Let Me Go (12 page)

“You. Damn, you sounded like a therapist for
about ten minutes and then you turn it around in five seconds flat
and make this an icebreaker. How you can flip like that, I don’t
know. But it did break all the tension, so thank you.”

Even in the dark, he saw a smile form on her
face, and it made him smile too.

“Tredwell.” The word just escaped his
mouth.

“Huh?” She used that word a lot,
apparently.

“My last name. My parents died years ago. I
was an only child. And you have to be a little bit more specific on
what you consider childhood and what kind of memory. If you are
talking ten and up, then it would involve a cute brunette named
Stacey that lived next door and a kiss. If you want something
deeper, then it was probably the first time my dad took me sailing
and taught me all the parts of the ship. I thought I was a grown-up
until I got seasick, and my dad felt bad all the way back. At least
I knew he cared.”

He wasn’t sure what made him open up and
answer her questions, but at the moment he didn’t care. He felt
normal for the first time in a long time, and he liked that. He
knew when tomorrow came, things would go back to the way they were,
but sitting here, in the dark, they were two different people. He
felt alive. If she wanted to talk, he would talk until the sun came
up and then some, until reality set back in.

*****

Kat stared at Mason. She didn’t actually
expect him to answer any questions. She just assumed that he would
chew her head off like he usually did when she talked back and send
her to her room. But he surprised her. And she didn’t know what to
make of it, but it felt right. If he was willing to open up, to
talk to her as if they were friends, she would take it, for however
long he was willing to give it. Her mind finally caught up to her
thoughts and she chuckled.

“Stacey, eh?”

“First kiss and all.” He laughed right back.
“We were behind the big tree in front of her house, and we were
stupid enough to think it shielded us from view. Until her mom
pulled up in the driveway and scolded both of us. Your turn.”

She grew serious. “I didn’t really have a
great childhood. I was bounced from foster home to foster home, but
when I was about ten, one of my foster brothers had a book he
needed to do a paper on for school. I was nerdy and the new kid, so
he thought he could get me to read it and give him a recap so he
wouldn’t have to read it. It was
Murder on the Orient
Express
by Agatha Christie, and although I didn’t understand
half of it and I was afraid of trains for a while after that, I was
able to lose myself in fantasy for the first time. After that, I
became obsessed with reading. I didn’t have to be myself or live my
life. I could escape to the fantasy that came alive in the pages.
Ever since then, I’ve been a book worm.”

“My library,” Mason mumbled to himself.
“That’s why you are always staring at it like it could save your
life.” It wasn’t a question, so Kat didn’t say anything.

It was another minute before Mason spoke and
he smiled again, sending Kat’s heart into a frenzied pounding
rhythm. It was rare to see Mason smile, but when he did, gone was
the angry scowl that was always on his face and instead, his bright
green eyes sparkled. “You know, Kat, I think I like this
get-to-know-you little pow wow.”

So did she.
And that’s exactly what
they did until the sun bled through the blinds, and they were too
exhausted to speak anymore. They fell asleep in a tangled mess,
neither realizing just how close they were.

Chapter 17

Mason woke and
immediately something felt off. It only took a few seconds to
realize he had an interesting sort of blanket covering half his
body, and by interesting blanket, he meant Kat. Her leg was wrapped
around his, her head lay on his chest, and her arm was around his
torso. Her shirt had ridden up a bit, and he got a glimpse of her
lean back. He had already admitted to himself that she was
extremely attractive, but that hadn’t mattered because she was his
enemy. However his body hadn’t gotten the memo. Seeing her on him
in such an intimate embrace was enough to make him groan in
approval.

His mind flashed back to before they fell
asleep in such a state. She had woken him from his nightmare,
comforted him, talked back to him, and then spent the rest of the
night talking. They hadn’t learned all that much about each other,
and yet they had at the same time. They shared memories, likes,
dislikes, jokes, book reviews, you name it; they talked about it.
They had steered clear of anything negative and more importantly,
they didn’t broach the subject of how they had gotten here in the
first place. From the outside looking in, someone might even
mistake them for two potential lovers trying to get to know each
other after meeting and hitting it off for the first time. Mason
had forgotten all about his demons and his situation. He had just
enjoyed the time he spent with Kat.

