Page 121 of Bang

"Maybe," she said, "but that's no excuse to get violent."

"I never said it was. I'm just saying, it sounds like Chase got exactly what he wanted. I mean, you said he was happy, right?"

"Sure, but what about Brody?" Arden said. "Hedidn't want that. Do you know, he's gotthreehouses going? And his brothers, they'resupposedto show up and look pretty for the cameras.

"Yeah, well…"

"Do you know what they'renotsupposed to do?"

"What?"

"Cause a giant ruckus on a work site. Do you know, we lost a whole day of progress thanks toyourboss?"

Hoping to lighten her mood, I teased, "Don't you meanyourfuture brother-in-law?"

"Oh, please," she said. "He hardly considers me family."

I couldn’t disagree, but Icouldsympathize. "Yeah, well, maybe he will after the wedding."

"Oh, please," she said. "You don't believe that any more than I do."

"Well…Maybe I'm trying to look on the bright side."

"With Mason?" she scoffed. "Thereisno bright side."

"Oh, come on," I said. "That's notquitetrue. I mean, he's really good to Willow."

"Yeah. And terrible to everyone else."

"But that's not true either," I said. "He's really good to his brothers, right?"

"Not today, he wasn't."

"Yeah, but we all have bad days. Why should Mason be any different?"

"I'll tell you why," she said. "Becauseallof his days are bad. I swear, he never smiles."

This wasn't true either.In fact, now that I thought about it, Mason had been smiling a lot more than he used to. And not just at Willow.At me, too.

Of course, there'd be no smilesnow. After all, we weren't even friends.

On the phone, Arden was saying, "I'm not even sure he's human."

As she said it, I couldn't help but recall how cold he'd been during our last phone conversation.

No. Not just cold.

Coldandcruel.

Who knows, maybe Arden had a point. Maybe hewasn'thuman.

And honestly, why was I bothering?

With the way Mason was acting now, he didn't deserve a champion. No, whathedeserved was a good kick in the pants – if not physically, then definitely verbally.

And just three hours later, I had my chance to give it to him.

Chapter 43