Chapter 11
JEREMIAH
It was a damn good thing I didn’t need to have eyes on Lennon to know exactly where she was, because after what I had done in the shower this morning, I couldn’t look her in the face.
She must have come to her senses and realized she didn’t belong in this game because she hugged her corner for dear life. That suited me perfectly. With Lennon at my back, I could keep my attention focused on what really mattered.
Those fucking cowboys.
Running rescue missions for a decade had left me with certain skills. I knew how to account for multiple enemy combatants at once.
Holly was farthest away, on the other side of the field, but that didn’t make her safe.
She was the fastest out of all of us, and deceptive in her tactics.
She was also the most likely one of us to make Lennon bleed.
It was a safe bet that Mateo, Liam, and Seb wouldn’t do anything to truly hurt a guest, especially a woman.
Holly had fewer qualms about that, and she’d had it in for Lennon from the moment she’d arrived.
She wouldn’t really hurt her, but she would absolutely scratch her up a bit.
Holly was dangerous, but she wasn’t my top priority. Mateo would keep her in line. The two of them were more interested in besting each other than actually winning.
Liam…he liked to win, but he wouldn’t see Lennon as a threat. He’d go after Mateo or Seb first. Eventually he’d come for me. Maybe he’d try to get the drop on Holly, but he wouldn’t go straight for her because, unlike Seb, he wasn’t big on suicide missions.
Seb was the one I needed to watch.
Would he hurt her? Fuck no.
Would he take advantage of the opportunity to get Lennon in his arms? Hell yes, he would.
And then…well, then I’d have to kill him.
“You gonna get in the game, Jay?” Seb jogged backwards in a circle around his ball, green eyes glinting, mallet across his shoulders. Fucking showboat.
“I’m in it,” I growled.
Only it wasn’t a fucking game to me.
His gaze flicked behind me and back again with an annoying little smirk I wanted to punch right off his face. “Oh, yeah? Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’re more interested in playing bodyguard than Blood Ball.”
I kept my eyes trained on him like I was completely oblivious to Liam sneaking up on my five o’clock. “Don’t know what you’re talking about, man.”
Seb shot me a look of pure disbelief. “Don’t you?”
Liam’s yellow ball came to rest against mine with a quiet clink.
Before Liam could stop me, I pressed my boot against my black ball, swung the mallet back, and hit my ball with a satisfying whack.
The energy shot right through my ball and into his, sending it flying across the field.
With a muttered curse, Liam went after it, middle finger raised as he ran past me.
Seb laughed, and his gaze landed over my shoulder again. The way his head tilted, I knew he wasn’t looking at her face. My guess was she was bent over, lining her mallet up with her ball, perky ass in the air and those stupid fucking cutoff denim shorts riding up her long thighs.
“Hey, Lennon, baby, come over here and we can talk strategy,” he called to her.
“What, so you can score an easy fifty points off the city girl?” she yelled back. “Do I look stupid to you, Seb?”
He was still laughing when I caught him by the waist and brought him to the ground, making sure he’d land on his knees. Knees were the easiest body parts to draw blood from, and I liked to win, too.
“Fifty points, asshole,” I muttered as dark red swelled from right below his kneecap.
Seb grunted. “Is that your way of calling dibs?”
“You can’t call dibs on a human being.” We rolled to our feet, shaking off the fall. “I don’t trust her, Seb.”
“Shit, man. I don’t trust half the women I fuck. Use protection and keep your mouth occupied with something that isn’t talking. You’ll be fine.”
“That’s your advice?” I shook my head. “Hell.”
“It’s good advice!” he protested.
“It’s—oof!” I grunted as Seb tackled me. My forearm scraped against the dirt, and I winced. Glancing down, I saw long scratches flecked with red. It wasn’t a lot, but it counted.
“Fifty points,” Seb half laughed, half groaned. “And Mateo is coming for your girl.”
I didn’t need to see him. With my cheek pressed to the dirt, I could hear him. The ground vibrated as Mateo thundered closer.
Not yet.
Not yet.
Now.
I twisted, scissoring my legs so they caught Mateo by the ankles. His knee rammed my shoulder as he stumbled forward. With a holler, he fell across both of us.
We lay there in a grunting, tangled heap for only a moment before Seb started shoving limbs aside. “I didn’t deserve that, Jay.”
“Yes, you fucking did,” I muttered.
“For what? Having eyes?” Seb demanded, making Mateo snicker. “She’s hot. What do you want from me?”
I want you to keep your fucking eyes closed around her.
I choked back the words. Not because they weren’t true.
But if I said that out loud, I’d never hear the end of it.
We were brothers, all of us: Seb, Liam, Mateo, Holly, and I.
The blood that tied us together wasn’t inherited—it was spilt, but that only made the bond stronger.
And like any band of brothers, we tortured each other. That was how we showed love.
