by Tijan
“Some food?”
Nate nodded to Mason. “You want a beer?”
“Just water.”
“I’ll get you the nice stuff, the stuff that doesn’t come out of the tap. Don’t tell the other customers.” Nate winked, grinning, before he headed back behind the bar.
Mason got out and came around to my side of the booth.
“I like that Nate works here,” I said.
“Yeah?” He sat next to me, resting his legs on the seat he’d just vacated.
We could see everyone else in the room and at the bar too, but if we pressed back into the booth, only a few tables could see us. It gave us a modicum of privacy, and I had no doubt that someone would end up joining us. I’d be curled in the corner sleeping soon.
I nodded. “Yeah. It’s like we have our own hangout—that’s not our living room.”
He ran a hand down my back. “You okay?”
“Just the stuff about Faith.”
“You sure?” He grasped my hand, our fingers sliding together.
I nodded.
He shifted back so we were sitting side by side again. I laid my head on his shoulder.
Nate brought our food over a few minutes later, and by the time we were done, a couple football players had come over. I sat with Mason, holding his hand under the table as he talked and laughed with his teammates. I saw the envious looks from some girls, and a few even came over to flirt with the other guys, but if a girl tried with Mason, he ignored her. He didn’t shoot her down in an embarrassing way, but the girls stopped trying after he ignored them on their second or third attempt.
I started to fall asleep around midnight, my head still resting against Mason’s shoulder. His arm was around me now, holding me in place, his hand heavy and warm on my leg. It was an anchor I savored.
At one point I woke to see a group of girls leaving the bar. Matteo had his arm around one as he walked out with them, but he came back in and pulled up a chair next to Mason. I registered his laughter, hearing that it was a little more carefree than normal. Either he was buzzed or he just got laid.
I struggled to remember why that mattered to me, but then my eyelids shut once again.
I woke sometime later, hearing laughter.
Nate was saying, “Last call. Do you guys want anything?”
I was curled in a ball next to Mason. His hand was on my hip, holding me in place. Something soft was under my head.
I was out again.
I lifted my head from Mason’s shoulder; he was carrying me. The back door of the car opened, and he laid me down.
“Mason?” I caught his hand as he started to back away. “What’s going on?”
“Go back to sleep. We’re going home.”
Then the door shut, and I heard Matteo climb into the front passenger seat.
Mason asked him, “What’d you find out from the sister?”
“That she thinks her little sister is a spoiled bitch.”
Mason sighed. “She didn’t go into specifics?”
“No, but she was wasted. And I got the feeling the two aren’t close. You want me to keep pushing her?”
“No. I think I’ll just ask James to find something. If we owe him, then . . .”
I started to fall asleep again, but not before I heard Matteo ask, his voice sounding clearer like he’d looked back at me, “Maybe we shouldn’t have stayed as long as we did?”
“If she wanted to leave, she would’ve asked. Besides, she sleeps best next to me anyway. It doesn’t matter where we are.” Mason started the engine.
I felt myself smile. He was right. Wherever he was, I wanted to be.
I fell asleep again.
Mason put me in bed and took my clothes off. He started to put my little sleeping shorts on me, but I sat up and draped my arms around his neck.
“No.”
“Sam?”
I ran a hand down his chest and stomach and shook my head again. “No.” I pulled him down to me, fastening my mouth to his.
Naptime was over. I wanted something else now.
And a second later, his arm slid under my back and he lifted me farther up on the bed before coming back down to me. I wanted to feel his weight all over again, the way that made me writhe underneath him. Mason did just that.
“No.”
The next day Coach Langdon gave Faith and me his pitch. He wanted us to run together. We were the only three in his office.
I folded my arms over my chest and said again, “No way.”
“Why not?”
He sounded aggravated, and he should’ve been. We were going on minute thirty-five of him trying to change my mind. It wasn’t happening.
“Sam.” He stood from his desk.
I didn’t care. He could stand. He could pace. He could wring his hands together. He could do anything he wanted. None of it was going to work.
“You have to tell me why.” He took a deep breath, seeming to calm himself, and sat back down behind his desk.
Faith sat in the corner next to me, her legs crossed and her arms folded over her chest. She’d turned to sit at an angle so she was more comfortable to watch this spectacle. And that’s what it must’ve looked like to her.
Hell, if she’d been eating popcorn, it would’ve looked like she was at the movies.
“I already did. I don’t trust her.”
“But—that was in the beginning. I thought things had changed.”
“No.” I shook my head. “She thought she could keep up with me in the beginning because I held back. Only thing that’s changed is that she knows she can’t now.”
His eyes flicked to hers, like he was worried about Faith’s reaction.
I spoke for her, almost sounding bored. “She knows it. She’s just learned running against me makes her a better runner. Why would I want to help her with that?”
“Because she’s your teammate!” He threw his arms out wide before they rested on his head.
“She didn’t choose that. I did. I joined the team. She tried to kick me off.” I wanted to sneer at her, but it was obnoxious and rude. I refrained. With effort. “It didn’t work.”
Faith snorted in laughter, but didn’t say anything.
