Shifting Minds (Skull Shifters MC Book 2) Read online

  Prologue

  “If you think you can just bring me back to your house after everything that just happened, and expect me to stay with you, you’re crazier than I thought.” Jason pulls me at arms-length and says, “Sophie, just chill out for a minute. You’ve been through a lot in the last twenty-four hours. I need to gauge where your head is at.” I snap out of his arms and put my hands on my hips, “My head is in the place where you and I aren’t on speaking terms. Remember?” He acts as if I didn’t speak and says, “Yeah, I gave you your time to regroup. It’s done. You had your chance to make the right choice, and you failed. Now, with this being the way it is, we’re no longer on a break. We’re together.” Well. What was there to say to that other than, “Hell. No. You can’t just pull me from a crime scene and tell me you’ve decided we’re together.” He quirks an eyebrow. “I think I just did.” HA! “I think I just told you that’s not happening.” He lightly chuckles as if something is funny. “What’s funny?” Still smiling he says, “We both know how this is going to end.” Hands still on my hips I come back with, “Oh, and how is th…” I don’t get to finish my sentence because his mouth is on me. Jason was the best kisser that I’ve ever had. We’ve been doing this dance for over a year, and when they say a girl is playing hard to get that’s not what I’m doing. I really am just hard to get. To him anyways. This is why I don’t understand why I’m still kissing him. What is wrong with you Sophie Marie Nunelly? Pull away. Fight it. Crap! I try to push at his arms, but he keeps me close and only uses my force to fuel him. I give up. Kiss me. It’s totally fine. Then when you’re done I’m leaving. Peace. Out. Girl. Scout. Jason finally breaks the kiss, and I pull out of his arms.

  I walk right toward his front door and barely get the door open before it’s slammed shut again. “Jason, let me pass.” He was standing right in my way, and to say he was mean mugging me would be an understatement. That’s just rude. “Sophie, get back in the house. I’m done having this conversation tonight. I know you want this, and I’m done with your “I’m not playin hard to get I am hard to get” bullshit.” My mouth pops open at that. How does he know about that? “It’s not bullshit! Apparently I need to have a conversation with my best friends. Which one of them told you that?” He smiles, “No one told me that shit. It’s what you think. Know how I know?” I sneer at him, “How?” He’s to the point I think he’s laughing, “Cause that’s what you’ve been doing. You think you’re hard to get, but the truth is you’ve built this gate around your heart, and it terrifies you that I have the ability to break through.” I put my arm out to the side, “Oh, macho motorcycle club VP opens up? What’s this your soft side?” That was harsh but I need him to understand the importance of this. “Jason, move out of my way. I know what your life is like and I will never be one of the girls that are around the club. I’ve seen your type. I’m not that.” The smile is wiped off his face, “That’s the shit you’re gonna throw in my face right now?” I shake my head and wince at his tone, “I’m not throwing it in your face. I’m not judging you for your lifestyle. I just can’t be a part of it. Not to mention the fact that I’m seeing someone.” That wasn’t exactly how I wanted to tell him this, but he left me no choice. “You’re what?” I repeat, “I’m seeing someone.” Then he repeats me, “You’re seeing someone?” This is ridiculous, “I am speaking English here, Jason.” He ignores that, “Who the hell is he and why hasn’t anyone said anything?” Sigh, “Mel and Kris don’t know.” His eyes perk up, “So it isn’t serious.” I shake my head, not in the “it isn’t serious way”, but in a way to say, “No, if I tell them they feel like they have to tell their people. You are a part of their people and I wasn’t ready for you to know.” He stumps me with, “Why?” I shut my mouth because I need to think this through for a minute. Why didn’t I want him to know? Well there’s the obvious, “Because you would try and ruin it before I ever got to know him.” He nods, “And now you know him?” I nod, “I do.” He continues with, “Are you in love with him?” This wasn’t going to get us anywhere, “That’s none of your business. I need to go. Jason, for the last time, we’re done.” That was when he let me walk out the door. He let me walk out the door. I just need to repeat, he let me walk out the door.

