“Is there something wrong with me being in a good mood?”
“Yes,” I said. “You’re supposed to be mean and grumpy while you choke me, or pull on my hair and shove things in places where they shouldn’t fit.” I even gave my hair a little tug to show him what I meant. “Not… this.”
I waved my hands over the pod person that had taken over Mason Kessler.
“Don’t worry, Freckles, I’m still all those things.” He flashed his perfect teeth at me and I wanted to slap the smile off his face. “This is just my pre-fight mood.”
This time it was my brow that arched. “So, you’re happy before you get beat up?”
That was messed up on so many levels.
“Okay, first things first, I’m the one that does the beating. And yes. I’m in a good mood before.” He grabbed my hand and shot me a wink before pulling me out the door. “Gotta keep my anger for when I step in the ring.”
Oh. I guess that made sense.
“So you’ll go back to being a jerk when you’re done?”
“Yes, Freckles,” he chuckled. “I’ll go back to being a jerk when I’m done. I might even punish you for calling me one.”
That shouldn’t be comforting, but it was. I kind of liked regular Mason. This guy put me on edge. When someone had seen the darkest parts of another’s soul, it was hard to accept the light. At least in my experience, anyway. The sun may come out to shine, but the clouds were always waiting near-by. And the longer it took for them to loom over the horizon, the worse the storm would be.
Mason Kessler himself was a force. I didn’t want to find out what would happen if he let those clouds build. There were plenty of people on his list. Including my father – who I still had yet to figure out how to save. There was a good man somewhere inside him, and that man deserved a chance to thrive.
We walked down the hall to the raven that spanned across the entryway, where another monster was leaning back against the wall. Logan Hudson had his ankles crossed while he stared down at the phone in his hands. A part of me hoped we could sneak past without being seen. That didn’t happen.
As soon as we turned the corner, Logan’s eyes rolled up. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Mason nodded at him. “You waiting for Shelby?”
“You could say that.”
Why else would he be here? Please don’t let him be coming with us.
A female voice I recognized to be Shelby echoed out from the kitchen. “It’s not that big a deal, Mom.”
“Not that big a deal?” said another voice I’d only heard a couple of times. “You are seventeen years old!”
“Lot’s of seventeen-year-olds get married.”
Wait… what? Logan and Shelby were married? When? How? I was pretty sure I didn’t miss a wedding. Then again, would they have invited me?
“This is exactly what I’m talking about.” Shelby’s mom sounded mad. “You are not old enough to make these kinds of decisions.”
Something crashed on the floor, urging me to tuck myself into Mason’s side. There were a lot of things in a kitchen that you could hurt someone with. I could almost hear the crack of a rolling pin smacking off my leg.
“It’s okay,” Mason whispered, while smoothing his hand down my back.
I jumped to wrap my arms around him when Shelby yelled, “I’ll be eighteen in two months!”
Why couldn’t they stop yelling?
“Oh, is that so?” her mom sang. “Well if you’re so grown up then maybe you should live with your new husband.”
Almost instantly Logan pushed off the wall. “And that’s my cue.”
I watched him walk away, then looked up at Mason. “Can we go?”
Shelby and her mom were still yelling, although now it was at Logan. I didn’t really care. I just wanted to get out of there. The haunted memories of painful strikes and hateful words were creeping up on me.
