Once In A Lifetime

Chapter Twenty One

"Samantha. This is the worst idea you have ever had."
Elena and I are dressed head to toe in black and driving around in Charlie's dad's Buick following Luke and Mason to God knows where.
"El. Do you want to know what they've been keeping from us or not?" I say in a lecturing tone. It took me five days to convince her to go along with my insanity, I still all but dragged her out the door earlier and bribed her with post spy mission doughnuts. Elena crossed her arms and slumped down into the seat,
"Well yeah." she mumbles.
Luke's jeep makes a quick right on to a random dirt road,
"Where are they going?" I ask under my breath. Elena points at something up ahead,
"There's like a warehouse thing up there." she says. I pull the car off to the side and we go the rest of the way on foot. We do our best to keep quite but Elena is doing ninja forward rolls and pretending her hand is a gun which has me laughing. Seriously wondering why I brought her along but she makes for good comic relief.

I see Mason hop out of the car so I grab El and drag her down with me to hide behind a bush. I peer through the branches and watch the boys, something about all this frightens me to the very core.

"Let's get this over with dude. I promised El we'd come over tonight. I can't bail, I'm still walking on thin ice." Luke says to Mason. Elena smirks and whispers,
"Smart man."
Mason and Luke walk into the large shady looking warehouse, El and I grasp hands and scurry over to a grimy window. To even see inside we have to stand on our tip toes. Through a layer of grime I see several sketchy looking men smoking around a table, one man in a suit, and there's one man gagged and tied to a chair.
"Ah there's my boy!" the man in the suit calls out. Mason walks with a confident swagger with his chest bravely puffed out,
"Father." Mason says with a curt nod of his head. Mason looks incredibly sexy, he's wearing his old KISS t shirt with a long sleeved red plaid shirt over it and a green beanie stuck over his long. If I wasn't so nervous I'd swoon. The man who I now know is Mas's dad walks over to Mason and Luke,
"Let's get to work. We have a guest tonight, gentleman. This is Shahid Asqueroso, and he has been a naughty boy." Mason's dad says menacingly toward the terrified looking man who is squirming around uncomfortable looking wooden chair he is tied to. Mason's dad approaches the man and circles around the chair as he speaks,
"Mr. Asqueroso and his friend, borrowed a quarter of a million dollars from us to start a music production company when it turns out he's a shit producer.  Unfortunately, he is also a stupid man. Shahid and his friend did not pay me back and then tried to run and hide like a little bitches."
The fat man squirms and yells into his gag Mason's dad throws a hard punch into the man's stomach, Elena and I gasp and duck down. We slowly stand back up and peek through the window and find the men interrogating the man for information about his friend. As they ask him questions they continue to beat him, I can't watch anymore so I look the room for clues to why my sweet and wonderful boyfriend would be involved with these horrible people. My eyes go wide when I see a gun on the table, I hear Elena squeal and be yanked from my side. Before I can scream a hand goes over my mouth and pulls me away from the window, I squirm and try to break free until I feel familiar lips against my ear,
"Shhhh, love! It's just me, it's just me!" Mason whispers. I look up at him with panicked eyes and just as I start to ask where Elena is he whispers,
"She's fine, she's safe. Look, she's right behind you. Luke has her. It's ok you are both safe."
My breathing slows down, I lean into Mason's chest and take in his soothing scent. Before I can get too comfortable he begins to push me towards the woods,
"Go. Get out of here. We will come by later. GO!" Luke says urgently to us.

But before the boys can push us to far a voice behind us speaks up,
"Well what do we have here?"

I spin around and peek from behind Mason to see Zane smirking evilly at us. Mason brings an arm behind him and places it on me,
"They were just leaving." Luke says. I look over at him and see he has El tucked protectively under his muscly arm. Zane takes a step forward,
"Good to see you again, Sammy!"
Mason stiffens up at this,
"You two know each other?" he asks.
Zane laughs,
"Me and your girl go way back. We dated, right Sammy?"
I charge at him fist ready but Mason grabs my middle and tugs me into him,
"Shut up! We went to prom and you only did it to terrorize me! I hate you!" I yell. Mason squeezes me tight to quite me and whispers in my ear,
"Shhhh babe. He's not worth it. Go to your car, get El and yourself out of here. It's not safe."
Luke takes my arm and tucks me protectively under the opposite side that Elena is on,
"I got y'all."
Luke pulls us into the woods as we walk away Zane calls out,
"See you soon, Sam!"
Luke squeezes me tight,
"Don't listen to that jerk, Sammy girl!"
Luke takes us all the way to where I parked the Buick and pushes Elena in and kisses her temple then whispers something in her ear before shutting the door and turning to me.
"You good to drive?" he asks.
I nod and look up at him, he's visibly panicked.
"Luke, what's going on? Who were they? Why are you and Mas here?" I ask.
Luke shakes his head and puts his hands on my shoulders to spin me around and push me towards the drivers side of the car.
"Get you and El home. Mason and I will come stay there tonight. Keep the door locked, we will explain everything later. Just go and stay safe!" Luke says as he opens my door, urges me in, and slams it shut.

