Chapter 59
The Decoys
Harper
The door bangs open, and Ethan Parker comes out with his phone in the air, staring at the screen. He turns and notices Kenz and I sitting against the wall. His smile turns lustful as his gaze drops to my breasts.
“Hey, are you two getting any reception out here?”
I don’t think he means my breasts, but that’s where his gaze lingers.
“No.” Kenz clears her throat, and he smirks at her.
“You know.” Ethan leans against the locker above my head. His uniform looks like new with only a few mud smears on it. “That picture doesn’t do you justice.”
Seriously, what is up with this guy?
“Get lost, Parker.” Kenz glares at him.
Ethan smiles like she invited him to sit with us and crouches down next to me. The instinct to move away is strong, but I resist. I’m not showing this guy any weakness.
“You’re not as hot as, say, Sidney or Ashley.” He studies me like I really care about his opinion. “But you’ve got this look. Nice mouth. Great tits. I can see why they want you.”
I press my lips together and roll my eyes. “Look, neither of us wants to talk to you, so you can go back to the locker room now.”
He smiles. “What? We’re just talking. You and I can be friends, can’t we?”
“No, pretty sure that’s not how this works.” I give him a wide-eyed look. “See how I understand it is once I’ve been claimed by the horsemen, no one can touch me, look at me, or talk to me.”
He snorts. “They don’t frighten me.”
I laugh tightly and give him a fake sweet smile. “Okay, then how about you tell me how my boyfriends are going to react when I tell them you said I had great tits?”
“You might want to be nicer to me, Harper.” His smile chills my blood. “You never know how long your guys are going to rule. When they fall, you’ll be fair game.”
He reaches out to touch my hair, but I jerk back against Kenz. She hisses at him.
His smile widens. “There are a lot of people who want the horsemen to go down.”
“Are you one of them?” I narrow my eyes.
Shrugging, he stands. “I couldn’t care less about the horsemen, but they usually share their toys. It makes me wonder what’s so special about you. Is your pussy that good? Or have they just stopped wanting to conquer something new? Or maybe you’re a little freak in the sack?”
I press my lips tight to keep my jaw from dropping open. Who the fuck is this guy?
“You don’t think the horsemen will appreciate you talking to her like this, do you?” Kenz snaps at him.
He shrugs. “They won’t reign for long. Just remember that, Harper, when you come begging me for protection. I can’t wait to have you on your knees for me.”
He walks back into the locker room, and a shiver goes through me.
“What the fuck was that?” I stare at the door, wondering if I should march in after him and tell the horsemen what he said.
“A declaration of war?” Kenz wraps her arm around me. “I don’t know, but that boy has a death wish.”
Yeah, he must. I pause. “What if it’s a trap? What if he wants me to tell the guys so they go after him?”
Kenz’s lips press together as she glances at the doors. “I think we’re out of our depths here, H.”
“You think?” I blow out a breath. “I’ll tell them after the game when we’re back at their place.”
Kenz smiles. “That way, if they get riled up, you can soothe their savage sides.”
“Yeah.” I still can’t believe he said all that to me. “He can’t be stupid enough to think I’ll keep my mouth shut.”
“Guys keep underestimating you. Didn’t Zach think you’d be grateful to have him fuck you?” Kenz tsks. “Boys are stupid.”
I blow out a breath, and my eyes widen when the doors open again. I really don’t want to deal with Ethan anymore. But this time the players all flood out of the locker room. Kenz stands and gives me a hand up.
Luke’s eyes meet mine. I should tell him everything, but it feels like a set up. Why else would Ethan tell me right before the second half he can’t wait until the horsemen fall?
Why do all these boys assume I’m the weakest link? Well, fuck him, I’ll wait until we’re back at Caden’s house before telling them everything Ethan said.
Caden
We won, of course. I want to drag Harper into the shower with me and celebrate in style but figure Coach wouldn’t be happy with that. And the other players might enjoy seeing our girl a little too much.
Instead, I set my rage on Ethan Parker. The fucker who’s decided he wants our scraps when there aren’t any.
I get it. Other girls came to us and wanted us to fuck them, so they’ll be free to fuck whoever they want. It’s a point of pride to have a horseman as their first. But that’s not my little nympho.
No, she’s mine, and he needs to get that through his thick head.
Ethan is careful in the locker room. He stays with his friends and heads out to the bus with a group. It’s okay. I’ve got time. Luke wants a piece too. I could tell. But Luke’s and my methods are different.
Luke likes clean, corporal punishment, while I just want to beat Ethan’s ass until he calls his mommy. Coach Turner herds MacKenzie and Harper into his car to follow us back to the school.
I catch Harper’s gaze, and she smiles at me. My heart thumps. That girl. She’s worth whatever smackdown I need to put on Ethan.
When I get on the bus, I note where every one of our potential narcs are sitting. I hope it’s fucking Ethan. Last time they fucked with Harper during an away game, it was while we were on our way back to the high school.
We’ve already decided not to confront the narcs, but we’ll know who to use to figure out what game everyone is playing and who all the players are.
Jack set up another blocking device on the bus so no one can send outgoing messages. No need to warn whoever they’re working with that Harper is safe and sound.
“Fuck, what is it with this pansy ass school that gets no fucking service?” Brewster puts his phone on his lap and runs his hand through his hair.
I smirk. “You can download porn when you get home, Brewster.”
