Page 39 of Cassie
“No threat, son. Not a thread of that left in me for you. Just—” Morgan hesitated and his gaze cut back to Shooter. “Keep ’em safe.”
“And Ma? You said she gets confused. What does that mean? What did you do, Morgan?” Sirens sounded in the distance and Mason realized how long they’d stood here talking.Fuck, the barista. “How do I fix it?”
“Time. Keep her safe, and she’ll come back to herself. She gets scared easy, though. I did that to her, and for that I’m sorry. But she’s safe, ain’t she? So there’s that at least.” He took a deep breath. “Be good to her, yeah?” Morgan gathered his feet under him and rested an elbow on the back of his chair. “I loved ’em all, in my way.”
“Justine’s mom?”
Morgan nodded.
“What the fuck are you all talking about? None of that makes any fuckin’ sense.” Shooter’s gun wavered back and forth and he looked stunned. “What do you mean?”
“I hid her away, boy.”He calls me son, Mason thought. “Saw what you were coming to, what you were half-assed planning, and I took care of my own. You’d have killed her.”Myron and Bones were right. They both had guessed Shooter had something to do with why Morgan had hidden the women away for so long. “Taken her light from the world, and I couldn’t let you.”
“You showed me her body. Held my head and made me look at her. Burned. God, the stench. You didn’t care how I tried to get away from that scorched thing on the table. You told me to look, to see what happened when I didn’t take care of the people I loved. Made it my fault she was dead.” He pounded his chest with his free hand, the pistol steadying as his anger gained mass and speed. His chin dipped towards his neck and Mason watched as he struggled with the emotions. “Made it on me, told me if I’d taken better precautions, it wouldn’t have happened. I didn’t know she was going to be shopping that day, so how could I have assigned someone to her? But it wasn’t even her, was it? That body I watched over for two days wasn’t even my mother, was it? You,” Shooter’s head came up and he stared at Morgan, “took her from me.”
Morgan stared at Mason unblinking as he told Shooter. “I did.”
“You took her away. Made me think she was dead.” Morgan nodded. “I dug her grave and buried her. Pouring rain, I stood in a hole and shoveled mud. Buried her.” Morgan’s jaw ground back and forth, but he didn’t respond. “You lied to me.”
“Jesus, boy. Stop jawin’ and do it already.” Morgan’s head swung to the side and he aimed a furious glare at Shooter. “If Crystal hadn’t been so fuckin’ loyal, I would have wondered if you were even fuckin’ mine. Grow a sack, John. Fuckin’ finally, grow some nads and do it. You’ve been angling at killin’ me for years. Fuckin’ do it.” He pushed to his feet, towering over Shooter. “Fuckin’ do it.”
Sound roared in the coffee shop as John pulled the trigger. Red splotches appeared in Morgan’s shirt, the bullets’ exit wounds painting the window behind him red with blood and bits of flesh. He toppled backwards, thrown by the impact, his elbow striking the table and unending it.
Mason was ready as Shooter started to spin. He pulled his trigger just before Shooter lined up his gun, inertia carrying the man through the motion, and his gun fired a final time. Mason heard Bones grunt and fall, his cursing cry telling Mason it wasn’t a fatal wound. He and Bones continued to fire as Shooter fell in slow motion, the impact of each bullet causing his body to jerk and shudder.
Standing in the rubble of the coffee shop's front room, Mason stared down at the bodies of his father and brother. He took a long breath, then another before turning away. “We gotta go, Bones.” Reaching out, he gripped Bones’ upstretched hand, and then gave voice to what he was feeling in the only way he knew how. “Come on, brother. Let’s get you out of here. Nothing left to learn.”
As they made their way out the back door, Bones looked around. “It always seems odd to have the sun shining on such days.”
Mason levered him into the rental car and yanked a shirt out of Bones’ bag in the back seat. “Put that behind you. Don’t bleed on the seat if you can help it.”
“Not my first such moment.” Bones snarled when Mason hit a pothole at speed, jolting the man against the door. They drove in silence for a few minutes, rotating lights and sirens of the police headed towards the scene of the firefight fading away into the distance with every block. “You learned much.”
“I did.” Mason’s hands throbbed and he realized his grip on the steering wheel was tight enough to turn his knuckles white. “Jesus. He—” He cleared his throat, surprised at the wash of emotion sweeping over him. “What do you think was in his head there at the end? It was like hewantedShooter to pull the trigger.”
“I do not know, my friend. Their relationship was complicated.” Bones leaned forwards and groaned. “I cannot get my vest off. My shoulder is on fire, Mason. Maybe—” he groaned again, “—the old king was ready to die. What did you make of his words?”
“No more or less than I’d already believed. You gonna bleed to death?”
“No, I will live.” Bones granted him the topic change gracefully. “Where do we go, my brother?”
“I’ll find somewhere safe. Let’s just get a couple more miles between us and that back there.”
He’d made it fifteen before he pulled over and plugged in the device Myron had all traveling members carry. Within five minutes, he’d reassured Myron enough to get an address from him of a friendly doc in the area, and had Bones looked after.
Mason lifted the glass and finished drinking the water.Took the old man’s advice. It had been a road he’d already been headed down, having given Chase his head regarding the club. But in the years since, Mason had taken it a step farther, creating a cushion of space between the club and his family. Now, though, with Garrett near grown, and Dolly not far behind him, it would be time soon to take the mantle back up, leaving his sister and her man to pull away. He filled the glass again, studying his reflection in the windowpane. Movement in the room behind him wasn’t a surprise, because Willa didn’t sleep well without him in bed beside her.
“Honey?” She slid behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. Cheek to his spine, she settled against his back. “You okay?”
“Yeah, babe. I told you to go back to sleep.”
“That was three hours ago. I sleeped, and then I woked, and then I walked. Now,” she gave him a squeeze. “I’m here.”
“You know how much I love you?” He patted her hands crossed over his belly. “Know how much I love our family?”
“More than life.” She didn’t hesitate in her response and he smiled.
“I’d do anything for you.”
