“Well, he did.”
Marla almost choked on her burger. “What the hell? What did you say?”
“I said no.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I made a deal with myself that I would never again borrow money from someone, no matter who they were. It has caused me nothing but heartache and grief.”
“Wow, this is not at all the same thing,” Marla said. “What in the hell? You could have had this entire problem solved.”
“It wouldn’t be right. I’d never be able to live with myself.”
“I guarantee you’d be able to live better than a bullet to the head from those creeps you owe money to.”
I took a sip of my beer and slumped back a little. I knew Marla had a point and I’d thought about all of this before. But I’d made my decision. This was what I felt was the right thing for me to do.
“It’s done,” I said. “I just hope Mason doesn’t get involved in something he shouldn’t. You don’t think he is going to try to negotiate with the Scarlucci’s himself, do you?”
“I doubt it,” Marla said. Suddenly, her eyes went wide. “Wait, I just thought of something.”
She pulled out her phone and a moment later showed the screen to me.
It was a picture with some captions on it. It was Mason. He was wearing all black, including dark sunglasses. The caption said he was at Arnold Caplinger’s funeral, a suspected leader of the Zeffari crime family.
“What? How did you not show this to me sooner?”
“I just saw it a bit ago,” Marla said. “I didn’t think of it until now.”
“That is crazy,” I said. “So, you think Mason might be in the mob?”
“If he isn’t, he sure knows them.”
“So, that’s how he is going to do it,” I said. “I’ve been wracking my brain. Wow, I never would have guessed this.”
A sudden chill came over me. What had I just gotten Mason into? Or was it what he had gotten me into…?
There was so much I didn’t know about him. It didn’t make sense. Why would a billionaire businessman like him ever get mixed up in the mob? I wanted to ask him so many questions. There was such an air of mystery surrounding him, and that was even before I found out about this.
On one hand, I could sleep a bit easier knowing that Mason really did have the connections to handle this, but on the other what had I stirred up with him and the Zeffari family? It was all so confusing.
“This is so cool,” Marla replied. “The guy you are in love with is a bad ass.”
“What? Where is this coming from? I never even said I liked him and you go there? What is wrong with you?”
Marla laughed. “You see how defensive you just got? That is proof that you like this guy.”
I groaned. “Why won’t you rest with this stuff? His son is my student. Even if I was interested, that sort of thing isn’t very ethical. I’m pretty sure there is a code of conduct that shouldn’t be crossed there.”
“Yeah, but it’s your school. That means you set the code of conduct.”
Marla laughed and stuck out her tongue. “You need professional help. I hope that you get it one day.”
“It’s on my to-do list,” Marla joked. “I’m getting more food. You want some?”
I sighed. “I really shouldn’t, but you talked me into it. Another burger and a hot dog please. Don’t hold up on the relish.”
“Coming right up. Looks like you’ve got your appetite back.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I guess I haven’t felt much like eating lately. I’ve been too scared. I’m still scared. What if all this does is piss these guys off and they decide to get rid of me once and for all? What if it has the opposite effect?”
“You overanalyze everything,” Marla said. “Just relax and see what happens first.”
She sat the food down in front of me. I took a huge bite off the hamburger and savored the flavor. This thing with Mason was getting weird. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, and it had nothing to do with the trouble I was in. I’d been thinking about him constantly ever since the dream.
That was the most bizarre sexual dream I’d ever had. It still got me wet just to think of it. I knew that I was attracted to Mason. But I couldn’t afford to get involved with him, especially in light of the information that I had now received. Mason knew really bad people and he was using his connections to help me escape from some even worse people. It was twisting my head in knots.
But damn, he was sexy. He was actually everything that I always said I didn’t want in a man, but seemed to become overwhelmingly attracted to.
What made that happen with me? All my life I’d always been attracted to the absolute wrong type of guy.