Page 78 of Iron

CHAPTER TWENTY

Iron

Mason walked into my office without knocking.

I looked up right as he dropped a turkey sandwich down on the desk in front of me.

“Abigail says you have to eat that,” he said with an amused smile as he took a seat on the other side of the desk.

His booted foot came up and rested on the opposite leg.

“She said the same thing to me,” he grumbled as he took a big bite of the matching sandwich in his hand. “You look like hell.”

“I can always count on you to be honest with me,” I said with a small chuckle as I reached for the sandwich. Taking a big bite of my own, I studied him. “You call that lawyer?”

He nodded while he finished chewing.

“I got passed off to someone else in the firm,” he told me. My brows furrowed because I wasn’t all that happy about it. “No, the woman is good. She doesn’t have a lot of experience, but she’s like a damn tiny shark.”

His lips tipped up on one side for a split second.

“You think she can help you and get this shit all straightened out?”

“I do. I think it’s going to take a bit of time but the way she’s going about it is damn smart. She wants me to start keeping track of every little thing.” He paused to take another bite and quickly swallowed it down. “Never go to war without weapons and armor.”

“The fuck? I mean that makes sense but where the hell did that come from?”

“Something she said to me,” he told me with another half smile.

“It’s so obvious it’s kind of dumb,” I told him with a chuckle.

“Yeah, but she was so intense when she said it that she kind of pulled off the badass-Viking-woman-roarthing.”

“Don’t go there,” I warned him with a hard stare.

“Nah,” he said with a shake of his head. “Don’t think I’m her type. Even if I was and stupid enough to cross that line, I’m not into women that like to boss me around.”

His brow went up as he looked at me pointedly.

My head fell back as I let out a laugh that shook my whole body.

Damn, that felt good.

It had been a couple of weeks since the funeral and Dade’s death was still sittin’ heavy on all of us. I couldn’t tell you the last time I actually felt good enough to laugh and forget for a moment.

“How’s Abigail doing?” I asked.

I’d been watching her. I wasn’t the only one. And while she wasn’t all smiles and carefree as she had once been, she didn’t seem like she was about ready to spiral out of control and drown in sadness, either. It could have been a front she was putting on. I wasn’t sure. But I was going to keep making sure that she was alright no matter what.

“I think she misses Dade, as expected, but I think she is tryin’ to stay focused on all the good things she still has in life. Charming and Blade have been keeping a close eye on her.”

“Yeah,” I grunted not sure how I felt about that.

“I think that Charming feels guilty that he couldn’t do more to save Dade. And Blade… well, the whole explosion thing.” Mason paused to think about what exactly he was trying to say. “I think there was some under-the-surface thing with the two of them. Like they both got hurt from that day, both almost didn’t make it out alive. I’m thinking that Blade feels like he has to step in and look over her like Dade would have now.”

He blew out a harsh breath and shrugged.

“I get you,” I told him because I could see it in his eyes that he didn’t feel like he’d explained it good enough. “As long as they aren’t making her feel uncomfortable.”