"𝕐𝕠𝕦'𝕧𝕖 𝕘𝕠𝕥 𝕥𝕠 𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕖, 𝕟𝕠 𝕞𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕙𝕠𝕨 𝕞𝕒𝕟𝕪 𝕤𝕜𝕚𝕖𝕤 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕗𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕟."

-𝔻. ℍ. 𝕃𝕒𝕨𝕖𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖

━

♬ ᶠᵃˢᵗ ᶜᵃʳ ⁻ ᴶᵒⁿᵃˢ ᴮˡᵘᵉ ♬

━

Ｍａｓｏｎ

I stirred awake, feeling my bed dip. "I'm so sorry, Mason." Nico sighed. "Where could you have one? Why did I think leaving you there alone would be okay? Where did they take you? Are they hurting you? Alex hates my guts, he won't even look at me. I don't blame him though, I fucked up big time and now your out here with horrible people who could be doing God knows what to you and it's all my fault."

Did he not know I was right here? I turned slowly, confused and pulled myself into a sitting position. Reaching forward, I gently placed my hand on his shoulder. "Nico?"

"Ahhhhh!" He screamed, staring at me.

"Ahhhhhh!" I screamed back not expecting him to scream like that, or at all for that matter.

"What the fuck? Mason?" He yelled.

"Why are you yelling?" I winced, covering my ears. "And why'd you scream?"

"Because you scared the crap out of me. Where the hell did you come from anyway?"

"I was sleeping."

"What? Where?"

"Uh, in my bed." I slowly waved my hand out, gesturing over my bed.

"Holy fuck. What happened to your face?"

"Did you now just realize it?" I snorted, reaching up to redo my bun. "Apparently, some people have anger issues."

"Mason, I'm so sorry. This all would have never happened if I wasn't a fucking idiot. I knew not to leave you by yourself, outside of a car at night. I just, I wasn't thinking. I didn't think that anything was going to happen to you. Which again, was stupid of me. I swear to God, my heart literally fell out of my ass when I came back and saw you gone. At first I thought you were just being a little twit and hiding from me so that you could jump out and scare me. Then Alex came out and asked where you were and I told him what had happened, you know, that I had to go back to get my phone and then when I came back, you were gone. Then of course, he starts yelling at me and freaking out and I tried to calm him down and tell him that you were probably just playing a joke on us. But by this point it had been like ten minutes and I know I'm not the brighter highlighter in the bunch but it seemed weird that if you were just playing a prank on us, that you wouldn't have just jumped out already and then Alex found your phone halfway under his car and I swear, he was going to kill me right there. I mean, I've seen Alex mad. Of course I've seen him mad, he's my brother but I've never seen him this mad. It's like something flipped a switch inside of him and he was going to do whatever it took to find you. I mean, he didn't even bother to punch me before we left to go find you."

"Woah." I breathed after he had finished his monologue. "First of all, I want you to know that it's not your fault, at all. I know you'd never put me in harms way on purpose and unfortunately for us, it was just bad timing. It's not like you could have predicted that Gabriel would come up and have his son kidnap me. Shit, I didn't even see it coming when he popped out of nowhere."

"It is my fault though. I knew the danger and even if I wasn't thinking about it at that very moment, I was still aware of it."

"Please, for me, don't blame yourself Nico."

He looked at me, guilt filling every feature. "But look at your beautiful face."

I grabbed his hand, holding it lightly. "It'll heal. Really, don't blame yourself. I was a little shook up when I got home but I'm feeling better now. Speaking of, what time is it?" I asked, glancing behind me slightly to look out the window, only to find it pitch black outside.

"It's nearly eleven."

"Shit, I slept for a long time."

"Yeah before I came in here, talking to myself like a weirdo and woke you up. Crap, I'm sorry. You need your sleep, you're probably exhausted. I keep fucking up don't I?" He hung his head.

"It's honestly fine. I'm actually starving." Just as the words left my mouth, my stomach gurgled loudly. A small smile cracked on Nico's lips. "You want to make it up to me? Not that I think you need to."

He looked up instantly. "Yes, what do you want?"

