Page 40 of Shameless

Mason tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear and I flinch at his touch. “We’re more than even,” his voice is gentle. “I still owe you for taking the fall for me last year. When I say I’m sorry I ever doubted you, I mean it.”

I take a step away from him, hugging my middle as an extra layer of protection. “You don’t owe me anything, Mase.” My eyes are fixed on my shoes. “All I want is to leave the past behind once and for all. Can we do that?”

He advances but stops short of touching me. “Lula, why are you acting like you’re scared of me? I’m not going to hurt you.”

I force myself to look at him again. “Aren’t you?”

He looks hurt by my words. “I would never hurt you.”

A snort escapes me before I can control it. “Right.”

He extends his hand to touch me but relents when I visibly shudder. “Lula, seriously. I would never hurt you. Why don’t you believe me?”

Anger replaces the fear that Mason’s closeness had elicited in me. “Oh I don’t know,” I hold his gaze this time. “Have you forgotten our reunion? You ambushed me in the shower and you almost—” I can’t keep the tears that welled up in my eyes from falling. They’re caused equally by fear and fury. “And then you threatened to sell me, like a sex doll, to repay the money of all the product Arianna destroyed. If that isn’t hurting someone, you tell me what is.”

The regret in his voice sounds sincere. “I said those things just to scare you, Lula. When people owe you money and say they can’t pay you back, you have to sound like you mean fucking business or no one would ever pay.”

He has a point, but it doesn’t change the fact that he issued those threats. “I thought you were going to hurt me in the shower.”

He raises his voice. “I wasn’t. I was trying to scare you, I swear.”

“Fine.” It’s not fine, but I’m over this conversation. “We’re even and I’m stuck here until next summer and you’ll be going back East, so let bygones be bygones.”

There’s a beat of silence before he says. “I’m not going back East. Not yet at least.”

“Why?”

His answer shouldn’t surprise me under the circumstances. “We’ve lost two key people to our operations. Eddie provided the clean front we needed to smuggle product and to move money. Trevor was my man on the ground. My uncle asked me to take care of it for now. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to see you, Lula.”

I don’t understand. “Come again?”

“I wanted to tell you that you were off the hook for that debt and also offer you a job. I don’t know if we’ll be able to keep using Star Thunders, we’ll need to wait and see what happens to the team with Eddie gone. But you could take over from Trevor. The Country Club is the perfect place to move product. And you’re friends with some very connected people, you could sell to all the rich people parties in town.”

Is he for real? “I’m on probation, Mason.”

“So?” he shrugs. “You’re smart enough not to get caught. Besides, your parents are friends with the sheriff. I bet even if you got caught, the police would look the other way.”

That’s a risk I’m not willing to take.

I realize that a couple of months ago, my answer would have been different. What’s changed since then is that the guys believe in me. Despite my many flaws and all the mistakes I’ve made, Stefan, Jules and Crew don’t look at me like damaged goods. I never want to do anything to change that.

“No thank you,” I sigh. “I want to try to stay out of trouble.”

Mason considers my words. “Even with your mother and her stepson in town? This is how you and I met after all and if you need me to scare that fucker off, our old deal still works for me.”

I don’t even ask him how he knows. “My stepbrothers and Crew will protect me.”

“Yeah,” Stefan’s voice comes from behind me. “We’ll keep Lula safe. Who the fuck are you anyway?”

9.A New Deal

Stefan

Iwish I could stop getting up at the crack of dawn, but three years of early morning PT at the military academy I finished my high school education at, are hard to put behind me.

The thing is, I don’t hate being up when most of world is still asleep. Besides, running clears my head and gets rid of toxins; especially running on the beach with Masha by my side.

I unlock my phone to put on one of my favorite workout playlists from my music app, but a missed call attracts my attention. I usually would ignore it, it isn’t coming from one of my contacts, so it’s probably some sales pitch or something equally unimportant.

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