Chapter 1 #2
“None of your fucking business.” Mason stepped forward, and I saw Noah straighten. “There’s no story for you here,” he said with a sneer, his eyes on Hadley. “Now, as I said earlier, fuck off.”
Dante Spence tilted his head slightly to the side.
“There’s always a story,” he said to Mason.
“You know more about the program than we do. I’d be very interested to hear about it.
I’ve come to Bobby Ray’s attention, not in a good way.
He’s watching us, all of us.” His gaze swept over Mason. “I believe you didn’t hurt her—”
“Just like that?” Mason challenged.
Dante’s lips twitched. “I’m very good at reading people.”
“Really? Did you miss the rundown on Sutherland?” Mason snorted.
Dante shrugged. “Wasn’t looking for corrupt and twisted — caught the douchiness early on.”
Mason huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, well . . . I’ll maybe give you that.”
“Hadley,” Dante gestured toward the dark-haired girl. “She’ll want to know more about Tiffany. My girlfriend, too. I think they’re right to want that. If something happened to her and her story isn’t told, doesn’t she have the right to be heard?”
I cleared my throat. “You’re wasting your time.”
“I don’t believe that,” Hadley murmured. “No one writes three versions of a statement. She was traumatized.”
“Or she was confused, or lying,” Mason bit out, anger radiating from him. “Ever think of that? Maybe she wasn’t traumatized; maybe she couldn’t keep the story straight because it wasn’t true.”
I tried not to react to his harsh words, because I knew he didn’t believe that, though plenty of people did.
“I’d prefer to hear that from her,” Hadley replied coolly. “He may think you’re innocent,” she jerked her thumb at Dante. “I’m still on the fence.”
Wow. She had more balls than any of them.
Mason laughed, and I winced. It wasn’t his friendly laugh; it was his ‘I’m-about-to-fuck-shit-up’ laugh.
“Listen, girl, I don’t give a fuck what you think or what you want. We listened to your shit. We told you to fuck off, and we’re telling you again. Fuck. Off.” He met each of their looks. “Go the fuck away. There’s no story for you here. We’re done.”
“I’m not.”
I looked at Dustin in surprise. “Slater?”
He pulled his phone from his pocket and showed me the screen. I stepped closer to see what it was, then quickly backed away, cheeks flaming.
“Why would you show me that?” I asked him, aghast.
“What is it?” Mason growled protectively, moving closer.
“Him with his dick out and some girl about to blow him!”
Mason pushed me behind him. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Showing her that? You have the fucking nerve to question me about sexual assault?”
“I’m going to guess from the reaction that you didn’t take the photo?” Dustin asked calmly as he put his phone back in his pocket.
I gaped at him. “Me? No! Why the fuck would I want to?”
Savannah sniggered as she looked at me. I met her guilty look with a wide-eyed look of my own. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, her hand over her mouth. “You look so . . . scandalized. I just,” she sniffled, laughing. “I wasn’t expecting it.”
“You think I took that picture?” I demanded of Dustin. “Why?”
“It happened the night I met you,” he said with a shrug. “We were,” he looked at Hadley, who raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, we were busy. I was walking back, and I met you as you were coming out the library.”
I frowned. “The night I showed you the picture of the stadium?”
He nodded. “Yeah. A few days later, I got sent this and . . . you vanished.”
“So I was the obvious person because I take photos for social media, and I was the only person you saw?” I concluded. When he nodded, I let out a huge sigh. “Jesus, Wrighton really doesn’t judge on academic intellect anymore.”
Mason snorted in amusement, and everyone else glared.
“You were the obvious connection,” Dustin clarified, coldly. “Plus, you went missing after it surfaced. You’re the obvious place to look—”
“Bullshit.” Mason folded his arms. “It seems to be a theme here. You think you know something, you charge after it, and you fuck up. You’re the star fucking players for your team.
If you’re not getting papped you’re doing it wrong.
Jesus, fuck, use your brain.” He looked at me.