  Chapter One

  “Yes, please have the papers messengered over to me and I’ll sign them first thing in the morning.” I hear the guy say something that was inconsequential and I hang up the phone. I’m a web designer for some of the biggest firms around, and most of my work is done out of the office building across from Melanie’s. I head out and lock up waiting for Marshall to meet me. That’s when I smell it. I hadn’t smelled it in two weeks, but I will never forget his smell. “Jason, what are you doing here? I’m meeting someone.” He’s close as he says, “Yeah, this won’t take long.” I turn around and look at him. Taking him in I see his piercing green eyes and sandy blonde hair. It’s always the jawline that gets me. He’s so masculine. Yum. Focus Sophie! I know we didn’t have business to discuss, so I say, “Jason what is going on?” He baffles me with, “You need to be careful, ya know what forget it. Your date is here.” I turn to see Marshall pulling up in his little convertible. Be careful? Why was he telling me that? My thoughts are broken when he hops out of the car and comes over to meet me on the sidewalk. “Sophie, is everything okay?” He looks mortified and I almost laugh. “Yes, Marshall everything is okay. This is Jason, and Jason this is Marshall.” Jason puts his hand out and Marshall almost doesn’t take it. His impeccably good manners kick in and he takes his hand. I’m sure that Jason just broke three of his fingers, but I was so over him pissing everywhere. “Jason, we’re leaving. Thanks for stopping by.” He nods at me and his eyes tell me that our conversation isn’t over. What was that about? I can’t ask Melanie or Kris because we’ve made a “we’re not talking about Sophie and Jason” pact. Crap! Marshall opens my door and we head off to the restaurant.

  As usual Marshall drops me back off at my car at my office and I head home. My life has become extremely predictable and there isn’t anything I love more than that. Marshall may be a little boring, but I can handle boring. None of this fighting for my life stuff. Jason and I never would’ve worked. We both want different things out of life. He’s all about his brother’s and I want a steady man, the house with the picket fence, and two point five kids. Although, the passion that I feel with Jason has never been matched. Marshall is the perfect gentleman and I need to stay where I always pictured my life. I pull into my garage and head inside the house looking for my kitty. “Kitty. Come to mama.” I go into the kitchen and as I do I see my grey and white cat come around the corner. What I see next makes me jump out of my skin. “Sophie Nunelly?” I jump back and go to grab the pepper spray out of my purse, but I hit a brick wall that apparently has arms. He pulls my arms down to my side and I stand there mortified as this huge man comes closer to me. “That is you, correct?” I nod once. “Good, I have a message to send.” Just as he finishes that sentence his hand comes up and backhands me across the face where I know it was going to leave a mark. I let out a yelp in pain because I’ve never been hit by a man. I’ve gotten in a few hair pulling bar scuffles with some chicks, but a man has never laid his hand on me. That’s why when he comes back and does it again I wasn’t prepared for the pain radiating through my face. Sophie think. You need to get out of this. “That should suffice, Junk. Let her go.” He shoves me to the ground where my elbow slams off the counter and then onto the tile floor. They walk out of my house like they’d been there a hundred times. It was then that I knew I was not going to get my picket fence anytime soon.

  I start to wonder what kind of message he needed
to send and to who, and that’s when my phone starts ringing. I manage to get it out of my purse with one hand and see that it’s Mel. “Mel?” She sounds frantic when she says, “Sophie. Are you okay?” Confused I say, “What?” She asks again, “Soph, is everything all right?” I look at my arm, “Not really, but how did you know that?” She sighs, “Brant just got a call about Jason’s girl needing someone at her back. That’s you, so we’re on our way, but you should know Jason is gonna get there first.” She clicks off before I can say anything and I see my door swing open at my house. I don’t even look to see who it is I just try and get up off the ground. My arm collapses and I clumsily fall to my face. Then everything goes black.