I pull away in a way that would put Edward Cullen to shame. When we get home we lock the door and see a note from Nicole and Madison say they went home for the weekend. We both fall on the couch and close our eyes, Elena is first to break the silence,
"You went to prom with that creep?" she asks.
I look over at her,
"After everything that happen tonight that's what you choose to focus on?" I ask.
Elena looks at me waiting for me to explain, I roll my eyes and turn on tv. We watch Titanic until someone knocks on the door as Leonardo Dicaprio sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Elena shoots up and runs to the door,
"Look in the peep hole first, El!" I say from my spot on the couch. Elena sighs with relief when she looks through and opens the door for Luke and Mason. I gasp when I see a cut by Mason's eye, I run over to him and take his hand to lead him to my bathroom.
"What happened?" I whisper as I clean the cut.
"I'm fine, don't worry." he says quickly.
I glare at him and continue working on his cut, after he's all cleaned up we go down stairs. Luke is sitting on the couch looking slightly frightened by Elena,
"Have a seat, Edgewood." she says scarily polite.
Mason takes a seat and Elena places her hands on her hips,
"Ok boys, fess up."
Mason and Luke exchange a look and Mason looks back to us,
"What would you like to know first?"  
Mason looks up at me with the saddest eyes I've ever seen, it makes my heart shatter into a million pieces. When Mason saw the pity in my eyes he looked down before speaking,
"A few years ago my mum was diagnosed with cancer, by this time my father had been gone for a long time so it was up to me to make ends meet. I must of worked ten jobs on and off trying to pay our regular expenses plus my Mum's hospital bills." he said. I know I'm supposed to be mad at the boy but my heart cannot help but break for him.
"Last year my father made a deal with me, he would pay for all my Mum's medical bills and other expenses but in exchange I had to come live with him and work for him."

Mason explains his father's shady work and back alley deals to us in depth, that man is seriously twisted. After Mason finishes telling us the grooling details about his father, Elena looks lovingly at Luke,
"How did you get involved? If you were just helping Mason you could of told me."
Luke looks incredibly guilty as he explains,
"At first I wasn't just in it to help Mas....I didn't even know Mason was involved until I got there."

Elena stares at him and waits for him to further explain his involvement.
"El...I'm paying for school, my apartment, and my car...I needed the m-"
Before Luke could finish Elena stood up,
"Outside. Now."
Without a second thought Luke did as he was told, probably because he valued his life.

With the two of them gone it was just us two left staring at anything but each other.
Finally Mason speaks up,
"Did you eat dinner or were you too busy being Nancy Drew?" he says with his signature smirk.
I huff out a laugh and go look in our fridge, as I dig through our fridge I feel to familiar hands on my waist; I turn around and place my hands on his chest. Mason looks down at me with serious eyes and a furrowed brow,
"You shouldn't of come after us tonight." he says lowly.
I poke his furrowed brow with my finger,
"You know one day it's going to get stuck that way." I tell him.
He takes my hand in both of his and brings it to his lips for a kiss,
"Never put yourself in danger like that again." he says seriously.
I stand on my tippy toes so I can be on his level,
"That goes both ways, mister. Please, stay with the boys, get away from your father." I beg.
Mason nods and seals our deal with a kiss, after several minutes kissing and me ending up on the edge the counter so he would not have to bend down he pulls away grinning.
"Still hungry?" he asks.
I laugh and press a kiss to his cheek making him blush,
"Yeah, you're cooking." I tell him sassily.
Mason puts a dish towel across him arm like a fancy waiter,
"What does your tummy desire, madam?" he asks in his smooth British accent.
"Mac and cheese." 
Mason nods in approval,
"Mmmmm the food of the gods...have a seat my dear. Watch the kitchen master work some culinary magic."

I shake my head at his ridiculousness, I love this boy.