Wrecked Read online

  “Wouldn’t mind seeing her tits, man,” his friend pitches in again, making me wince.

  “What do you think?” Hayes asks. “You want to show Will here your tits?”

  I keep my mouth shut because this sounds too much like a trick question, and everyone here should already have a pretty damn good idea that I don’t want to show any of them my tits. This whole situation is such bullshit. I am not the girl who gives up or gives in. It’s being back in this place, it’s throwing me off. Making me forget all the survival skills I’ve been relying on for so long.

  I stiffen even more as Hayes presses his fingers harder against my skin, almost like he just wants to remind me they’re there. Still touching me whether I want him to or not.

  “Don’t want to answer me? That’s okay. I don’t really need your permission. I could strip you bare right here if that’s what I wanted. Bet you wouldn’t keep ignoring me then.”

  It’s weird the way he doesn’t make it sound like a threat. His voice is too mild. Not that I let that lower my guard at all—considering he’s still got half of his hand shoved down the front of my pants.

  “Uh, Jasper, don’t you think that’s enough?” one of the girls pipes in. I chance a glance from her to him, waiting for his reaction.

  He shoots her down with a glare and she grimaces. She doesn’t want to watch this, though I have a suspicion based on the way she keeps looking at him that it’s more about her not wanting to see him with me than wanting to have another girl’s back.

  Jasper.

  Jasper Hayes.

  Alarm bells start going off in my head. I’m not sure how I didn’t remember him. Maybe because he looks even more hardened than he did back then? Jenna’s older brother. He’s always been a touch scary to me, the kind of guy I avoided like the plague. Not that it was too hard considering the last time I saw him I was a teenage girl with teenage friends. Meanwhile, he was already a full blown man doing whatever it is that men like Jasper do.

  Somehow hearing the name gives me a rush of adrenaline that makes me mentally start preparing for a fight. I’d rather get my ass beat by all of them than let Jasper assault me in front of them. And the way he’s starting to get hard against me, I have a real fear that’s the direction things are headed if I don’t get out right now.

  I start to slip my elbow forward, thinking maybe I can send it flying back into him and catch him off guard, but I don’t get the chance. He lets go of me with no warning, his fingers slipping out of my waistband as he gives me a push away from him.

  “Don’t forget your shit,” he says, pointing his thumb in the direction of my bag. It feels like a trap. All of it does. But then again, it seems like that’s all my life has ever been.

  2

  Jasper

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Nikki asks, getting up and taking off stomping her way in the other direction. Not that I give a damn.

  “Uh, yeah, dude. What the fuck is wrong with you? That was fucking grade-A you had your hands on.” Will watches Shay bend on shaky legs to gather up her bag. There’s a part of me that’d like to beat him black and blue for looking at her like that. The way I’m looking at her.

  Shay Wilson is mine.

  I stay silent, though, letting my fuming happen deep under the mask I wear to keep these morons from ever figuring me out. Being unpredictable is what keeps everyone in line, keeps them afraid of me. The last thing I need is to show my hand and let them all figure out my one goddamn weakness.

  “You’re one stupid motherfucker.” Travis leans forward to punch Will in the gut, making him double over.

  “What the fuck did I do?”

  Travis points at me where I’m still splitting my attention between them and Shay—who’s now taking off as fast as those shapely legs of hers will carry her. “That’s his woman, now that she’s back and… y’know, actually a woman this time.”

  Damn Travis for being the only one sober enough to remember my obsession with my little sister’s friend. And now I can feel all of them staring at me, wondering what the hell’s going on since they’ve never seen me lay claim to anyone, and I’m sure I look ready to whip my dick out and piss on Shay right here, right now.

  “Fuck off,” I tell them all, my eyes still tracking little Shay as she sprints around the next building. There are serious perks to having watched her with Jenna all those years. It means I’ve got a damn good guess about which direction she’s headed. And the perks of sticking around while she left? I know about a dead-end that she doesn’t. The one she’s heading straight for.