Throwing my duvet over, I swung my legs off the bed and stood up, stretching my arms above my head. "Take me to the diner to get food. I could really go for a burger and chips right now."

He laughed, standing up. "When are you not in the mood for food?"

"True. So, do we have a deal?"

He looked at me and then quickly away. "Uh, yeah but you might want to get some pants on before we go."

My face burned. "Well, you've already seen my boobs anyway, right?" I joked while pulling on a pair of leggings and sliding on some sandals. I should really put a bra on but I really didn't feel like it, plus I was actually really hungry and didn't want to waste anymore time here, not getting food. Plus, I was still wearing Alex's shirt which looked more like an oversized t-shirt dress, so you wouldn't really be able to tell I wasn't wearing one unless you looked closely or I was nipping. "Ready?'

"Uh, yeah let's go."

"So, where is Alex?" I asked, clicking my seatbelt into place.

"Oh shit, yeah. I'll call him when we get to the diner." I nodded and sat back, resting my head against the headrest. As soon as we parked, Nico took out his phone to call, I'm assuming, Alex. "He didn't answer. Let me try Miles, they were together looking for you when I came home to grab my charger."

"They've been out there looking for me this whole time and you're now just calling them?" I sat up, staring at him wide-eyed.

"Yeah, I probably should have called them before but I was already driving and it's not safe to be on the phone and drive."

"Okay, sure. Just call them now so they can stop looking."

'Hey, you still with Alex?'

'Okay, yeah he didn't answer when I called. I know he is.'

'Can you just meet me at the diner?'

No, I know. Just, meet me there real quick.'

'Please? '

'Yeah, yeah. Okay, bye.'

Hanging up, he looked over to me. "They'll be here in a bit."

"Why did you tell them that I was with you?"

"I wanted to surprise them." He shrugged and climbed out of the car, coming to my side.

"'Yeah but don't you think that this probably isn't the best time for surprises?" I climbed out and we started walking in.

"Well, I'm hoping that by me finding you makes him forgive me for losing you."

I snorted and slid into a booth. "You didn't lose me Nico, nor did you find me. You came into my room for whatever reason, talking to yourself and woke me up. Why were you in my room anyway?"

He shrugged, "Dunno'."

"Hey ya'll, what can I get you tonight? Oh my, what happened to your face, sweet pea?" Flo gasped, setting down her pen and pad to get a good look at my face.

"I'm okay, Flo. You don't need to worry."

"Worry? Child, have you seen your face? Who did this to you? I'll be their ass."

I chuckled, shaking my head at the sweet woman who didn't look like she could hurt a fly. "Really, I'm okay."

She looked unsure but picked up her pen and pad back up nonetheless, "I swear, you kids swear the dickens out me comin' in here all banged up bruised. You're still beautiful."

I smiled at her kindness. "Thank you, you are too."

She waved me off, a slight shade of pink tinting her cheeks. "Oh hush now child. Are you ordering your usual?"

I nodded, smiling. "But instead of a chocolate shake could I get a peanut butter one?"

"Sure thing and Nico, will you be having your usual?"

"Yes ma' am. Thank you." She gave us one last sweet smile before stepping away. "Mase?"

I looked back to Nico, who once again, had a look of remorse on his face. "Can I ask what they did to you? What they say? What even happened? If you don't want to tell me, it's fine. I just,"

"No, it's fine. So, you went to get your phone and so I was just leaning against Alex's car waiting for both of you, playing a game on my phone. Then out of nowhere, someone said my name and after having the shit nearly scared out of me, I saw that it was Luke so I calmed down. I asked him what he doing out here and then a van pulled up, two other men jumped out and Luke grabbed ahold of me while one of the other guys grabbed my wrists and zip tied them together. They threw me in the van and on the ride Luke and I started arguing because I mean, he freaking kidnapped me and so we had a little disagreement which is what happened to my face. The boy has anger issues. Anyway, we got to where it was we went and they put me in a room with just a chair and chained my legs to the legs of the chair. Then Gabriel came in, we talked, I found out that Luke was his spawn, I ate some Chick Fil' a, fell asleep and was woken up by one of the guys unchaining my legs and bringing back to the van, where Gabriel was standing this time. He got in and explained to me he's kidnapped me, twice now and blah, blah. Then I went to my room, took a shower, cried, got dressed and then fell asleep until you came in and now here we are."