She looked so peaceful in her sleep. He was
able to study her, look closely at every part of her body that
wasn’t covered. She had no distinguishing marks, no lines, and no
scars. Her skin was almost flawless. He never knew what she used to
be hooked on, but he couldn’t deny that he was pretty shocked to
learn it wasn’t something that left marks on her. Maybe it was just
prescription painkillers.

He knew that she had been working hard day
in and day out, breaking her back to keep the place spotless. After
what she had been through the day before, especially after she
barely slept, he didn’t want to wake her. He slid out from under
her very slowly and carefully. She furrowed her brow at the loss of
contact but didn’t wake.

He got dressed and went to the living room.
And that’s when he had time to process everything that happened.
Damn!
He was losing his touch. He was getting soft. He was
starting to see Kat as a person, as a friend. As a beauty without
rival instead of the monster that she was, the evil person that had
accused him of rape for the sake of revenge. How did he let his
guard down? How did she charm him into oblivion? This couldn’t be
happening!

He picked up his phone, dialing Benny.

“Yo, Mason, how’s Kitty Kat doing?”

“She’s, well shit Benny, I’m losing
focus.”

“What’s up?”

“I had a nightmare, you know, from prison.”
Mason didn’t have to elaborate, he knew Benny would understand.
“And I guess I was talking in my sleep because she woke me up and
then stuck around to make sure I was okay. And then, well, we
talked all night and she fell asleep in my bed. It felt right. I
felt at ease until I got out of bed and realized how fucked up this
is. She’s my prisoner. I’m supposed to be breaking her will, not
playing twenty questions.”

“I told you I liked her, bro, and I knew it
was only a matter of time until you did too. Look Mason, I know
what your plans are for her and I’m not going to step in your way,
but whoever she was before ain’t who she is now. She’s all right,
you know? Can’t help how you feel about the girl she is now.”

“You’re not helping,” Mason growled.

“Oh? You wanted help, huh? And here I
thought you were turning into a girl and trying to gossip and talk
about feelings. So what do you want me to say? You want to break
her, then don’t be her friend, be her master. You want to humiliate
her, then go back to being your usual asshole self. Although, gotta
say I’ve been liking nice Mason lately. But, shit, that’s on
you.”

“I’m sticking to the plan.”

“Thought your stubborn ass would say that.
All right, then there is nothing I can do for you. Go be your
cheery self.”

He hung up pissed. What the hell was Benny
implying? That he should just let Kat go on her merry way and
pretend like she hadn’t ruined his life just because she’s all high
and mighty now? The future didn’t change the past. But her past had
certainly fucked up his future.

He’d let her sleep long enough.

*****

“Get up.” Kat heard an angry voice through
the fog of her sleep. “Up, now, you have all your chores to start.”
She tried to ignore the noise, but then someone was shaking her,
and her eyes opened to see Mason staring down on her. He had frown
lines around his mouth, and his lips were thinned into a hard
line.

“I understand you went through a traumatic
event yesterday and I appreciated your comfort last night, but
today is a new day. Get up. It’s almost lunch and I’m obviously
staying home, so get to it.” His voice was filled with resentment
and even a little annoyance, but that didn’t match up with that
regret still in his eyes. She stared at him dumbfounded as to what
was going on and then the memories flooded her mind. Mason
screaming, pleading, his nightmare, hugging, laughing, talking, and
falling asleep in each other’s arms. Things had been different last
night. But now, hard Mason was back, and she didn’t like it one
bit. But there was nothing she could do. She nodded, willing back
the tears. She would not cry. But, oh how she wanted to. She wanted
to cry for the indecisiveness she felt rolling off him in waves.
She wanted to cry for the loss of progress. She wanted to cry for
the change from the Mason she finally met last night to the one
that was staring at her now. And she wanted to cry for the entirety
of her life over the past few months.