He shakes his head while the others laugh around him. I move down the aisle toward the back where Luke, Eli, and Nico are. Jack follows behind me.
Ethan Parker chose to sit up near the coach and assistants like the coward he is. Pushing him in the mud was satisfying, but not nearly enough. He’s lucky I did it though, because Luke looked one second away from destroying him.
While Luke tends toward calculated revenge, he will get his hands dirty if he needs to. And in this case, we might be on the same page about what Ethan really needs.
I take my seat. Jack sits and opens his laptop. The lights on the bus dim as the driver puts it in drive. When I glance back, Coach Turner’s car follows us. It’s hard to see inside with his headlights on, but I’m confident she’s in there and safe.
“Any movement?” I ask.
Eli shakes his head. “The girls are keeping me posted. Or they were until Jack jammed everything.”
“It’s an all-or-nothing situation.” Jack doesn’t look up as he types on his computer.
I don’t know how to feel about using Coach Turner to get Harper to the games. It just seems like he should have asked for more than a volunteer for peewee football, but maybe that’s his in with Jack.
Get Jack alone, away from us and his girlfriend. Work on their attraction. I mean, it would be something I would do.
“It’s up.”
Jack’s computer screen is filled with the six windows again, showing us the Harper decoys. This better work. It’s supposed to eliminate four of the guys, depending on which decoy gets attacked.
Much easier to work two guys over on the team than six.
“Anything yet?” Luke asks, leaning back in the seat, barely hiding his flinch. His side probably hurts, but there were scouts at today’s game. Luke got a full ride offer to play ball last year, but the school isn’t one that would work for all of us.
Now we have to factor in Nico and Harper too. The main thing is to stay together, meaning if we have to go to a larger city to get a couple different schools that work for all of us, we’re willing to do that.
I can’t wait until Harper is in my bed every morning and night. I don’t even need to fuck her every night, as long as she’s there. Besides, buying a place near campus with my trust will piss my folks off.
Jack shakes his head. “No one’s moved.”
“Can we talk about our other problem?” I catch Luke’s eyes and his mouth presses into a firm line. “Ethan Parker.”
“Him and Adams.” Luke leans forward. “They need to be made an example of so others understand she’s ours.”
“We can’t do anything too big.” Eli clasps his hands. “We’re lucky Grant didn’t talk.”
“Grant’s lucky he didn’t talk.” I squeeze my hands together. “Guys are going to keep coming at Harper if we don’t lay down the law and show them what happens when someone wants what’s ours.”
“We can’t beat up every guy in school.” Nico shakes his head. “Have you seen the way they look at her? I don’t know how it was before, but the guys have noticed her.”
“That picture hasn’t helped.” Jack scans the screen. “Nor the thought that she’s with all of us.”
“That picture is bullshit.” I glance over the back of the seat at the rest of the bus. Part of me wants to go through all their phones and see if they have the image. That’s a bad plan. It shows our weakness if they hadn’t already guessed.
If Harper wasn’t mine, I’d probably have a copy.
Bad Photoshop, but nice body at least. I have the real thing, and that’s better than any doctored image.
“We have movement.” Jack’s voice is low.
Someone in all black moves across Harper’s living room. Fuck.
“Trip the alarm.” Luke watches the screen.
The alarm goes off, and the person stops and runs out the back door. The Harper decoy comes out of the bedroom and looks around. She goes to the alarm box and puts in the special code we gave her, turning it off.
Technically it wasn’t the actual alarm or Harper’s mother would have been contacted. But it did the trick to get the guy out of the house and keep the decoy safe.
My grin widens as my fists tighten, because now we’ve narrowed down the mole. “Michael Cook and Ethan Parker. One of them is the mole, and the guy is black is probably Zach or Tanner.”
“Wait.” Jack holds his hand up, and I glance at the screen.
Tanner walks into Crusty’s. He sits across from Penny and Izzy. Ava’s friend Cassidy is in the bathroom. Heat pours through me as he sits with the girls having a conversation.
“Do we have any audio?” I glance over on the bus at Brandon Walker, who sent Matt to the pizza place. Greg Johnson also knew about Crusty’s.
“No, but I’ll get some.” Jack’s gaze narrows on the girls. “I should be able to pull from the app I put on Penny’s phone.”
Penny leans across the table and points to the door. Tanner grins and says something to them. When Cassidy comes out, she walks straight up to him and slaps him across the face.
I can just imagine the words pouring out of her mouth as she tells that dickweed off for Ava.
Tanner holds his hands up and backs away from the girls. He keeps talking, but they look like they don’t give a damn. If I was in his shoes, I’d run for the door.
“More than one mole or just stupid guys who can’t keep their mouths shut?” Eli meets each of our eyes. “It’s entirely possible they talked about it where someone could overhear.”
“Tanner and the guy in black probably aren’t working together or they would have figured out this was a trap.” Nico rubs his jaw. “But that means that the guys who were told about the restaurant are probably off the hook. We may be able to trust them with information. If we need to.”
“Fuck,” Luke whispers. Dread creeps up my spine. My gaze goes back to the screen.
Zach Gray walks through the restaurant with Sidney. They sit near the table while Ava’s friend Beth keeps her gaze averted. But if Zach Gray is there and Tanner was at the restaurant...
“Who the fuck is the guy in black?”
The story continues in THEIR DARK VICTORY