Page 64 of The Associate
“There are more?” he asks.
I sat up in bed, pulling the sheets over me, covering up just in case my father decides to barge into the room unannounced.
“You better watch yourself boy! I know you had something to do with this.” I hear the angry footsteps of my father stomping down the hallway until they disappear down the stairs. He is heading back into the sanctuary of his office.
A few minutes pass before Mason makes his way back into the room. He pauses in his tracks when he sees me sitting up, watching him. “I didn’t know you were awake.” He rubs the back of his head. He is nervous about something.
“It is kind of hard to still be asleep with you and Father outside the door yelling.” I fold my arms across my chest, pulling the sheet further up. “Where were you anyway?”
“I’m sorry.” He steps towards the bed, sitting down on the edge. “I knew you would be safe here because no one would dare enter my room if they wanted to live, even your own father. I had to go out and run a few morning errands.”
There is something in his eyes that says he is up to something, but he is not wanting to give me the full story. “What are you hiding?” I squint at him.
“Nothing.” He looks away from me. “Just leave it.”
“Okay, fine.” I turn to hang my legs off the edge of the bed. “So when are we going to see Rico?”
He freezes and his gaze looks around the room. I am confused as to why, because we had agreed to go and see him today, to see if he would help with our plan, but he shakes his head. “No, not today, not now. it’s not a good idea. Not with another threat coming to light.”
“But this would be the perfect time!” I raise my voice.
Why is he now resisting this idea when he had been all for it just hours ago? The look on his face tells me he is up to something and it is pissing me off.
“Not while your father is in one of these moods.” He sighs and closes his eyes. “He will hurt anyone and everyone if he even catches a whiff of someone trying to take him out of his own empire.”
I nod. I have nothing else to say because he is right. Growing up, my father always had me under lock and key. I was never allowed to play outside unless I was with my mother or one of his bodyguards, so I would always just wait until Mother was free. Most of the time Mother would leave me with Mason and he would sneak me out to the park down the road. It wasn’t until we escaped from Father that night that I started to learn what true freedom was.
The feeling of Mason’s hand on my leg through the sheets brings me back out of that hell I used to live in and into the current one I am living in now. “Please Mason, you know I need this for my own sanity.”
He nods in agreement. “Whilst I agree with that, I just don’t think seeing Rico right now is a good idea and we still need to train you for other issues that may arise.”
“Like what?” I lean back into the pillows again, keeping the sheet tight against my chest.
“Sal has his devoted members of this organisation following him and if they catch a hint of someone trying to kill him” — he pauses, staring into my eyes — “they will shoot first, ask questions later and if you do plan on taking this place for yourself after he is gone, you have to be prepared for some of them not to accept you.”
“So what do we do?” I ask. I don’t want to be taken out the moment I kill my father. How could I make those devoted to him follow me instead? I need to think of a way to make them see just how much of a disgusting man he is. That he will do anything to remain on top, even hurting his own daughter.
“We wait” is all he says.
“Wait? You want me to just sit here like a sitting duck and wait for him to hurt me again?” My chest is tight and my voice is rising.
He pinches the bridge of his nose. “That’s not what I said.”
“Then what did you say, Mason?” I turn and fling my feet off the side of the bed. “Because It really fucking sounded like you just want me to sit and wait to be hurt or worse, killed!”
Standing and wrapping the sheet around me, I storm off towards the bathroom. What kind of fucking game does he think he is playing? I am the Underbelly princess. My father is the most notorious man — no matter where he goes, people stare or ran away.
I can’t deal with Mason and all his secrecy right now, so the best option is to just hide out in the bathroom. He will most likely just leave me alone.
Turning on the shower, I stare at myself in the mirror for a brief moment. The cut across my collarbone is still slightly visible and there’s a little bruising on my face from when my father hit me. I was a mess but it just proved to me that I need to do more than sit around and wait for him to come back again. Seeing the bruises that colour my skin just proves to me that he has to die sooner rather than later.
The room starts to fill with steam from the hot water to the point of fogging up the mirror. I drop the sheet and move under the water. The feeling of it hitting my skin is heavenly. Closing my eyes and letting the water fall over me, I am lost in my thoughts about everything that happened last night. The feel of Mason’s hands over me, his lips against mine and even the way he held me close to him before we both fell asleep. Why couldn’t he be as open with me now as he had been last night?
A knock on the door makes me jump. “Viv,” Mason calls. “Can we please talk?”
“Go away,” I reply. I don’t want to talk right now.
“You’re in my bathroom.” He bangs his head against the door. “I shouldn’t have to go away.”
