Fallen Crest High (24 page)

She sneered at me. "And you'll never know. He'll never know about you, you'll never know about him. You can't leave me, Sam. I've all you got. David won't take you back. Are you kidding me? He's probably already got another woman, maybe even a kid too. He always liked to play the doting father type. Maybe he'll pick a son this time. The daughter he had ended up being a screw-up. You always picked the worst types, Sam. Jeff. Lydia. Jessica. They're your closest and they all screwed you. Even I knew it. You're the screw up."

When she was done, no one said a word. A fly would've sent echoes through the room, but then
Analise
choked out a simper. "Pack your stuff, Sam. We're leaving."

Mason chuckled.

She whirled to him. "What are you laughing about—
"

Logan and Nate jumped off the counter.
Neither grinned now.

She stopped whatever she'd been about to say.

And Mason stepped away from her, but towards me. He ushered me further back, at a safer distance from my mother. When he stopped chuckling, he shook his head. His voice came out bored. "Are you this crazy?"

She gasped.

Logan smirked.

"I mean, you're
effing
crazy if you think you can talk to her like this. This is how you talk to the one person who's stayed by you?" He rolled his eyes. "Look, this is your daughter, but if you think she's going anywhere with you when you're like this, you're delusional too. She's not leaving. You are."

Analise
went pale and her body stumbled back. It looked like a sudden violent wind had whipped against her. It came out of nowhere, but there was no wind.

"Just get lost, woman," Logan snickered. He circled around her while Nate stayed in place.

Mason stepped back again and this time was effectively in front of me. He completely blocked me, even from her vision. I tried to shift to the side, but he moved back again and had me trapped
against the wall. So I snuck a hand on his side and peaked around him. He didn't stop me, but he tensed at my touch.

Logan moved again and all three had encircled her. She glanced around as panic started to set in her eyes.

Mason spoke, "We've been quiet, woman. We've taken your presence in this house like calm good little boys, but we're not good little boys."

"Not at all," Logan's hyena laugh came out. His eyes flashed hatred.

"What are you—what are you do
..doing
?" she stammered out.

Nate spoke in a calm voice, "We're not going to hurt you."

"No." Mason shook his head.
"But you are drunk. You're wacko in the head and you're being semi-abusive to your daughter." Logan's laugh gentled, but the sound still sent shivers down my body. "So we could say anything to you, do anything to you, and who'd believe you? Your own fiancé sent you packing tonight and went back to his dinner."

"You guys wouldn't…" She was white as a ghost and her eyes jumped between the three of them. Then she found me and held a hand out. "Sam, he—"

Mason moved again so she couldn't see me. I heard a smacking sound and my mom cried out, "Ouch!"

I jerked behind him, but I didn't know what to do. Help her or help myself? I burrowed my head in the back of his shirt.

"How do you think this is going to end?" Mason was back in charge, so cold. It was like he'd asked about the weather.

"I
..I—I—what?"

"Do you really think we're going to be bitches and let you talk to Sam like that?" Logan spoke now. "You're screwed up in the head if you think you've got the power to do that, especially in front of us."

"But—
bu
—you guys don't even like her!"

Nate laughed.

Mason sighed. It was a pitying sound. "Don't like her? We'd like anyone compared to you."

She gasped. "But—I didn't—your father—"

Logan snapped, "Stop choking like a little bitch. I thought you had bigger balls than that."

"
Wha
—huh?
You guys can't talk to me like this…" But she didn't sound so certain.

Mason taunted her softly, "What he doesn't know, you're not going to tell."

"What?"

Logan came out strong, "Here's the way it's going to be. You're going to leave—"

Nate jumped in, "You're going to a hotel."

"And you're going to sleep off this drunk stupor," Mason ended.

My entire body shivered as I listened. All three of them spoke as one unit. They moved as one and they had their sights on my mother. I pressed even closer to Mason, not sure what to do, if I could at all. Did I even want to? It'd been so long since someone protected me…

"I'm not that drunk."

"You are." He said it so smooth, so soft, and so chilling. Now he left me. I fell forward a step, lost from his warmth, but contained myself. He moved as a stalker, silent as a ghost. Then he motioned to Nate.

A second later, my mom whimpered out in pain. I had my hands in front of my face, but when Logan started laughing again, the sound was so delightful and so dark, I couldn't hide anymore. I took a deep breath and looked up. He'd taken hold of the back of my mother's head and tilted her head back.

Mason watched. He didn't seem affected and then he motioned for Nate with his hand again.

"No-!"
My mother screamed out.

"Come on," Logan chided her and then forcibly pulled her jaw down. Her mouth snapped opened and Nate poured something down her throat. She convulsed forward, choking as liquid spewed from between her lips. Her back
spasmed
backwards then, but Logan didn't let her go. He clamped her mouth shut again and ran a thumb down her throat. I watched as my mom fought, but in the end she swallowed.

They did it again.

And again.

After a fourth time, after Nate had almost emptied a bottle down her, he looked up. "I think that's enough."

Mason nodded and stepped back towards me again.

Logan swept my mother up in his arms. She'd grown weak during the ordeal and the fight had left her after the second time. Her eyes rolled back as she was cradled to his chest. When he turned for the door, Nate followed.

The door closed behind them and silence filled the room again. I couldn't stop from trembling. My teeth were chattering. My arms were jerking all over and then Mason swept me against him. He cradled my head to his chest and ran soothing hands down my arm.

