Page 68 of Break

“Really,” Kerrington nods. “She’s ours. Wejust need her to fucking get on board with that.”

“And if she doesn’t?”

I shrug and stuff my hands in my pockets. “Then we’re buying a house with a basement and chaining her to the radiator down there.”

Leah tips her head back and cackle laughs.

Chapter 22

Nicole

Mason steers me over to the far side of the bar, getting right to business. “I hate to shit all over our nice night, but your parents have been looking for you.”

My mood sours immediately. “Why are they callingyou?” They shouldn’t even know that I’m here, damnit.

“Grace must have told them you were coming.”

“Ugh! Why is she snitching like that?”

“She cares about you.”

My heart drops because he’s right. Grace and I have been best friends for forever, and that I haven’t checked in with her or told her about my struggles—because I know she’s going through her own right now—makes me feel like a shithead. I should call her soon.

“What did you tell my parents?”

“That you’re here for a week at the spa.”

I roll my eyes because that’s not going to fly. No spa in this town is bougie enough for my parents to buy that bullshit. Still, I appreciate theeffort. Mason didn’t have to lie like that for me. “Thank you.”

“Just talk to them, Nicole.”

“They don’t ever listen. And after the whole gala debacle, they’ve been working me nonstop. I swear I’m going to lose my mind if I have to go back.” Which I will soon, and I’m terrified of what my mental state will turn into when that happens. Tears prick my eyes and I’m not about to ruin a good makeup night with some saltwater leaking out of my face. Fuck that.

“You can’t blame them for being worried. You should have just said you were going away for a week. Mini vacay with Grace or something. Ghosting them, and your meetings, isn’t like you at all.”

“Well, maybe it’s exactly like me and they just don’t know who I am!” I yell.

Mason glowers like he wants to either chastise me again or hug me. He better not do either. “You don’t get it, Mase.”

“The fuck I don’t. It’s why I got out.”

“Exactly,” I snarl. “You got out. I’m still fucking stuck.” I slump on my stool and glare at the bar top. “I’m never going to escape, am I?”

“You can if you’d let me help you.”

“I’m not a charity case.”

For years I’ve tried to figure out a lucrative business that I can run on my own and make bank with. Just like Mason did. But all my ideas suck and honestly, I’m not cut out for it. Being a career-woman is not in my blood. And that fucking shames me the most. I came from a line of powerful millionaires, and I have neither the sense nor the desire to do what it would take to run my own company that my family would inevitably get their teeth and claws into.

Any business venture I come up with requires a boatload of start up cash. Money I don’t have that’s not connected to a trust fund. Money that I refuse to ask for because even getting investors or loans would mean owing someone that they’d want to take from my parents, not me. And if my parents get involved, the Greystone Trust will, too. So, I’m fucked.

To make it worse, that’s not even my most crucial issue. The stress of my family isn’t the only worry I’m dealing with. There’s something much worse riding my tail that no one knows about, and I plan to keep it that way.

“What about Landon and Kerrington?”

Mason’s question hits me like a bat to the head. “What about them?”

When he doesn’t answer, I slowly turn to look at him, but his expression is too guarded for me to read.

---