“We need to start planning,” I said right away, my mind racing with ideas. “We’ve got to clear your name.”
Mason shook his head. “Like I said in the beginning, they’re going to make an example of me. You just heard what the Sheriff said. I’m a wanted man.”
“There has to be a way.”
“I’ll go into hiding until it blows over and they stop searching for me. Maybe flee across the border.”
Pain lanced my side. I couldn’t handle Mason disappearing out of my life again.
Especially with how close we came to . . .
I shook my head vehemently, “No, you can’t do that. What we should do is—”
Mason’s dark scowl silenced me. “We are not going to do anything. Whatever happens next, I want you to stay out of it. You’ve done your part, now let me handle the rest.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. We were supposed to be a team. “But we’re in this together,” I protested. I hated how whiny my voice sounded, but I couldn’t help it. “I’m just trying to help you.”
“Don’t try to act like you care about what happens to me,” Mason growled, his eyes suddenly blazing.
I recoiled like I’d been struck. I had no idea where this sudden acid was coming from, especially since minutes before we’d been seconds away from having sex on my couch.
“Mason I—”
“The only thing you really seem to care about is how many hits your stupid blog has or how your career will take off as a result of this.”
Tears burned my eyes. What the hell was his problem? “That’s not true, and you know it! I care about Rosemary and getting justice for her daughter’s murder,” I swallowed back a lump in my throat.
“Oh cut the act, Carly.”
I stared long and hard at Mason, the stubborn line of his chiseled jaw and the fire in his eyes. He looked like he was . . .
This isn’t him, I thought suddenly. This isn’t Mason.
I wiped at my cheek with the back of my hand, struggling to get a reign on my emotions. “You’re just angry right now,” I sniffed. “And scared. You don’t really mean those awful things you’re saying.”
“I meant every word,” Mason growled.
I ignored him, regaining some of my composure. “Look, let me call the Sheriff and explain everything. When they confirm it was Mayor Bradley in the video, he’ll listen.”
“What aren’t you getting?” Mason snarled. “They’re fucking crooked as hell. Always have been, always will be.”
“Then let me call Brian,” I said as calmly as I could manage. “He has money and connections, he’ll be able to help—”
“We already discussed my father. I’ll only tell you this one more time. Dad has no interest in helping me. He’d give me up in a heartbeat.”
“So you keep saying, but you won’t tell me why you believe so strongly that he would. Why?”
“Because he doesn’t care about me.”
I remembered Mason’s anger back in the car. There was obviously something I was missing here. Mason believed that his father wanted him dead, but I’d never seen any evidence to suggest that. “If you would just tell me what’s going on, instead of flying off the fucking handle, and tell me what makes you believe he hates you so much.”
“You know what? Just stop bringing him up. It really pisses me off.”
“Oh yeah?” I snarled. “Well you wanna know what pisses me off? You suddenly turning into a major douchebag for no apparent reason.” Anger seared my breasts. I literally wanted to claw Mason’s eyes out. “You know what? Fuck you!”
Spinning on my heel and holding back tears, I ran from the living room, into my bedroom and slammed the door shut as hard as I could.
Fuck Mason.
Mason
Carly’s muffled yell reached my ears a second later, “Fucking asshole!”
I sighed and closed my eyes. Pretending to be mad at Carly when she’d done nothing wrong was one of the hardest things I’d ever done.
A part of me wanted to go after her, beg for her forgiveness and tell her I didn’t mean anything I said. The urge was so powerful that I began walking down the hallway toward her room and then stopped.
Don’t do it, I thought, heading back to the living room. I need to put distance between us.
Carly assumed I was being an asshole because I was scared of my impending capture, when in reality I was pleased.
I’d exposed the Mayor for the scumbag he truly was and it was only a matter of time before he was put behind bars.
What I was really afraid of, was Carly’s safety. It was clear that I was the one everyone was after, and I’d keep it that way.
Still, I wasn’t worried. I was confident enough in my skills that I could evade capture. I knew how to stay in the shadows.
Leaving Carly would be the hard part. And I didn’t know how I was going to do it. The first time I left, it nearly killed me. This time it probably would.