Page 46 of Mason

“He sent me flowers.”

What the what?

“He did what?” Mason asked softly.

“Earlier tonight, he sent a vase of flowers to the house with a note that said, ‘I forgive you.’ It creeped me out, but I didn’t pay too much attention. Between that and the email and now this, I’m really afraid, Mason. He knew where I was sitting when he texted me. He must have been watching me from the linen storage room.”

The fucker had been that close to his girl, so close he could have snatched her. Fury burned beneath his skin, but he kept himself steady, and his muscles relaxed. He had to be calm. Calm and Zen.

Jo tried to gauge his reaction to her revelation, but Mason gave nothing away from the sneak peeks she kept trying to get of his face from her position. It scared her that he wasn’t reacting. She knew Mason. He was the easygoing one, but when you pissed him off, he was as lethal as any of his brothers. He might not be showing it, but he was beyond furious. She could feel it pulsing off him.

“Hi.” She tipped her head up so she could look at him.

“Hi.” He smiled down at her, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. They were burning with rage. “You doing okay, baby?”

“Now that you’re here.” She snuggled into him. “I’m okay, Mason. Scared, but okay.”

His gaze fell to her wrist, encased in an air cast until she made an appointment with an orthopedic specialist. ERs almost never put actual casts on anymore. They left that to the specialists.

“Well, mostly okay.”

He nodded, not saying anything.

“Don’t be mad.”

He let out a breath. “I’m not mad at you, Josephine, just the situation.”

“I know, but I hate when you’re mad. It’s not you.”

Mason was one of those rare souls who never let anything bother him for long. He let it roll right off because he said it took more energy to be angry than to be happy.

“I’m sorry, baby.” His shoulders slumped. “I can’t help it. The thoughts of what some crazy person might have done to you…it makes me insane.”

“But I’m fine. I’m right here in your arms. I’mfine.”

She wasn’t, but he didn’t need to know that. Him being here was enough to start to wash away some of her fear. Didn’t stop her from jumping every single time someone went by her room, though, and Mason had picked up on it. He tensed every time she jumped.

The doctors came by again and signed her discharge papers. Instead of going home like she thought they would, snow on the ground or not, they instead went a few doors down in the ER. The sound of crying reached her ears.

“Mason?”

“I have to tell you something, JoJo.”

Uh oh. He broke out the nickname. It had to be bad.

“When Keith and I were leaving the frat, we stumbled upon some guys assaulting a girl. Keith and I stopped it, and he rode to the hospital with her.”

“I don’t even know what to say. That’s terrible, Mason.”

He nodded, looking all grim-faced.

“It was Cara, JoJo.”

She blinked and blinked again. “What?”

He nodded toward the room, and she looked in to see her roommate and friend curled up on the bed crying, with Keith standing there like he was guarding her. She looked awful.

“If you think it’s too much, we won’t go in.”

---