Mason's Regret Read online

  The knife slipped from Rock’s fingers. His hand tightened in Mason’s hair and he staggered sideways, dragging Mason with him.

  Mason spent too many seconds not knowing what the hell was going on.

  “What the—”

  Another shot reverberated on the air, cutting Lavi off mid-exclamation. Lavi crashed to the ground.

  Mason’s brain finally caught up with his change in circumstance. He jerked free of Rock’s weakening grip and shoved the heavy man to the side. Rock dropped to one knee, groaning. He’d been shot, no doubt about that, but Mason couldn’t see well enough through the shadows created by the utility vehicle’s headlights or the pouring rain to pinpoint where or how bad the man’s injury was.

  A quick glance in Lavi’s direction said he probably wouldn’t ever move again. His eyes stared sightless up at the night sky.

  Mason lunged toward the utility vehicle on his hands and knees, impossible escape in his sight.

  A man stepped in front of the vehicle’s headlights, rifle in hand. “I thought I recognized that name of yours.”

  Mason stopped, pushing himself up onto his knees, his heart thundering as loud as the rain beating at his head and shoulders. “Who the hell are you?”

  The man crossed the distance between them, leaning his rifle on his shoulder as he came, his stocky build stirring an unsettling sense of recognition deep inside Mason’s gut.

  “I’m surprised you don’t remember,” the man said. “We hunted wolves together.”

  Before Mason could react to that statement, another voice came from behind him.

  “He’ll remember me.”

  Now that voice? That voice he recognized, and it sent a chill down his spine that had nothing at all to do with the driving rain and the flash of lightning that chose that moment to light up the night sky.

  Chapter 2

  It was a goddamn curse, Mason was sure of it. He looked over his shoulder. Sure enough, there stood Jay in the pouring rain, the wind dragging at the man’s jacket and the headlights of the utility vehicle outlining his wiry frame and the gun strapped to his thigh.

  Mason had survived his encounter with Stan, Rock, and Lavi, despite his certainty that death was just around the corner, but he’d survived only because he’d been saved by a man he knew only as Jay.

  Mason clambered to his feet, raking mud off his face as he did. His forearm throbbed and pain sizzled along his nerves but he shunted it aside. No time to deal with it. No time to deal with the dizzy spin of his head or the weak feeling in his legs either.

  Jay was here.

  Jay. His own goddamned devil.

  Three years ago, he’d almost sold his soul to Jay for a few hundred gold ten-dollars. The only thing that had stopped him had been circumstance. Even now, that thought brought with it a gut-churning splash of shame.

  “What are you doing here?” Mason wasn’t sure what strange fate had brought Jay back into his life, but he didn’t like it. That part of Mason’s life was over—or had been, until Marcus fucked up.

  He exhaled a shaky breath. Marcus was still out there. Mason would have to go get him. There was no way he was leaving him behind.

  Jay adjusted the hood on his jacket against the gusting rain, looking toward his companion. “Just passing through.”

  Mason made sure he could see both men. He didn’t want either one of them at his back.

  The other man moved the rifle, slinging it over his shoulder by the attached strap, and said to Mason, “Waters, right? Which one are you?”

  “Mason.” Mason eyed the man, trying to remember what the hell his name was. Nothing came to him.

  Jay gestured toward Stan’s body where it slouched against the utility vehicle. “Who were they?”

  Mason glanced behind him, but Rock hadn’t moved. If he was still groaning, Mason couldn’t hear it, not over the gusting wind and torrent of rain.

  Jay stepped closer. “You going to answer?”

  Mason started forward. “I’ve got somewhere to go. I don’t have time to answer questions.”

  He hadn’t gone more than three feet when Jay caught him by the arm.

  Mason jerked free.

  “I wouldn’t do that again,” Jay’s companion said.

  Mason stopped moving. The man’s rifle had come down, aimed dead center at Mason’s chest.

  “Not very grateful, is he?” Jay said.