“This makes no sense to me.” He shook his head. “No sense at all. I’ve never had a teammate who didn’t want to do everything she could to help another teammate.”
“Bullshit.”
“What?” His eyes latched to mine, shocked.
“I call bullshit. Have you met Faith Shaw?” I jerked a hand to my right.
“That was uncalled for.”
“No.” I thought about it. “It’s not. She got the whole team to exclude Taylor and me from a breakfast thing. She threatened us too. She threatened Taylor, saying I couldn’t protect her if I was running ahead of everyone else. She’s a prime example of someone who didn’t want to help another teammate.”
“You know what I mean.”
I leaned forward, my arms still folded over my chest. “You’re right. I do, but you don’t realize you’re being biased here. You’re not putting yourself in my shoes, and if you did, you’d understand why I don’t want to run with her. The only kindness she’s showed me was after Friday’s race when she thanked me for helping her. That was it.”
He frowned, seeming to see me for the first time. His eyebrows pinched together, and he looked at Faith. “That can’t be right.”
“It is.”
I turned to look at her. She was being honest now?
Noticing my look, she shrugged. “What? I mean, there are witnesses to everything. Even if I tried lying, I know at least Raelynn would back you up. Or she would’ve. And you were right. She thought I dropped her friendship.”
My lips parted. That didn’t sound good. “I take it that’s not the case anymore?”
She preened back at me, giving me a close-mouthed smile. “Don’t say I’m not a quick learner. You threatened me, and I read between the lines. I circled the wagons, so to speak, and yes, Raelynn is back t
o being one of my besties. Thanks for that.”
Well . . . Fuck.
She grinned. “I should thank you again. You’ve made me a better runner, and a better friend.”
It burned. Deep down. There were all sorts of burning going on down there.
“Look, Coach.” Her arms unfolded, and she sat forward. “Samantha has a valid point. I was horrible to her in the beginning, still am actually, so based on our past, you can’t force her to run with me. If she fought you and wrote a claim against you, she’d win eventually. Even public opinion would side with her, so you can let it go. I’m not going to force my teammate to do something against her will.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s so considerate of you.”
“I’m trying, actually.”
I studied her; it seemed she was genuine.
Then she flashed me another smug grin and ruined it. “You’re wrong about one thing, though.” She stood.
I waited.
“I am going to beat you. Eventually. It might not be this year, but it’ll happen. You’re not the only one qualifying for the Olympics.”
She seemed so sure of herself. Her head was high, and she held my gaze steadily. She meant what she said.
Well, fuck. Again.
“Let us both run on our own,” she said to Coach.
He frowned heavily. “I don’t like this.”
“Come on,” she said. “The other girls distract me too. You want us to do better. This is the way.”
“You’ll do your sprints and weights too?” He was asking both of us.
I nodded.
“You know I already do,” Faith answered.
“I lift with my boyfriend.”
He pointed at me. “You do sprints with him too from now on.”
I stood next to Faith. “I will.”
He waited a minute, staring at us, and then he gestured to the door. “Fine. Go. Our next meet is Friday. Check in with me every day with your progress.”
I followed Faith outside and asked, “What are you doing? What was all that about in there?”
She stopped and turned to face me, cocking her head to the side. “Why do you think that was a charade? Maybe I really am grateful to you for making me a better runner and friend. I’m a better person, thanks to you.”
“You have an angle. What is it?”
“Right.” She snorted, starting to walk backward, away from me. “Because that’s a good battle tactic: declare your intent to the enemy.” She rolled her eyes. “I thought you were better than that.”
I was . . . but no. I wasn’t. That was Mason and Logan’s job. They fought the fights. I just followed behind and reaped the benefits.
“You’re right.”
“What?” She stopped, her forehead wrinkling as she frowned at me.
“You’re right. I’ve never been good at this kind of fighting. Mason and Logan have done everything for me—the plotting, the manipulation, the deceit. I have verbal exchanges. That’s my fighting. And the last time I really went against another girl, she and her friends jumped me in a bathroom. They put me in the hospital.”
Fuck you, Kate, and your old clique.
But Faith was right. She was a female Mason. She was the mastermind. I wasn’t. A sudden, different kind of humility swept through me. I’d judged Mason, getting mad that he didn’t include me with his decisions before, but who was I to be upset about that? Everything he did was to protect me. Everything.
Faith was watching me as if I’d grown a second head. “You okay, Strattan? What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing.” But I was distracted. “Thank you, Faith.”
“Me?” Her eyebrows shot up to where her hair met her forehead. “What did I do?”
“You helped me too.”
I wanted to see Mason. He had practice, and he wouldn’t be done till later in the evening. I promised Coach I’d do sprints and weights with Mason, but that would push us back another hour, and we had our dinner with Helen tonight.
I couldn’t do anything now, and for once, I didn’t want to do the one thing I always wanted to do.
I did it anyway. I went on a run.
MASON
“You won.”
Those were two words I normally would’ve loved to hear from Adam Quinn, but as I put my gym bag into the Escalade, the sight of him standing at the end of my vehicle didn’t give me a good feeling. He was pale, bags under his eyes, and looked like he needed a meal or a good night’s sleep.
