sun had set. Neither of us went to our apartments or wives. Instead, we went straight to 2 to rid ourselves of any reminders of the day and deed we’d just completed.
As water droplets beaded upon my skin, I walked barefoot through the shower room and into the room with the large vanity. While this amenity was as luxurious as every other part of the tower, this expensive rendition of a locker room lacked the color and personality of the bathrooms in Lorna’s and my apartment.
The tile varied in shades of tan. A white marble vanity contained four sinks with a long mirror that reached from one end to the other and a row of lights overhead. Three additional rooms were accessible from where I stood: besides the door leading to the central room of our command center and the hallway to the showers where I’d just been, there was another room divided into stalls and a second room for dressing.
This may have been constructed with a locker-room feel, but other than the vanity, all the facilities were private. There was only one person I wanted with me in my shower, and it wasn’t any of the men I considered my family and brothers-in-arms.
The purpose of this bathroom and dressing room was exactly why Mason and I were using it now. There was no need to show our wives the ugliness that our jobs sometimes required.
I slowed as I neared the vanity, seeing Mason standing before the large mirror. With a towel around his waist, his long hair dripped down his shoulders and back, flowing over his colorful canvas of tattoos.
His eyes met mine in the mirror and for a moment, I had the sensation of a child caught looking at something he wasn’t supposed to see. Never before had I seen so much of my brother-in-law’s artwork exposed.
There were thousands of subjects we could discuss, including the last few hours of Zella Keller’s life and the information she’d shared, yet at that moment I was mesmerized by what I’d only been given small glimpses of over the last few years.
Mason’s head shook. “Before Laurel, I would probably have to kill you right now.”
“I know you’re capable,” I said with a grin, stepping up to the vanity. “What made you choose those designs?”
He shrugged his wide shoulders. “I didn’t know.”
Turning toward him, I pursued the subject. “Army medallion and Airborne Special Forces?”
Mason’s hands gripped the edge of the vanity, the muscles under the colors strained. His green stare met mine in our reflection. “You just spent hours watching me torture a woman and you want to discuss my tats?” He looked at my reflection. “Damn. You’re still feeling that bruise, aren’t you?”
I ran my hand over my chest. Fresh from the shower, the center of my chest appeared a shade of purple, darker than my skin. “Hurts like a mother.”
“You took off the bandages.”
“Showering seemed more crucial.” I turned to Mason. “Today’s field trip wasn’t far off from what I expected.”
“Then you’re a sick motherfucker too.”
There was always that possibility. One didn’t stay in a place of power in the Chicago underground without a tendency toward the extreme. I didn’t shy away from pushing the limits of the law, or blowing through those limits as we did today, as long as I could justify the means. Today’s exercise did that—twice. What occurred with Zella was both retaliation for Lorna and Mason’s childhood traumas and a search for information to help us find Jettison and his blonde partner.
I reached for the deodorant. “Where did you learn to do what you did today? They didn’t teach us that in basic.”
“I had a different basic, one that made me useful to the Order.”
“Before you remembered who you were, did you recall serving in the army? Why would you have chosen those tattoos?”
Mason exhaled. “I didn’t remember a fucking thing. I was told shit. The focus was on the present and future, never the past. I was part of a special unit. Only those with previous military experience were part of the Order.”
“Marines or navy were also possibilities.”
“You forgot fucking merchant marines and coast guard.” Mason tossed a different plastic deodorant container into a sink. “I wasn’t taught as much as I was encouraged to explore,” he said, answering my earlier question. “I watched and learned. It’s simple. There are certain ways to coerce cooperation. Humans have pretty basic survival instincts. You’re smart. You know the five stages of grief. Today Zella knew on