Page 22 of Magnetic Temptations

TWELVE

MASON

After Hydro declared church was over, I took Mane out for dinner at a local pub and spent some one-on-one time with her. The more we hang out talking about our hopes, dreams, and goals for the future, the tighter and more impenetrable our connection becomes.

The things that have kept me from committing to prospecting for the club, my religious beliefs, are growing hazier the more I learn about some people’s human nature. Why people treat others as disposable is beyond me, and I’m beginning to understand why the club does some of the things it does without worrying about the rightness or wrongness of their decision.

As the hours passed by, the more anxious I started to get. I hadn’t heard back from Maverick, and that could be due to a multitude of reasons, but it still left my chest tight and a sense of unease to settle there. Sitting on the edge of my bed, I shoot him one last text asking him for an update and plead with him to check in with me before deciding to call it a night.

Almost like he had it pre-planned, the moment my eyes close, my phone vibrates on the nightstand. Lifting it up and checking to see who the caller is, the pressure eases from me as I press the green button and bring the device up to my ear.

“Took you long enough, asshole. Cotton alright?”

“Not gonna lie, Mase, things are tense in that household,” Maverick grumbles. “Laura spent the entire time I was there in the hallway, eavesdropping on our conversation. I noticed her typing on her phone several times and assumed it was her sending out text messages but I wasn’t able to confirm that.”

“That’s good news, and I’ll get someone to check on your suspicions about Laura,” I reply, my mind wondering if she’s somehow gotten herself involved with Deputy Dickface. “If everything is good on that aspect of things, why does your voice sound off?”

“Because I’m more worried about what I came home to than I am about what I witnessed at Cotton’s,” Maverick answers, his tone low, sounding almost disembodied. Maverick and Myles stay together in a double-wide on the back forty of our family’s ranch. It’s a way for them to have some independence but still be available if Dad needs them for some sort of emergency with the animals or structural issues with the fencing or barn.

“Myles okay?” I ask, sitting up from my slouched position.

“That’s what I’m trying to determine. His truck is parked in its normal spot, his keys are hanging up on the wall hanger, his wallet is on the front entry table, his boots are by the front door, and his Stetson is on the coat rack but he’s not here. There are no outright signs of a struggle. When I tried to call him to find out what’s going on and figure out where he is since he left here without any of his stuff, his phone was ringing from his bedroom where I found it on the charger.”

“Was the door unlocked when you got back?” I question, trying to think of everything I can ask to get to the bottom of his disappearance. “Check his hamper and see if the clothes he was wearing today are in there. Maybe someone came by and needed his help with something around the ranch and he didn’t have a chance to grab his things.”

“He never walks out of this house, especially to do dirty work on the ranch without putting his boots on, Mase. Plus, that’s why I haven’t contacted you before now, I was making calls and nobody around here has seen him since he called it a day and came home.”

Worry crawls through me because he’s right. Even if he was somewhere on the ranch, he wouldn’t have left barefoot. He might’ve left his wallet and stuff there, but we learned at an early age that our heavy work boots were a necessity.

“Did you see him before you went to Cotton’s?”

“No, he was mending the barbed wire fencing on the west side of the property when I left here. Today was my day off so we didn’t cross paths the entire day, but I knew what his plans were when we talked about it last night.”

A small part of me misses those days when me and my brothers would go over our plans for the following day. Sometimes, we worked on bigger projects together, but most of the time, if a project wasn’t complicated and only required one of us, we’d split up in order to get things accomplished quicker. It was the only way to stay on top of the never-ending tasks of being part of a working ranch.

“Did you look through Myles’ phone to see if anyone called him, Mav?”

“Yeah, the fucker uses his birthday as his passcode so it was easy to break into. There were no incoming or outgoing calls after he left the field. He was last seen putting the tools he used away and waved to the ranch hands as he drove away. Everyone I spoke with said he headed this way. I have a bad feeling about this, Mase.”

I don’t voice out loud that my synapses are firing, telling me something has happened to our youngest brother and that I have a gut feeling he didn’t leave of his own free will. “Let me make a few calls, Mav. If he hasn’t made an appearance by tomorrow morning, I’ll make plans to head that way and help you search for him.”

“Alright, I think I’m going to drive through town and see if I can spot him. For his health, he better hope I don’t because I’m going to kick his ass for worrying us like this,” Maverick grits out.

“Have you told Mom and Dad about him missing?” I ask, wondering how they’re taking it.

“No. They know he’s not home, but I didn’t tell them about the weirdness of how his shit is still here because they’d freak the hell out.” He’s right on that aspect of things because our parents would immediately go to worse case scenarios and our mom would start walking the town in her nightgown and slippers.

“Keep it from them until you hear back from me,” I order. “Don’t want them to scour the town if he’s holed up with one of his hookups.”

I mean, I doubt that’s the case, especially with what’s transpired as far as the Kings receiving a request to ‘rescue’ Laura anyhow, but it’s possible. Although why he’d literally leave everything of importance, from his wallet and keys, to his boots and hat, at the house as though it’s all waiting for him is beyond me. Still, one of his ‘girls’ could’ve ridden over on a horse or an ATV, who knows? But that niggling sensation that something is very wrong persists.

“Still as bossy as ever,” Maverick gnarls.

“The work of an older brother is never done,” I tease, trying to ease the tension we’re both feeling.

“I’ll keep my phone on me in case you need me for anything,” he advises. “But I’m restless, Mase, I need to get out on the streets and see if I can’t track him down.”

“Stay sharp. We’ll talk soon,” I say as I disconnect. Scrolling through my phone’s address book, my finger hovers between Gunner and Hydro. I’m not a prospect but Hydro gave a specific order to the men and women who were part of the meeting and I don’t want to do anything drastic before taking things into my own hands.

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