  I start stalking away without a word, ignoring the protests from all these morons who don’t understand what I’ve just done. I didn’t let Shay go—I gave her a head start.

  I pause just long enough to grab her sweatshirt. In her rush to get away she didn’t even attempt to grab it. Now that I’ve made my point with her, I want her to put the damn thing back on before anyone else starts getting ideas about taking a closer look.

  Instead of following Shay’s exact path, I cut around the next building. My mind wanders all the way back to the last time I saw Shay. Sixteen. Hot as hell, but too young to touch. I’d been biding my time, trying not to be as much of a fucking creep as some of the guys of Kings Court. I’m six years older than her. Too old to be fucking around with a high school girl.

  But Shay Wilson isn’t in high school anymore.

  I have no idea what the hell she’s doing back here or where she’s been. I wasn’t lying when I said I figured she was dead. I used every trick in the book to try to track her ass down when she left, but it was like she just vanished. Never rented an apartment, never stayed long enough at any job to hunt her down there. Even her social media went untouched.

  When she left, she really left. I’m sure as hell not going to let that happen again.

  I step around the corner with timing that couldn’t be better. She’s just realizing her mistake and turning to double back when I step into her path. I’ve effectively trapped her, and it’s about fucking time.

  She lets out a frustrated growl, and then shoves at me with what I’m guessing is all her strength.

  “Is that all you’ve got?” I taunt her.

  Shay starts to just fucking wail on me, hands and fists hitting me anywhere they can. Back there, I’d been surprised by how passive she was, but now I realize it was probably just a matter of knowing she was outnumbered. Smart girl.

  Her hits do nothing to me physically, but I find myself growing angrier anyway. I didn’t actually do anything to her but scare her a bit, which serves her fucking right after not recognizing me. She’s got no reason to be acting like a cat tossed in a bathtub.

  I snatch her wrists out of the air and hold her still, silent as she works hard to catch her breath. She’s still breathing heavily as she asks, “Why the fuck are you following me?”

  “I wasn’t done playing.” She sure hates that answer. She tries to pull back and take another swing, but I’m ready for her. I use her momentum to force her back and to the side instead, pinning her back to the wall.

  I’m rock hard just from finally getting my hands on her. The spectacular view I’ve got of her heaving tits in that low cut tank-top doesn’t hurt, either. Her eyes widen as I press against her, making sure she gets a good feel of exactly what she does to me—and I haven’t even gotten my hands on any of the best parts of her yet.

  I let go of one of her wrists so that I can touch her hair. That damn dark hair of hers always mesmerized me. Her eyes are wide and distrustful as I run my fingers through it, but she finally goes still and stops fighting me.

  I’m so goddamn mad at her for leaving me. For thinking she had a right to. And even more for not realizing she was leaving me at all. I swear she’s the only girl in this whole fucking place that never came calling for my cock. I’ve always been able to have anyone I wanted… except her.

  It’s not a matter of needing to get her out of my system, either. I don’t just want to f
uck Shay, I want to own her. Pump her full of babies and tattoo my name across her tits so everyone knows exactly who she belongs to. I’ve been called an animal enough times in my life, but it’s only Shay that brings out a whole different kind of animal in me. She doesn’t know that yet, not the extent of it, but she’s going to.

  “I can’t believe you came back here,” I admit. My words are too soft as my affection for her causes the hard mask I usually wear to slip.

  “I didn’t want to,” she admits in return.

  Logically, I know she’s not saying it to piss me off, but it does that just the same. “What’d you finally run out of dick where you were livin’?”

  “No, the dick was pretty damn good, it was everything else that sucked.”

  “Watch your goddamn mouth,” I roar, my hand leaving her hair so I can grab her by the jaw instead. She tries to look away from me, but I hold her fast, forcing her to keep her eyes on me. I’m seeing fucking red.

