Page 26 of The Associate
“I do.”
It doesn’t take me long to get out of there. Carlos’s body will be left for whoever goes down there next.
It isn’t a pretty sight, but that is the whole point.
Now, it is time to get in my car and head back to the mansion for a shower and sleep.
Chapter 8
Genevieve
“Ahhhh!” I scream into my pillow.
I am so sick of being told where I can and can’t go. I am twenty-eight!
Why the fuck would he confine me back into this Godforsaken house again. I am already starting to go insane after five hours, but at least I am not under constant surveillance.
Lying on my bed, I roll over onto my back, staring at the ceiling.
Earlier, I had walked through the doors of the gym and caught a glimpse of a red flashing light in the corner of my vision. Fucking security cameras, but at least there hadn’t been anyone else in the gym with me at that time. I can cope with being watched from a distance.
I had made my way down to the basement gym and hit the treadmill before taking the rest of my frustration out on the poor unsuspecting bag. The face on the bag in my mind was my father’s.
I want him gone — no, Ineedhim gone — but what will I do if he is? Do I run this place myself, take his place? I would, but only if I have Mason to help me.
I think I can get him to.
Unless he has some secret alliance with my father, in which case I can get myself killed just thinking about it.
I want out of this place but if I kill my father and Mason helps me run Murwood, we can turn this organisation into a place that has the potential to be unstoppable. We can try and call in another organisation too, like Blackmere.
The new boss should be willing, right? He already wants to take me for his own.
I pull the pillow over my face again and scream into it once more before tossing it to the side. I feel like my world is crashing down.
A whimper comes from Mia in her crate. I would be going completely stir crazy if it wasn’t for her. I roll over to my side and look over at the clock. It is three-thirty in the morning.Well, it looks like I’m not getting any sleep tonight.
It is always a ghost town in this house at night. You would think big bad mafia men would be partying, doing drugs or living it up with a hooker somewhere, but no. My father runs this place pretty tightly. No one is ever allowed to sample the merchandise because, as my father says,I need you to be all quick-witted and not addicted, and only family or those extremely close to anyone is allowed in. He doesn’t like outsiders. Too much potential to let the wrong person in and go running back to his rivals, so he makes damn sure no one has any outside world connections.
The sound of the front door closing makes me jump. It sounds like a gunshot going off in the dead silence of this house. The only bedrooms on the bottom of the house are mine and my father’s.
I quietly climb out of bed and make my way to the door. I peek out to see if I can make out who is coming home at this hour of the morning.
Mason.
He pauses at the bottom of the stairs, my room down the hall from where they are. He could look up at any moment and see me watching him.
I want him to. What would I do if he did? I have wanted him for so long, and that night I saw him when I was eighteen, when I got to kiss him for the first time and made him promise he would come back made me think he wanted me too. But then Rhys took us to a new house in the early hours of the morning and I never saw Mason again, until my father dragged me back here.
Would I just give in to my urges on the second night of being reconnected with him? I need him to help me, but where do I start with that?
He places one foot on the bottom step and then his eyes focus on the direction of my room. He slowly unbuttons his shirt as his leg lifts up onto the step.
My eyes scan over his muscular chest, the tattoo that sits prominently on his arm. I lick my drying lips.
He clears his throat and my eyes flick up to his. He is staring straight at me with a cheeky smile playing on his lips. He knows I am watching and he doesn’t seem to mind one bit. Through the quiet of the hall I hear him like he’s right next to me, whispering in my ear, when he says: “Go to sleep, Viv, I will see you later today.” Then he continues walking up the stairs.
I close my door when he disappears up the stairs. “What the fuck just happened?” I breathe out.
