Page 27 of Forever Your Touch (Manwhore #4)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Mason shook out his fist and flexed his fingers. The satisfying crunch of bone on bone was music to his ears. He and Keith were in the middle of delivering a lesson Ray would never forget.

“We told you she didn’t want to see your sorry ass.” Keith punched Ray again. “And you went to the hospital anyway.” Another punch to the face. “Asshole.”

“This is all your fault!” Ray lunged at Mason and he dodged it easily. “You’re the reason…”

“Uh uh. I told you if you treated her right, we’d be good, but then you went fucking fishing and left her to mow the lawn.

Why the fuck didn’t you wake me up, you sorry motherfucker?

I would have done it. Don’t blame this shit on me.

You made your own damn choices and now you’re going to live with them. ”

They’d just finished packing up the rest of Jo’s shit when the fucker showed up, all angry and ready to fight. He’d even thrown the first punch. Neighbors were out and could vouch for it. And even if they didn’t, the security cam would have caught it on tape.

“You’ve been after my girlfriend from day one and now you’ve got exactly what you wanted.

” Ray swung his fist and Mason caught it.

Ray didn’t have the advantage of getting an ass beating on the daily from five older brothers or playing football for years.

Mason could take a hit and stay standing.

Fortunately, the man could no more fight than he could take care of his woman.

Mason almost felt bad when he punched him again.

Almost.

“I’m not the one who left her alone and scared in the fucking hospital!”

“But she wasn’t alone, was she?” Ray asked, anger vibrating in his words. “You were right there.”

“Thank fuck he was,” Keith said. “Or my sister might be dead right now. No thanks to you, motherfucker.” Keith plowed his fist into Ray’s gut and all the air left the man.

He stumbled and fell to his knees. “You don’t deserve her.

You never have and now she’s finally wised the hell up and dropped your sorry ass. ”

Sirens wailed in the distance. It was inevitable someone would call the cops, but Mason had hoped it would take them longer than this to arrive. They were just warming up.

“Josephine deserves better than you,” he told Ray. “Hell, she deserves better than me, but I guarantee with me, she’ll always come first. She’ll never be left wondering if I care about her. She’ll always be my number one priority and you’ll never be able to say that.”

“She doesn’t love you.” Ray spat out blood.

“Maybe not, but she will.”

Rage flashed in Ray’s brown eyes and Mason smirked. Asshole knew it was true too. Josephine would love him as much as he did her when she realized it was okay to want something for herself. Mason was a patient man. He could wait until she was ready to admit to herself that she loved him.

A police cruiser came to a halt in front of the house and two uniforms stepped out. They took in the scene and then did a sweep of the street.

“We got a report of fighting.” The older officer came over to stand by them. His ebony skin glinted in the late afternoon sunlight and he was built like a linebacker. Not someone Mason would want to tangle with in a fair fight. Dude would obliterate him.

“We came over to pack my sister’s things up and her ex-boyfriend decided to take his anger out on us. He started it.”

“I did not!” Ray denied hotly. “You hit me.”

Mason nodded toward the camera on the porch. “Can’t lie when we’ve got evidence to back it up.”

“I want them arrested for assault.” Ray picked himself up, his face bruised and bloody. Mason was pretty sure he’d broken the bastard’s nose. “They’re on my property and I have every right to file charges.”

“You do, sir. I can arrest them, but I think the judge might have something to say about who to charge if this young man’s statement is true. You three might find all of yourselves under arrest if they decide to press charges.”

The second officer was across the street talking to the neighbors. This might be bad. Mason took out his phone and called Viktor.

“ Brat ?” He answered on the first ring. “Is something wrong with Ava or Jo?”

Damn. He’d forgotten Viktor went home to relieve Sara from baby duty. “Shit. I should have called Kade.”

“What’s going on?”

“Keith and I are about to get arrested. Think you can come bail us out or send Kade?”

“Arrested? What the fuck, Mason?”

He told him about the fight. “Shit.”

“Yup.”

“Don’t say a word until your attorney gets there. I’ll have him meet you guys at the station.” Viktor muttered a few choice words. “Does Jo know?”

“No, and I’d appreciate you not telling her. She doesn’t need to worry about this shit. She’s developed an infection and this will just stress her out more.”

“Okay. Let me call Brian. Remember, not a word to anyone until he gets there. Don’t even talk about it with Keith. Someone’s always listening.”

Mason thanked his brother and didn’t protest when he and Keith were bundled into the back of the police cruiser. Ray stood there, a wide bloody grin plastered on his face.

“Viktor’s having an attorney meet us at the station. He said not to say a word until the guy got there, not even to each other.”

“Truth man. Big brother’s always listening.”

When the cops got back in the car, the younger one turned to him. “I need your names.”

“I’m Keith Maxwell and this is Mason Kincaid.”

“Kincaid?” Officer Burly turned to face him. “Are you any relation to Kade Kincaid of Kincaid Security and Investigations?”

