Razor: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance (19 page)

I shook my head. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing.” Brian was being a hypocrite in his quest to ensure Mason went to jail. “Mason should be rewarded, not punished. He exposed a corrupt politician’s murder.”

Brian ignored my argument. “It’s a shame, Carly. He has manipulated you and you don’t even know it.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but the door to the hotel room burst open and in stalked Mason, his face a mask of rage, blood running down the side of his face.

Oh my God
, I thought with horror, knowing that Mason must’ve fought through terrible pain to find me.

Andre moved to cut him off, but Brian gestured sharply. “No. I need to talk to him.”

Andre backed off, but kept a watchful eye as Mason walked into the room. He glanced at me to make sure I was alright and then turned his baleful gaze on his father.

“I knew you hated me,” Mason snarled, “but I didn’t realize you hated me enough to consort with these,” he gestured at Maddy and Andre, “lowlives.”

Maddy placed her hands on her hips, scowling at his insult. “Asshole.”

Both men ignored her and Brian walked over to face his son.

“Let Carly go, Dad,” Mason growled.

Brian made a face. “Let her go? Let her go where? Away with you?” He shook his head. “She can go wherever she wants, just not with you. You aren’t going anywhere. I’ve already alerted the F.B.I. — they will be here shortly.”

“Un-fucking-believable,” Mason growled. “That you hate me so much that you would have me put in jail and your own stepdaughter put in the middle of this.”

Brian glared. “I didn’t bring her into this, Mason. That’s all your fault. It’s time for you to face up to that — your callous attitude has been a thorn in my side for far too long and I’ll be glad to pluck it out.”

Mason looked extremely agitated, as if he still wanted to fight. “You know what, Dad? All my life, you’ve blamed me for everything that’s gone wrong in our family, including blaming me for Mom’s death. Well you know what? I’ve had enough!”

Without warning, Mason slugged his father in the face and Brian crumpled to the floor.

Satisfied that his dad was down, Mason moved to come for me, but Maddy stepped in front him, pulling out a gun.

Mason froze and quickly put his hands up.

“Don’t you take another fucking step,” she growled in a deadly voice.

I looked around, wondering what I could do to help us. The situation was quickly getting out of hand.

The only thing I saw that I could use as a weapon was the hotel room’s landline phone. But I’d have to rip out of the wall to bash Maddy in the head with it, and by the time I did that, she’d have shot Mason.

Brian stood up, yelling. “What the hell are you doing?! Put that gun away — we agreed that no one would get hurt!” He got up from the floor, his lip bloodied and swollen.

The room fell into silence. Andre was white in the face as if knowing the situation was out of hand. Even Maddy, who was the one with the gun, seemed unsure of what to do.

“Shut up!’ Maddy snapped shakily, her hands trembling on the trigger. I couldn’t tell if she was truly frightened or overjoyed at the opportunity to kill her ex-boyfriend. “All of you! No more talking!”

Brian held his hands out. “Maddy, you don’t want to do this. Regardless of what he’s done to you, it’s not worth taking his life over. You have my word — I’ll see to it that the authorities take him in. Whatever they want to do with him, let that be the end of it.”

I looked over at Andre, hoping to use reason to persuade him to my side. “Please,” I begged.

“Be quiet, Carly.” Brian commanded. “You’re going to make things worse.”

I ignored him. “Please Andre. You don’t have to go through with this.”

“Shut up!” Maddy yelled. “You especially,” she said, meaning me. “Why are you talking to Andre when I’m the one with the gun here?” Then she told Mason in a quiet voice, “On your knees.”

“No,” I moaned, hopeless despair spreading through my body.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time,” Maddy hissed. “Ever since you killed our baby.”

“It wasn’t his baby and he didn’t kill anything,” I yelled.

“One more word from you and you’re next!” Maddy snapped. Then she looked at Mason. “Razor, on your knees. Now!”

Mason glanced at me, and I was surprised to see no fear in his eyes. He wasn’t going to let Maddy see him scared nor was he going to beg for his life.

Before he could do as Maddy commanded, Andre stepped forward with his hand outreached. “Wait Maddy. I’ve supported you in everything that you’ve done, and I was willing to help you rough him up, but this is going too far. You don’t have to do this. ”

She tossed an annoyed glance his way before snapping back on Mason. “Don’t you dare!”

