Read Online Starling by Lesley Livingston - Free Book Online Page B

his stare almost palpable in its intensity. “You shouldn’t have been in the gym.”
    “Dad, I had practice—”
    “And you shouldn’t have been alone like that with no one to protect you.”
    “I wasn’t —”
    “Hey, Pop,” Rory said, wandering up next to them, hands stuffed casually into the pockets of his jeans. Mason noticed, though, that they were balled into tight fists.
    “Rory. Damn it!” Gunnar rounded on his younger son. “You should have been looking out for your sister.”
    “I’m fine , thanks,” Rory muttered acidly.
    “Rory was great, Dad,” Mason pulled at her father’s arm, ignoring the pointed glare her brother gave her. Mason had learned early in life that Rory did not exactly appreciate anyone standing up for him. “And Toby was awesome, too—he totally took care of us!”
    Gunnar’s glance flicked over to where a paramedic had bandaged Calum and was leading him to an ambulance. Cal shrugged angrily away when the woman tried to support him under his arm.
    “Yeah,” Mason continued, trying to recapture her father’s attention. “I mean, poor Cal got pretty banged up, but that’s because he was just in exactly the wrong place when the oak came crashing down.”
    Gunnar turned back to his daughter, frowning.
    “But nobody panicked and Toby made sure we all knew what to do and we’re all okay.” Mason tried to smile brightly. “He made us stay in the storage cellar overnight, until the storm passed, just in case and … and …” She faltered to a stop, willing her father to remain calm and not kill anyone on her behalf.
    “The car’s around front of the academy,” Gunnar said. “Go wait for me.”
    “What? Why?”
    “You’re coming home with me for a few days until I get to the bottom of this.” He glanced at Rory. “Both of you.”
    “Dad—no! It’s the middle of the semester.” Mason was horrified. “I have exams. And practice. The national qualifiers are coming up. I can’t leave.”
    “Mason—”
    “It was just a storm .” She glanced at Rory, who frowned deeply at her but stayed silent. “That’s all . It could’ve happened anywhere. It could’ve happened on the estate.”
    “Where I could have taken care of you—”
    “I can take care of myself. Please . I’m really, really okay.”
    She watched anxiously as Gunnar exchanged a long, laden glance with Toby. She was doomed, Mason thought. Her father was going to drag her out of there kicking and screaming—because that was the only way she was going to go—and she’d be locked up in the gloomy, gothic Starling estate for who knows how long. Rory had been right.
    But then suddenly Gunnar’s arm muscles seemed to relax a bit beneath Mason’s fingers. His glance had shifted and he was looking over her shoulder. Mason followed his gaze and relaxed a little, too.
    Roth. Oh, thank god , Mason thought. Saved .
    Her other brother, Rothgar—except nobody really got away with calling him Rothgar except their father—had arrived, dressed head to toe in the motorcycle leathers that made him look armored. He stalked through the quad archway and headed toward them, his gait relaxed, casual, supremely confident. He would keep her father calm.
    Roth’s presence had a way of acting like a mute button or a freeze frame. Everyone always seemed to get very quiet and still around him. Mason was used to it, but it always secretly amused her. He was only twenty-two years old, and it wasn’t like he was some huge, muscle-bound biker dude or bouncer or something. And yet people always tended to behave themselves around him.
    With Gunnar, he was simply a calming influence, because anything the elder Starling required, Rothgar Starling would simply make happen. He was the epitome of the strong, silent type; usually the only thing anyone heard out of him was the sound of his thick-soled, steel-toed boots as he stalked into a room. Rory had once secretly referred to Roth as their father’s errand boy, but really