Read Online Dawson's Fall (Welcome to Covendale #5) by Morgan Blaze - Free Book Online

conversation in her mind the whole time. There had to be a way to put Mark at ease and finish this job without ruining anything.
    Just as she finished getting dressed, her doorbell rang. For one crazy minute she thought it was Mark…actually hoped it was. But he didn’t know where she lived, and he hated her.
    She opened the door to Jason, wearing casual clothes and a big grin. “Hey, little sis.”
    “You do know you’re only eight minutes older,” she said with a smirk. “Also, I have a phone. You could’ve warned me you were coming by.”
    “Hey, do I need a hall pass to visit my sister now?” She thought there was something suspicious in his smile, but it was gone fast. “Anyway, I didn’t come to invade you. I’m here to take you away.”
    She frowned. “Where? I didn’t think we’d made plans.”
    “It’s kind of spur of the moment,” he said. “A bunch of us are going out to this club in Greenway. Thought you might want to come.” The grin resurfaced as he said, “Stephen Westbrook is going.”
    The name rang a distant bell—and not a pleasant one. “So?”
    “Didn’t you date him a while back?”
    “Yeah, quite a while. Nine years, actually.” Now she remembered Stephen. They broke up when she declined to screw him in the back of his father’s Jaguar. “Thanks for thinking of me, but I can’t go,” she said. “I have work in the morning.”
    “And I don’t?”
    “You can go in at ten if you feel like it,” she said.
    “True.” Jason smiled, and then the distant sound of a car horn drew his attention. “That would be Tessie,” he said. “Are you sure you don’t want to go?”
    “Rain check.”
    “I’ll hold you to it.” He hugged her briefly. “Hope your new job is going all right.”
    “Oh, it’s great,” she said, a little too brightly. “Long day, though. Think I’ll just crash early tonight.”
    “Okay. See you, Bree.”
    “Have fun,” she called after him.
    She closed the door and leaned on it for a moment, her thoughts returning automatically to Mark. All at once, she had an idea. She’d seen his home address on a handful of building supply catalogs in the office trailer. He’d be there alone, so hopefully she wouldn’t be interrupting anything. She could bring him a peace offering. A bottle of Highland Park.
    He definitely seemed like he could use a drink—and maybe if she did something nice for him, he’d only dislike her.
    * * * *
    Mark scrolled through the Netflix menus for about the fiftieth time, hoping for anything that would catch his interest, or at least distract him. There were plenty of movies he knew were decent. The problem was, he didn’t want to be entertained.
    He’d never truly relaxed since the night he went to some stupid party, and his mother died while he was out making a fool of himself.
    For eight years he’d driven himself relentlessly. He talked himself into a full-time job with a construction company the moment he graduated, and learned everything he could about how it all worked. College was out of the question—they could never afford it. So he worked, and when he wasn’t working, he studied. Researched. Construction, design, economics, management. Figured out that owning a business was a hundred times better than working for one, and threw himself into making that happen.
    Just as it was all starting to finally pay off, Aubrey Monroe came back to ruin everything all over again.
    At this point, his one consolation was that she’d promised to leave for good when the job was done. He’d never have to see her again. But if she kept refusing to quit, these next two months would be an eternity. Just knowing she was around made him hurt in ways he’d never imagined and couldn’t explain.
    He aimed the remote at the television, thinking maybe he’d give up and go to bed, when the doorbell rang.
    He sighed and shot the door a suspicious look. He wasn’t expecting anyone. Usually that meant it was some girl who hadn’t