But that split second of distraction and Andre having a change of heart was all that Mason needed.

“Now Carly!” Mason shouted, dropping to the floor.

At his command, I jumped up from the bed and shoved Maddy as hard as I could. I cringed, thinking the gun would go off, but Maddy let out a cry of surprise and flew across the room, the gun falling out of her hands.

Mason jumped to his feet and rushed forward to grab me as Maddy made a desperate scramble to retrieve the gun, but Andre beat her to it.

He picked up the gun and pointed it at us, causing Mason to shove me behind him, using his body as a shield.

“Shoot him!” Maddy yelled at Andre as she climbed to her feet.

“Don’t do it man,” Mason urged, holding his hands up in surrender. “She’s just using you.”

I held my breath, thinking the worst, when without warning, Andre turned the gun on Maddy.

Maddy’s eyes widened with surprise and she took a step backward. “What the hell are you doing?” she demanded.

Andre ignored her and gestured at the exit with one hand while keeping the gun on Maddy. “Get out of here, you two,” he ordered us. “Before the cops get here.”

Relief flowed through me as Mason pulled me toward the door, but before we could take two steps, Brian stepped in our path.

“You can’t leave,” he told Mason. “You’ve got to stop this, son. You can’t keep running. You need to stay and face the consequences of your actions.”

“I did what had to be done to expose the Mayor, Dad. Maybe one day you will realize that. Now move.” Mason looked like he was prepared to remove his father by force.

Brian shook his head. “I’m going to make you stay here until the police get here—”

Andre pointed the gun on Brian. “Move,” he said flatly. “Now.”

Glowering, Brian stepped out of our path.

“Hurry!” Andre yelled as Maddy suddenly moved toward him, her eyes on the gun. He turned the gun on Maddy and she froze. Then he began alternating pointing between her and Brian.

Not needing any further encouragement, Mason pulled me along.

“You both are going to regret this,” Brian said sadly as we passed. He looked like he wanted to pursue us, but he obviously didn’t want to to take a chance Andre might shoot him. “It’s not fair to you or to Maddy!” he yelled.

As we reached the door and opened it, ready to flee down the hall, Andre called out.

“Razor!”

Mason paused, and we both tossed glances over our shoulders. Maddy was fuming, glaring at us with hatred, while Brian was eyeing us with disappointment.“Yeah?”

Andre grinned and saluted Mason with respect. “I always thought you were one bad ass hacker.”

A slight smile played across Mason’s handsome features. “Thanks.”

Then we turned and walked out.

T
he faire was still going
strong when we made it back to the street and Mason and I quickly blended into a crowd of revelers. The only problem we had now was getting to the meeting place in time and finding someone who could patch up Mason’s head.

“You did a great job back there by shoving Maddy on cue,” Mason complimented me, holding his head where he was hit by Andre as we slowly moved through the crowd.

Mason shook his head. “If you hadn’t done that, the crazy bitch would’ve shot me, I’m sure of it.”

“You might be right, but I could see hesitation in her eyes.” I motioned at his head. “We’ve got to get that patched up,” I said with concern.

“Not before we get the hell out of here. This place will be swarming with cops soon, if what Dad said was true.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. “That wound looks bad.”

“I’ll be fine,” Mason said firmly. “We can’t afford to linger for too long.”

We walked in silence for a little before I asked, “What do you think Brian is going to do?”

“He’ll probably wait until the cops get there and tell them what happened.”

I tried to be optimistic. “Maybe he will, maybe he won’t.”

Mason snorted with derision. “He just wants to see me punished for something — for anything.”

“But you know what? I think he knows now, deep down, that what you did was right. I just have that feeling.”

Mason frowned. “I don’t know about that, but maybe. Before I would’ve said no, but he did at least seem to care that I might get shot.” There was hope in Mason’s voice as if he saw there could be a reconciliation in the future and it made me feel more than a little happy as we continued off into the night.

“
M
ayor Bradley was arrested
at his townhouse early this morning on murder charges,” announced the newscaster as footage of the arrest flashed across the screen. In it, Bradley could be seen being pulled out of the house in his pajamas, his hands cuffed behind his back.

In the background, his wife held a hand over her mouth in horror as she watched her husband being put into a police vehicle, her children watching from the windows with frightened expressions.

“When pressed for comment, Bradley only said that he is innocent and that he will prove it once he has his day in court.

