Chapter 9 Gray #2
I closed my eyes as I ran my laps, memories of the past crowding my head rather than clearing it. Quinn Lawrence was the girl I wanted but couldn’t have. I knew it. She knew it.
It didn’t fucking matter.
I had to walk away. I had to put the distance back.
Until I was free of her spell, I needed to stay away.
After the other night and what she had told me, I knew I couldn’t be near her without demanding she tell me everything.
As much as I knew it was all her choice, her body, her decision, it burned inside me that she had made that decision without me.
She knew how much I’d care. She knew just how fucking much it would hurt.
I hated her. I’d loved her for so long, it was no longer love I felt for her. How could I love a woman who ripped my heart to shreds, not once, but twice?
I heard Coach blow his whistle and knew I could stop running.
Easing my stride gradually, looked over to the benches where the others were cooling down.
I saw my brother and Ash still out on the field.
Jett was throwing, and Ash was running and catching.
They wouldn’t go in until I was with them.
They didn’t even realize they were waiting for me.
Slowly, I made my way toward them, watching Ash laugh at whatever my brother had said to him. Jett turned to me with a grin.
“You looked in the zone,” he said with a casual flick of the ball my way.
I caught it and tossed it back and forth between my hands. “Yeah, I think I needed it.”
“Lot on your mind?” Ash asked curiously.
“Got a paper due,” I answered easily.
“You need to get laid,” he said to me as he took the ball off me. “I don’t remember the last time you hooked up with anyone.”
My smile was tight, but I kept my tone light. “Just don’t feel the need to brag about my hookups like you do,” I joked.
Jett snorted in agreement as we headed to the locker room, and I tried to ignore my cousin’s speculative stare.
“Seriously, when did you last hook up?” Ash asked me as he pulled his jersey off. “Maybe you need to stop being so picky and hook up with one of the Elises.”
Fuck no. “Never,” I drawled as I took off my cleats. “Anyway, think One’s off the market now,” I added with a nod over to Jamie, who was rubbing his right shoulder and couldn’t hear us.
Ash watched him and then turned back to us both. “Didn’t realize it was a thing.”
“Pretty sure he doesn’t either,” Jett said with a grin as he stripped off his uniform.
“But he isn’t stupid,” Ash said as he considered our defensive lineman again. “I mean, he has to know she has an agenda . . . right?”
“Not our business,” I answered as I headed to the shower.
After we got showered and dressed, the three of us headed to the front of the building.
She sat on the steps leading up to the stadium, a textbook on her knee, and her shoulders hunched like she was cold from the chill of the air. It wasn’t even cold; she was such a drama queen.
Opening the door, Jett called out a greeting, and I watched her turn toward us, a ready smile on her face as she looked at Jett.
“Hi, so, I need to talk to you about nutrition.” As she rose elegantly to her feet, Jett picked up her books, and even Ash helped her with her stuff. I hung back, watching her, like the spider she was, snaring them in her web.
I remembered Onyx’s warnings in my head as I approached them, my walls already up, my emotions already shutting down.
“I’m out,” I told them as I moved alongside them.
“You are?” Jett asked me in surprise as his eyes flicked between her and me.
“Yeah, got shit to do.”
“You going to get laid?” Ash asked with a wide grin, giving me his full attention and not seeing her face pale in displeasure.
“Maybe I will.” I winked at him before I turned and headed in the opposite direction.
He’d slept with every eligible female in high school when she broke up with him.
I hadn’t questioned his actions, and neither had Jett.
He’d been hurt. Well, his pride had been hurt; I think his heart was just fine.
However, it wasn’t for me to criticize him; I was in no position to be casting judgment on him or anyone.
The girls had not been kind to Quinn when they told her, going out of their way to shove it in her face that they’d either fucked or sucked him.
The only ones she’d reacted to were the Elises.
I don’t know what was said between them, but it had taken me and Jett to get Quinn off of Elise.
The she-cat had scratched my arms up badly as she practically hissed with fury as Jett picked Elise off the floor while Quinn fought to get to her.
Jett had already been with Elise and one of the other ones; Ash had done all of them.
I had never touched any of them. When we finally had Quinn calmed down, Jett had asked her what the fuck had happened.
She’d said nothing, just glared at me like it was my fault she was brawling in the school corridor like a third grader. Jett had picked up on it and turned to me with an eyebrow raised in question.
Confused, he’d asked me what I’d done. Not having a clue how I factored into a fight with Elise, I’d answered honestly and said, “Nothing.” She’d laughed, called me a dick, and then stormed out of there like we were in the wrong.
My phone vibrated in my hoodie pocket, bringing me back to the present, and I pulled it out.
Quinn: You didn’t need to leave
I shoved it back in my pocket. I didn’t need to reply.
Of course, I had to leave. How could I sit there, looking at her, knowing that she had been giving away my baby?
My fucking baby. She was going to give it to strangers, and what, never tell me?
Anger boiled in my blood as I walked and fought the memories, my older brother’s words once more resonating through my head.
“He is your family, he is your blood, what is she?”
“Everything,” I whispered in reply.
“Then you’ll never be free of her,” was his sad reply.
Yes, I would. I needed to cut all ties to her, every single one of them. We would find the bastards who hurt her, and then I would be free, and I would never look back.
The agency she went to was bogus, a front for something I hoped and prayed she didn’t know about. Stopping in the cool October air, I looked to the darkening sky. There was one other person who knew everything, who knew about the “adoption,” one sick fucker who we had on camera.
With grim resolution, I turned and started toward the dorm house. It was time for that house call.