Bang (Blast Brothers #2) - Sabrina Stark Page 0,19

annoyance, she said, "When you answer a question with a question."

She could be annoyed all she wanted. I wasn't letting her off the hook. "Wanna know what I don't like?"

"No. I don't actually."

I told her anyway. "I don't like the idea of you not being careful."

"Oh yeah?" she said. "And I don't see where that's any of your business."

I gave her a long sideways look. "Isn't it?"

Her mouth opened, and then quickly shut again. Abruptly, she turned forward in the seat and said nothing more.

That was fine by me. Because I had something to say. And whether she wanted to hear it or not, I was going to tell her.

Chapter 11

Cami

Dang it.

I knew exactly what he was getting at. But I still didn't appreciate it.

Last night, I hadn't been his employee. I'd been a girl in my hometown, walking through a parking lot that I'd walked through at least fifty times already.

And yet, I couldn’t disagree with the gist of what he was saying. The truth was, I usually paid more attention to my surroundings, especially when I was on my own.

At night.

In a dimly lit parking lot.

With a stranger following after me.

I bit my lip. I hadn't even seen the guy.

I hadn't heard him either.

Now, I heard myself say, "The guy was probably just walking to his car."

"Probably," Mason agreed. "But that doesn't change the fact that you didn't notice him." A new edge crept into his voice. "And I'll tell you this. He noticed you."

I didn't like the way that sounded. But I refused to give Mason the satisfaction. "So?"

"Listen," he said, "we both know you get it, so don't pretend otherwise."

"I'm not pretending anything," I said. "I just think it's none of your business, that's all."

"So I’m hassling you for no reason."

"Oh, so you admit you're hassling me?"

"Hell yeah, I'm hassling you." His voice hardened. "And when you're with Willow, I'll do more than hassle you if you're not careful."

Now that did it.

Once again, I whirled in the seat to face him. "Was that a threat?"

"No. It's a promise. You mess up with her safety, and you'll be out faster than the last one."

"The last nanny?" I gave a bark of laughter. "So you'll kick me to the curb at three in the morning, huh?"

His voice was deadly calm as he replied, "If it comes to that."

"Oh, please," I said. "What do you think? That I'll be taking a grade-schooler to a nightclub? And then, I'll text up a storm in some dark parking lot while Willow's left to fend for herself? Because if that's what you think, you probably shouldn't have hired me in the first place."

In the driver's seat, Mason looked way too composed in the face of my anger. Without so much as a glance in my direction, he said, "You can get pissed all you want, but here's the deal. Starting today, you're gonna be looking after someone who's important to me, which means you'll need to be more vigilant."

I made a sound of annoyance. "Which I will be when I'm with her."

"That's all I'm asking." He gave a tight shrug. "What you do on your own time is your own business."

At that moment, I wasn't sure what bothered me more – that he thought so little of my judgment or the fact that apparently, I was expendable.

I said, "Oh, really?"

"You're not family, so do what you want." Again, his voice hardened. "On your own time."

Lovely.

It didn't help that his original point was valid.

Yes, I realized that in a small town like Petoskey, the odds of something bad happening were pretty darn low, but I also realized that any expert on self-defense would've agreed with Mason ten times over.

And speaking of defense, I was tired of fending off his attacks.

Without preamble, I launched into my counter-attack. "So tell me. Do you ever text in parking lots? Or do you always wait until you're nice and safe inside your vehicle?"

"What I do is irrelevant."

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"Because if I'm followed, I can handle it."

Dang it.

He was probably right.

Everyone knew that Mason Blastoviak was the kind of person who could handle just about anything.

I knew this from watching the show – and from Arden, who'd told me a little more about his family history.

His parents – first his dad and then his mom – had taken off when Willow hadn't been much older than a baby. And Mason? He'd stepped in to take up the slack.

Under his guidance, his siblings had not only survived, but