  I wake up and instantly feel pain in my arm. “Ow. Please stop you’re hurting me.” I hear an angel, “Sophie, we’re on our way to the hospital. Are you okay? Did you hit your head?” Jason. “No, please let me go.” I feel his arms around me as I hear, “Soph, please we’re almost there okay.” This was Melanie. I open my eyes and I try to assess my situation. Everything hurts. My face, my arm. “What happened?” I hear Jason let out a puff of air and that’s when everything starts coming back to me. “Oh my God. You’re the one they wanted to send a message to. Are you kidding me? I want nothing to do with you, and that’s how I end up like this? You still claim me!” He tries to shush me with, “Soph, please calm down.” As if that’s ever the right thing to say to a woman, “No, I just got hit in the face. Hard. Twice. By a man like four times the size of me. Because he wanted to “Send a message” while some man named Junk held me.” I feel the air in the truck change, but I didn’t have time to process it, because we were pulling into the hospital. Jason helps me out of the truck and I almost go down so he picks me up and carries me inside. I hold my arm close to my body, but my elbow hurts like a bitch. I don’t think about how Jason is looking at me right now, because I can’t process it. I was really rude in the truck and I’m sure he already feels guilty enough. That’s what I blame my next statement on. I stupidly look him straight in the eyes, and as the nurse starts to ask what is wrong I blurted out, “I’m sorry.” He looks caught off guard by that, but ignores it and starts to tell the nurse what happened.

  That’s how I ended up here. With a purple cast up to my mid-bicep. A broken elbow. This cannot be happening. I look to Mel who was sitting next to me and say, “This sucks.” She half-smiles, “I know. I get it.” And she did. Except she got it a whole lot worse than I did. “How did you do it, Melly?” I feel a tear slide down my face and she swipes it away. She starts to talk, but we’re interrupted with, “I need a minute with Sophie.” Mel stands up and goes out of the room with Brantley. Kris and Trance were off on a ride, and I’m sure they were already turned around and coming back. When she gets here all hell will break loose. I look to Jason who gets close and starts to talk. A conversation I just can’t handle. “Honey, I am so sorry. I know this is all my fault and I hate the way your face is lookin right now. It’s gonna leave a mark for a while and every time I look at you I’m gonna feel that guilt. That’s on me, what I need you to know is this is not going to go without retribution. I need you to stick close with me over the next couple of weeks.” Something clicks in my brain and I say, “Did you know something was going on? You told me earlier to be careful. Is this what you meant?” He looks shocked, “Hell no. If I knew something was going down I would’ve been there.” Oh. Duh, Sophie. “Why did you tell me to be careful?” He shakes his head, “That man of yours is no man. I can’t go into detail, but he isn’t what he seems.” Um… “Okay, so that isn’t just an attempt to get me away from him?” He smiles a little at that, “As much as I wish it was, no it’s not.” Great. “When can I get out of here?” I’m pretty sure he’s joking when he says, “As soon as you agree to coming and staying with me while this blows over.” To this I laugh. When I realize he’s serious I say, “So I’m never leaving the hospital?” His face gets tight and he says, “I messed up once, Soph. I’m not gonna do it again and for right now, you’re not outta my sight.” I snort, “Yeah, well for right now, I’m not leaving my house.” He gets close and says, “Fine, I’ll take that as my invitation to move in.” My mouth pops open and he exits the room. That’s when I hear, “Where is she and who are we killing?” Told you it would be bad when she got back.

  Chapter Two

  What seems like weeks, but was only until the next morning they get me on my way home. I let everyone know that I’m going to be fine, and Jason reassured them of this when he told them that he’d be staying with me. Great. “Jason, you can’t stay here.” He looks over to me, “You left the hospital, and that was the stipulation.” I counter with, “That’s dumb. They wanted you, why would you put yourself here to draw them to my house again? We’re supposed to be showing them that you and I aren’t together.” His eyes are dead serious as he continues with, “Yeah, well they already have the impression that we are, so guess what? I’m stayin and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it.” Sigh. “I’m going to bed. Leave me be.” He doesn’t say anything to that as I strut off to my bedroom. I crawl into bed and pass out due to the pain meds.

