Wicked Nights (13 page)

He turned back to the problem at hand and helped the guys clean up the mess they’d made.

* * * *

When he returned home, nearly five hours later, he found Addison still asleep in his bed. The sight of her had him hard within seconds. Her dark hair splayed out across the pillows, the blanket had moved to her side baring her stomach to his inspecting eyes. She had the best ass in the world and the sweatpants did little to hide that fact.

He glanced towards the bathroom and decided to get cleaned up before he crawled in beside her. The retaliation on the Skulls had landed them with three dead members, all of whom had to be disposed of that night. His white T-shirt had red spots of blood dotting it and the leather hadn’t fared much better. He stripped everything off and left it on the floor while he turned the shower on.

He knew he wasn’t a good man and never really claimed to be. He didn’t know what Addison thought of his life, but he knew if she saw the evidence of his outings, knew the details, she wouldn’t be okay with it. She’d been on the right side of the law so long that she couldn’t wrap her mind around the anarchy that came with true justice. He scrubbed the dried blood off his arms and face, soaking his hair in the process.

“Busy morning?”

He turned and found her standing in the bathroom, staring at him with sleepy eyes.

“You could say that.”

She glanced down at his clothes and pointed. “Do I need to know about this?”

He watched her. “I don’t think so.”

She didn’t say any more.

He brushed the water from his face. “Do you want to know?”

She studied the pile of clothes. “I’m assuming that’s blood. I’m also assuming that’s Skulls blood.” She lifted her head and met his eyes. “Would you tell me the truth if I asked you?”

Mason sucked in a breath. Water trailed down his face, dropping into his eyes. He swept it away. He turned the shower off and stepped out onto the bath mat. “This time, yes. I would.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “Okay. What happened?”

“We shot three Skulls members last night. One of which said he held you down while Marco carved ‘Skulls’ into your thigh.” He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his waist.

She nodded, staring at his clothes. “You told me when I was talking to you through a glass pane in jail, that you’d never killed anyone. That the charges against you were bogus. Did you lie to me?”

He leaned against the vanity. “The charges were bogus. I didn’t kill that guy.” He took a deep breath. “The other was a lie.”

She glanced away, finally breaking her trance. “Is this why you wanted to fuck me?” She stared at him. “You need legal counsel and who better than the one you’ve got your dick inside? Are you seriously expecting me to think that this is okay?”

“Why are your panties in a twist?”

“Why are you acting like it’s not a big fucking deal? Do we need to go back to the conversation we had yesterday about how you’re inconsiderate of me?”

He clenched his teeth. He just had to pick the sexiest goody two-shoes to be his woman. “You’re looking for problems that aren’t there.”

“I seriously doubt that. You told me
lies
. I believed your
lies
. You come home with blood on your clothes and try to win me over with the emotional pull of killing the goon that hurt me. Yeah, well, what about all the other people you’ve killed? How do you justify that?”

“I never claimed to be a Class A citizen.”

She shook her head. “I don’t even know what to say to you right now. Is that what the Wicked Angels MC stands for? Killing people? How are you any better than the Skulls?”

He pressed his lips together. “Did you seriously just ask me that question?”

She stared at his clothing. “Yes, Mason. I did. The Skulls were the murderers. The Wicked Angels were supposed to be the good guys, the ones who stopped that scum from taking over the streets of Tampa. How can you sit there and say that the Skulls MC is bad when you’re doing the same fucking thing they are!”

“Okay, Addy. You win.” He licked his lips. “The Wicked Angels MC is just a bunch of men that get off on killing people. You understand us completely.”

She shook her head. “I don’t take murder cases for a reason. The reason is that the other person involved is dead. There is really only one side to the story and you don’t get the whole truth.” She stared at his clothes. “I don’t care how much I trust you. I don’t care how much I’m supposed to believe you’re telling me the truth. This is not okay. You can’t go around killing people just because you don’t like them!”

