“I read an article about their use of slave labor overseas and the extensive tactics they’ve gone to cover it up.” Fury coursed through me. They literallyenslavepeople.
“That’s among the reasons I considered choosing something else entirely, but I wanted the connection to my mom. She was nothing like her brothers or my grandfather.” Anger sparked in his tone, and I realized I stepped too close to insulting her.
“Do you work for them?” The hand that played with his chest hair slapped against my thigh and I pulled my head away from him, looking off into the darkness. I always assumed that corporate law was a shady business. Lawyers didn’t have the best reputation for honesty and fairness, but I hated the idea that he helped them conquer the world and exploit the masses.
He rolled toward me, gripping my hair and forcing me to face him. In the muted light, I could just discern the cold steel beneath the green in his eyes. “No, I don’t. I like to keep companies honest and legitimate, and I only take positions that allow me to do my job correctly. Supporting slavery is not acceptable, and I don’t accept their money. I have what my mother left me and what I make on my own.” The fight went out of me, but his hold stoked a fire of its own.
He chuckled darkly at my apparent relief, “But none of that is why I’m dangerous, Claire.” His lips hovered an inch from mine, close enough that I could dart my tongue out and taste him.
“Then, why?”
“You know about my father’s imprisonment,obviously.” I would have laughed at the accusation in his tone if the tension in my body and his hands in my hair didn’t wind me so tightly. “The things they convicted him of were the least of his crimes.”
The heat between us melted my brain, and my impulse control went with it. “What could be worse than stealing the livelihoods of thousands of people, decimating their lives and futures?” I didn’t mean to say the words out loud, and I regretted them all the more when pain flickered in his eyes. He pulled away from me, dropping his hands from my hair, and left me lying naked on top of the sheets. I shivered at the abrupt chill from his hot skin parting with mine. He sat on the edge of the bed, poised like he might leave the room.
“A lot of fucking things, Claire.” He nearly shouted, and the intensity of his anger shocked me. I curled my knees into my chest, becoming smaller to avoid the potential effects. He gripped my mattress, controlling the emotions raging inside of him.
The dim light of the streetlamps mixed with the moon to illuminate him, showing off the breadth of his shoulders and the perfect musculature lining him. His tendons stood out from his hands and the urge to have them on me overcame my fears. I needed nothing more than to comfort him. The truth of his past and his anger were secondary.
I crawled toward him, emboldened by him staying put and not trying to escape me. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his chest. His heartbeat steadily beneath my hands as I laid my head on his strong back. “Was he mafia or something?” I couldn’t believe how silly the question sounded, but to be worse than his known crimes, he had to be truly dark.
He laughed with no amusement, “The mafia prioritize their family above all else. Their business is secondary to their sense of honor and duty. They may kill, corrupt, and destroy, but they obey a code, and that makes them predictable. If you behave within their rules, you can assume a certain level of safety. Nothing holds my father other than money and power. There is no respectable code or rulebook to keep a gun out of your mouth if he considers you a threat, if he considers you a bother.”
Fear shimmied down my spine, but I hugged him more tightly. I kissed across his shoulders, hoping my affection would lighten the weight of the world burdening them. He was under a different type of pressure than me, but the burden of responsibility for our parents crushed us both. That’s how he recognized how I felt about my mother so easily. He held himself responsible for the sins of his father.
“You’re not like him, Mason. You’re a good person.”
“You hardly know me, Claire, and you’re wrong.” His chastisement stung, but I wouldn’t back down.
“I know enough, and the rest I can learn if you let me.”
“You don’t understand what he did, what he mademedo. You have no idea what I’m capable of.” His hands moved onto my thighs, digging into my skin thoughtlessly.
I kissed his shoulder blade once again. “I don’t need to. You created a good life for yourself despite the sins of your past, and who your father is doesn’t change how I feel about you. I don’t need to know what things you did when you didn’t have another choice. Clearly, you regret them.”
“I always had a choice.” He didn’t sound like he was speaking to me anymore.
“Not if your father is half the man you described. Is he as bad as you said?” I demanded, shaking him gently, bringing him back to the present.
“Yes.”
“You were practically a kid when they put your father away. You don’t do those things anymore, do you?”
“I don’t, but you can’t excuse my actions with childish ignorance, Claire. At eighteen, I was a man, and one I’m not proud of. I knew what I was doing and plenty of people suffered because of my actions.” The image of his hands covered in blood popped into my head and I tried to cover the shiver that raced through me. A thought occurred to me, and if it weren’t for the safe darkness blanketing us, and the fact I bared my soul to him, I never would have asked.
“Mason, was one of those people Rebecca LaMontagne?” The stillness around us was a separate entity, forcefully making its presence known. Tension bristled through his body and for a moment I feared he would push me away. I watched in the moonlight as his fists clenched and unclenched.
“How do you know about Rebecca?” His voice was deathly quiet.
I shrugged, feigning nonchalance. “I had to dig pretty deep to find your real name.”
He nodded, “I don’t know what happened to Rebecca, but I’ve always worried it had something to do with me.”
“Were you together when she disappeared?” I ran my hands over his chest.
“No, we broke up just before graduation. I was getting in deep with my father, and we were going to separate colleges. It seemed like an opportune time to end things.” His soft voice sounded sad like there was more to it than he was letting on.
The next words burned like acid, and I couldn’t fathom why I felt so strongly about them. “Did you love her?” I whispered, feeling bereft and empty at the possibility he did.