Chapter 4 Jett #2
After practice, I went to the gym to use the pool and then the spa.
My body had been stretched too tight. When I got home, I spoke to Quinn for an hour on the phone.
Ash had gone home straight after practice to see his little sister, who had been sick with a bug.
She was better and no longer contagious and wanted to see her brother to wish him luck for the game the next day, since her mom deemed her still too poorly to attend.
There was not one Santo man alive who could deny Tilly anything.
After I spoke to Quinn, I’d gotten a text.
“Where’s my phone?” I demanded as I looked around the room.
“Why?” Gray asked as he looked up. “It’s not like you would take her number.”
“I got a text to go to the party. I don’t remember who though.” I looked at my brother. “Do you?” Gray shook his head in answer.
“Here,” Ash said. He picked the phone up from the side cabinet and tossed it to me.
Scrolling through my messages, I searched for Friday night. “I must have deleted it,” I said as I read. “There’s nothing here except . . .”
“Except?” Gray demanded as he stood.
“Who the hell is Wade?” I asked as I looked up at them.
“Fuck knows. Why?” Ash asked as he looked over my shoulder.
“Because I have a message from him after one saying it was nice meeting me.” I looked between Ash and Gray with a raised eyebrow. “It’s never nice to meet me.”
Ash laughed despite the situation, and even Gray cracked a smile as he looked at his watch. “As true as that is, brother, we need to move if we’re doing this tonight.”
“Yeah.” I nodded as I stared at the phone. “How long we got?”
“Fifteen.” Gray picked up the plates and headed to the door, where he hesitated and looked once at Ash before he spoke to me. “You’re going to need to call Quinn, she may help.”
“Shit, really?” Ash groaned as he stretched, his hands touching the ceiling easily. “Why do we need to bring her into this?” he protested sullenly.
“Because she knows everyone, even if she is a giant bitch.” Gray gave him a tight smile. “She also hears shit we would never be told.” Gray shook his head in admiration as he thought about our childhood friend. “To be honest, I’d be surprised if she didn’t already know,” he added with a fond smile.
I agreed with my brother, but I hesitated as I looked over at Ash, who rolled his eyes. “Whatever, just don’t expect me to be there.” With a shake of his head, he left the room.
“It’s been almost two years,” Gray said softly after Ash was gone.
“Quinn has a lasting effect on people,” I quipped.
“He’ll go apeshit when he learns how much you both still talk.”
“Will it be more or less apeshit when he finds out it was you who told her to break up with him?” I asked with mock curiosity.
Gray gave me his full attention, and after a long moment, he raised an eyebrow.
“What?” I challenged him with a smirk as I crossed to the bathroom.
“You think you can get anything past me, little brother?”
“Up until Friday, I would say no. But that was before you got your drink spiked and got more or less date raped.” Gray’s voice was cold. “Now I think you’re probably the pussy I always thought you were.”
I turned to look at him. He was slightly shorter than me, a fact I knew pissed him off.
His hair was dark brown rather than black, his face rounder, fuller, and in my opinion — not that I ever told him — better than mine.
I was all sharp angles, whereas my brother was softer.
Not in temper, though, in temper we were both explosive.
“Did you really just go there?” I asked him as I took a step toward him.
“Yes, I did.” Gray stood tall. “Because my brother would never be sitting fucking worrying about who some slut was. Instead, he would be wreaking fucking mayhem, finding the bitch who drugged him and then,” Gray leaned forward as if in challenge, “be mopping up her blood with her blonde . . . fucking . . . hair.”
We stared each other down for a few more minutes before I looked him up and down. “Man, you’re a bitch.” I felt my top lip curl in a snarl. “Bitch-slapped by Gray Santo,” I added with a shake of my head.
“Anytime, big brother,” Gray said as he turned back to the door. “Any fucking time.”
When the door closed behind him, I gave another shake of my head as I thought about it. He was right. I was too caught up in the aftereffects. I needed to focus not only on the who but the why.
Why would anyone need to drug me to get me to sleep with them?
I wasn’t overly fussy about my bed partners, and from what I had seen of my puking partner on Saturday morning, she had curves in the right places.
From what my dick had told me as I showered, it had definitely had no problem carrying out its job.
I’d picked up four wrappers and, much to my annoyance, three used condoms from the floor on my way to the shower after the need to piss so badly had woken me up.
I was always careful with the disposal of my shit, so the fact I had merely tossed them aside as I kept on going should have been a warning on Saturday morning that something wasn’t right.
That and the fact I hadn’t heard my alarm. I never overslept. Now I wasn’t sure if that was an effect of whatever had been in my system.
Why hadn’t I looked at her? She hadn’t moved an inch when Ash hammered the door.
She hadn’t grumbled when I prodded her, hadn’t stirred when I nudged her.
Hadn’t woken when I spoke to her before I went to shower.
I recalled Ash asking if she was dead. Fuck, the amount of care I had taken in regard to her well-being on Saturday, she could have been.
I’d been so fucking lucky. Coach hadn’t noticed my hangover, which I now knew wasn’t a hangover. Our game on Saturday had been against one of the lower league teams. They couldn’t score a touchdown even if we hadn’t shown up.
No one had anything to gain from that team for spiking my drink.
Suspended for two weeks, maybe more. I peeled my T-shirt off as I fumed internally. If it were more than two weeks, I would miss the trip to Texas, and I always enjoyed beating the smug fuckers on their defense. Also meant I would actually have to attend Friday classes.
As I threw my jeans in the laundry basket, I stopped. After our game in Houston, we were at home to Alabama.
Cursing savagely, I pulled my clothes on for tonight before I went to speak to my brother. I knew exactly who had fucking drugged me.
Now, I just needed to find the blonde to prove it.