Page 46 of Rise By Sin

“I agree. I doubt that she got the best treatment with the shitty health insurance the police department offer, but I don’t think we should suggest it right now. The only thing she’s willing to focus on is Colt, and she is right. If that psycho has him, time is running out, if it hasn’t already,” Mace explained. I saw the worry and panic in his face, even though he was trying to hide it. To me Colt was one of my best buds, but Mason he was abrother, and losing him would devastate Mace almost as much as it would Ava.

“Did you find anything?” I asked. Mason had been in my office all afternoon, going through the surveillance footage his colleagues had gathered so far.

“I picked out the footage from the days before each disappearance, but I need Ava to sit with me as we watch it. She said she’d recognize him if she saw him so I’m hoping she was right and she picks him out fast.

“I watched the footage from Temple. It shows Colt leaving the night he left us the voicemails, but the cameras lose him just after he exits the club and I don’t see anyone following him. I’m just hoping Ava can spot him in the footage of the inside of the club on one of the day leading up to it.”

“She asked me to wake her when you were ready to start watching, but there’s no way I am. She needs to sleep,” I told him.

“I know, man, and I agree. Let her sleep. Did you send the applications to your contact?”

“Yeah. He said he’ll get back to me as soon as he has anything,” I replied.

“Good. Let’s hope me finds something. We should try to get some sleep too. The second Ava wakes she’s gonna want to get into that surveillance footage, no matter the time,” he pointed out.

“I’ll move her into the bed in the spare room,” I said as I flicked off the coffee maker, the both of us abandoning the coffee Mason had already started making.

“Where’s Deacon?”

“He had a shift at the club and he needed to draw up schedules for next week for the security team too. He said he’s sleep at his place tonight but wanted us to call if there was any update,” I explained. “He’s a good guy, Mace, and he really does seem to care about Ava.,” I added when I saw the tense set of his jaw at even the mention of Deak.

“I don’t question any of that, but he barely knows Ava. He doesn’t have the right to come here and try to snatch her out from underneath us.”

“He’s not doing that and you know it. We’re not exactly in the relationship we want to be in with Ave. She’s fighting it, so he didn’t steal her, plus he was clear today. He’s willing to be a part of a relationship between the four of us if that’s what she needs and wants. I think I can be good with that if it does turn out to be what she needs,” I shrugged. I knew Deacon better than Mace, having worked with him at the club since he started running security, and even before that when he simply played at the club. He was a good man. I knew Colt was closer with him, and if Colt liked him, it was usually a good sign. Colt was an excellent judge of character.

“I don’t want to have to share her with anyone else. It always just clicked with the you, me, and her. It was like the first time we took her through that first scene and made her come apart and fucking fly so easily, it was just meant to be, you know? I’d never have even considering sharing a woman, but the three of us, it was undeniable. We never should have waited for her to graduate before we told her how we felt. Everything could have been so different.”

“I know. I’ll regret that choice for the rest of my life, but at the time we both thought it was the right thing to do. She had big dreams and we didn’t want to fuck them up for her by distractingher at a key time. And I agree too that we were all meant to be. She’s ours Mason, but she has feelings for Deacon too and I don’t see how we can stop her from pursuing those. She’s had so much choice taken from her in her life. We can’t do anything to take any more of it.”

“You’re right,” Mason nodded. “But that doesn’t mean I like it.”

“Just try not to kill the guy. Play nice. Ava loves to play like she’s tough, but I see how much it breaks her when she thinks she upsetting one of us. We have to find a way to be okay with the possibility of Deacon being a part of our lives,” I pointed out.

“Why do you always have to right?” He growled, but with a twinkle of humor in his eyes.

“Trust me pal, it’s hard bloody work,” I joked as I mocked wiping my brow down with the back of my hand.

“Fuck you, asshole!” he laughed as he gave me a shove. “I might head over to the my gym for a few hours. You good here?” I knew he was trying to find a way to deal with his anger at the idea of including Deacon in our relationship with her. I was too if I were honest, but I’d do whatever Ava needed as long as I got to have her as mine. I would rather have one third of her attention that live the rest of my life in mourning for her as I had for the last decade.

“Of course. Go do what you need to do. I’ll ring you if we need you back here,” I assured him.

“I’ll keep my cell on me just in case,” he agreed as he grabbed his suit jacket from the back of one of the stools at the kitchen counter and shrugged it on, then he was gone.

I knew it would take time for him to deal with eh anger and jealousy he felt about Ava having feelings for Deak too, but I alsoknew he would get there. Like me, he would soon realize he’d do whatever it took to have Ava in his life.

AVA

I had no idea what time it was when I awoke, but the room was dark, no light peeking around the slatted blinds at the window, do I knew it was early.

I sat up, surprised by how much better I felt, and how little pain I was in. I had some pain in my lower back and thighs, but it was minimal and it had been a long time since I awoke and was able to move as easily I did. It was a miracle after the nightmare day my body had dragged me through the day before, and I was not going to waste it.

Moving slowly and carefully so as not exacerbate of set any other pain off I swiveled to sit on the edge of the bed and set to work pouring out the pills I needed to take, then threw them back with a sip from the water bottle sitting on the nightstand. I knew I was at Jack’s, but I had no memory of falling asleep pr getting to bed in his guest room. I guessed one of the guys had carried me in there after I dozed off.

I was actually smiling when I stepped out of the shower a short while later. It had been the easiest shower I had in months and I still wasn’t feeling any pain. Maybe the day of rest the previous day had helped. There was also the fact I hadn’t been drinking for over twenty four hours, which I was sure probably helped allow my pills to function more accurately too. That thought made me realize how soundly I had slept all night without alcohol to lull me there. It had been well over a year since that last happened, and I knew why. It was the guys – Jack, Mason, and Deacon. Knowing they were with me, and that they would protect me made me feel safe, not that I was going to tell themthat. Jack and Mace already seemed to think they could charge in and rule my life as they pleased. I’d be pissed if I hadn’t sort of given the permission to do just that the night before, when I admitted that I needed to be able to let go of control sometimes.

I sighed as I rubbed the towel through my freshly washed hair. I had no idea what was going on with me and the three of them, but I was in a tangle of thoughts that vacillated between scalding myself for leading them on and allowing any of it to happen, and basking in their attention, never wanting it to end. After so many years of fighting to be independent and never need anyone, not even my brother who fought like hell to take care of me, it felt freeing to just give in and let go. The issue was it also made me feel weak. Add to that my injury, which already made me weak, and the demons that never seemed far from invading my thoughts, and I hated the need I seemed to have to lean on Jack and Mace. Deacon too, if I were honest with myself.

I scoffed at myself at that thought though. Maybe trying to be independent and cutting everyone from my life, even Colt, had made me feel like I was stronger than I was, but it had all been a lie to myself and I knew it. I hadn’t been stronger. I’d been hanging on by thin threads. I had been depressed and so alone. A few more months in the direction I was headed I’d have either been a full blown alcoholic, or have just ended all of my misery, drowning in the darkness once and for all.

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