  “Doesn’t look that way,” the other man replied.

  “Now,” Jay said, Mason’s own shadow hiding Jay’s expression from the glow of headlights. “Thank me for saving your life.”

  Mason clenched his fists and stared straight at Jay. “Thank you for saving my life.”

  “Now answer my question.” Jay gestured toward Stan again.

  Mason breathed deep. “They’re guys I knew growing up. They claimed my brother took something from them and they wanted it back. Marcus called me asking for help. I came. I found them instead.”

  “Renegades?”

  Mason shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  Jay’s hand reached for the holster on his thigh.

  “I’ve been out of that shit for years now.” His voice turned hard. “Like I said, I don’t know. Shouldn’t you be the one answering that question?”

  The other man moved and Mason tensed, but it was only to squat down and start going through Stan’s pockets.

  At that moment the utility vehicle’s headlights flickered and the engine’s hum stuttered before picking up speed again.

  Mason gave Jay a stubborn look. “I’m getting out of here before that thing runs out of halfgas. If you want to come along and ask questions, that’s fine, but I’ve got a body to collect.”

  He didn’t wait for Jay to respond, just started moving toward the vehicle.

  The other man raised his head, then quickly rose to his feet as Mason pushed around him. Mason jumped into the driver’s seat of the utility vehicle.

  “We’ll tag along,” Jay said, tugging his hood closer.

  “I hope you’ve got fast transportation,” Mason said, “because I’m not waiting on you.”

  With that, he put the machine in gear and gunned the engine. Stan’s body flopped to the ground as the vehicle shot off.

  He turned around by driving a circle around the collapsed shed. He stopped once, thinking he saw his rifle in the shadows of fallen boards, but it was just the end of a branch. By the time he pulled away, Jay and his companion were nowhere to be seen, but he could hear the rev of another engine off in the trees ahead of him.

  Shit. He’d really hoped he’d seen the last of Jay three years ago, but seemed like nothing ever worked out for the good these days.

  On the other hand, there were still men alive inside that lab somewhere and Mason wasn’t letting any of them stop him from recovering Marcus’s body. Jay and his companion might come in handy if Mason had to fight.

  Marcus hadn’t liked Jay. He wouldn’t like the idea of Mason taking help from the man either. But sometimes you had to make a deal with the devil to do what needed done, and Mason wasn’t too good to accept that. Marcus would forgive him. He always had.

  It was Mason who’d never been able to forgive himself.

  * * *

  “There,” Mason said, pointing at the hulking shadow in the distance. Dark windows ran the length of the building, half buried in the middle of a forest of trees. Half the building was nothing but a burned out husk, while the other half…

  Suffice to say, the other half should’ve been burned out too, but no one had come back to do the job all those years ago, and the reasons for that were lost to a history Mason didn’t know. The great quake had done some of the damage, he was sure, and the massive forest fires that followed had probably done the rest.

  Or maybe not. It was just as possible someone had taken advantage of the destruction from the quake and burned the place down.

  The hell if he could remember. His education had been good enough, but he hadn’t been a good student. He�
��d spent most of his life avoiding a competition he couldn’t win.

  Mason raked his hand over his face, mixing the cold rain with the hot burn of tears.

  Fucking Marcus. He’d always had to be the smart one.

  The rain had eased during the last half-hour. The lingering drizzle ran down the back of his newly acquired jacket, but the cap he’d found along with it in one of the utility vehicle’s storage boxes had kept the water out of his eyes while he led the way to the last place he’d seen Marcus alive.

  Sebastian—Mason had finally gotten the man’s name—climbed off the ATV he’d parked beside the utility vehicle. He stopped next to Jay, who was standing beside Mason just to the outside of a copse of oak trees.

  Jay shared a look with Sebastian, before glancing again at the building. He spoke to Mason without taking his eyes off the dark windows ahead. “What is this place?”

  “It’s an old biolab.”

  “And your brother’s in there? What was he doing here?”

  “They brought him here.”