  “You’re dishing it out awfully hard for someone who can’t take their fair share.” She glares at me. She doesn’t understand the game we’re playing. If she did, she would understand that I was testing her, and she just failed in the worst kind of way.

  I squeeze her cheeks until she winces from discomfort. “After I fuck you, you’ll never think of another dick again. You’ll wish the only dick you’d ever had was mine.”

  “I’m not fucking you.”

  “Famous last words.”

  Her cheeks go red as she uses her free hand to slap me. I don’t even bother trying to stop her, from this angle the hit she delivers doesn’t even sting. She lets out a strangled sound.

  “Look,” Oh, perfect. Now she’s going to try to reason with me. “I just want to be left alone. I’ve got nowhere to go, and it’s been a long day.” She’s crazy if she thinks telling me that makes me somehow more likely to let her go.

  “What’d you mean you’ve got nowhere to go?” I just assumed if she was back here it was for a reason. Figured she’d be back with her dad, maybe.

  Her eyelashes flutter as she blinks her eyes too fast. Shit, she’s about to… Goddammit. I let go of her jaw so she can drop her head and swipe at her eyes. It’s too damn late though because I’ve already seen the tears.

  I take a step back to give her some space. I’ve never seen Shay cry before, not even when she and Jenna were kids getting scraped up on the playground. She’d just look up at whoever was nearby with big, round eyes and ask for a band-aid so she could go back to playing like nothing had happened.

  “Forget it. You can come back to my place.” I reach for her, but she sidesteps me.

  “Absolutely not.”

  The second time I reach for her, I’m much faster than she is. I pin her to the wall again, this time without my dick hard, courtesy of her fucking tears. Nothing like a little waterworks to soften a man in all the wrong ways.

  “You’d really rather brave this place all night by yourself?”

  She gives a tight nod as she avoids my eyes. “Right now, yeah. That sounds like the safest option.”

  “The safest option,” I imitate with a scoff. “Anything could happen to you out here.” I can’t forget the look on Will’s face as he looked at her. I’m sure anyone out tonight’s going to be looking at her the same damn way.

  “I’m not going with you, Jasper. I know the price of help from men like you, and tonight I’m not willing to pay it.”

  I don’t know why the fuck she insists on making things so hard for herself. “Suit your fucking self.” I snake my hand into her hair and tug until she tilts her head back just enough for me to…

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  I shut her up the only way I know how, my lips on hers after all this fucking time. Her lips are every bit as soft as I imagined they would be, and that’s about the extent of the good. It’s like kissing a dead fish. She doesn’t move at all. Doesn’t react. She stays stock still while I try to coax anything out of her. She’s completely limp against me, not even reacting to keep fighting me in the delicious sparring match I thought we’d started.

  It’s utter bullshit.

  “Goddammit, Shay.” I pull back and raise my hands—meaning to put them behind my head in frustration—and she flinches down.

  Gritting my teeth, I dig down into my pocket for the keys to my car. She’s still curled in on herself, doesn’t even look at me as I hold them out to her. I force them into her hand anyway.

  If she’s not coming home with me, I’m gonna force the next best thing by putting her somewhere I can keep an eye on her.

  “I’ve got business to take care of. My car’s parked by 106. Stay the night in it. Lock yourself in. If anyone tries to bother you, they’ll set the alarm off, my car’s sensitive as fuck. In the morning, put the key under the mat in the front seat. I don’t have a spare, so don’t fucking lose it or take it with you. You got me?”

  I can see from the way her eyebrows tilt down that she’s confused by this offer. Hell, so am I. I really ought to just throw her over my shoulder and take her home, but I’m not going to. Not tonight. After a minute, she nods, and I take that as a sign that it’s probably okay for me to walk away. She won’t be far behind me, and if she’s smart, she’ll grab onto the lifesaver I offered her. It’s the only one she’ll get from me.

  “Hey, Shay?” I pause a few feet away.

