“I have no interest in taking anyone on.” Mason spots me and raises his voice. “Hot water work okay?”
I avoid his gaze. “Yes, it’s fine, thanks.”
Katia steps out from behind the counter and brushes past me. “I’ll do another sweep of the parameter.”
As she leaves, I turn to Mason and frown. “You’re not going to go after Mathew, are you? Mason, you can’t take him on.”
Mason slides a plate across the counter and folds his arms over his chest. “We’ll never be safe while he’s alive, London. This is what has to be done.”
“What about starting fresh?” I ask. “What about the baby?”
The fire was supposed to be our ticket out of there, but already I can feel the shadows of our former life lingering.
“I’ll keep you both safe,” Mason tells me.
I frown. “How are you going to do that if you’re fighting a war, and he’s got the advantage?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t you think you should figure that out before you start making revenge plans?”
A muscle ticks in Mason’s jaw. “What do you want me to say, London? This is the only life I’ve ever known…I can’t just leave it all behind.”
I keep my eyes on his face. “It’s not about whether or not you can’t. It’s about whether or not you want to.”
Mason’s eyes move over my face. “How can you ask me that?”
I stop a few feet away, and my stomach dips. “Because I need to know that we’re in this together…that our baby has both of us.”
Mason folds his arms over his chest. “I will always do what I need to protect you and the baby.”
I reach for Mason’s hand and exhale. “Then be here with us. Don’t think about your dad or the legacy. Can you honestly picture a future for us if we go after Mathew? You said yourself that if he knows we’re alive…”
“He’ll hunt us to the ends of the earth.”
I grip Mason’s hands tighter. “Please. I know it’s a big ask, but I won’t love you any less if you give all of if it up, and neither will the baby.”
Mason opens his mouth to say something and snaps it shut when Katia comes back inside.
I drop Mason’s hand and swallow past the lump in my throat.
During dinner, I push the food around my plate and say nothing when Katia sits opposite me. In silence, the three of us sit at the counter to eat, the sound of cutlery filling the air. When we retire to our room, I lie in bed and picture the future.
No matter how hard I try, all I see is blood and fire and chaos.
Mason stirs awake sometime later and jolts up when he can’t find me.
He throws the covers off and exhales when his eyes land on me sitting in a chair by the window. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to figure out what to do next.”
Mason stands up and pads over to me. “Come back to bed.”
I drag my gaze up to his. “I want to start over, Mason, and I want to do it with you.”
Mason kneels in front of me and frowns. “What if Mathew figures out we’re not dead?”
“We can deal with it then.”
