Page 1 of Mason

“Wake the hell up, dickhead.”

Mason groaned and stuck his middle finger up at the fucker trying to roll him out of bed before daylight even attempted to chase away the dark. And not even a hint of coffee in the air either. Keith Maxwell was dead.

“Go away.”

“You have to pick Jo up at the hospital. I have to work.”

Shit. Keith told him last night he had to work, and Mason forgot, going to bed well after two in the morning. He’d been streaming on Twitch. Just bullshitting with chat, mostly, but he’d managed about an hour of gaming.

“Where’s the fucking coffee?”

“No time. I have to get moving. If I’m late again at the radio station, they’ll fire my ass.”

Mason rolled over and blinked open bleary eyes. “You really need to find a better job. One that doesn’t require you to get up at the ass crack of dawn. No,beforethe ass crack of dawn.”

“Don’t you think I’ve been looking?” Blue eyes zeroed in on him, eyes as blue as Josephine’s. Keith didn’t necessarily look like his sister, but there was enough similarity to know they were related when they were in the same room.

Fucker transferred to NYU for his last semester to be near Jo. He wasn’t necessarily happy Mason and Jo were together, but he wasn’t unhappy either. He knew Mason loved her and treated her like the most precious thing in the world.Moye dragotsennyy, he called her—my precious. Keith laughed his ass off when Mason told him what her reaction had been when she found out what it meant. Jo kept referring toLord of the Ringsand Sméagol. She’d been mortified at his term of endearment. God, he loved that woman.

“Dude, graduation is coming up. We both got to figure shit out.” Mason sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Viktor and Kade are on my ass about joining KSI.”

“It’s a good gig.” Keith tossed up the covers on his bed, his version of a made bed. Mason was worse. He didn’t even bother with that much.

“I know, but I don’t want to do that the rest of my life. I do okay with my YouTube channel, and I love computers, but security work is not my thing. It’s boring as shit.”

“Hey, I need to ask you something.” Keith’s face turned serious, and he sat down.

Mason yawned. “I thought you had to get gone?”

“I do, but this is important. I heard some of the guys talking last night. Seems we’re missing money from the house accounts.”

“What? That makes no sense. Ben told me yesterday we had enough to finance the new fundraiser to set us up for the semester.”

“I know, I’m just telling you what I heard.”

“I’ll go get his ass out of bed right the fuck now,” Mason muttered. “Don’t move. This shit is serious.”

He shoved his feet in the fuzzy slippers Jo got him for Christmas when she heard him complaining about how cold the floors were in the frat house. Ben’s room was down the hall from his, and he almost knocked, but then thought better of it. He didn’t want to wake the entire floor. Best to keep this quiet in case it was nothing. Didn’t want rumors started.

He cracked open the door and checked to make sure Ben didn’t have company. A loud snore came from the bed and its single occupant. Thank fuck. He slipped in and shook the guy’s foot. “Ben, wake the hell up.”

Ben came awake, blinking like an owl, his sea green eyes groggy. “What the hell, Mase? What time is it?”

“It’s not even daylight yet.”

“What the fuck?”

“Is there money missing from the frat’s accounts?”

All the sleep disappeared from his friend’s face. “Who told you that?”

“Is it true?”

Ben sat up and ran a hand through his black hair. It wasn’t quite as dark as Mason’s, but it came close. “Shit. I thought I could keep this under wraps.”

“It’s true, then?”

He nodded and let out a long sigh.

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