My hands took hold of his shirt and hung on. I couldn't let go or I'd fall. I didn't want to fall. When I thought I could speak, I choked out, "What's going to happen to her?"

His lips skimmed my forehead, so soft. "She'll go to a hotel and sleep it off."

"But…" I took a deep breath.

His lips pressed another kiss to my cheek.

I held on tighter. When his hand swept down and caught my leg, I climbed up him, grateful for the hold. I was going down otherwise. "What if she says something to your dad?" What would she do to me? I hadn't stopped it.

Mason lifted me so my legs were entwined around his waist. I hung onto him. My arms were wound around his neck. He ran a hand down my back as his other held me in place, splayed out on my bottom.

Then he kissed the side of my mouth and whispered against it, "She won't. She doesn't dare."

I sighed as he kissed the other side of my mouth. My lips moved against his. "What do you mean?"

"Your mom's a bitch and now she knows what we think of her…"

She knew what they could do to her. My body couldn't stop shaking as I realized this and pressed my forehead into his shoulder. I held on tighter, but a thought nagged me. Why had he done that? Why had all three of them done that?

Mason chuckled against my hair.
"Because she'll shut up now.
That's why we did it. And because she needed to know we could."

I closed my eyes and felt him moving. I had no idea where he was taking me, but I wasn't going to ask. My body had stopped shaking and a different feeling had taken hold of me, one I didn't think I could fight off. I didn't want to.

Need.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Mason sat me on the couch in my room and started rummaging through my closet. The need throbbed in me, it was slowly taking over when he started to lift my arms and pull my dress off. I blinked up at him. He seemed cold, hurried. This wasn't how I thought it would be.

My arms dropped back to my lap and I stared up. Desire was thick within me, blurring my vision. Why didn't he kiss me? I wanted him to and I reached up to palm the back of his head. Something was shoved down my arm instead. He slipped it over my head too. When he lifted my other arm and pushed it through a sleeve, I realized he was dressing me.

"What are you doing?" My voice was raspy.

Mason tugged me to my feet.

"
Wha
—?"

He pulled up some pants and I looked down at myself. I was fully dressed, even with socks and tennis shoes.

I blinked again. When had that happened?

"You couldn't go in that."

I spread my arms wide. "Like what?"

"We're taking off." He went back to going through my closet. More of my clothes were brought out and stuffed in a bag.

"We are?"

"When your mom wakes up sober, she's going to freak out. She'll call my dad hysterical."

"What?" I sat up further to clear my head. "They broke up…"

"No, they didn't." His head was in my closet again. "My dad called me and asked if we'd handle your mom. She got drunk at his business dinner and kept going on about you and your dad. He couldn't let her stay and he had to keep the meeting so we got babysitting duty."

I watched as he kept putting things in my bag and then disappeared inside the bathroom. "What are you going to say when he calls about tonight?"

"The truth."
He came back with my toiletry bag. It was bulging at the zipper. "She kept drinking. You came home. She attacked you and then she started on us so we took her to a hotel."

"What are you going to tell him why we're leaving?" Where were we going?

"Nate's parents called to invite us up. We'll be back Monday or Tuesday we took you along so your mom wouldn't start in on you again. It's a long weekend anyway."

"What if she tells him what you guys did?"

He stopped and stared at me. His gaze was piercing. "She was drunk and crazy. We didn't do anything except to help." He narrowed his eyes. "It should be four to one."

Clarity slammed into me. I heard the veiled threat and surged to my feet. "You think I'm going to rat?"

He grinned and the tense moment was gone. "I didn't think so. Check to make sure I got everything. I need to get my own stuff."

"Where are we going? I don't know what to pack."

"Nate lives in the mountains, but he's got a Jacuzzi." And he left with those parting words.

My butt plopped down on the couch and I held my bag with numb fingers. It dangled from them to the floor. All I could do was sit there. What the hell had happened? And then I realized it didn't matter. He had everything covered for me, even my clothes. All I had to do was go downstairs and go for a ride. Did I go?

An hour later as I stood in the foyer, waiting, I knew that question was irrelevant. There'd never been a question not to go.

A bag crashed next to me and I jumped back. Then a second later, another bag followed with a third beside it. Logan and Nate peered down to me from the stairway and Logan waved. "Sorry!"

I frowned up at them, but they disappeared. It wasn't long before both were downstairs and in the foyer with me.

They looked happy, not happy—radiant. Logan was bouncing in place and Nate was bent over laughing at something. The two were full of adrenalin and excitement.

I shook my head. What was happening? It was all such a daze to me.

Then Logan threw his arm around my shoulder and jerked me against him. He breathed on me. "Are you ready to par-
tay
?"

"Party?"
My eyes got big. "I thought we were going to the mountains."

"Uh, yeah…with thirty others."
Logan sighed in exasperation and then frowned before he barked out, "Hey!"

I jumped again.

"What about your friends? You want to invite some of them?"

"My friends?"

"Yeah, that nerd girl and the quarterback who wants to bang you."

"He doesn't want to bang me."

Logan squeezed me against him and tipped his head back. His hyena laugh came out. Nate started to join in.

"He doesn't."

Both kept laughing and shook their heads.

"He doesn't."

Mason appeared with two bags in one hand and a black duffel bag on his back. He rolled his eyes and pulled out his keys. "You can't even lie to yourself. The
douchebag
has wanted to get in your pants for a long time."