“It’s that I need time.”

“Oh.” The smile fell away.

She began to get up, so I covered her hands with mine. “I was stabbed in the back by so many people in high school, it caused some damage inside me. I’ve only been able to trust Mason, Logan, and Heather for the last few years.” I squeezed her hands gently. “But more people have shown me I could trust them, and that doesn’t mean I can’t make some room for you, too.”

Ice ran through my veins. The more I talked, the more fear spread through me.

“I just need time. That’s all.”

She nodded, and her tears fell on our hands. “I can give that to you. Thank you, Samantha.”

She left, and a moment later, Mason and Heather came and sat with me.

“Did I just make a mistake?” I asked.

Mason didn’t reply. He just held my hand under the table.

Heather shrugged. “Fuck if I know. She was your friend in school.”

I sighed and over my shoulder I heard, “Uh…is this a bad time to announce my awesome arrival?”

I turned to see Nate coming over with Matteo. Both wore crooked grins. Nate spread his arms out.

“Come on, you guys. I know you want to line up to hug this motherfucker here. Don’t be shy. My awesomeness is contagious.” He winked.

Mason got up, shaking his head. “You were just on the phone with Logan, weren’t you?”

“Hell yeah, my Mason motherfucker. Come here, you gorgeous son of a bitch.”

The two clasped each other in a bear hug. Heather and I hugged him after, then moved back so Mason, Matteo, and Nate could converge, and a second later, they were laughing like giggling girlfriends.

Watching them, seeing the love between Mason and Nate, I couldn’t help but remember how Nate had messed up. He’d treated me badly at moments in high school, had sided with his fraternity against Mason in the beginning, and I knew he’d done other things, but Mason always forgave him. I asked him once why he did that, and his answer had been simple: “Because he was there for me at my lowest.”

Becky had been there at my lowest.

Maybe actual forgiveness was the right thing to do, and as my gut approved that decision, the tightness in my chest eased.

I felt Mason ease into the room.

My back was turned as I stared out the window, but I knew I was right when I heard the door click closed.

“You okay?” he asked.

I had no reason not to be, but I wasn’t.

“I’m trying to remember why we hated Becky and Adam so much in high school. I can’t remember.” I turned around, hugging myself. “I felt the anger. It was this surge. It was overwhelming. Mason, I haven’t felt like that since my mom, since I moved in with you and Logan in the first place. I…” What was going on with me?

“We’re older. The wounds are still there, but I get it.” He shrugged. “I’ve been having a hard time remembering why I loathed Quinn so much, too. I mean, I remember when he tried to take you from me, but the guy’s been easy to work with. I’m glad he got in your face tonight. It was a good reminder. That’s the guy I hated.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “I wanted to hit him.”

“Yeah.” I moved to sit with him. He leaned back, his hands finding my legs and helping me settle astride him. “What are you doing in here? Nate’s back.”

“And he’s talking to Matteo.”

One of his hands moved under my shirt. I felt its heat on my back, and I shivered.

He leaned closer to me. “I wanted to check on you anyway.” His mouth nuzzled under my jawline. His breath tickled me and warmed me at the same time.

I closed my eyes, already feeling the sensations of being too close to Mason wreaking havoc over me. My body warmed, and those flutters begin building in my stomach. I was a little breathless as I tipped my head forward, my lips searching for his.

This.

He answered, his lips finding mine.

The kiss was a gentle touch, a mere graze, and then he applied more pressure.

My need was building, and I sunk lower on his lap. His hands moved around my ribcage, sliding up and slipping under my bra. He cupped my breast, his fingers resting just next to my nipple. I wanted him to touch it, rub against it, flick it. He waited, our kiss deepening. I opened my mouth, and his tongue touched mine just as his fingers brushed over my nipple.

I surged in his lap, molding myself almost completely to him. He was teasing me. I moaned, just wanting more. I would always want more.

“Sam.” He pulled back, but kept his hand on my breast. The other went to my hip, and he pushed me down so I could feel him through his pants. Why were we still clothed?

“Hmmm?” I reached for his lips again. I just wanted them on mine.

He tensed when my mouth met his again, and he growled, “Fuck it.”

His free hand dipped into my pants, and ten minutes later, Mason was above me.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling him everywhere, and as he thrust into me, I knew all the talking was done.

MASON

I slipped from the room after Sam fell asleep. When I entered the kitchen, Nate was waiting with a beer in hand for me.

“Matteo took off. Something about a chick waiting for him?”

“He’s got a girl in Roussou.” I took the beer from him, gesturing for us to head outside.

He nodded, and once outside, we sat around the bonfire cage even though there was no fire. It was just the two of us, drinking beer in complete darkness.

That was when Nate asked, like I knew he would, “So what’s going on?”

I told him about my arrangement with my dad and about Caldron.

He let that sink in for a minute. “And your plan?”

“I can’t find anything on Adam because I don’t know what to press him with. I was thinking of taking a road trip to see if we can find something.”

“Road trip?”

“Way I’m thinking, if I was doing something illegal, I wouldn’t want it in my office.”

“Or at home,” Nate added, taking a drag from his beer.

“Both places that could get raided.”

“You’d put it somewhere off the grid.”

“Like a cabin.”

Nate was thinking just what I was.

“Does Adam have a cabin?” he asked.

“Becky mentioned a cabin on the ocean up north.” I used the exact words I’d overheard one night in the beer garden, making air quotes. “‘A big white house in the middle of nowhere.’ They talked about having us up there. Don’t know if they meant it or not.”

Nate grinned. “We have an address?”

I matched his grin. “I have an idea where it is.”

He leaned forward, held his beer up, and clinked it with mine. “Well, then, let’s add burglary to our resume. Lord knows we don’t have enough bad shit on there.”

I leaned back, taking a long drag from my beer. “It’s nice to have you back.”

He held my gaze. “It’s nice to be back.”

Matteo was great to have around. He’d helped in that fight, but he wasn’t Nate, and he wasn’t Logan. He wasn’t the guy I asked to do something illegal if it meant helping out someone I loved. And I wasn’t doing this for my father. I was doing this for Sam. If Becky was back in her life, then Adam was, too. And I didn’t care how much in love he claimed to be. If he’d had a hard-on for Sam in high school, it’d come back around again.

I wanted something on the son of a bitch if that happened.

“When do we go?” Nate asked. He looked like he might be ready now.

I finished my beer and tossed the empty bottle in the bonfire cage. “When Logan gets back.”

The next day, Petey eyed me our entire shift. After the thirtieth stare, I put down the washcloth I’d been using on the counter and turned around. “What?”

“What?” He jumped back. He’d been two feet from me.

“Either Keifer told you to keep an eye on me and you took that in the literal sense, or you want to say something. What is it?”

“Why are you here?”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”