Mason felt his control slipping. He didn’t have anything to prove to her, but he felt the need to say something to change her mind. He struggled with his own thoughts. Lack of sleep, alcohol and fighting with Addison had him all tangled in knots. He didn’t know what the fuck she expected of him and was too pissed to even care anymore.

“What do you want me to do?”

She met his eyes. “How can you stand there and look at me with that expression and pretend that this is all right? Where are the lines drawn, Mason? Do I need to fear that one day you’re not going to like me enough to keep me around and you’ll blow my brains out too? Do I need to start seeing that side of the club business you attend to?”

That pissed him off even more. “You know what? Fine. Your point is made. To be with you I have to be a fucking perfect man that has a grand job like a physician or something. I’ll need to renounce my membership to the club, black-in my tattoos. Since I don’t have a medical degree, I’ll have to get a job in construction because that’s all I know how to do. We can live our life pretending evil doesn’t exist in the world while I rebuild your damn office. That will be our happily ever after. Oh, and I’ll convert that first bedroom into a nursery for the stupid fucking baby you’re so goddamn convinced we’re having.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

He shrugged, holding his hands out. “I’m not. That’s what you want. You want me to be what you want me to be. You want me to think and do whatever it is that you want me to think and do. Fine, princess. I’ll be your fucking dog. I’ll let you take away my friends and my family—the only family I’ve got, really—just to please you. I promise I won’t be a fucking embarrassment to you, either. I’ll worship the fucking ground you walk on. Let’s get the ball rolling right now.” He made a move towards her, trying to pass, and she stopped him.

“You seriously do not get it.”

He lowered his face so that it was in hers. “I never once expected you to give up who you were to be in my life. For you to even compare me to the Skulls shows you don’t know shit about anything. I do what I have to do. If that makes me a killer in your eyes, so fucking be it. I guess you’ll just have to live in fear about everything because you obviously don’t trust me. You don’t trust me to protect you, but bitch at me when I do. You don’t trust me with other women. You don’t trust me to fucking know what the hell I’m doing when I make decisions like this, decisions that affect my fucking life and the life of my club. I never painted a rosy picture for you. I told you my world was messy, and you’re either going to have to deal with it, or get the fuck out.”

Mason had really hit the breaking point. He didn’t know what to think or what to do about the situation. If she wanted him to be something other than what he was, he couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t do it. Nor should she really expect him to. He wasn’t a murderer, but he did have blood on his hands. He wasn’t a killer, but he had killed before. It came with the territory and it wasn’t something that kept him up at night. Whatever he did, he did it with purpose. Most of the time his purposes were right.

“I’ll get the fuck out, then.” Addison turned and left the bathroom, heading into the bedroom.

He’d had enough. Mason grabbed her arm and dragged her to the bedroom door, pushing her into the hallway. “Get out!”

She stiffened. “Who the hell do you think you are? Don’t you ever put your hands on me again.
Ever
.”

She shoved him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tony and Matty viewing their argument. He leaned in and none too gently wrapped his fingers around Addison’s wrist, yanking her hand away from him. Before he could block her, she threw a punch, hitting him on the jaw. He felt the blow, hard enough to rattle his teeth. He let her wrist go and stared at her.

Tony and Matty rushed in and drew her away from him. In that moment, Mason realised how much he’d fucked up. He blinked a few times, calming his anger. He didn’t know how the hell they’d got to this place, but he had to work off some steam. This shit was getting to him and doing nothing good in the process. He knew being holed up in his house wouldn’t help matters any. He retreated into his room and found some long shorts to pull on. He didn’t feel like riding with the amount of fatigue he had, so he went to the beach for a run.

Choosing not to think about anything for a good while, he ran down the beach as far as he could go. He focused on the steps he took and the water crashing to shore. His mind eventually wandered to their conversation, to how the disgust on her face made him feel like, for once, his choices were wrong. He never questioned his actions. Taking out the Skulls members was only a step towards peace. They’d hurt Addison. They’d hurt Kelly. They’d tried to rape three of Kelly’s girls, and the big beefy one had succeeded in forcing himself inside the girl. They deserved what they’d got, and as much as Mason wanted to deny it, he didn’t feel bad about it. Addison, though, made him feel like he’d shot a puppy in cold blood.

