Chapter Twenty-Six
Jonas .
I manage to grab Maverick by the shirt collar before he goes tumbling down the freaky secret staircase.
“Thank you,” he breathes.
I nod, continuing down, shivering when I realize the temperature has dropped incredibly the farther we get down.
“Now I know why those kids died back in the seventies getting down here and they closed it off.”
Wrong. They closed it off because too many people were becoming curious as to why the SDC house was hosting secret parties in the woods.
So they created this secret entryway to get to the underground room before they were able to build tunnels connecting it from the morgue in the medical department.
Those kids died here because they discovered something they shouldn’t have.
I always knew this was here, I just didn’t know how to get into it. Now I do.
And I hate it. It feels like there’s someone behind us watching our every move.
I think Mav feels it too, because he tenses every few steps down.
We reach the bottom step, looking at the bottom of the doors to see which one looks like the most used.
One of them leads underground. I do not want to go underground. I spend enough time there as it is .
Spotting the one with the least amount of dust accumulated like our girl said we would, I turn off the flashlight from my phone, darken the screen, shove it in my pocket and turn the door handle.
“Well, that was anticlimactic.” Mav murmurs.
“Expecting fog and spooky synthesizer music? Bats?”
Mav holds back a laugh. “I mean, from the journey thus far – yeah, kind of.”
I let out a soft chuckle. “C’mon, let’s get this over with. You have your low light?” I ask, pulling mine out form my jacket pocket.
“Yeah,” he says, doing the same, clicking it on and we close the book-door behind us.
He leads me to the biography section, where Raven said she found it the first time around, and sure enough, glad I have my gloves on, I take the fucking thing and shove it in my backpack. I’ll be burning it, too.
We leave the same way we came in, taking the stairs up and out of the Monroe library.
At home, we’re sitting around the table in the den when I pull it out and place it on the table, the urge to retch growing stronger the longer I stare at it. Damon already had a fire going by the time we got back, slinking off RMU’s campus like a couple of shadows.
Maverick reaches out to touch it.
“NO!” We collectively scream.
He pulls his arm back like we burned him. “What kind of binding is that?”
“S-s-skin.” Raven replies and Mav stares at it in horror.
I sigh. “The story goes like this – Back in 1907, there were six men, the fifth generation of Rayne-Moore’s founding fathers.
They wanted something that would tie them together.
Something more than just a fraternity or memories of their time here, so they began the Syndicate.
It wasn’t murders at first. It was just your run of the mill fancy secret parties in secret locations.
Only the elite were allowed. There was another guy, Jacobson,” I point to the leathered flesh-book, “That wouldn’t shut up about it.
Started just inviting everyone… people of…
“lower” class. People that weren’t even students here.
And the others weren’t happy about it, not to mention, this guy was a fucking skid mark of the group.
Some say rape, some say he was gay, which back then, you know…
Nobody knows exactly what happened, or how he ended up dead, just that he did.
” I reach over and flip to the very first page.
1907 - D. Jacobson – J. Prescott, S. Monroe, A. Anderson, L. Rayne, T. Moore
“They were the first to get away with murder.” Damon concludes.
“So they took his skin ?” The disgust in Maverick’s voice is unmistakable.
“Secrets will either bind you or break you.” I answer, flicking my gaze to his, hoping he understands what else I’m trying to say.
The silence around us is deafening, the only noise is the crackling of the fire in the living room’s fireplace. The tension in the room is palpable.
Damon is the first to break that silence. “Are you ready?”
I am, because I feel so fucking sick right now. “It’s gonna stink.”
Damon nods. “You can go upstairs, if you’d like. I’ll take care of it.”
I shake my head. “No, I want to watch it fucking burn.”
________
Maybe it’s the snow coming down that makes the stadium lights seem brighter, or the fact that my girl, Damon, and Maverick are in the stands, that makes me feel fucking high.
The noise of the crowd is a deafening roar even with my helmet on.
River threw the ball right in my hands, forty yards …
thirty … I jump over Ha wthrone’s number forty-two, a big fucker that just tackled Zeke…
twenty … swerve to miss number twelve… ten yards … my thighs ache, my lungs burn… almost…
Touchdown!
I slam the ball down, doing my (now-infamous) touchdown dance that Raven did in her dorm room that one time, and when I know the camera to the jumbotron is on me because it always is, I put two fingers to my lips and look at the screen, where it shows Raven doing the same.
My girl.
My future.
Behind her is the lovely couple, Damon and Maverick cheering me on…. Behind them?
A scowling Stephen Prescott.
I don’t let him get to me because on either side of Raven are scouts. Scouts I’ve talked to before. Probably feeling awkward when they found out she’s mute and they couldn’t talk to her about me.
My perfect baby girl.
Hmmm.
I gotta think of something else to call her because what if we have a daughter?
Nah, that’ll be my little princess. God, I hope she looks like Raven.
Feeling even higher thinking of Raven having my babies, going into the next play feels as smooth as butter.
I hope her tits get huge when they’re full of milk. Can I drink it?
Maverick is right – I was born to play this game.
And that’s where I keep my focus for the next seventeen minutes – not on Stephen, who’s probably irked I didn’t show up to his office on the third.
Well, that’s not exactly true. I showed up, he was in a meeting, I didn’t sit around and wait.
So if he’s mad about that, then he should keep his appointment times.
We’ve barely moved ten yards during this play when Coach calls a huddle, though I’m paying attention, I just want to get back to the locker room so I can shower and find Raven waiting for me.
