Blood and Snow

Chapter Forty

"I love you, Mom." the little boy smiled brightly. His scarf was loosely wrapped around his neck and waist because of how long it was. The woman beside his ruffled his hair and her freckled cheeks pulled up into a smile. "I love you, too, Mason. Do you like it?"

"Heck yeah!" he beamed, making her laugh lightly. Mason gave her a quick hug, "Thank you so much, Mom."

"You're welcome, my little monster."

Suddenly a car horn blared all around them, making the child jump. His mother's smile was replaced by a concerned look. "Oh, that must be your fa—"

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Mason's head slipped off his hand, making him slam his face into the desk. His eyes shot open as he quickly held the side of his face. "Rgh! Damn it!" he hissed. The man rubbed his face for a moment, then put his hand down and sighed. He looked around his office, then listened closely. 'What time is it?' Mason narrowed his eyes. Given by the eerie silence and darkness of the warehouse, it was safe to assume it was either late at night or early in the morning. 'When did I fall asleep?' he wondered, looking at the desk below him. On it was two open files— Lefte's and Belle's files, to be exact. 'Oh, right...' Mason blinked and turned on his second desk light. He was doing some research to see if he could get anymore history about the both of them. There wasn't much on Belle, but Lefte's history was full of non-respectable behavior. There were even a few court cases that resulted in him going to Juvie, the earliest of which was when he was nine years old. "He really was a little shit." Mason said with an amused smirk, "Bastard."

No, Mason doesn't think he'll ever get tired of bashing Lefte like this. It was fun, and it helped relieve his anger and stress. Maybe he should introduce the concept to Belle for when Lefte is in the building. 'She doesn't really bash anybody.' he reminded himself, 'Probably thinks that she's above it. Never heard her swear before either.'

He thought back to when Belle had that panic attack the other day. 'She needs a cooping mechanism. Baron seems to know a lot about anxiety and whatnot. I'll ask him to teach her some.' he sighed, 'And yesterday he said that Belle needed a better room. It's agreeable, but where do we place her? By Happy and Bradley? But if she has another panic attack, she'll need to be closer to Tyreke and Baron.'

Mason huffed and sat back in his chair. 'This could be a headache.' Oh well. At least it gives him another thing to think about besides Lefte potentially arriving early. "That fucking—!" Mason interrupted himself with a deep breath. He needed to work on his vocabulary more. If his mother was alive to hear him today, he'd be eating soap for dessert. 'She was such a good soul... Unlike her husband...' Mason's mood started to dampen, 'Unlike her son...'

Shaking his head, Mason stood up and walked out from behind his desk. He went over to the bookcase and started reading through the titles. 'I need to clear my mind or something... Maybe reading a book will help...' a small smile worked its way onto his face. He scanned the titles, then chose an old favorite of his. 'This is a good one. I wonder what Belle would think of it...' he walked out of his office and headed towards his room. 'Now that I think about it, maybe reading is her cooping mechanism.' he remembered how happy and excited she was when he brought her that small stack of books as an apology. It was like he gave her a Christmas present. 'Maybe I should get her more books...' the thought made him pause for a moment, then he shook his head to snap out of it, holding the book in his hands a little tighter as he started walking again. 'I've been thinking about her a lot lately... Is that normal?'  He shook his head, trying to figure out what it might be. 'Is it because I feel bad for her, since she has a relatively similar past like I do?... Maybe I'm just concerned for her. She was like a scared puppy when I mentioned Lefty. For him to be in the same building as her...' his mind trailed off, trying its best to make sense of what he was feeling. It was definitely concern, right? 'She doesn't seem like the type to do something dramatic over seeing someone she doesn't want to, but then again, to her, that someone is a monster.' he made the note in his mind, 'Well then, it looks like she might be moved to a room closer to Baron's. He can keep her safe, not to mention keep an eye on her to makes sure she doesn't try to hurt herself. Again, I doubt that she'll do that, but you never know.'