Chapter 11
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
DILLON
“ G ood practice, guys,” Coach said as he walked into the locker room. Half the guys were chugging water like they’d been lost in a desert for years, while the other half stripped off to head for the showers. “Our defensive line is definitely tighter, but it’s still too loose. Hargraves’s guys are carving it up like butter. Prescott, you need to focus.”
Chad turned to face me as he pulled his top off. If this were a cartoon, he would have been bright red with steam pouring out of his ears. “Yes, Coach,” he snarled, eyes focused on me. The visceral hate in them was nothing new. He disliked me when I moved up to the varsity team, but now that I’d taken the captaincy from him, all bets were off. He was a ticking time bomb waiting to blow. I wouldn’t be surprised if he threw a game just to make me look bad.
“Ignore him,” Buchanan muttered as he sat next to me, unlacing his boots.
I looked down at him and raised a brow. “I’m trying, but the guy’s a prick.”
He snorted. “You’re not wrong there. Anyway, let’s hit the showers and get out of here. I need a damn coffee to help me stay awake for the rest of the day.”
After showering and changing, we headed out across the quad toward Bean There, the best place on campus to get coffee that didn’t taste like dish water. The first lesson had let out by the time we were done with practice, and there were people everywhere. Some ignored us, while others stopped and stared. The girls were the worst. They followed us around like street dogs begging for scraps. Most of the guys loved it—especially Stevens—but it irritated the fuck out of me.
“Don’t look now,” Vieck said as he shouldered his bag.
“Blonde devil incoming.” McCormack chuckled. What the hell were they…
“Hello, baby.” Elise sidled up beside me, wrapping herself around my left arm. I shoved my hand in my pocket and kept walking.
“Elise,” I clipped.
“Missed me?” She pushed up on her tiptoes, trying to kiss my cheek. “No. Can’t say I have. What do you want?” I growled.
“Just to spend some time with you.” She bit her lip, trying to be coy, but she looked more like a rabbit chomping on a carrot.
I rolled my eyes as the guys snickered and sped up their pace so it was just me and Elise. Once there was a fair bit of distance between us, I stopped. She twisted herself until she was pressed up against my chest, and when she tried to loop her arms around my neck, my patience snapped. “Stop!” I barked and placed my hands on her shoulders, shoving her back a step and putting some much-needed space between us.
“Why, baby?” she mewled. “What’s wrong?” She tried to step into me again, so I applied some pressure with my fingertips until she winced.
“What do you want?” I grunted. “Because as far as I’m concerned, there is nothing going on here. You had your shot on Saturday and you ran away like a little bitch.” Why did girls do this? Get obsessed and clingy? It made my damn skin crawl.
“Ooh, burn,” someone shouted as others broke into laughter. Great, we’d attracted a crowd like this was some kind of sick spectator sport.
Elise huffed and stroked my arms. “I wasn’t feeling very well. That’s why I left.” Bullshit. I’d treated her like shit coz I wasn’t interested, yet here the crazy bitch is. “I wondered if you wanted to go to the party on Greek Row this weekend?” She fluttered her lashes as her hands worked up my biceps.
“Fuck no. Take the hint, Elise. I’m not interested in washed-up whores.” I pushed her away, not caring if she ended up on the ground or not.
“You’re making a mistake, Dillon Hargraves!” she screamed, and stomped her feet attracting even more attention.
“The only mistake I made was giving you a second of my time.” Laughter eddied around me, along with whoops and cheers. I swear I also heard someone say, “Ding dong the bitch is dead,” but I didn’t care. I wasn’t here for her or them. I had one goal. Well, maybe two now as I had to get rid of the ghost from my past before anyone found out about me. The crowd parted like the Red Sea, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Elise’s wailing faded behind the chatter of the other students.
“Well, that was more entertaining than anything I’ve seen in a long time,” Buchanan said with a smirk. We grabbed one of the benches outside Bean There and waited for the rest of the guys to join us.
“Ugh. It is what it is,” I said with a shrug, playing the arrogant jock role that was expected of me.
“You know she’s going to get you back for embarrassing her,” McCormack said, coming up alongside me and handing me my coffee.
I took a long drink, groaning as the rich liquid slid down my throat. After wiping my mouth on the back of my hand, I replied, “Don’t care. She’s not my problem. Elise can go cry to Daddy all she likes.”
“You know she’s connected, right?”