“We done?” I nodded. He turned back to them.
“We’re done. Fuck off. Don’t come back.”
“You told us nothing,” Hadley protested.
“You’ll live.”
She looked at Dustin, who looked at Dante. The QB was watching us, and the moment of sweet reprieve I’d felt that Mason had handled them vanished.
“I think we’re far from done,” Dante said easily.
“We found you. Both of you. We know Tiffany lives here, or used to. Hadley’s got her teeth into a story,” he said without accusation.
“We know,” he gestured to his two teammates, “we know the program’s fucked up.
We want to survive it, but not at the cost of others or ourselves. But we can’t ignore it.”
“Basically, man, we don’t want to be you,” Noah said, his dry, blunt delivery somehow making it sound even worse.
Mason turned to him, and I knew that look too well.
I stepped forward, my hand on my brother’s arm. “Don’t. He wants to provoke you,” I said.
“It’s working.” Mason shook my hand off.
“And being violent is what they want,” I hissed, not caring whether they could hear me.
“Actually, violence is the last thing we want,” Savannah corrected.
“The athletics program is broken,” she told us simply.
“But fixing it means putting every athlete, not just these three, at risk. Not everyone in the program deserves to sink with the ship that Coach Sutherland is steering. We’re trying to find a decent way to fix it for everyone. ”
Mason shrugged. “I don’t care.”
Savannah shook her head slightly. “I don’t believe that. Don’t you want it fixed?”
“Fixed?” Mason shook his head slightly as he thought about it. “You’re four years too late.”
“For you.” Noah held his gaze. “You either should have fought harder, man, or let it go. You’re still pissed, so you didn’t let it go. You can still put it right for others, though.”
Mason rolled his neck. “They already took enough. This is the last time I’m saying it. Fuck. Off.”
I looked at the five of them. Hadley looked annoyed, Savannah looked resigned, and the three footballer players looked blank. None of them reacted. I wish my brother had the same control as these three.
My eyes met Noah’s, and I felt a jolt of electricity run through me. Hastily, I looked away before I could figure out what his expression meant. I didn’t need to know what it meant.
“Mason, honey, it’s time. Are you ready for—”
We all turned toward my mom, who’d just walked around the corner. She pulled up short at the sight of us.
“Oh . . . Um. Mason?” Worried eyes met mine. “Briar, what’s going on?”
“They’re just leaving, Mom,” I assured her. “Friends from work,” I lied.
“You don’t have friends.”
Wow. Thanks, Mom.
She examined them carefully. “Especially the football team from the Alabama Lions.” Her hands rested on her hips. “What the heck are you doing in my son’s garage?”
Mason was about to speak, but the reporter beat him to it.
“We’re looking for Tiffany Preacher.”
Mom looked at her in confusion. “Tiffany? Why?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mason told her gruffly. “They were just leaving.”
“They can leave me when they tell me why they’re looking for Tiffany.”
I jumped in before any of them could say a word. “Mom, it’s the old shit from years ago. They think they’ve got a story, but they don’t.”
“Of course they don’t.” Mom rolled her eyes, turned away, no longer interested. “Ugh, that girl was always a troublemaker,” she tsked.
“And how was that?” Hadley jumped in again, and I wasn’t sure whether my brother or I would be the one to knock her out.
Mom turned back.
“Mom, don’t,” Mason warned quietly.
My mom rolled her eyes again. “You were always so protective of her, Mason. She never deserved to be shielded like that.”
Mason looked down at the ground. “Fuck this. I’m out.” He glanced at me. “I told you not to go there. You can’t change anything.”
“Mom, please be quiet,” I urged her. “You’re making it worse.”
She scoffed. “How could I make it worse?”
“Do you know where we can find her?” Hadley pressed.
“I sure do. Fourth row from the back of the old cemetery, under the pine tree.”
Dante blinked. “Excuse me?”
Mom studied them all again. “Tiffany. She’s dead. Didn’t you know?”