Page 3 of Mason

“Yeah, yeah, go on.” Ben waved him off. “You know what’s going on already. I’ll let the brothers know I talked to you before you headed out.”

“I need to get my girl from work.” Mason really wanted to be here for this meeting, but Jo came first. She always would.

“It’s okay, man. I understand.” Ben straightened his shoulders. “I’m pissed. Whoever it was took all the brothers’ dues they paid, as well as the money left over from last semester.”

“Me too.” Mason waved to Keith as he let himself out. “This ain’t right. Brothers don’t steal from each other.”

Ben rubbed his forehead. “Man, no offense, but I don’t think of most of these people as my brothers. They’re just here for the party. My team…they’re my brothers. They’ve got my back when these fuckers don’t.”

Mason understood that. His team had been like his family when he played football too. Even he was tired of the frat and all the parties. “I always got your back, Ben. You can count on that. We’ll figure out who did this, and we’ll beat his ass then turn him over to the cops.”

“Fuck, yeah, and I wasn’t lumping you in with the rest of them. I always know you got my back, man.” He and Ben exchanged fist bumps. “Go get your girl and then get back here. The police are gonna want to talk to everyone, like you said.”

Mason nodded, not even bothering to change out of his pajama bottoms, but he did yank on a hoodie and then his coat. The slippers he exchanged for a pair of sneakers. He told Ben to keep the mug, he’d get it later, and let them both out of his room, locking it for the first time in the two years he’d been here.

Things were not right at his frat, but he had more important things to worry about this morning.

His girl.

Josephine Maxwell yawned. She was dead on her feet, but it couldn’t be helped. She’d gotten a job at the hospital as a registration tech. They’d called her in every day this week. Her paycheck was going to be well padded, but her paper due at the end of the week wasn’t going as well. She hadn’t had time to even finish the last of her research for her humanities class. Professor Knapp was a stickler for properly documenting sources. She’d already nailed Jo on two papers because of it. Jo couldn’t afford another bad grade in that class. Her scholarship was on the line.

At least she didn’t have classes today. That was a bonus. She hated going straight from the hospital to her morning classes after having worked the night shift. But she did it so she wouldn’t be broke. Living in the sorority house was expensive, even with her YouTube income. Helping her parents pay off her hospital bill and physical therapy expenses didn’t help either, but she wasn’t sticking them with thousands of dollars because of her own bad luck with a lawnmower.

“Hey, girl!” Beth Wilson came through the door behind her and sank down in the opposite seat. It was six in the morning, and they were both tired. “You about ready to get off?”

“Fifteen more minutes, and then I can pass out.” She closed her math textbook. At least the one good thing was she was able to catch up on some of her homework. She wasn’t allowed on the internet or to use the computer for personal things, or she’d be writing her paper while working. But other stuff she could do, like reading and working through her math homework.

“Did Sean give you your package?”

“Package?” Jo had only glimpsed the security guard as he patrolled throughout the night. He never stopped to talk. He took his job seriously.

Beth got up and went over to the desk where all the random stuff throughout the various shifts landed. She dug around and pulled out a small cardboard box with Jo’s name on it. “I saw it when I came in. You weren’t here yet, and I asked Sean to make sure you got it. He promised he’d mention it to you. The patients have kept me too busy tonight to get down here sooner.”

“Mrs. Jahns giving you problems again?”

“Girl, that woman!” Beth shook her head, her heavy mane of brown hair falling around her shoulders. It escaped the ponytail she’d originally had it in. “She has yanked her IV out three times and made it halfway down the hallway naked as the day she was born.”

Jo laughed. She knew the patient. They all did. Mrs. Jahns was in her eighties, and while she wasn’t senile, she enjoyed making as much work for the nurses as possible. It made her day. Jo suspected coming to the hospital was the only visitation the old woman got. Otherwise, she wouldn’t do things to draw so much attention to herself.

“Our supervisor was not happy, especially as she was the one who found her, and none of us was at the desk.”

Ouch. Jo would lay good money on the fact that Nurse Hatchet, as they all called the grumpy woman, ripped the nurses a new one. She was in a perpetual bad mood.

“Did you meet Sean’s brother when he was here last week? He’s cute. Shame he doesn’t live here. I’d be after that in a hot minute.”

“Yes. He introduced us. Nice enough guy, I guess. Sean said he worked somewhere down south. I doubt anyone would give up the beach for the cold.”

“You did,” Beth reminded her as she handed her the package.

Her name had been typed on the address label. She shook the package, but it didn’t rattle.

“Maybe Mason left a surprise for you?” Beth suggested as Jo opened the box. “That man is sweet as can be when it comes to you.”

“He’s bossy as can be when it comes to me.” They’d had a fight yesterday about her taking the bus to work. He refused to let her take public transit anywhere. He insisted on either driving her or loaning her his truck. She appreciated his concern—really, she did—but everyone took the bus. It was safe. The subway, she’d compromised on. She’d heard enough horror stories about women who’d been assaulted late at night to swear off it unless Mason or some of her friends were with her.

Pushing their argument from her thoughts, she used one of the pens to open the box. Inside lay a single folded sheet of yellow legal pad paper. Curious, she reached for it and read the message, “Hey, baby, I love you.”

Frowning, she chewed her bottom lip. The words were written out in bold print, neat and a little too large, but it wasn’t Mason’s handwriting. She didn’t recognize it at all.

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