Relentless (Mason Family 4)

“And which one of you is the conceited one?” she teases.

“Boone. He’s the baby of the family. It comes with the territory.”

She giggles. “I think the babies of families take a lot of unwarranted flack.”

“Oh, so you’re the baby of a family too, huh?”

“Nope. Only child right here.”

“I dreamed of that most of my youth.”

Her amusement swirls through the phone. “It’s not all that it’s cracked up to be. There comes a day when you realize that you are your family. But it’s fine,” she says, seemingly catching herself from a conversation I don’t think she wants to have. “Anyway, I can’t wait to meet Boone. Should be fun.”

The tone she uses indicates that she’s circling the conversation around toward the end. And, although I should go along with it because it is the right answer, I’m not ready.

“Wade is the one to watch,” I say before I can stop myself. “He’s so smart that he’s practically a wizard. But he has absolutely no personal skills. None. Zero. The only people who like him are our mother, who has to on account of that fact alone, and Boone’s daughter, Rosie. But she’s five years old. She doesn’t know better.”

“He sounds lovely.”

I chuckle. “Yeah. Lovely.”

“So he’s the real brains behind everything, huh?”

My jaw drops. “No. That’s me. I told you.”

“I guess I’ll just have to decide for myself,” she says, a hint of smugness in her tone.

“Just remember who your boss is, huh?”

“Good point.” She laughs. “I will lie and tell everyone that you’re the wizard.”

“Hey!”

“What? You said Wade was the wizard! If I say it’s you, I’m lying. I’m just repeating the information you gave me.”

I shake my head, amused at her playfulness. “You shall not ever, ever repeat that I said that about Wade. That was completely off the record.”

“I’ll try to remember that.”

“You do that.” I run my hand through my hair, unable to stop smiling. “How is your car? Did you get it looked at?”

There’s the briefest pause. It might be quick, but it’s full of hesitation.

“Oh, not yet,” she says quickly. “I’ve been really busy. I’ll get to it this week.”

I furrow my brow. Something about the way she says it has me second-guessing her promise.

“Did you get yours checked out?” she asks. “I’ll pay you for the damage out of my first check since it was my fault.”

“Nah, it’ll be fine. I haven’t even called to get it into the shop, to be honest.”

“I still feel really bad about hitting you. For what it’s worth.”

I stand as the knot begins to pull once again in my stomach. It’s fast and tight, and I rub my belly with one hand while I begin to pace around the room.

“It’s not a big deal,” I tell her. “Please don’t worry about it. Shit happens.”

“Shit happens to me a lot.”

“It happens to all of us, Shaye.”

She hums, but I think it’s in disagreement.

I pace around my room, running a hand through my hair again. I don’t want to get off the phone with her. A plethora of questions are on the tip of my tongue, a million things I’d like to ask her.

Every time we talk, she becomes more interesting, and I realize what a problem this might be if I don’t get it in check.

I take a deep breath. “Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Oh. Right. Absolutely. I’ll be in the office at eight sharp.”

“Feel free to reach out if you think of anything else you need to know.”

The vibrations between us change. The easiness is replaced with an awkwardness that I loathe. I want to show her that I don’t want to end the call. But that probably complicates things.

“Thank you for the call. I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodbye, Oliver.”

“Good night, Shaye.”

She sucks in a quick breath before the call ends.

I make quick work of saving her number to my contacts list and then toss my phone on the bed.

I walk over to the window and drag open the blackout curtains. The backyard glows from the lights in the pool and the pool house. I usually find it soothing to look out and reflect on my day.

But not tonight.

Tonight, I’ll just start counting down the minutes until tomorrow.

Nine

Shaye

“I got this,” I whisper, pushing the button for the elevator. “Settle down.”

I slide my palms down my black trousers and avoid Genevieve’s stare from behind. She was really sweet this morning and helped me find Toni—who was clearly not expecting me. But Genevieve’s excitement on my behalf at working for Oliver Mason personally was a little more than I could handle.

My nerves are nearly shot as it is.

The onboarding process with Toni went well. She gave me a quick tour of the building and introduced me to key staff. It all went swimmingly. But as soon as I finished my paperwork and headed toward the elevators, my anxiety surged again.