Page 32 of Mason

“Your bed is softer than mine.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes,moye dragotsennyy, that is so.”

“Then let’s go to bed.”

They got dressed, and Jo led him upstairs to her room, at peace with herself and her body for the first time in months.

Mason parked his truck in the visitors’ parking garage then took the elevator to his brother’s apartment. Nik and Lily were in the process of building a house in the family compound, as he liked to call it, but Mason didn’t know if they were keeping the apartment. He wasn’t here about that, though.

He rang the doorbell and waited. He had a key, but he tended not to use it. Lily was nervous as a cat when it came to physical contact, and he was afraid if he just walked in on her and accidentally bumped into her, she’d freak out. Nikoli would beat his ass if he caused Lily to have an episode. Especially in front of their daughter.

It didn’t take long before Nikoli answered the door, looking half-asleep. “Brat?”

“Morning to you too, sunshine.” He swept past him and into the apartment. Which was currently a mess. Baby toys and clothes were scattered all over the place. The only semi-decent area was the dining table where Nik’s business partner, Luther, sat working at a computer. He looked as tired as Nikoli.

“Is something wrong?” Nik shut the door as Mason made a beeline for the coffee maker and its heavenly scent wafting through the place.

“If by wrong you mean some fucker hacked my laptop, then yes, something’s fucking wrong.” Mason found a clean mug and poured himself a cup. “Where’s Lily and my girl?”

“Lily’s at work, and Rose is sound asleep, thank God.”

“She still not sleeping through the night?”

Nik shook his head.

“I keep telling ya, if you keep her awake all day, she’ll sleep like the dead tonight.” Luther looked up from the laptop. “Hey, Mase.”

“You try dealing with a cranky, sleepy baby all day and then tell me that.” Nik yawned and sat back down at the table. “Mason, bring the pot over here and tell me what’s going on.”

Mason did as he was asked and filled Nik in on everything, from the note Jo received to his hacked laptop. “I don’t know if the two incidents are connected. Viktor is looking into the package, but I was hoping you’d help me set a few traps in case the fucker goes after my laptop again.”

Nikoli didn’t say anything for a minute. Mason saw the anger burning in his brother’s eyes, the same anger he’d felt when he’d seen that damn package. “Has she gotten anything else?”

“Not that I am aware of.”

“What about her computer? Any weird emails?”

“I don’t know. She didn’t say anything to me if she did.”

“Find out.” There was a definite bite to his brother’s tone. “Leave me the laptop, and I’ll go through it. I may be able to back hack him.”

“I tried that already.”

Nikoli just stared at him.

Okay, okay. Nikoli was better with computers than he was. Not by much, but enough that he’d come here asking for help.

“Whatever.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the scrap of paper with his password on it. “I didn’t want to text or email this to you in case he’s in my phone too.”

“Smart,” Luther said around a gulp of coffee. “You’re picking a lot of shit up from KSI, huh?”

Mason grumbled. He hated to admit it, but the truth was, hewaspicking shit up from working at KSI. A year ago, he wouldn’t have thought twice about sending information over his phone or email.

A wail sounded, and Nik staggered to his feet.

“Sit, man, I got her.”

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