It’s the little things that make me feel so loved.
And I know she has a thermos of Damon’s hot chocolate for me, too so it’ll be even better.
I hope he put extra marshmallows in there.
We break, and when the play is called I do what I do best, imagine Raven’s cello playing the symphony she’s been composing in her room – which now has a violin, a viola, a small piano, and this small little drum thing she uses to keep a beat.
We thought about turning the garage into a recording studio for her, but Damon and Maverick think buying a house in New York would be better.
We’ve been looking for a home big enough with two separate offices and a room we can convert to her recording studio.
Which will probably take a while to remodel, and we want to surprise her with it.
But I don’t want it to be a basement. I want her to be able to open the doors, let the sunlight in, and play to her hearts content like she did in Paris.
I want my girl to be and feel free to be her amazing self no matter how nerdy she is.
I chuckle, catching the ball River throws at me and making it toward the end zone.
I get tackled but my hand made it past the white line.
Touchdown.
I get up, a little bruised but I’m fine.
I do my little dance, touch my fingers to my lips, and when the jumbotron does a side-by-side of me and Raven, I smile so broadly, that it hurts my cheeks currently smushed to all fuck in my helmet.
I’m sweaty, gross, stained, bruised, and limping a bit by the time I reach the locker room. Trina, our PT takes me aside to look me over, stating something about “it’ll bruise ugly,” but I don’t care.
My girl’s waiting for me.
I shower fast as fuck, making sure to wash my dick, under my sac, and then between my asscheeks twice in case Raven gets horny and wants to suck the remaining soul I have left out of my dick on the way home.
“Anderson!” River screams when I get out, drying off my dick with the scratchy towel. Yeah, I hope Raven kisses it better. The whole teams starts shouting my name. “Made it to the bowl, baby!”
Championships.
“We won?” I ask, grabbing my clothes and throwing them on. It’s a stupid question but I really wasn’t paying attention.
“What the fuck are you on? Of course we won!”
“Awesome. Gillette Stadium here we come!” I yell out in my best frat boy voice and the boys start barking. Of course we won . That’s why I didn’t care. God it stinks in here. I shove my feet into the thermal socks and then the boots Raven got me.
Coach Sutton and his AC pop out, smiles on their faces. Oh great, a fucking speech. I groan.
“What’s wrong with you?” Lombardi asks me.
“Just want to get back to my girl.”
“Yeah, she’s a little hottie, man. I mean, usually if they’re disabled I don’t go for it, but not all of us are fucking weird like you. Does she sign your name when she comes or something? That get you off?”
I feel his jaw hit my knuckles before I even realize I’ve thrown the punch.
“Whoa!” River yells.
But I’m on him, throwing fist after fucking fist and when he’s on the ground and I’m pulled away, I start kicking.
“Anderson!” Coach Sutton screams my name but all I see is red.
I get away from River and squat down, pulling the useless defenseman up by the collar of his shirt.
I spit on Lombardi’s busted bloody face.
“If you ever even look in my girl’s direction, I’ll fucking kill you, you disgusting piece of shit lowlife.
I’ll curb stomp you on a fucking football, and piss on your fucking dislocated jaw. Do you understand me?”
The sniveling little bitch puts his hands up, nodding.
“That goes for the rest of you fucking dicks. Don’t talk to my girl, don’t look at my girl, don’t even fucking walk by her. If you see her, run in the other direction. You hear me?”
I’m avoiding Sutton’s ugly mug, shaking my hand. Fuck, that’s gonna hurt in the morning .
“I’m skipping the speech, Coach.”
He nods.
And I’m out.
Imagine my surprise when I see Prescott walking my way. No, not my way. Towards my girl. Fuck that. I reach her just in time, throwing my arm over her shoulder, tugging her to me – trying to protect her in any way I can. Why the fuck is he here of all places?
Stephen eyes my hand and then grins at my girl. I growl inwardly. “Raven,” he says, leaning to kiss her cheek. What the fuck? “Ravishing as always.”
Forward motherfucker.
She blinks up at him. It takes everything in me not to step away and take her with me.
He turns to me. “Jonas, good game as always.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Didn’t see the part where you hurt your hand.” He says, eyes flicking to my bloody, bruising fist.
I give one shake of my head. “Just part of the game, sir.”
There goes that sickening feeling again. The kind not even sex with Raven could cure.
“Take care of that hand. I’ll see you at the wake tomorrow?”
I will say this has been the worst part of my baby getting her revenge – all the fucking funerals.
“I’ll be there.”
He nods, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Good, good. Glad to see we’re going to the bowl.”
“Two weeks.”
“I’ll be there,” he says, walking away.
I know he will.
Raven turns to me, quirking a dark brow, and whatever I said about sex with her couldn’t cure what I’m feeling was a total lie. Fuck, those light brown eyes kill me. I kiss her forehead, her nose, and then her soft lips. Yeah, my dick’s already threatening to get chafed by my zipper.
“You’re so beautiful, baby.” I say, because it’s true and she leans into my hug further. I thread my fingers in hers and tug a little. “C’mon. I told Damon to order pizza from that gourmet place you like on Seventh so it’s there by the time we get to Maverick’s.”
“Are you-“
“Shh baby,” I interrupt at the same time the door to the locker room opens. “Not here. Never here. We’ll talk about it when we get there.”
She gives one solemn nod, and we go.
Because I’ll never keep anything from my girl.
And she trusts me not to.