But there are those who say the Mayor is guilty as charged, and are rallying to see that he never see the light of day. One such person is Ashley Collins’ mother, Rosemary Collins, who was staging a protest outside of Bradley’s multi-million dollar home at the time of his arrest.”

The camera cut to footage of Rosemary being interviewed in front of Bradley’s home while protestors shouted in the background.

“If you ask me, the man should have never been elected Mayor in the first place. He was a damn crook from the very beginning and I don’t know what people saw in him,” she said.

“And what do you hope the outcome of this trial will be?” the reporter asked, holding a microphone in her face.

“That my daughter gets justice,” Rosemary sniffed.

“And what’s justice for you, ma’am?”

“Fry ‘em,” Rosemary said with a flat expression. “Fry him like bacon on a skillet. And Lord, I want to be there when they do. Ashley will be watching from heaven, smiling right along with me. You can bet your sweet ass on it.”

The reporter looked like he was holding back a laugh, knowing that would never happen even if he was found guilty.

We’d heard all we needed to hear, and Mason closed down the screen on the laptop. We were watching the clip on youtube. I looked up at him from where I was snuggled against his chest and smiled.

Once we escaped across the border, we’d taken Mason to a hospital where they basically just slapped a bandage on it and told us to go. Thankfully the blood had just made it look a little worse than it was.

“Well will you look at that?” he murmured, kissing me on the forehead. We were lying in a King sized bed after just making love, staying in one of the best hotels Mexico City had to offer. The luxurious suite was at the top of the building and had sweeping views of the city. I absolutely loved it. “Justice was served after all.”

“You think he’ll get the death penalty?” I asked, running my finger across his bare chest, enjoying the feeling his flesh.

“Of course not. But hopefully he spends the rest of his life in jail trying to repent for what he did.”

He kissed me again. “Thank you for sticking with me in this. The easy thing would’ve been to just turn me away or let me stay a night and send me off, but just know that I’m grateful for it. And I’m sorry you couldn’t use your fifteen minutes of fame to boost your career.”

“Why would I abandon the man that I love in his time of need?” I asked. “Even if he deserved it by leaving me all alone at the worse possible time.”

“Ugh. Don’t remind me.” Mason massaged my arm gently. “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.”

“Maddy was definitely something else,” I said.

Mason groaned. “Please.”

I grinned. “Well hopefully she gets put in an Asylum so she can some help. She definitely needs it. ”

Mason laughed. “It’s called a mental institution.”

“Even though she doesn’t deserve it, I do hope she gets the help that she needs.”

Mason pulled me into a warm embrace and kissed my forehead. “God, let’s hope so.”

“
I
have a surprise for you
,” Mason announced from the table he was sitting at with his laptop in front of him. He’d been typing for the past hour, driving me absolutely crazy.

I suspected whatever he was doing was important, because when I complained at him to type more lightly, he just ignored me and typed even faster.

I looked up from the newspaper I was flipping through. I didn’t know why I was
reading
it, it was written in Spanish, but I could make out a few words here and there and it was kind of an interesting way to try to learn another language while Mason was absorbed with whatever it was he was doing.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Well, I can tell with how you’ve been acting that a life on the run just isn’t for you, even though you won’t come out and say it.”

Damn
, I thought.
Was it really that obvious?
“Well, you’re kind of right to be honest. Why, what’s the plan?”

Mason grinned. “You’re not going to believe it.”

“Tell me.”

Mason grinned even wider.

He loved withholding information from me until it drove me insane. But I assumed this must be good news — I hadn’t seen him this happy in a while.

“Well I was thinking about what you said about Dad, about him finally realizing I’d done the right thing. Well, I gave him a call, and he’s helped broker a deal for my legal troubles.”

My mouth was open so wide a whale could jump through it. “Say what?”

Mason nodded, his dimpled smile reminding me of a beautiful sunrise. “You’re looking at a free man, baby!”

Whooping for joy, I jumped up from the bed and ran to his side, hugging him against me. “So when can we go back home?!” I cried.

“Right away, but,” Mason raised a finger to calm me, “there’s one catch, but it’s not a big deal.”

My jubilation evaporated like a drop of water on a hot day, even though he’d just said it was nothing serious. “What?”

“I have to agree to become a Cyber Security Consultant,” he informed, “and if I’m ever caught hacking again,” he made a slit motion across his throat, “the deal is off. I go to jail. Shadow isn’t going to like it — I owed him a favor, but he’ll have to get over it.”

