The Soldier Next Door Read Free

did want to call someone yet the way he looked at her drew her into his world. As frightening as this night had become, she felt compelled to see him through it. She splashed cool water on her face, then returned to the kitchen.
    “Hey, baby,” he purred with a smile. “You’re a pretty little thing.” His mood had swung around again.
    She slid onto the chair. “Um…thank you.”
    “How about you and me go over to my place. I’ll just lie on the bed and you can rub yourself all over me.” He gave her a spirited wink.
    In an attempt to divert his attention, she commented on his tattoo. “What is your tattoo of?”
    “My alter self.” He stood up and turned around. “I have tattoos on my ass, too.” He whipped his jeans down far enough to show her his butt. “I got these so that if I ever got blown up everyone would know it was me.”
    Sure enough two images—an eagle and an eagle’s talon had been tattooed onto his nice little behind.
    Her cheeks flushed with heat. “Um…maybe we should stay here. I’m not into one night stands.”
    Suddenly his eyes widened, brimming with sincerity. “Oh no, neither am I. Just sitting here staring into your big blue eyes…” He drifted again, clearly intoxicated. “You said that you have kids?”
    “Two daughters, yes.”
    “They don’t live with you?”
    “No. They have kids of their own. One just came out of an abusive relationship.”
    As if another wind of change had blown into the room, Mason’s personality dipped again. “Tell me where the little cocksucker lives. I’ll take care of him. I hate fucking pricks like him.”
    “I don’t think that’s necessary. We have a PFA against him.”
    “What’s his name?”
    “Mick, but don’t worry, my daughter is doing great now.”
    Mason didn’t back down. “Come on, we’ll drive to his place right now.”
    “You shouldn’t drive when you’re drinking,” she said as gently as possible.
    “You drive then. You can drive my truck. Can you drive a truck?”
    “Yes but—”
    “I love women who drive badass trucks. Bet you’d look really cute in there.”
    “Maybe we better stay in tonight.”
    He didn’t acknowledge her comment, but went off on an extremely dramatic tirade, using his hands as part of the talking. “Here’s what I’ll do to Mick,” he growled, then set his bottle down. “I’ll knock on his door. Hey, are you Mick? I’ll drag him outside and kick the shit out of him.” Mason went through the motions of pinning an invisible man to the ground, using her table as the prop, then proceeded to smack Mick around. He belted out a host of profanities unlike she’d ever heard toward an invisible man while he went on to choke someone who was not there.
    Yet she could tell that in his mind, the situation was very real. Nobody could more convincingly describe and act out in detail what this man did. She watched, in stunned horror as Mason smacked Mick around and choked the life from him while spewing obscene language drenched in rage. Suddenly he calmed, seemingly confident his enemy was dead, and he glanced at her in regret. The look on his face was clear—he had taken his rage too far and Mick was dead.
    Silence filled the room. Sydnie thought fast. “Oops,” she said in a quiet voice.
    He shot her a panicked look. “We better get out of here.”
    “Yeah, let’s go.”
    And with that, he released the demon in his head and grew calm. In her next breath, he startled her by shouting at a plastic bag in the adjacent chair.
    “Who is that? I’ll kill the motherfucker!”
    She squashed the bag out of sight. “He’s gone.”
    Mason glared at the chair for several minutes, then relaxed again. She realized that this would be a very long night.
     
     

Chapter Two
     
     
    Sydnie rolled over and clutched her pillow to block out the light. She was off for the holiday weekend and looked forward to staying in and catching up on her freelance work. Mason had stayed until seven in the