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She at least looks horrified, looking back and forth between Mason and me like we’ve lost our minds. Maybe I have, at this point.
“Our baby is sick at home and you comehere?”
“Okay, I think it’s time for me to go,” the woman says, wincing as she disentangles herself from Mason.
Unfortunately, for both her and me, Mason’s eyes never leave my face, but instead of the burning hatred I expected, there’s a flicker of amusement and something else that makes my body tighten as the girl disappears back into the crowd.
Puke and Ian look terrified. Mason looks like he’s ready to whip me for his own amusement.
“I’ll take a shot of whatever the most expensive vodka you have is, please?” I say to the bartender who nods at my request. “Oh, and you can put it on his tab. Right, honey?”
Now Mason looks like he’s ready to kill me. Or fuck me. I’m not sure which would be more terrifying, right now.
“Alright, Hannah,” he murmurs when the bartender slides me my drink. I down the shot, letting the silky sweetness slip down my throat. Listen, I’m no drinker, but I was in a sorority. You can only sit out so many frat parties before people start asking questions. “You have my attention. What do you want?”
“That,” I say, dabbing at the corner of my mouth and sliding the shot glass back on the bar. “Was for not telling me about the mysterious package that showed up at your mother’s house last week.”
I can see the darkness coalesce in his eyes the moment he realizes what I’m talking about.
“This,” I hand him the paper with Missy and Marcus’s address on it. “Is where we’re going.”
He looks down at the address, handing the paper back to me.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Is that so?” I raise my hand to the bartender, who nods. “Can you make it a double, please? Guess I might as well stick around.” I chuckle when he slides me another shot. I sit down at the bar beside Puke, who looks like I’m the Grim Reaper coming to collect his soul. “I’m no expert, but I think this vodka runs about fifteen dollars a shot. What’s that? Forty-five dollars for wasting my time? I think it’s worth more than that, don’t you, Puke?”
“Ye—Yes, ma’am,” he replies without looking at Mason.
I down my second shot, this one sliding down a little rougher because it’s a double, but I drink it anyway, because I have a point to make. Mason can’t avoid me forever.
Speaking of which, he stares down at me, his head cocked and his eyes portraying a bored indifference, even if the tick in his jaw tells me he’s anything but.
“Shall I continue?” I ask, sliding the shot glass up the bar again.
He stares at me for a beat, as if he’s trying to read my mind.
Still . . . he doesn’t reply.
I move to raise my hand again, but before I can, Mason’s scooping me out of the barstool and hoisting me over his shoulder, caveman-style.
“You can’t ignore me forever,” I grit, smacking at his back because that’s all I can reach at this angle as he carries me out of the bar. People around us hoot and holler, but he pays them no attention as he carts me through the front door and out into the parking lot beyond.
“Hey, Mason. Some girl was looking for you. She was real pretty,” Bill says still drunk as a skunk and in the same place I left him.
“Shut the fuck up, Bill,” Mason grumbles, marching me through the crowd.
“Thanks for the help, Bill!” I call and I yelp when Mason’s hand smacks my ass. “Asshole,” I grumble under my breath.
The group at the door dissolves back into drunken chatter, forgetting all about Mason and me. Don’t ask me why, but now that Mason’s here, they don’t seem all that bad. Drunk, but not scary.
Maybe it’s because I know none of them would actually hurt me with Mason around. Maybe it’s because facing Mason is far more frightening than anything they could dole out.
“You go, Red,” first woman calls, putting a hand on Bill’s shoulder to turn him away.
Mason deposits me right in front of my bright yellow bug and all the blood rushes to my head when he leans in so far, I have to slip up the hood to keep from being pressed against him.
“What kind of game are you playing?” he asks, voice barely above a whisper.