"Luke did that to you?" I nodded, smiling as Flo placed our milkshakes in front of us. I wasted no time and took a massive gulp. "Why?"

My face scrunched at the abundance of coldness in my mouth as I swallowed. "I told you, we got into a disagreement."

"About what?"

"I don't know. He was being an obnoxious prick. He said something about my mother teaching me something and said that I didn't have a mother but I could show him something that my father taught me."

"And he did that to your face?" I nodded, taking another sip from my shake. "All because you told him you didn't have a mother but you could show him something your father taught you?"

"Well," I pushed the glass to the side. "I mean, I did headbutt him in the nose."

He choked on his cookies n' cream shake. "You what?"

"He got in my face with his ugly ass smirk and told me to show him what my dad taught me. So, I did. He cried like a little bitch too." I smiled proudly, thinking back to seeing him cry out in pain whilst holding his bloody nose.

"And then they fed you Chick Fil' A?" He sounded confused by this part.

"Uh, yeah. They wanted me to stop talking so I told them that I wouldn't until they got me food."

"But Chick Fil' A's like a two-hour drive, from here at least."

I shrugged. "I know but I wanted it."

"And they just agreed?"

"I guess they really wanted me to stop talking. Hey, I'll be right back. I need to use the toilet." He nodded as I slid out and headed to the back of the restaurant. I avoided looking in the mirror before going pee, knowing I wouldn't like what I saw. Though whilst washing my hands, it was kind of hard to avoid the massive mirror in front of my face. Looking at myself again, I could clearly see why I was getting multiple stares from everyone in the diner who anyone we passed for that matter. It looked as if I was someone's punching bag which I suppose was true last night. Looking away, I quickly finished washing my hands and dried them off.

Walking towards the table, I noticed my food sitting there waiting for me. I also noticed Miles was standing with him back towards me. I was just about to slide into the booth to eat when I was yanked back, gently.

"Holy fuck, Mason? What the hell happened to your face." Without giving me time to answer, he pulled into a hug.

"I found her." Nico chimed in making me roll my eyes.

I get that my face what badly bruised but I did everyone have to word it so harshly? Jeez. "Hey, Mase." I smiled, hugging him back.

He pulled away, turning to Nico. "Why the fuck didn't you say that you had found her?"

He threw a chip into his mouth. "I wanted to surprise Alex. Where is he anyway?"

"He's in the car. He didn't want to come in here and deal with your bullshit."

"Hey! I found Mason." He defended, his chewed up food on fully display.

"But your dumb ass didn't tell us that. We thought you were just taking a break to get food."

"Then why'd you come?"

"Because we know you and you would have just kept calling until we showed up."

Nico shrugged, nodding his head. "This is true. Well, what are you waiting for? Go get Alex."

"Oh, yeah. Duh. I'll be right back." While he rushed out the door, I took my seat immediately ravishing my food. The bell over the door dinged, making me look up, my cheeks stuffed with food. Alex and Miles seemed to be arguing about something until Miles grabbed ahold of his chin and forced him to look in my direction.

Alex stopped walking instantly, his eyes widening as he stared at me. In the next second, he was moving, shoving a group of teenagers, roughly out of his way, his pace increasing as he drew closer. 

━

authors note, 

hello! 

How are you all doing today? 

So, not that much of an interesting chapter, it's more so a filler but ehh.. I still hope you guys like it. 

Also, I've just recently gotten a new job which is great but also means that I'm going to be busier. I will do my very best to have it interfere with me updating but if it does, please don't hate me! I truly promise to do my very best and am going to try to have chapters already written up so that in case I'm not able to write a new chapter for the week, I'll already have one ready to go but we'll also have to see how that goes. 

I'm also not going to be working a crazy amount of hours but with being a mom of 3, having a new job and spending time with my husband AND write a book is going to be a lot. So please hang in there with me and I promise to make an announcement to you guys if I'm not able to update for the week. 

Thank you all so much for everything. 

All the love, 

M