He turned around and made his way back towards his home, his legs burning from the run. He had to be fucking kidding himself that a smart, sexy lawyer would, or ever could be with him. She couldn’t date a high school dropout biker who ran one of the most infamous motorcycle clubs in Tampa. That thought twisted his gut and he stopped, bending over to catch his breath. She was too good for him. He’d always considered her a goody two-shoes and he was right.

He straightened and spotted her on his deck. Mason felt no need to get back to his house any time soon and decided to take his time walking along the edge of the water. When he finally arrived, he climbed the stairs and licked his lips, wondering if he should say something first and what exactly that would be.

She turned towards him, her anger still showing in her expression. “I don’t know how to handle you. You’re infuriating. I don’t like the way you just expect me to deal with things in your life. I don’t even know how.”

Mason grabbed a bottle of water from the small cooler on the deck and sat in front of her. He twisted the cap off the bottle and drank. Addison still seemed to be contemplating whatever thoughts rolled through her mind. He watched her, determined not to say anything since it would only make it worse.

“I don’t want to trust you. You do stuff that I wouldn’t fathom doing. This whole thing with the Skulls is ridiculous. I’m scared to death, and I don’t like being out of control. You telling me to get over it, or expecting me to just deal with it, only leaves me emotionally drained.” She held her hands up. “I don’t even know what to think right now.”

Mason set the bottle on the ground between his legs. He didn’t respond. She had to work out her own thoughts and he simply had to listen.

“I’m sorry I punched you,” she finally said. “I’ve had guys grab me before and it’s not okay with me.”

He met her eyes. “Who has grabbed you?”

She scoffed. “Sharing that information is probably not a good idea considering the actions of the previous hour.”

Even though she joked, her demeanour had completely changed. Mason watched her go from angry to apologetic then to timid all within a sentence. She was afraid too. She gripped the railing and tried to avoid looking at him. Whatever had happened, it couldn’t have been good. Despite his reservations, Mason stood and went to her.

“You’re scared.”

She didn’t say anything which only meant he was right.

“Who grabbed you?”

She blew out a breath. “I’m a criminal defence attorney. Everyone grabs me.”

She tried to brush him off and this time he let her. She moved away from him and headed towards the stairs.

“I need to go to the office and finish cleaning up. Tony and Matty are going with me. I really don’t know where we stand. In some ways nothing has changed between us. I still want your protection. I do trust you with that. I just don’t know about the rest. I don’t believe you’re a bad guy, contrary to what you think about me. I just don’t agree with the way you handled things. Regardless of what happens, that shouldn’t be the end result of things.” She stood on the steps staring at the gulf. “If you forgive me for punching you, I’ll be at my office. Maybe with a little time apart we can figure out how to work out the rest.”

He watched her walk away. Addison needed some space and he thought it was best to give it to her. At least for a while. Mason went inside his house and decided to do some digging for information of his own. He didn’t know where they went from here, but he wanted to find out who had possibly hurt her. If it was that cop, he’d have a hell of a time taking out some anger on him, laws be damned. The stupid prick was a pain and if he was lucky, the bastard would only walk away with a few broken bones.

Chapter Seven

Addison spent most of the next day working on her office. Even with Ashley, Tony, Duke and Cody’s help, she had no idea how she’d ever get her practice up and running again. She still didn’t want to go by and see her house, so she focused on her work. It was all she really had at the moment.

Addison teetered on a ladder, trying to unhook the tattered curtains from the window. The cost had been held to a minimum with Mason offering to do the work for free. She didn’t know how much longer that offer would be on the table or if she could afford to fix the place up without it.

“You need some help with that?”

She glanced over, spotting Jesse, who stood in the doorway watching her. She licked her lips and went back to work. “I think I’ve got it. What are you doing here?”