  She doesn’t answer, but that’s okay, I don’t really need her to.

  “I got places to be in the morning. If you’re still in my car come eight o’clock, I’m going to take that as an invitation.”

  3

  Shay

  I jolt awake in a cold sweat, my eyes look around me wildly as I try to pinpoint what woke me. The car alarm isn’t going off, and there’s no one in sight. I don’t have any way to check the time, but Jasper’s nowhere to be seen, so I at least know it’s not eight yet.

  Thank god. I usually sleep so badly that I’d just assumed I could be long gone before morning. Now, the light of day tells a different story.

  My stomach growls loudly, telling me exactly why the hell I woke up. I wince as I wrap my arms around my midsection. I haven’t had an actual meal in days. I begged snacks off people when I could on my way here, but that only goes so far.

  The door to 106 opens, and I nearly jump out of my skin, terrified my time’s about to be up and Jasper’s going to make good on last night’s threat. It’s only a woman, though. I fumble for the car keys to let myself out.

  “Could you tell me what time it is?” I ask the lady as I climb out from the backseat of the car with my trash bag in hand.

  She eyes me warily. “About nine o’clock.” She looks from me to the car. “Jasper know you’re sleeping in his car?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” I swallow around a hard knot in my throat.

  The last thing I want is for her to turn and go inside to get Jasper to check and be sure. I have no idea why he didn’t show up at eight, but I’m not so dumb to think I should press my luck. I already know I don’t have any.

  She still doesn’t look convinced, but that doesn’t really matter. Kings Court has a way of teaching people to mind their own damn business. She gets in her car and drives away, and the second she’s disappeared from view I shove the key under the driver’s side mat like Jasper told me to and bolt into 107… Just in case.

  Part of me considers disobeying. Throwing his keys into the tall grass and letting him figure it the fuck out. It would serve him right for being an asshole last night. But then I start picturing him tracking me down to get even and self-preservation kicks in. I need to do whatever I can to avoid Jasper Hayes.

  I definitely don’t need to go out of my way to engage the beast.

  That part of my return now officially a closed book for me, I pull open the door to 107 and step back up to apartment C. This time, there are no voices coming from the inside. I knock politely even though I want more than anything to bang on the door and then spit in my fath
er’s face when he answers it.

  I try to tamper down the morning rage that seems to be weighing me down. Anger won’t get me anywhere. Maybe if I was a man and could punch my way up the food chain, but not as a woman. Not in Kings Court where men still like their women controllable and quieted.

  God, I fucking hate it here.

  I plaster a friendly smile on my face as the door swings open. Yesterday, I was too jumbled up inside to really get a good look at my father. He still looks mean as hell, that hasn’t changed at all, but he looks grayer and more sunken in than he used to be. The years haven’t been kind to him. That’s par for the course here.

  “Just like your mama. Running out like you got somewhere to be and then coming back, tail between your legs.” The words hurt more than I care to admit. My dad’s never talked bad about anyone the way he always talked about my mom. Like she was the scum of the earth for running out on us time and time again.

  Keeping my voice deceptively even, I tell him, “I just need a room. I won’t ask for anything else. I’ll stay out of your way.”

  “You’re damn right you will. Don’t be showing up here fucking things up for me again. This time you’re no kid, so no nosey lady from the state’s gonna come calling if you get your panties in a twist over a little disciplinin’, ya hear me?”

  “Please don’t hit me,” I ground out. It’s unbelievable that I even have to put the word please in that sentence at all.

  “Don’t give me a reason to.” He shrugs.

  I should go. I should turn and walk away and go take my chances with someone else. But then I think of Mike, the way he smiled when he hit me for the first time. And I know I’m not any safer out there than I am here.

  This is just the devil I know.

  It pains me, but I give him a slow nod. “I won’t give you a reason to. I’m going to stay out of your way,” I remind him as he steps aside to let me in.