool and indifferent, though I can feel the simmering rage seeping off him. I can’t pretend to understand it. I know Michael’s only looking out for me, but I also can’t believe he doesn’t know me better than that.
“Go. I’ll text you,” I say, working to keep my voice amicable. I know he’s just worried about me. He’s just going about it the wrong way.
Truth be told, Mason’s is the safest place I’ve felt in a long, long time.
