Page 9 of Possession

“What did he say?”

Mason shrugged. “He didn’t really say anything. He just left the room, so I went after him and asked if he understood what I meant. That if he signed the new contract, I was leaving and going back home.”

“Oh god, I’m almost scared to ask what he did next.” Ollie grimaced at him, knowing Vinnie’s temper as well as Mason did.

“He pulled my suitcase out of the closet, put it on the bed, and said if I was going to offer him an ultimatum, then maybe it was for the best if I just left now.”

“No, he did not!” Ollie exclaimed, eyes widening.

“Sure did.” Mason swallowed and glanced down at himself. He was still in the same clothes he’d been in when he’d left yesterday evening. He was exhausted and heartbroken and wanted nothing more than to sleep for a few days.

That wasn’t true.

He wanted Vinnie to be in the bed next to him and the last day to be nothing more than a nightmare more than anything else.

“He’ll come around,” Ollie said, like he could read Mason’s mind. Which he could.

The three of them had been so close for years. Ollie, more than anyone else, knew and understood the dynamic between him and Vinnie. Had seen them through their ups and downs. Talked each of them off ledges and played referee.

Moving nearly a thousand miles away where Ollie—or anyone, really—wasn’t there to help keep him and Vinnie from going off the rails had been the biggest mistake of their lives. But if they couldn’t handle their relationship on their own, how could it ever truly last?

“Maybe,” Mason said softly. “I just don’t know if I’m going to be there when he does.”

Mason ran a hand through his hair and made a face at the length. It had been too long since he’d gotten a haircut, and itwas starting to get curly. It always made him think about kids at school calling him a chia pet when he was younger, so he tried to keep it short and in control.

But just like everything else in his life, it had spiraled beyond his clutching fingers. And Vinnie liked it a little longer, liked to hold on to him while they got hot and heavy.

At least, he used to.

Ollie had tried to force him to keep talking and even suggested they call Vinnie together, but Mason had put his foot down. He was nowhere near ready to talk to Vinnie, and he was done talking about what had happened.

Thankfully, Ollie had relented, realizing how exhausted he was. He’d offered Mason the room that connected to his and Six’s via a bathroom. Mason knew that Tank and CJ used to stay in that room, but they had moved out recently.

To try and get things back to normal, Mason had made a joke, telling Ollie that if he and Six wanted to keep up the tradition of the room by having sex in front of him sometimes, he’d be open to it. Ollie had just laughed and gone to get him an extra set of sheets for the bed.

They’d made it up together, and then Ollie had given him a very long hug, telling him that everything would work out and that he would be downstairs with Six if he needed anything.

After a long, hot shower, Mason felt at least half human again, if still hollowed out and emotionally fragile. He left the jeans and shirt in his backpack and just pulled on a pair of underwear to sleep in.

He and Vinnie didn’t usually wear clothes to bed, but it felt strange to sleep naked in a room on the second floor of a motorcycle club’s clubhouse, only separated from one of his best friends and his boyfriend by a couple of bathroom doors.

There wasn’t anything in the room besides the bed, though Ollie had told him there was some extra stuff in a pole barnout back and that they could grab anything he needed in the morning. Mason had a feeling the club’s President would have a problem with that.

It would make things feel toopermanent. And this was all just temporary.

He hoped.

He flicked off the overhead light and carefully shuffled across the thick carpeting in the pitch-black. Maybe he should at least get a lamp to put next to the bed so he didn’t stub a toe. Crawling under the covers that smelled nothing like his detergent or Vinnie’s bodywash, he unlocked his phone.

For the first time since he’d left the day before, he pulled up his messaging thread with Vinnie and read what had come through over the course of the last twenty-four hours.

Did you seriously leave?

Mason, answer me

I checked your location. I can’t believe you actually left.

My contract still has another 3 weeks on it. I can’t go running after you rn

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