Page 3 of Please Save Me

“She’s gonna turnintoa taco,” I teased. It seemed like all Mason ever wanted to eat was tortilla chips, hot sauce, and vegetarian “meat” crumbles wrapped in a tortilla.

As I leaned in to kiss Mason’s forehead, I savored the sweet scent of her shampoo, trying to commit it to memory. Mason always smelled like some sort of red fruit that I could never place.

“Baby girl knows what she wants.”

I was pretty sure we were going to end up on some kind of list, given how often someone in our house was at the Mexican restaurant. But I’d do anything to take care of my girls.

“And she’ll get whatever her tiny little heart desires. Just text me your order.”

She shot me a smile so dazzling it would’ve outdone most diamonds. Normally I would’ve been overjoyed seeing her so happy, but an undeniable heartache filled me instead. If she knew what kind of danger she was in, she wouldn’t be smiling.

Attempting to hide my emotions, I turned to head toward the steps.

“Wait!” Mason called.

I looked over my shoulder. “Yes?”

“Can you see if Seb wants anything? He likes that restaurant too.”

My shoulders slumped slightly as relief washed over me. She’d just given me the perfect excuse to go consult with the one person I could tell the whole truth to. I nodded and shot Mason a small smile before retreating up the steps, through the winding hallways, and into the white oasis that was our game room. We used the space for weekly board games, and Lucian had his computer set up in the corner to play StarCraft. The space didn’t see much use otherwise, but near the couch in the very back of the room stood a white door that led to Sebastian’s apartment.

For obvious reasons, I hadn’t been inside the apartment in a while. Before I left for France, though, I spent a fair bit of time fixing the place up with Sophia. Lucian refused to help, of course, so I ended up doing most of the heavy lifting while Sophia handled the interior design. At the time, I was miffed at Lucian for being so cold to his own brother... But as I approached the door, I found myself regretting the hard work I’d put into giving this slob a cozy place to hang his hat.

I knocked on his door with a fair amount of hesitation. My hatred of Sebastian wasno secret; the creep had lied about having a crush on me as an excuse to dig up my past, and more often than not, he looked at Mason like a piece of meat. Either one of those points would’ve been enough to keep me away from him under normal circumstances, but nothing about tonight had been normal.

“Mason?” Sebastian called.

I swallowed hard as I tried to shake off any remaining nerves.

“Uh, not quite—”

“No one’s home!”

Seriously?

“Mason told me to come ask if you want me to grab you anything for dinner.”

I heard shuffling behind the door, followed by the sound of the deadbolt unlocking. Sebastian opened it just enough for one of his icy blue eyes to peer out at me.

“Where are you going?”

“Pueblo Fiesta, that Mexican place near Lucian’s tattoo parlor.”

The door creaked open just another inch.

“Did she pick the place, or did you?”

I couldn’t remember the last time Ididn’tlet Mason pick, and normally I got her a little something every day. It was the least I could do, considering everything I was putting her through. But of course, Sebastian wouldn’t know any of that; he’d been doing his best to avoid speaking to any of us.

“She did… but it might change again before I actually leave. She originally wanted pizza.”

Sebastian finally stepped out of his apartment, sealing the door behind him. I could say he looked like shit, but that’d be an insult to feces everywhere. The lilac circles framing his eyes told me the story of about a hundred sleepless nights, his golden hair fell to his eyebrows in greasy waves, and the only clothes he had on were a baggy pair of sweats. The barbells running through his nipples caught me off guard, as did the belly button ring. But... with Sebastian standing before me half-naked, I could almost understand why Mason was attracted to him.

Sebastian normally took pretty good care of himself—Mason told me as much, and from what I’d seen, she wasn’t lying. He was always clean-shaven, his hair was usually neat, and all of his clothes were pressed, even if it was just a T-shirt and jeans. Surely his current state was a rare exception... For his sake, I hoped it was. Part of me wondered if he was upset Mason had been sleeping with us every night since she got home from seeing her father.

“If you’re satisfying one of her cravings, can I come with you?”

He sounded almost desperate, like he would have paid me to let him do something for Mason. For a moment, I hesitated. Leaving Mason home alone felt like a bad idea with Dale lurking around. Realistically, though, he had no way of knowing Mason was here. Even if he did, Mason had three male partners, so he’d need to poke around a bit more if he wanted to figure out who got her pregnant. Dale may have been a monster, but he wouldn’t hurt Mason without concrete proof that she was carrying my child. She was safe, for now.

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