“He’s my brother and I work for his company.”

“Tell me the truth right here and now. Did you start this or did he?”

“He did. We were here to pack up Jo’s things.

She didn’t want to have to face the guy.

He threw the first punch. We defended ourselves.

When you watch the tape, you’ll see him continuously attack us until we were forced to defend ourselves.

” That might be a stretching of the truth, but he’d claim that until he was blue in the face.

Burly took a deap breath and got back out of the car.

“What’s going on?” Keith asked.

“KSI has done us some solids over the last year. I’m guessing the Sarge is going to try to make this go away.”

Mason watched as Ray argued with the Sargeant.

When the man took his handcuffs out, Ray took an involuntary step back, but the man just followed.

He turned Ray around and cuffed him and then the shouting started in earnest. Five minutes later, the cuffs came off and the two of them were let out of the cruiser.

“Mr. Daniels has decided not to press charges if you’ll both agree you won’t press charges either.”

“We won’t as long as he doesn’t try to see my sister again.” Keith cracked his knuckles. “She doesn’t want anything else to do with him.”

“Mr. Daniels?”

“Fine, she needs some time anyway. She’ll call me when she’s ready to talk.”

Good luck with that.

It took them another couple of hours to go and unload Jo’s stuff at her new home, the sorority house.

They’d put her clothes and shit in the room she’d be sharing with whoever and then they put all her electronics and wall padding in the basement room.

The house president promised it would be safe until Jo was well enough to come home.

Once Mason was finally showered and sitting in his room at his frat, the day finally started to set in.

“Shit, man, we almost got arrested.”

Keith laughed. “I knew the weasel wouldn’t have the courage to go through with it once he was gonna get arrested.”

“Such an asshole.”

Keith became serious. “So, about you and my sister.”

Mason cursed. Here was the conversation he’d been dreading.

“Yeah, man, I know she’s your sister and there’s probably some unwritten rule about that, but…”

“But you’ve been crushing on her since before you knew who she was.” Keith got up and pulled two beers out of the small mini fridge Mason kept in the room. “I get it. That’s part of why I never told you about her. I knew you’d make a play for her and I wasn’t comfortable with that.”

Mason ran a hand through his overly long hair. Fuck, he needed a haircut. “I love her, Keith. Yes, I had a huge crush on her, but now that I’ve gotten to know her, I fell hard. She’s the most important thing in the world to me.”

“Even though I pushed her towards you, I’m not going to say I’m okay with this. I thought I would be, but fuck man, the image of you and my sister is not one I ever wanted to see. The only thing that makes this even a little okay is that you’ll treat her better than fuckwad ever did.”

“Yeah, I will.”

“Ray’s not wrong, though. She might not love you and even if she does, she’s probably in so much denial, it’ll take you months to get her to face that. She loved fuckwad and that won’t go away overnight.”

“I know that. I’ve already planned for it.

I’m going to give her as much time as she needs.

Her sense of self-worth is so far out of whack, it’s not even funny.

She needs to understand it’s okay to put herself first. And that will take a shit load of time.

I’ll be there for her as her FIBB. I’ll be her shoulder to cry on, the man she can punch when she needs to.

I’ll make her laugh and I’ll help ease the pain. I got a solid plan here.”

“FIBB?”

“Fill in big brother. She thinks it’s stupid, but it made her laugh and that’s what was most important.”

Keith laughed. “FIBB. I like it.”

Mason shrugged and took a sip of his beer. He had to drive back to the hospital, so he wasn’t going to drink much.

“You think the house here will have a room for me if I transfer to finish my final semester?”

“You only have one semester left, man. Why would you leave school?”

“Because I know my parents. They’re going to fight hard to get Jo to come home and if I’m here, that’s one more reason for them to be more comfortable with their baby girl so far from home.

She wants to be here and I’m going to make sure she stays.

Plus I miss you, man. Going drinking isn’t as fun as it used to be. ”

“I miss you too.” Mason rolled his head, trying to alleviate some of the stress bunching at the base of his skull. “I’ll kick Dave out of our room. He can sleep in the basement. He won’t care anyway. Dude’s stoned most of the time as it is.”

“You’ll talk to the prez?”

Mason nodded. “Ben’ll be cool with it. He’s trying to recruit some better quality.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s a couple guys in the house who are into some shady shit. We can prove it yet, but as soon as they slip up, they’re gone. I’ve already warned them off Jo and vice versa.”

“You guys are on top of it then?”

“Yeah, just got to catch them doing something we can break their charter for.”

“I’ma use the shower. We can go back to the hospital as soon as I’m done.”

“Cool.” Mason got up and stretched out on the bed. “I think I’m gonna nap for a few. Wake me up when you’re done.”

He barely heard Keith’s reply as his eyes closed and the last two days hit him. It took him seconds to fall asleep.