Page 4 of Mason

“What is it?” Beth leaned over her shoulder and read the note. “Ahh, that’s sweet. Mason really knows how to woo a girl.”

“This isn’t from Mason.” She dropped it back into the box. “First, it’s not his handwriting, and second, he’d never mail this to me. He’d come in here and tell me himself.”

“Then who’s it from?”

“Who’s what from?”

Both she and Beth jumped at the sound of Mason’s voice.

“Don’t do that,” Jo scolded him, but she felt the same rush of butterflies take flight in her stomach just like every other time she saw him. Even after months, he did that to her.

“Do what?” Mason quirked his lips up in amusement, staring at them both, his onyx eyes twinkling with mischief. The man was always in a state of happiness. She’d rarely seen him anything but.

“Sneak up on a girl when she’s already creeped out.” Beth fell down in the seat Jo had vacated.

Mason tilted his head, a frown replacing his smile. “Creeped out?”

“Someone sent Jo a note. I thought it was from you, but she says no.” Beth pointed to the desk, and Mason’s gaze swung to the box.

Jo reached for it, but he stopped her. “Don’t contaminate evidence.”

“You’re starting to sound like your brothers.”

He grimaced, and she almost laughed. Both Kade and Viktor wanted him to join their security firm, but Mason resisted at every turn. “I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. A prank, most likely.”

“What did it say?”

“Ummm…”

“Hey, baby, I love you,” Beth volunteered when Jo fell silent. She shot her friend a glare, and the woman shrugged. “He needs to know.”

“It’s a prank,” Jo insisted.

“Maybe, but I think we should at least call Viktor. He’ll know what to do.”

Jo nodded, thinking everyone was blowing it out of proportion. It was just a silly note. There was no need to go all investigative on it, but it if made Mason feel better, she wouldn’t complain. What would it hurt calling his brother, anyway?

While Mason made his call, she started gathering her things together and clocked out. Thankfully, they could do that from any computer in the hospital.

The one thing she was concerned about was the Kincaid men going into over-protective mode. They protected their women with a force unlike anything she’d ever seen. It was testosterone overload on steroids and something she didn’t need. But it appeared it was out of her hands, so she waited for Mason to finish his call.

Mason had come into the hospital with the intention of taking Jo to breakfast before dropping her at her sorority house and then going back to help Ben, but when he’d seen the look on her face…he’d gone instantly on alert. It was an expression he’d never actually seen on her before, and it upset him. When Beth told him why she looked so out of sorts, the same rage that had overtaken him last year when she’d been in the hospital hit him right in the chest. Jo had been through enough. She didn’t need some bastard leaving her cryptic notes. Prank or not, he’d put a stop to this shit.

“Do you know what time it is?” Viktor’s voice growled into the phone.

“Seven in the morning. You should already be up helping Sara with the boys.”

Viktor grumbled something unintelligible. “Fuck, she didn’t wake me up.”

“She wouldn’t.” That was the kind of woman his sister-in-law was. She put her family ahead of herself. Viktor worked hard to make sure she didn’t do that as much as she wanted to. He put in just as much work as his wife when it came to the kids.

“What’s going on?” Viktor yawned, and Mason heard him moving around in the bedroom.

“Jo got a package at work.”

“And?”

“And inside was a note that said, ‘Hey, baby, I love you.’”

---