“When’s the last time you slept, Quinn?”
A broken laugh barked from him, and he shoved two fists into his baggy coat pockets. “That’s your greeting to me? I just told you that you won.”
“I heard. What are you doing here, Quinn?”
He snorted again, still sounding bitter. “At least have the decency to call me by my name. I’m here. I’m conceding defeat. You. Won. You won. You can be happy now. Right? Because that must be why you destroyed my life.” His voice rose, and he was almost spitting out his words. “Right?” His nostrils flared. “I mean, you did what you said you’d do. You ruined me. Becky wants nothing to do with me, and that video—you’re always going to have that over me, aren’t you?”
My phone was in my pocket, not my bag. I shut the Escalade’s door and faced him squarely.
He kept going. “The case against my dad is bad. He’s going to go away, but it doesn’t even matter. His reputation is ruined.” Another hard laugh. “And that’s what you have against me now. You took my girl. You have my reputation, and I can’t even get mad at you. I set myself up. The video I used against you. I broke into your house. It’s perfect.” He looked down at the ground, shaking his head. “It’s just perfect.”
A sad echo.
He wanted me to feel pity for him? Fury lit a flame inside me. He’d tried to take my life away. He tried it again, and that was after a few years of peace. I clenched my jaw. I didn’t feel pity for this guy. He was a feral animal. Wounded, backed into a corner, but he’d come back fighting. I had no doubt about it.
I eyed him. “Why are you wearing a coat?”
“Huh?”
I nodded at him. “This is California, and it’s eighty. Why are you wearing that coat?”
He looked down at it like he hadn’t realized he had it on. “I don’t know.” His voice was strained again, quiet. “I don’t remember putting it on.”
“Why are you here, Adam?”
His eyes flicked to mine at the mention of his name. I saw something lighten, like he was thankful for that. Then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“I don’t know.” He was almost murmuring to himself. His head hung low. “I think I came to let you know that. You won.” He rolled his eyes up and let his head fall back. “What am I going to do? My dad is furious, but he’s going to prison. He’ll get convicted. The evidence against him is rock solid. Becky won’t talk to me. I have no one anymore.”
The parking lot was almost empty. I had taken longer than usual to get ready because the plan was to meet Sam and Logan at the hotel for Helen’s dinner. I could feel my phone buzzing in my pocket. It was probably Sam or Logan, or both of them, wondering where I was. I could’ve reached in and hit one button to let them listen to the conversation, but then they’d know Quinn was here. They’d come.
They couldn’t come.
If he was going to do something, he was only going to get me. No one else.
“I was going to go to law school, Mason.” His shoulders crumbled before me. He was almost shrinking in size. “I was engaged to a great girl. Becky loved me for me. She was there in the beginning. She was always there for me, and I wouldn’t look at her. Not like that. It was Sam for me.” He cursed softly. “Man, Sam was so beautiful.”
He looked up again, a sheen of tears in his eyes. “I fell for her before Sallaway did. I wanted her first. She was stunning. I tried to talk to her, but she never saw me. Then he swooped in and got her, and she was gone. I started dating Ashley a
fter that, but Sam was the one I wanted.”
That flame inside me was building. I wasn’t enjoying this walk down Adam’s memory lane.
“Then when I heard he was cheating on her, it was only a matter of time,” he continued. “She’d find out, and there was no way she’d stay with him. No way. Not a girl like her. She had spine. Morals. Values. And those stupid friends of hers. Both of them. They were horrible. One was screwing the boyfriend, and the other knew about it. I ended things with Ashley. First excuse I got, I jumped on it. Everything was lined up. It was a matter of time. I was willing to wait, then move in when Sam dumped him, and she would fall in love with me.”
He looked at me again, his jaw hardening. “Then you came along, and I didn’t even know it. That was the thing. I had no clue.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “You would’ve moved faster?”
“Yeah. I would’ve asked her out right away. I wouldn’t have tried becoming friends first.”
“You had since first grade to become friends with her. Don’t put that on me.”
A vein popped out in his neck. “Shut up.”
My eyebrow went up. “Excuse me?”
“You heard what I said.” A growl started in the back of his throat. His hands were in fists again, pressing against his side. He looked like he wanted to lunge, but restrained himself. “You and your fucking brother. I had no idea how much I would hate you guys.”
I frowned. “And if you had? What?”
“I would’ve handled it before now.”
What the fuck was this guy saying?
“You want to elaborate on that?”
A car’s lights swept over the parking lot as it turned in, but it parked far away. I tried to see who it was, but couldn’t. The air was thick with tension. If I moved, I didn’t know what Quinn would do.
I was still wondering about that damn coat. Why wear a coat? He didn’t grab it by accident. There was a reason.
“I don’t need to.” He started shaking, but he didn’t seem to realize it. Fury shone in his eyes. “You took everything, Kade. Everything.”
Voices sounded from the gym’s door. It was two football players, but they didn’t come our way. They headed to the section where the other car had parked. Who had that been?