“You know Liam is going to take advantage of this moment, right?” Seb shoved me, then Mateo, as he tried to get up.
Mateo groaned through a laugh. “Or Holly.”
I shot to my feet.
Fuck, that hurt.
I didn’t have a second to worry about that, not with Liam and Holly bearing down on Lennon. The next several moments were full of even more pain. Bodies clashed together. Mallets swung at balls and ankles alike. Somewhere in the fray, I lost my own ball.
But I never lost Lennon.
She was there, behind me. I caught the movement of her hair in the periphery of my vision. Dark brown with gold mixed in that caught the sunlight. Her hair reminded me of dessert, the way shades of chocolate, caramel, and honey swirled together.
Focus, dumbass. This wasn’t the time to get a craving for something sweet.
And then I heard it: Lennon’s triumphant voice rising above the grunts and groans, crack of wood, and slap of flesh.
“Home!”
“Are you going to do something about that, or am I?” Holly folded her arms over her chest and scowled at me. Her dark eyebrows pushed together over even darker eyes.
“Do something about what?” I asked, like Lennon wasn’t doing some obnoxious victory dance, gyrating her hips like a complete dork, her green mallet held high above her head.
“I won! I won!” she sing-songed.
She had no right looking that fucking adorable.
There was no way in hell she had won, of course. I did not look forward to telling her that.
“Jay.” Holly snapped her fingers rapidly in front of my face.
I reluctantly dragged my gaze away from Lennon. “What?”
“You know she didn’t win! Make her stop.”
“What do you care, Holly? In fact, Blood Ball is the only thing you don’t care about winning.”
Holly gave me a look that suggested she doubted my intelligence. “That’s because I always let you win. You, or Liam, or Seb. Sometimes even Mateo, if I’m feeling generous.”
That got my attention. I frowned down at her. “What do you mean, you let us win?”
She batted away my question with a flutter of her hand. “The important thing is, I did not let Lennon win. You wouldn’t even let me get close to her. That’s bullshit, Jay, and you know it. The game is very clear. It’s every man for himself. Or herself.”
“Yeah?” I arched my brows. “Then how do you explain Mateo running interference for you every chance he gets?”
“That’s different.” I snorted. “You know she didn’t win. For starters, unless she tripped over her own feet, she didn’t make anyone bleed—”
“She didn’t trip,” I ground out. I would have noticed.
“Secondly, she didn’t win because there’s no fucking way.” She leaned in and jabbed me in the chest to punctuate each word. “No one’s ever beaten one of us at Blood Ball before. Not even that SEAL from Lodestar Ranch.”
“He was injured,” I pointed out. “That probably slowed him down some.”
“Is Lennon a SEAL?” Holly demanded, and then immediately answered her own question. “No. She is not. I don’t think she’s military at all. The truth is, we don’t know what she did, where she’s from, or why she’s here.”
My gaze flicked to Lennon, who was still doing that stupid dance. Who are you? I hated that I didn’t know. But I hated even more that I cared so damn much.
“But we do know she didn’t win Blood Ball. If you don’t want to tell her, I will. In fact, I’d love to see the look on her face. A spoiled little city girl taking down a team of Tier 1 operators? I don’t fucking think so.”
“Aren’t you from Seattle? That’s a city, last time I checked.”
She glared at me, and I sighed.
“Liam and Mateo are reviewing the video. There’s no point in telling her she lost until we know who actually won,” I said.
Holly’s lower lip pushed out. “She’s pissing me off, Jay.”
“Live with it, Holly. She’s not the only one who has a victory dance,” I said pointedly. Holly wasn’t known for being a gracious winner, either.
“Hey, guys?” Liam called quietly. “You need to see this.”
Holly tossed her dark hair and flounced over with me following behind.
“What is it?” I asked, peering over Liam’s shoulder as he pressed play on the camera.
“More importantly, who won?” Holly asked.
“That’s the thing. Mateo and I watched twice, and we both counted the same.” Liam cleared his throat. “Watch Lennon.”
I watched. Pandemonium ensued, but Lennon paid us no mind.
She stood perpendicular to the wicket closest to the home pole, one foot on either side.
With a gentle tap, she sent her ball cleanly through the wicket.
It stopped against the side of her foot.
Then she tapped it back through again. Over and over and over. Five points each time.
Every time we made each other bleed, it cost us time. The fifty points we earned didn’t stand a chance against her incessant five.
“No,” Holly whispered, horrified. “No.”
When she was up by ten points, Lennon sent her ball flying into the home pole. Almost as though she had been aware of our scores the whole fucking time. “Home!” she hollered.
“Nooooo!” Holly wailed.
I straightened. My eyes met Lennon’s six yards away. She bowed with a flourish of her mallet, and I couldn’t help but chuckle.
Well, fuck me sideways. Lennon had won.