Page 51 of Mason

“No.” Mason shook his head. “I’m not doing that to Jo or to myself. Shit like that follows you around. Someone somewhere will find the arrest record. I might want to run for president one day. I don’t need that scandal.”

“You’re as likely to run for president as I am to eat black licorice.” Kade snorted at the thought.

“You never know.”

“What we can do is bring you in for questioning, though.” Harper’s eyes went a little distant as he thought. “It would make the suspect think we’re on your trail and not his.”

“I can do that, just not today. It’s Jo’s birthday.”

And speak of the devil. His phone started ringing. Jo’s picture popped up. “Josephine? What’s wrong?” He knew her schedule. She should be in class right now.

“Mason, there’s a ton of money in my bank account that wasn’t there last night. I went to withdraw some cash and the balance is not right!”

She sounded panicked. “Calm down, baby.”

“Is she okay?” Nikoli and Kade both asked.

Mason nodded. “She just saw her bank account balance.”

“Let’s pick you both up. Today.” Harper nodded. “I know it’s her birthday, but we have to look like we’re doing something. I’ll call my captain and fill him in.”

“I just said not today,” Mason growled, frustrated.

“He’s right, Mason.” Kade didn’t look happy, but he looked determined. “For this to work, it has to look like the police found the trail when Jo found the money.”

“Fuck this. She’s isn’t part of this.”

“She is. When that money hit her account, she became part of it.” Harper stood. “I’ll have a uniform come pick her up. We won’t arrest her, but we’ll pick her up.”

Mason finally nodded. This was insane.

“Jo, there’s going to be a uniformed officer come pick you up. Don’t ask questions, just go with him. He’s not going to say why he’s there. We’ll explain everything at the police station.”

“Mason, what’s going on?” She sounded scared, and it felt like someone sucker punched him.

“Everything’s okay, baby. I promise. Just go with the officer, and he’ll bring you to the station.”

“Okay.”

“And, Josephine? Happy birthday, baby.”

Mason hung up with her after that, and he went with the two detectives down to the station to wait for Jo.

How had this situation gotten so fucked up?

Jo was mortified.

A police officer showed up at her sorority house. Girls stared, and she could only imagine the rumors that were going to start flying. They wouldn’t assume it had anything to do with her attack at the hospital. They wouldn’t assume that because the officer didn’t say anything, just asked her to come to the station with him to answer some questions.

She was good and truly mortified.

She’d tried calling Mason, but he wasn’t answering. He seemed to know what was going on with her bank account, so she hoped he would explain it sooner rather than later.

She’d been freaked out to see a grand total of fifty thousand dollars extra in her account when she’d looked at the balance on the ATM slip. Where the hell had that much money come from?

The police station was humming with traffic inside and out. Jo had never been in one before, so she was a little startled to see so many people in handcuffs. Several were working girls, others who looked like people she wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alley, and even more who looked as normal as she did. She had a feeling those were the ones who were a little more dangerous than the rest.

It was always the ones who seemed normal who held the darkest secrets. Or so said all the murder mystery novels she tended to read. They bypassed all the handcuffed individuals, and she was escorted to the third floor of the building and taken to interrogation room four.

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