It didn’t sound like much of a catch to me — it sounded like good news. We could return home and not have to be scared of police knocking at the door one day, and on top of it, Mason had a job.

“This really sounds too good to be true,” I said thoughtfully. “Do you think this is real, or is it just something your dad said? And what about Anonymous? Are they still angry with you . . .”

Mason eyed me with mock astonishment. “Carly Belle Washington, I’m shocked. You getting paranoid on me?”

I slapped him on the arm. “Cut it out. Seriously, you were right about everything thus far,” I shrugged.

“Well, I’m glad to know I’ve been such a good influence on you.” Mason chuckled and then shook his head. “But no, it’s real. This kind of stuff happens all the time. Haven’t you heard about hackers who get caught committing a cyber crime, but then get reduced sentences for agreeing to work for the government?”

“In the movies, I guess.”

“Well, that’s what I’m going to be. The government’s whore until I’ve worked off my debt to them. Anonymous is going to let it slide, but I’ll never be welcome back into their group again . . . which works out anyway given the terms of the deal.”

I bit my lower lip. “And what about Brian? You said he brokered this deal for you, but are you going to be able to find it in your heart to forgive him?”

Mason’s eyes grew distant. “Well, we had a long talk, a heart to heart I guess you could say. And although things aren’t perfect, and probably won’t be for a long time, we’re on the right track.”

“I can’t believe it,” I muttered. With the rift that had grown between Mason and Brian, I didn’t think the two would ever reconcile. “You two stubborn mules are finally coming around.”

Mason nodded, ignoring my jest. “That’s not all.”

“What do you mean?”

“They’re waiting for us just over the border. To bring us back home — Dad and Sherry.”

My breath caught in my throat. “Oh.” A couple of days ago I thought we’d be doomed to exile, always on the run, and now things were looking up.

I pulled Mason into the tightest hug I could manage, my heart overflowing with joy at the look of hope in Mason’s eyes . . . the hope for new beginnings. “That’s so wonderful! I’m so happy for you . . . us.”

Mason eschewed my hug and planted a giant kiss on my lips. “You damn well better be.”

“Wait,” I said, after our smooch was done, pulling back. “Does Mom know that we’re in a relationship?”

Mason pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Dad probably told her, but I don’t really know.”

“Ugh,” I said, dreading the moment. “I can already hear the bitching now.”

“You survived a crazy psycho bitch and being plowed by my monster cock, and you’re worried about a little complaining?” Mason joked.

I playfully smacked him on the face. “When it’s my mom doing the complaining, then yes. Yes I am.”

“We’ll have to take away your worries then.” Mason got up from his seat, picked me up in his arms and carried me over to the bed.

“What are you doing?” I asked breathlessly.

Mason grinned as he lowered me onto the bed and began taking off his shirt, exposing his rock hard abs. “About to give you something that you’ll treasure forever.”

“Huh? You’ve already given it to me, and I will treasure it forever,” I said looking down at his growing bulge.

There was a twinkle in his eye as he replied coyly, “That too. But I was talking about something special — someone special.” There was an odd lilt to his words that had me wondering.

My breath quickened as I looked again at the gigantic bulge in his pants, until his meaning finally hit me.

I began to protest, “but with everything happening, your new
job
, me starting my career, and our parents . . .”

Mason pressed a finger against my lips, shushing me. “None of that matters. All that matters is what we feel for one another. I’ve wanted one thing since you walked into my life, Carly Belle Washington, and that one thing is you.”

“And now a baby?” I asked incredulously. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This couldn’t be Mason Keller talking.

Mason shook his head. “Not just any baby. The most talented baby ever to be born. Razor version 2.0.”

“You’re insane!” I smacked him and laughed. Then I crossed my arms and scowled. “And who says I want you to give me said baby, huh? Especially at a time like this.”

“Come on Carly,” Mason urged, leaning forward to deliver a kiss to my lips that left me wanting. “You know want it. Let me put a baby in the oven.”

Shit. Mason was so damn irresistible when he turned on his charm. Who the hell was I kidding? Mason Keller wanted me to give him a baby. And if I knew anything, what Mason wanted, Mason always got.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, my heart filling with joy as I pulled him into a deep passionate kiss and then said, “Go for it.”