Page 70 of Text Me, Take Me

I shrug. Fine. It’s better if I don’t have to pretend to want the sick psychopath, anyway. I gesture to the bag on the ground, filled with valuables that Dom provided me with, stuff that will make Mason’s head spin.

“There’s enough in that bag to fund the club for a few years,” I tell him. “Dom won’t miss it.”

“Is he going to come looking for this?”

“Why? Are you scared, Mason?”

He snorts. “I’m being nice here, Evie. I’ve decided, you know what–let’s let the girl live her life. Let her go on with her silly dreams of making jewelry and pretending that she’s worth a damn.”

“Delete the video then,” I snap.

He shrugs, then reaches into his jacket pocket and takes out his phone. He shows me the screen: the video waiting to be played, a big icon on the screen. He wriggles his eyebrows like he used to when I was a kid, when I found it funny, before I knew what he was.

“First–show me the goods.”

I grab the bag and unzip it.

“Come here. Show me.”

I hesitate, knowing this goes against the plan. Dom warned me to keep my distance. The only reason Mason isn’t dead right now is because I begged Dom to let me ensure the video was deleted first.

“Fine,” I huff, carrying the bag to Mason, showing him the rolled-up bundles of cash and expensive watches. “There’s enough here to?—”

I scream when he lunges at me, wrapping an arm around my neck and pushing his body against mine, spinning in a circle as he laughs maniacally. “Where are they?” he yells. “I’m nota goddamn idiot. They’re here, aren’t they? Dom and his mafia buddies?Come out, come out, where ever you are!”

I struggle against him. “You’re an idiot. No one’s here. I came alone.”

“Bull. Shit.”

“There’s nobody here!”

“Stop fucking lying to me. You were always a dumbass, Evie, just like your bitch mother. But you’re notthisstupid.”

“Says the man who came to a meeting he thought was an ambush!”

He coughs out a laugh. “Something tells me dear Dom isn’t going to risk killing you along with me. Call it stupidity. I call itgonads. They better show themselves, Evie, or I’ll kill you like I killed your bitch mother.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You heard me.”

“You’re talking out of your ass.”

“Oh, right, of course,” he says with that heavy sarcasm I hate so much. “Because it would be impossible for me to bribe the cops and tell them to inform the grieving, deluded little daughter that Mommy was all alone in the car… impossible to instruct them to withhold the information that I was behind the wheel. The only reason I crashed is because her mouth was wrapped around my co?—”

“You weredriving?” I scream, grunting as I try to free myself. “You killed my mom!”

“I would argue she killed herself, but yeah, I was behind the wheel that day.”

“You’re a sick fuck.”

“If you don’t come out in ten goddamn seconds, I snap her neck!”

Dom won’t let this happen. I know he’s going to come out, and then Mason will have all the power, like he always has. As Mason’s grip tightens, I realize something with stunning clarity. Dom never trapped me.Thisis what being trapped feels like.

When Dom took me to his estate, he set me free.

It’d be a cruel world if I realized this, only to have Mason crush the life out of me.

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