  I wake to a knock at the door and Jason comes in. “What?” He looks mad, “Marshall is here.” My eyes get big. “What?” He doesn’t repeat himself he just says, “I think you heard me.” This isn’t happening, “Yeah, I did. Did you answer the door?” He smirks, “Yeah, I did.” Crap! “Oh my God.” I get out of bed and run to the door. I pass Jason and get to Marshall at the door. “Hey Marshall.” His eyes are huge, “Did he do that to you?” I look around and realize that he means Jason. “Um. No. He found me though and that’s why he’s here. It seems that I have a few minor problems at the moment.” He looks from Jason back to me, “Sophie, do you need protection? I can hire my security out to you, and we can have this problem taken care of.” I go to answer, but Jason jumps in with, “She already has protection.” Crap. “Jason, I’m handling it.” He acts like Marshall isn’t there when he says, “Yeah, well while handling it go ahead and tell him why you can’t see him anymore.” My mouth drops. He did not just say that. “Jason, get out.” Marshall decides to join this party with, “Is that true? You don’t want to see me anymore?” I shake my head, “No, it’s not that I don’t want to see you anymore, it’s just that with the situation going on right now, I need to be alone.” He scoffs saying, “So you won’t be with this, this, motorcycle gang member.” Shit. My natural reaction is to defend them, “They’re a club. My best friend’s husband happens to be the President of that club. This is their VP. No, I will not be with him at this time he’s just helping me because I’m Melanie’s best friend.” He sarcastically gives me, “Mhm. I see. Well, as much as I hate to see you go, I guess we will have to wait until this is all settled, and maybe we can get together again.” Once again, I’m stopped from answering by Jason, “I doubt that very highly.” I swing my eyes to him and say, “Please, I’m speaking with Marshall. Could you go sit down somewhere else?” He smirks at me, “Sure.” Then he walks away. “Marshall, for now, we can’t be together. I can’t predict the future, but I won’t discredit what we had. I had a great time and I appreciate all the time you’ve put into it. Right now, I need to be by myself.” He sighs, “It isn’t ideal, but I understand. Goodbye Sophie.” He kisses my cheek like the gentleman he is and then he’s gone. I didn’t even get to ask him why he was here. How did he know something was happening? He never showed up at my house unannounced.

  I turn from the door and head to see what Jason thinks about that. “Did he say anything when you answered the door?” He nods, “We shared some words.” Great. “Do you want to be a little less vague?” He shakes his head, “Not really. He knew where I stood after we were done and now he knows where you stand. It’s all taken care of.” This isn’t happening right now, “Not really. I never told him that you and I were together.” He smiles, “No, I did.” No. No. No. “You told him that we were together? How could you do that? I was never unfaithful
.” He reminds me, “A couple weeks ago I had my tongue in your mouth and you didn’t stop me. You told me you were seeing someone after the kiss.” My good hand goes right to my hip, “I tried everything I could to stop you, and you kept kissing me. Obviously you’re bigger than me. What was I supposed to do?” He flat out smiles, “Nothing, exactly what you did. Do you want to do it again?” My mouth drops open, “Absolutely. Not.” He smirks like he has a secret and I want to smack it right off of his face. I growl and stomp out of the room back to my bedroom. Take that kindergarten temper tantrum! I slam the door and throw myself dramatically onto my bed. Who does he think he is? Because of the pain meds though, I fall asleep before I can ask myself anymore questions.

  I wake up completely disoriented. I have no idea where I am and then I realize I’m in my bedroom. Why do I feel like I got hit by a train? I go to move and I feel something over my waist. I slowly move and the thing over my waist gets tighter. I close my eyes; did I have a one-night stand? No. Wait. Is that Jason? “Let me go.” He groggily answers, “Just lay here a bit longer.” Not gonna happen! “I need breakfast so I can take more pills. My whole body hurts.” His arm loosens, but he moves first. “I’ll get your stuff for you. Anything specific for breakfast?” I sigh, why is he being nice? “Just something light. I’m not too hungry.” He nods and then he was gone. I look around the room recalling my night. I fell asleep after Marshall left, did he just let himself in here to sleep with me? Seriously? That’s when I find myself asking, who does this guy think he is, again. I’ve been wondering that a lot lately. He’s not gone long and I see him carrying a plate that had toast and fruit on it. To the side I see some yogurt. “Thanks. I could’ve gotten it.” He nods, “I know, I wanted to.” It was my turn to nod and take a bite of toast. I see the pills with some orange juice sitting there so I take one of them. “You don’t want two?” I sigh, “I don’t want another incoherent day that turns into an incoherent night that I wake up next to you the next morning. Please tell me nothing happened.” He gets in my space, “Babe, I prefer my women awake when we’re having moments like that.” I let out a sigh of relief, “Did you honestly think I would do something like that when you were in the state you were in? I was worried you might have nightmares, so I stayed close. You were whimperin at one point, so I got in bed with you. Rest of the night you were quiet as a mouse.” Of course I was. I always got my best sleep when J was there. Lovely. As I said before, he can’t give me what I want out of life. He could sure try, but I always pictured it a little differently.