Page 46 of Casualties

“It's weird you haven't been to the club.Yeah, school and work are exhausting, but I still manage the time.”Morgan would never understand.

“I’m just tired, and haven’t been in the mood lately.”Again, me with my half-truths.I’m not tired, just not in the mood.

And your sister has me in a chokehold just by existing.

I haven’t heard from Ainsley since we dropped her and Cass off last weekend—she never responded to my texts.My threats held no weight after Morgan gave her his approval.If I go against Morgan and continue to challenge him on the subject, he won’t believe my bullshit excuses anymore.

A text alert comes from his phone and he quickly picks it up.As he reads it, a wicked smirk dawns on his face.Enough is enough.If he can ask me point-blank if I've fucked his sister, he sure as hell can answer some questions I have.

“Who are you grinning like a sinister villain for?”I ask jokingly, in the hope he gives me an honest answer, but I shouldn’t expect one.I haven’t been honest with him.

“It’s no one; just some girl from school,” he lies.

“When are you going to own up to the fact you're fucking Cassie?You act like Ainsley and I don’t know.Trust me, you two aren’t fooling either of us,” I call him out.He needs to realize the hypocrisy in coming at Ainsley and me, assuming we slept together, when he's sleeping with her best friend.

His eyes shift nervously.Did this idiot seriously think he was that sneaky?I can’t help but laugh out loud at the deer-in-headlights look he gives me.He presses the palm of his hand to his forehead.“Alright, alright.We fucked a few times.How did you know?”I swear, for someone that can hack into almost anything, he's pretty fucking dense.

“Let’s start with the attitude you caught with Cassie when she said the guy she was talking to was meeting her at that party.Barista bitch?I think that’s what you called him.Then she ended up sleeping in your bed that night.The next day, you get into a screaming match over the night before.Oh.Oh wait, my favorite: the night of the gala, both of you magically disappear for a huge part of the night, and come back looking disheveled like you fucked in a storage closet.For you to then come home and take care of her after the drinking we did, and would you look at that?She ended up in your bed, yet again.Is all of this ringing a bell?”His jaw drops in shock.

“My question is: why Cassie?You act like she's the bane of your existence ninety percent of the time, and call her Ice Queen,” I continue, feeling satisfied.He looks at his phone again and groans in frustration.

“She is the bane of my existence and drives me bat-shit crazy most of the time.I don’t know how it happened, but when I saw her in their dorm that first day they arrived, she looked different to me.She wasn’t my little sister’s loud-mouth best friend anymore; she was a fine-as-fuck woman.I can’t get her out of my head, whether it be to curse her name or dick her down.I don’t know bro, her pussy is like a drug I can’t get enough of…” He drifts off in thought after admitting all of that.Jesus, he could at least not think aboutthatwhile we're having a conversation, but who am I kidding?Ainsley’s body grinding on me is a constant reel in my own head.

“So why not make something of it?”I let out a laugh and he glares daggers at me, but I can’t help the irony of it.Morgan is going crazy for his sister's best friend, and I'm losing my mind over his sister.Fucking comical.

“Every time we hook up, we say it's the last time and it’s never happening again.But then it does.We both feel like shit that she's my sister's best friend, but we’re unable to stop."

“Oh yeah, and how's that going for you?”The daggers he was glaring at me have morphed into an atom bomb coming at me center mass.

“It’s not fucking great.I’m falling for the Ice Queen, and she's not having any of it.I can’t be the only one in this situationship that's catching feelings.”Jesus, I knew they were hooking up, but him wanting more is a shock.Like me, Morgan has never been one for settling down in a relationship.

“So when you tell me you’re going to the club, you guys what?Meet up somewhere else?”Guilt washes over his face, and I know what comes out of his mouth next won't be good.

“That’s the thing.I'm going to the club with her.”No fucking way did he just say that.“I hacked into the system and added her as a member.She has a legit fake ID that says she's twenty-one.Everything is legit.Well…but not legit.”Now my jaw has dropped to the floor.The main Club Sanctuary is eighteen and older, but Sanctuary Upstairs' age requirement is twenty-one.Denny knows all of the exclusive members, but he leaves the applicants that are rich nobodies to us to approve or deny.He does that because hetrusts us.If he ever found out Morgan hijacked the system to bring Cassie—who is underage—to the club, he would lose his mind and fire him.Of course, Morgan and I aren’t twenty-one.We've had fake IDs since high school, but Denny hooked us up with legit ones.But that’s different—we work for him.I know Denny gives a shit about us, but he wouldn’t be able to look past breaking the rules.That would have serious consequences.

“Dude, are you off your fucking rocker?Denny is going to kill you if he finds out.How did Cassie react to you bringing her there?”The villainous grin comes back and he lets out a chuckle.

“She is into it, man…all of it.The club, I mean.”Morgan and I don’t sit around spilling the tea on the things we’re into, but we know enough.His motto is sharing is caring; he’s always down for threesomes.I wonder if he involves Cassie—she doesn’t seem like someone who would be into that, but I never thought she’d be into the club, either.

“All I'm going to tell you is be careful, and don’t get caught.We love our job and working for Denny.Wait—” A thought occurs to me.“Cassie tells Ainsley everything.Did it dawn on you that she would tell your sister?”I’m sure I'm looking more nervous than I should, but I would never want Ainsley to know what we have gotten into at the club.It would scare her to know what I gravitate toward sexually.

“Hell no.Cassie knows to keep her mouth shut about the club.To be honest, I don’t think she wants Mini Copeland to find out any more than I do.”I’m mildly relieved, but still uneasy about this entire fiasco.Morgan and I set boundaries when we started working for Denny.No one close to us is to know about Sanctuary Upstairs.Even Denny’s nephew Scott is in the dark about it.

“So, that’s where you're headed now?”My stern tone makes me cringe—I sound like my dad.I've never cared what Morgan does at the club, or anywhere else for that matter.

“Yeah.She just texted me wanting to meet there.Guess she can’t get enough of what I’m packing.”His hands slide in a Magic Mike stripper way—from his chest, down his abs, to his dick.I roll my eyes in disgust.Can’t say the dipshit lacks confidence; he only lacks common sense, apparently.This could turn to shit real quick if he isn’t careful.

I decide as he walks out the door to give Ainsley the space she wants and needs.If Morgan isn’t concerned Jackson will treat her like shit, then I shouldn’t be either.He may actually like her and have good intentions, she has a way about her that could wrap any man around her finger.

Friend-me would be okay with that, but possessive-me wants to steal her away from him, keeping her for myself.This year is going to drag.

TWENTY-TWO

AINSLEY

THREE MONTHS LATER…

“Mmm…roll over, brute.”I wake up to a hulk of a man lying on top of me.My face contorts in disgust as I get a whiff of rancid morning breath blowing right in my face.The idea of cuddling is great, but the reality is not that cute.

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