Page 1 of Shadow and Skulls

Chapter One

Kelsie

“Do you not want to sleep with me because of what happened to you?” Jason asks.

My heart plummets to my stomach. “What do you mean?”

The light from the dash illuminates his face as he stares at me. His head falls back against the headrest, and he grips the steering wheel tightly. “I know what happened to you. It’s no big deal. Just let me help you get over it.”

The lights in the valley twinkle below us as I focus out the windshield, wondering if this is why everyone at school has been treating me differently. I thought it was because my brothers weren’t around this year, that maybe no one really liked me to begin with. But maybe it’s because everyone has discovered who I really am.

“Who told you?”

He turns toward me, his gaze heavy on the side of my face. “It doesn’t matter.”

The pain from the knife firmly lodged between my shoulder blades begins to ache.The twins.

Jason crawls between the seats, rocking the entire car as he lands in the back. “Come on. The guys have been giving me a hard time because we haven’t moved past first base.”

“What guys?” I ask, my mouth falling open.

“You know. Matt and the guys.” He may as well have just said the entire basketball team.

“You’ve all been talking about me that way?”

He shrugs. “It’s just how guys talk.”

It had to be my brothers. Maybe Carson and Cole told him about me just to keep him away. They probably thought it would repulse him. I know they were worried about leaving me without a chaperone when they left for college. I didn’t think I needed one, but now …

Obviously, their little plan didn’t work because Jason doesn’t seem to care that I’ve been with other men.

I’m so angry at them I could scream.

I climb in the back, falling clumsily onto Jason’s lap. He laughs, pulling me to straddle him. His hands instantly go to my face, and he kisses me. I’ve never thought he was particularly good at it, but that is an understatement tonight.

His kisses are fast and wet as he drags his mouth over my cheek and down my neck. This is usually as far as he gets before I stop him. Right now, I just want to get this over with. I need to show Jason, and I guess the entire basketball team, that I’m not broken.

Everything is fine until he takes off my pants and pushes me to lie down.

“Don’t cry,” he whispers. “This is how it’s supposed to be. You’re my girl.”

He kisses me one last time, then tucks his face in the crook of my neck as if he can’t bear to see the tears running out the corners of my eyes. I stare up at the ceiling of his car.

“What’s the difference between a prostitute, a mistress, and a wife?” one of the club men asks before finishing the last of his beer and tossing it into the fire.

The other guys chuckle. “How the hell would you know the answer? You don’t have any of the three!” someone yells, making the men laugh louder.

“Very funny.” He smirks. “Do you fuckers want to know the punchline or not? Anyway, the prostitute asks are you finished yet, the mistress asks oh, can we do it again, and the wife says beige … I think I’ll paint the ceiling beige.”

The entire group of men groan in unison. “That joke is older than you are,” someone says.

Jason’s ceiling is black.

My eyes fall closed as I slip away to my safe space. A few minutes later, a grunt pulls me away from my mind, thrusting me back into reality. Jason goes soft inside of me as he pants against the side of my neck.

“Get off,” I say calmly.

His head jerks up and he stares into my eyes, blinking slowly.

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