“I’m not afraid of her, Vieck. I’m too valuable to Briar U for them to do anything.” Arrogant maybe, but it was the truth nonetheless. They didn’t have a backup quarterback that could replace me. Davies was a sophomore, but he was still green. Far too green to be a threat to me. Coach knew how hyper-focused I was and used that to his advantage. He wouldn’t kick me off the team any time soon.
“If you say so,” he muttered into his latte.
“Anyone know where Stevens vanished off to?” I ran my gaze over Vieck, Buchanan, McCormack, and the rest of the team that decided to tag along, and all of them shook their heads. I hadn’t seen him since we showered, but he’d been bouncing around like a damn puppy before that. The guys broke into conversation about practice and the weights season we had later this afternoon. We had two weeks until our first preseason friendly, and we needed to come out hard, so conditioning was at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
“Cap! Cap!”
“Speak of the devil, and he shall appear.” I looked up and followed McCormack’s gaze. Stevens sauntered toward us with a big grin on his face.
“Where the hell did you go?”
“I went to see a man about a dog.” He chuckled.
“What the?—”
“Shh, Cap, I’ve got good news.” Stevens smirked. “I went to see my person who does back office admin for the administration department. They have access to the student directory and all their records. And I hopefully have what you want in these files.”
I nodded. “That was fast.”
“Well, after what you said on Saturday, I paid them a little visit and voila.” He spread four folders out in front of me. I scanned the names, but none of them matched Jamie Abernathy. My stomach dropped like a lump of lead. I’d seen him! He was here. But if there was no matching record, what did that mean?
“I know the names don’t match, but this one—” He thrust a folder at me, flicking it open to a photocopy of their student ID. My heart stopped mid beat, and my blood whooshed through my ears. “This one fits your description of him.”
I reached out with a shaky hand and snatched the file off Stevens. I could feel the weight of everyone’s eyes on me, but I ignored it and the pickle of goosebumps that spread across my skin. If we did this, there would be no going back. I knew that. I knew this would irreparably hurt him—my little crow. But without a shadow of a doubt, the secret he knew had the power to destroy me. Without football, what was I? I didn’t know, and I sure as fuck didn’t want to find out.
“That’s him,” I muttered as confusion grew within me. Why was my Jamie registered here as Jamie Bowen? Had his parents gotten divorced? Is that why he and his mom vanished one night, never to be heard from again?
“Sweet.” Vieck grinned. “What’s the plan then?”
“Well…” I shared a conspiratorial look with Vieck, McCormack, Buchanan, and Stevens before launching into my plan for how to get rid of my little problem. This would be the hardest thing I’ve ever done—not that they knew it. I felt so much guilt over lying to them about why I hated Jamie, but at the end of the day, there is no ‘I’ in team, and here at Briar U, it’s every man for himself. I was going to make sure I was the last man standing—no matter how much it hurt the boy I loved.
Morning lectures passed in the blink of an eye. Apparently, my showdown with Elise was the talk of campus if the conversations I overheard were anything to go by. I found it amusing the amount of disgusted looks I got from her sycophant followers, but to me it was like water off a duck’s back. I had much more important things to do than worry about people’s opinion of me.
The late afternoon sun was out in full force, the heat beating down like I was walking in a sauna. I wiped the sweat off my brow as I headed toward the gym for my afternoon weights session. My mind ran over everything I had planned for my little crow when a group of students caught my eye. Jamie’s blond curls shone like spun strands of gold in the sunlight. He threw his head back and laughed, light and carefree. The smile curving his lips made my heart squeeze. At one time, that smile belonged to me, but now it was out there for everyone to consume. My gut twisted as envy slithered through me.
On Saturday, Jamie looked beautiful. Fragile, yet ethereal. The gold glitter flakes that covered his face over his eyes accentuated the color of his hair, and his smokey eyeshadow brought out the depth in the steel band that ringed his pale-blue eyes.
One look at him had stolen my breath and released every tarnished memory I’d had of him from the deepest recesses of my mind. But today, the image before me brought forth the urge to claim him as mine. He was mine. Mine to love. Mine to destroy.
No one got to touch him but me. No one got to hurt him but me.
I’d never admit it, but my jealousy grew as I took in the group he sat with. Or, more importantly, who was wrapped around him. Jamie may have a heart bigger than anyone I’d ever known, but he was also terrified of meeting new people, let alone talking openly to those he knew. But the boy sitting before me seemed confident, adjusted, and content.