  Jay’s thumb moved over the rear sight of his gun, again and again, while he seemed to be lost in thought. Finally he said, “I’m going to need more than that.”

  “Marcus said they’ve been trying to create some kind of weapon. Something to use against the wolves.”

  Jay finally turned his gaze to Mason. “Now that’s interesting.”

  “Your brother knew what it was?” Sebastian asked.

  Mason chose his words carefully. “He said they were part of something bigger, didn’t say what. I didn’t ask. He’s my brother. He wants help, he gets it. I don’t give a fuck what he’s part of.” His voice choked tight. “He’s my brother.”

  They’re going to burn down the whole goddamned world, Marcus had said. If I can’t stop them, you have to, you hear me?

  Jay shared another look with Sebastian.

  Just then, Mason sneezed twice in quick succession. He barely covered his face in time and then had to wipe his hand on his wet and muddy jeans. The goddamned rain and wind was getting to him. He didn’t have time for this shit with Jay.

  He decided to head off any more questions. “It doesn’t matter what they’re doing. Marcus is dead. I want him back and I’m not leaving this goddamn place until I have him. You either help me or don’t, but I’m going in after him.”

  He’d seen Marcus fall at Stan’s feet, although it’d been from a distance. He’d rushed Stan, but their fight had taken them far away from Marcus’s body, and then he’d ended up on the run.

  Hours had passed. The storm had blown in and time was short.

  Marcus had been clear that things were happening in the early morning hours, before dawn.

  Mason had to get his shit together and take care of this, one way or another.

  Sebastian leaned his rifle’s barrel against his shoulder, his hand cradling the stock. He made a noise in his throat, then said, “It might be just what we’ve been looking for. Could go back with something, anyway.”

  His gaze drifted to Jay, who looked back with steady resolve.

  There was a story there, but Mason barely cared what it might be. He searched the building’s exterior for signs of movement but he couldn’t make out anything through the swaying branches and drizzling rain.

  He moved to the utility vehicle and dug with his right hand through the box where he’d found the cap. He was trying not to move his left arm more than he had to because every time he did his stomach rolled over, while his makeshift bandage had barely held together through the struggle with Rock and Lavi.

  Sebastian lowered his rifle but didn’t go so far as to point it at Mason.

  “We’ll go in with you,” Jay said. “We’ll find the weapon, then your brother.”

  “I don’t give a damn about the weapon,” Mason said as careless as he could manage. “I want my brother. You two can do what you want.”

  His fingertips brushed something hard buried under a thin blanket. He pulled out what he’d found. Binoculars.

  He raised the high-tech device to his face, close enough to see details.

  Whoa the fuck down. He sat back against the utility vehicle and wedged the binoculars between his thighs. He activated the thermal imaging cameras. “They’re getting supplies from somewhere. Nobody I know around here can afford this shit. These are hard to come by.”

  “We’ll stay together,” Jay said.

  Mason raised the binoculars to his face and directed his view toward the dark building. “I told you—”

  “I know what you said.”

  Mason heard the distinctive whish of a gun coming out of a holster and he stilled. He knew what kind of man Jay was: he was a man who kept his promises, even the unspoken ones.

  “Fine. We’ll go in together.”

  Mason turned back to the utility vehicle. The storage box contained several extra magazines but no gun. The only weapon he found was a sheathed blade three-quarters the length of his forearm.

  He took it out. The sheath still had a harness attached and when he pulled the blade free he snorted in disgust. Whoever it belonged to hadn’t even bothered to clean it before putting it away.

  Still, it was better than his pocketknife, even if his pocketknife did have a few special tools attached. Being able to start a fire or unscrew a panel wasn’t going to help him defend himself against someone determined to put an end to him.

  He realized quickly enough he wasn’t going to be able to get the strap over his shoulder with only one good arm so he yanked the strap free of the sheath and tucked the sheath into his boot.

  Jay’s voice came from above him. “That won’t do you much good.”

