She winced. "Are you sure you want to hear this?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Because the story's so grim. And I know you like happy endings."
Now, I really wanted to know, and not only for curiosity. For weeks now, I'd been wondering what made Mason tick. With this in mind, I practically begged Arden to tell me, anyway.
"Alright," she said. "But remember, you asked for it."
Chapter 24
Mason
Chase strolled into my office seven minutes late for the meeting.
I gave him a look. "The schedule said noon."
He glanced at his watch. "It's not even ten after."
"Yeah. And you're still late."
The three of us – me, Brody, and Chase – held this meeting once a month to discuss the company's direction and make sure we stayed on track.
The meeting was private, with no assistants, no transcripts, and nobody whose last name wasn't Blastoviak.
Chase ambled to my conference table and pulled out a chair. I was still sitting at my desk, preferring to get some work done while I waited.
Hey,somebodyhad to.
As Chase sat down at the table, he made a point to look around. "And why are you bitching atme?Brody's not even here yet."
"Yeah, well, I'll be 'bitching' at him when he shows up."
Chase grinned. "Ifhe shows up."
"Meaning?"
"I’m just saying, he's got other things on his mind, you know."
My youngest brother – the guy who used our tools more than anyone – had gone soft maybe six months ago when a blast from his past had returned with a vengeance.
That blast had a name, Arden Weathers, who happened to be Cami's best friend. If I were in the mood to give Arden credit, I might admit that she was making my brother obnoxiously happy.
I meant that literally.
His happiness was obnoxious as hell. Just last week, I'd heard him whistling when he walked by.
Whistling.
Who the hell does that?
Not my little brother – or at least, not until Arden came along.
Arden and our family had a history. The history wasn't good.
But now, I was supposed to welcome her into the family like I'd welcome anysaneperson, maybe someone like Cami, whowasn'ta truck-torching psycho.
For my brother's sake, I'd given Arden the official thumbs-up, but that didn't mean I was happy about it.