I fucking hated it.
I exhaled a ragged breath and clenched my fists, nails digging into the palm of my left hand while the bottle in my right groaned under the pressure. My jaw clenched so hard, I was amazed my teeth didn’t turn to dust as jealousy turned to visceral anger. The guy wrapped around Jamie nuzzled into his jaw before tilting his head in an intimate gesture. The two were nose to nose, and I knew as sure as the sun would rise tomorrow, that the guy with dark blond hair was going to kiss what was mine. Fuck no.
Without conscious thought, I pulled my arm back and launched the bottle in my hand, aiming for the guy who was about to learn I didn’t share my toys. The bottle landed with precision, smashing into the side of the douchebag’s head. The accompanying scream made me smirk as I made my way through the little copse of trees to the back of the group.
“Hargraves?” Someone called after me, their footsteps trailing in my wake, but my eyes were laser focused on the guy wrapped around Jamie. He was older, that was clear. I’d seen him around before, but like everyone else, he just blended into the background of unimportant faceless people that existed around me.
“Dillon!”
I turned on a dime, a snarl curling my lips. “What?” I demanded as a guy with red hair stumbled to a stop beside me.
He braced his hands on his knees, panting. “Taylor said you needed my help with something?”
I canted my head to the side and looked at the guy as confusion washed over me. “Did he say why?” My brain was still focused on the guy Jamie was tending to.
“No, just that I was the guy you needed.” He shrugged and kicked the dirt, looking all kinds of uncomfortable.
“Right.” I shook my head and tried to focus but… Jamie. No, not now. “Buchanan said you’re taking journalism and working for Briar U press?” He nodded his assent, and his gaze wandered over me, the unmistakable heat in his eyes making my hackles rise. “I need you to follow someone. I want to know everything about him. Who his friends are. Where he goes, what he eats, routines, everything. Also, I want background on all the people he hangs around with. I want you to be his shadow. Know him better than he knows himself.”
With a raised brow the guy looks at me. “I…umm… that’s a bit extreme, isn’t it?”
“What’s it matter to you?” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’ll pay for your time if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“No, no.” He put his hands up. “I mean yeah, obviously, I want to be paid. But you basically want me to be his stalker?”
“Just not with nefarious intentions,” I said, making him chuckle. “What’s your name?”
“Cory.” He held his hand out, and I shook it. “So what did this guy do to you?”
“That’s not your concern.” I squeezed his hand tighter.
“Hey, I’m within my rights to ask if you want me to invade some guy’s life and dig up everything I can on him.”
I stepped up to him until our toes were touching and used my height against him. “It’s no concern of yours. Just do it. You’re being paid to do a job, that’s it.”
Cory stepped back, hands up. “Alright, alright. Give me two weeks.”
I rolled my eyes. “Send me what you can dig up online ASAP then come find me in two weeks when you have everything else.”
“Okay. Cool, cool. Sooo, who is this unfortunate soul?”
I heaved a sigh, grabbed Cory’s shoulders, and turned him towards the group. Jamie stood with his hand outstretched to bottle guy and pulled him to his feet. It looked like whatever the group were doing was now breaking up. I itched to move to follow him, to know and possess everything about him.
“See the guy with blond curls?” Cory nodded. “Him. Jamie Bowen.” Not Abernathy as I knew him, but Bowen. Doubt crept into my mind that I could have been mistaken, but he recognized me on Saturday. It was him, but why was his name different?
“Oh, Jamie? He’s a cutie, right?”
A growl escaped me. “Excuse me?” Fear coiled around my gut, tightening with each passing second. Did he know I was gay? Was he after Jamie? FUCK.
“I met him earlier. He’d been shoved into a wall by… some jock.” His eyes widened as he looked at me. “Y-you did that.”
“Maybe.” I shrugged. “Not personally, though. I was at practice.”
“Sure, sure. So, get to know him and give you everything. Done.”
“Good.” I went to step away. Jamie was on the move, and I couldn’t let him get away from me. Cory grabbed my arm.
“Just don’t hurt him.” My gaze drilled into Cory. I knew he had more to say. “He seemed like such a sweet guy.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Like he wouldn’t hurt a fly. So be nice.”
“Fuck off,” I growled and left him standing there, trepidation coming off him in waves. There was only one place I needed to be, and it wasn’t here, with Cory.
My little crow didn’t know it yet, but I was coming for him.