  “You got something better for me?”

  Jay glanced over his shoulder. “Sebastian does.”

  Mason looked over at the other man. He was closing a bag tied to the back of the ATV. A moment later, he crossed the distance between them and held out his hand. The holster was so dark Mason had to squint to make out its outline.

  He reached for it. “Thanks. Can’t say I won’t need it.”

  “Looks like we’re on the same side here.” Sebastian’s teeth flashed in the dark. “But I will want it back.”

  Mason flipped the holster, the weight of the gun reassuring in his hand. “Hate to ask, but I’m going to need one of you to strap this on me.”

  “I’ll do it,” Sebastian said.

  Sebastian stepped back and Mason stood. He held the holster in place over his thigh while Sebastian squatted in front of him and strapped it in place. Rain drizzled off the bill of his cap and pattered onto the dead leaves and pine needles at his feet.

  “Thanks.”

  “You loaned me your sleeping bag once. You remember me yet?”

  Mason straightened as Sebastian rose. “I remember.”

  And he did, now. He hadn’t, though, not until Sebastian brought it up. Mason had shared a bag with Marcus that night, after half the guys in the group had lost their supplies because the trailer carrying those supplies to a new location got picked up by county police. Of course, back then the police had still had some jurisdiction in the protectorate. Now the wolves ruled everything.

  Jay spoke up. “Let’s see if we can get in there without anyone noticing. I want to get my hands on whatever it is they’re making.”

  Mason watched Jay gesture to Sebastian and him and then start wending his way along the edge of the woods, toward the left side of the building where the least fire damage had occurred. As Mason walked behind, he eased the gun out of the holster and checked the magazine. Half-full.

  It was a small caliber weapon, but still, deadly enough against a human.

  He tucked it away and picked up the pace.

  Time was not just running short; time was running out.

  Chapter 3

  The inside of the secondary lab had been ransacked. The primary lab had burned to the ground fifty years ago. Whoever was supposed to be guarding the tertiary lab had moved on and left it open
to anyone who walked by.

  Mason wasn’t sure what to make of any of it. He’d expected resistance. He’d expected to find people.

  What he found instead was a quickly deserted facility that might as well have been a tomb.

  What he didn’t find was Marcus.

  The closer they got to the burned out half of the building, the tighter Mason’s nerves coiled. Something wasn’t right and he suspected Jay and Sebastian knew it too. Neither man had said a word in the last ten minutes.

  Ahead, Jay stopped. The binoculars Mason had found had fit him without adjustment and the display was as sharp as any veo screen Mason had ever seen, so he was able to see into the night-dark halls and rooms without the aid of the flashlight Jay was using. When Sebastian looked over his shoulder, Jay gestured with his flashlight for Sebastian to come forward. Sebastian made a motion with his chin, and Mason moved into Sebastian’s position to keep an eye on the hallway behind them.

  His back was to Jay and Sebastian but he could still hear the quiet whisper of their voices. He wasn’t sure they realized the binoculars had targeted sound amplification—he sure as hell hadn’t told them when he’d put the binoculars on and discovered that fact.

  “If this was where they were making the bullets, they’ve managed to take the whole set up with them,” Jay said. “If it was something else, I don’t know what it could’ve been just from looking at the junk left behind.”

  “So you think he was telling the truth? These are the people we’ve been looking for?”

  “Enough of a chance to make it worth coming back later to search the place in the daylight.”

  “What about the brother?”

  Jay’s voice lowered further. “Forget him. A dead man isn’t going to tell us anything we need to know.”

  “Like Matthew? You shouldn’t have—”

  “You’ll keep your fucking mouth shut about that when we get back, understand me?”

  Mason’s heart took up a rapid, thudding beat. What the hell were they talking about? Who the hell were they talking about? There were a lot of Matthews in the world, but Mason only knew one, but how the fuck would they have—

  “She wanted him alive.” Sebastian’s whispering turned fierce. “We both have to answer for that.”