She got up slowly, trying not to meet
Mason’s eyes before heading to her room to change. Before she
reached the door, she turned and lifted her chin, not ready to give
up in defeat. “It was really nice to finally meet the real Mason
Tredwell last night. I hope I get to see him again.”

She walked out with a smirk, noticing the
stunned look on Mason’s face. He wanted to play hardball after
finally giving in to her, then fine. He had better make sure he was
playing in her league, because Kat wasn’t giving up that easily. He
wanted to go back to being a hard ass, fine. Then he would have to
deal with her snarky comebacks. But one thing she knew for sure –
she had gotten through to him and she would do it again, one way or
another.

Chapter 18

The rest of the
week was pretty rotten. Mason had reverted back to the mean, moody
version of himself, and no matter how sickeningly sweet or even
snarky Kat became, he kept his walls up. He hadn’t even let her go
outside at all that week, knowing that was something she treasured.
It also prevented her from going crazy. Gone was all the progress
she had made and it was starting to piss her off. So the following
weekend, she couldn’t hold back anymore. She was cleaning off the
countertops in the kitchen, and Mason was reading the newspaper as
if no one was around him.

“Ugh! You are such an asshole!” she said as
she threw the towel onto the countertop.

Well, that got his attention. His head shot
up immediately and she saw confusion pass over his face before the
anger set in, but she didn’t care. Before he had a chance to
contemplate either stalking across the room or yelling at her, she
opened her mouth again.

“Look, I get that whatever happened between
us that resembled something very close to friendship either scared
you or pissed you off or…I don’t know what the hell it did to you,
but you are an even bigger douchebag than you were before!”

He gritted his teeth, but stayed in his
sitting position. If it wasn’t for how tightly he gripped the
newspaper, she would think he was pretty calm, even though his
words were laced with an edge. “Just because I was nice to you a
few times here and there makes you think we are friends?” He
laughed a fake, sinister laugh. “You are here for a purpose, Kat.
And in case you haven’t noticed, I don’t give a damn what you think
of me. You want to like me? Ha! You don’t know me.”

“I don’t know this asshole version of you,”
she tried to mumble, but it came out louder than she thought and
instantly knew he had heard her.

“What the hell did you just say?” he
snapped.

“I said you’re an ass!” she yelled. “Whoever
that guy I met last weekend was, he’s not you. He was vulnerable
and nice and understanding. I didn’t hate him. I didn’t even care
that he has me locked up, because I didn’t feel like he was a damn
prison warden. In fact, I actually liked him. He was real.
This…you.” She pointed at Mason. “Whatever the hell you are now,
that’s not real. You are just a shell of yourself. You put on a
tough exterior because you don’t want to face the deep-seated
issues that plague your mind and heart. And you find me as your
outlet. I am not responsible for whatever happened to you. I know
you’ll never believe me, but I don’t care. When you opened up to
me, I didn’t care that I’m stuck here thanks to you. I didn’t care
that I was almost raped being here because of you. I didn’t care
that I am your damn slave because I saw you as a real person, a
broken person. But, you, this asshole you are now, I don’t like
him. I hate him. And you know what, fuck you and fuck this work.
I’m done for today. You want to punish me, go ahead. I know you
won’t hit me, but if you want to take down my damn door and get rid
of whatever bullshit privacy I have, do it. It will be worth it.”
And with that, Kat left a completely stunned and speechless Mason
as she stormed to her room and slammed the door.

She was alone for only a few seconds before
Mason burst through the door. “You want to call me an asshole,
fine. Kat, I am an asshole. And I am your, what did you call it,
your prison warden. I already told you I don’t give a damn what you
think of me. I repeat, I am not your friend. You must have been
delusional to think otherwise. Now get back to work before I do
punish you.”

“No!”

“I think you forget who is in charge here.
And I think you forget what I’m capable of.”