Page 36 of Forever Your Touch

“I gave all his information to Dylan. If there’s anything to find, he’ll find it. We can worry about him once we have the file. Now tell me why you called.”

“I need a favor.”

“Ah-ha! I knew it.”

“Fucker…” Mason’s lips tilted in a grin. Viktor was his favorite brother besides Dimitri. Viktor always managed to cheer him up and lessen his anger. It was a gift with his brother. He could do that with all of them, even more than Dimitri could. Maybe that was why he’d subconsciously called him instead of Kade. He needed to calm down so he could be around Jo without tearing into her.

“What do you need,brat?” The sound of a screaming baby pierced his ear. “Sara…no, I am on the phone…you want me to what…change diapers…”

Mason burst out laughing at the horror in his brother’s voice. He himself had never changed a diaper and had no intention of ever doing so. It was gross. Thankfully, Jo had changed the twins both times last Friday night. The smell alone had caused his stomach to revolt.

“I think I can get you out of that threat.”

“Thank God,” Viktor breathed out over the phone.

“I need some equipment. One of the microphones I ordered a couple weeks back, a web cam, and some of the video equipment.”

“You setting up a sting?”

“Fuck, no.” Mason grimaced at the thought. He’d let Kade talk him into going along on one of his cases where they’d had to trail a man’s wife to get the goods on her. Most boring two days of his life. He’d been forced to sit in the car for hours listening to Kade lecture him on his lack of interest in a career that made sense while they listened to some kind of new age music that hurt his ears. He loved his brother, but he never wanted to go through that again.

“Your shit break?”

“No. It’s for Josephine. Her shit is about five years out of date, and she’s broke. Girl has no idea how to maximize her ad revenue. She’ll never be able to set up what she needs to with the equipment she has now. I was hoping you’d be feeling generous, since bringing all that over here will get you out of diaper duty.”

“You like her, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah. She’s the first girl I’ve ever had as a friend. It’s weird, but a good weird.”

Viktor was a little too quiet for a heartbeat. “Mason, I think it’s great you’re watching out for her.”

“But?” Mason heard the but coming.

“But I don’t want you to get hurt here, little brother. She has a boyfriend. One she loves enough to pack up and move across the country and live with.”

“I know that.” It ate away at him constantly.

“Just be careful, here, okay?”

“You know me, Vik. I’m not a relationship kind of guy.”

“Neither were Nik or Dimitri. Look where they are now.”

“Their bad, not mine.”

“Send me a list of what you need, and I’ll bring it over. I need her address as well.”

He asked his brother for one more thing on the spur of the moment before he hung up with Vik and ordered dinner and snacks from Papa John’s. He could hear Jo moving around upstairs, and he felt bad about leaving her to start the work by herself, but he’d needed to cool down. His temper seemed to be on a hair trigger these days, but dammit. Shit like Ray was pulling wasn’t right. She needed a car. Mason had class, and he worked for Viktor part-time. He wasn’t always available, and she might need transportation during those times.

That was why he called Viktor. He was going to get her set up so she could start earning the money she deserved.

The doorbell rang. “Josephine, get your ass in gear. Pizza’s here!”

It wasn’t the pizza guy at the door when he answered it, though. It was a woman in her mid-forties or so. Her blonde hair was perfectly styled, and her smile seemed a little strained.

“Can I help you, ma’am?”

“Who are you?” She was very blunt, and her brown eyes twitched.

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