Long Way Down (Fallen Angels MC) Read Online Free Page B

he lifted a glass down. “What will you judge me for?”
     
    There was a quiet curiosity in his tone, a soft underlay of interest and—something like concern—that gave her pause.
     
    “I— I don’t know?” She wasn’t entirely sure why she stumbled. Yesterday, she would have had a laundry list of concerns and complaints. Today, none of it mattered all that much.
     
    Strangely, that seemed to be an answer that he wanted. He nodded and went on with taking down a cup and filling it with ice water.
     
    “Can you tell me why you think you’re being set up? It would help me to know what I’m looking for in all of this.” She gestured to indicate the paperwork splayed out in front of her.
     
    Mason sat down next to her again, and for the first time, she noticed his hands shaking, setting up a fine shimmer in the surface of the water in his glass. “There’s nothing — I can’t explain it. I can’t even really put my finger on it. After the second tour in Afghanistan, I couldn’t ever quite go code white, you know?” He glanced at her and laughed. “No, you don’t know at all. I couldn’t shake the idea that someone was watching. It’s better sometimes, worse other times, but it’s never been like this. I’ve never been like this and been wrong .”
     
    “You served?”
     
    He laughed again, but there wasn’t any humor in the sound. “My hair was shorter then. Less ink.”
     
    She studied the marks on his arms again, the way they circled his wrists and the way they extended part way up his inner arms. She saw the connection, let it settle in, and then let it drift away. Asking would only confirm what she now realized, and making him admit it wouldn’t help. “And then you found the club?”
     
    He nodded. “Growing up—my family wasn’t around. The Fallen Angels—they took me in. I didn’t mean to stay forever, just needed someplace safe to stay while I got my head on straight, but I’d learned mechanical stuff while I was in and I liked having my life on my back. Knowing that I could leave whenever I needed to.”
     
    She wanted to reach out and touch his hand, but she wasn’t sure what she would do if he pulled away. What would be the right thing to do. He was so focused on the glass of water; if the heat of his gaze could make it boil, she was pretty sure it would be bubbling by now.
     
    Mason brought his hands to his face and scrubbed them brusquely over his skin. “Anyway,” he said, with the sound of someone who was shoving the demons back into the box and stuffing them under the bed with the dust bunnies and the monsters, “no one expected me to be Treasurer of the club. Declan—he’s the president—and I have had some lively disagreements. About how some of the, uh, “off book interests” should be run. And some of the guys backed me when he expected them to back him. When I took over, he looked pissed enough to chew nails and spit tacks.”
     
    He smiled, drifting off to that lost world again. “My gramps used to say that.” He shook himself. “But Declan. I don’t know why he’s so pissed. It’s more than just an upstart kid taking a place he wanted for someone else. There’s something going on.”
     
    She did reach out touch his hand then. In her mind he’d grab onto it like a lifeline, cling to her for a moment, and then pull her in close to kiss again. That wasn’t what happened in real life, but then, how often did real life actually match up to fantasies? He did let her fingers curl around his and he offered her a small smile.  “I appreciate your help,” he said. “Your cousin said you were straight-up, honest. He said if something was going on, you could find it.”
     
    The faith in his eyes and voice made her shake just a little. It was more than she wanted to accept. “I’ll do what I can.”
     
    He nodded and she went to work, doing the tedious job of matching ledger lines with receipts, billings, and check stubs.
     
    She sat back, her