39. Xavi
Chapter 39
Xavi
I stood in the shadows of the parking garage, hands tucked into the pockets of my hoodie, pacing slowly across the painted line between two empty spaces a few spots away from my M4. The air was cool for once, but the low drone of the fluorescent lights above was making my palms sweat. It wasn’t enough to beat back the intruding thoughts. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped, echoing through the concrete. The scent of oil, fuel, and damp pavement made my eye twitch.
Annie had kissed my cheek this morning before I’d left for practice, told me she had a good feeling about today. But she didn’t know what I was doing here. I hadn’t told her. Colton’s honesty about us having a surprise for her meant I could turn off my location services without her raising a brow, so she had no idea I was pacing in the parking garage outside of her father’s law firm.
But I wasn’t here for him.
I heard him before I saw him — his loafers clicked against the cement like he had somewhere important to be. Then he came into view.
Neat, polished, wearing a set of dress pants and a button-up shirt, his hair freshly buzzed and his glasses pushed high up on his nose. He moved like nothing had touched him, like he wasn’t dragging a trail of wreckage behind him.
Elliot.
He didn’t notice me at first.
I stepped forward. Deliberate. Quiet.
His eyes finally caught mine across the garage, and his whole posture shifted — it was subtle, barely noticeable, but I caught it. The hesitation, the bracing.
“You’ve got some fucking nerve,” I said as he got closer, my voice low and even. Controlled, for once.
He blinked at me as he clicked his remote, his car unlocking a few spaces over. “You stalking me now, Moreau?”
“No. I’m finishing this.”
His eyes flicked to the rest of the garage, the emptiness of it, scanning for witnesses. “If you’re here to throw me over the boards again, I think you’ll find there’s no ice?—”
“Shut up.”
He flinched.
I took another step forward, not overly aggressive, not loud, just steady. “I’m not here to beat you to a pulp, as much as I’d like to. You should be happy about that,” I said flatly. “I’m here to talk.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, but I could see a hint of relief in him. He knew he didn’t stand a chance if I threw a fist. “Go ahead, then.”
“You need to forget her. Move the fuck on.”
I saw the twitch in his jaw, his expression souring, twisting in the wrong ways. But he leaned into arrogance instead. “You really think that baby’s yours?”
“No,” I answered, the single word hanging in the air for a second. “Could be Cole’s. Could be Colton’s. Could be mine. It doesn’t matter.”
His composure cracked a little, his mouth tightening, a quick little exhale coming out of his nose.
“She’s ours. You don’t matter to her anymore. Do you understand?” I took another step toward him. “You’re a ghost to her. Worse, at this point. Like a poltergeist or one of those demons in the movies that take, like, four exorcisms to get rid of. You are gum under her shoe that she can’t quite peel off. You’re nothing.”
“She was my girlfriend,” he bit back.
I snorted. “Yeah. She was, before you started cozying up to her father and threatening her left, right, and center. Before you tried to squash her dreams before they could take off.”
His eyes narrowed. “She loved me.”
“No,” I said. “I don’t think she even got that far with you. Didn’t hear you say you loved her once that night at Smokey’s, and I certainly didn’t hear her say it after you left. But do you want to know something cute?”
Elliot didn’t answer. I took it as a yes.
“She’s said it to all three of us.”
His hands curled into fists at his sides.
“I’m not here to fight,” I reaffirmed, holding my palms up. “I’m here to make sure you understand something very, very clearly, Elliot.”
He rolled his eyes. “And that is?”
“If you go to the press with what you have, if you so much as whisper about her or us, if you plaster her face on the internet, I will personally turn your life into fucking ash ,” I said with a shrug. “No more singular weeks at the top of the New York Times bestseller list. No more career. You want to make this a war? You’d better prepare for one.”
I took another step closer, close enough to reach out and touch him if I wanted to.
“Because I will pull every skeleton out of your closet and drag it into the light. You won’t recover. You think it’s bad not being able to date Annie?” I laughed. “How will you feel when half of the country thinks you’re a cunt? Because I will say your name in every interview. I will say it to anyone who will listen. So will Cole and Colton, and that’s barely breaking the surface of what we can do.”
“You’re bluffing,” Elliot said, quieter now.
My lips quirked into a grin. “You want to bet your future on that? Try me.”
We stood there in the thick silence, the tension vibrating between us like the buzzing fluorescents above. He didn’t speak, just stared at me, his eyes sharp, his breathing heavy. And he sneered . “You really think she’ll stay with you? All three of you? That’s not love, it’s?—”
“Don’t say it.”
He bared his teeth at me. “It’s delusion .”
I huffed out a breath. “Right. I’m the delusional one here.”
I steeled my jaw, spreading open my hoodie with my hands in my pockets as I took a step back.
“Walk away from her, Elliot,” I said casually, turning on my heel, giving him my back as I started to walk. “This was your last warning.”
“You talk a lot about love for someone who lets her fuck other men,” he called after me, and I paused. “Tell me, Moreau, do you feel loved when you share her? Or just desperate for whatever you can get?”
I spun back on a dime.
Walked.
Didn’t think. Didn’t speak. Just stalked toward him in the low light of the early evening, pulled my arm back, and swung.
My fist connected with his jaw in one clean, brutal swing—bone against bone, rage against arrogance. The impact snapped through my knuckles, reverberating down my arm, and Elliot’s head whipped sideways. He stumbled, caught off guard, his back slamming against the concrete pillar behind him.
He slid down half a foot, blood already blooming at the corner of his mouth, hand flying to his jaw like he couldn’t quite believe it.
I grabbed him by the front of his shirt, hauling him up, keeping him pinned against the concrete. “You’re lucky I have an ounce of self-control right now or your skull would be cracked open in the middle of an oil stain,” I growled. “Try it, try anything, try suing me or the guys or going to the press, try to ruin her life. I dare you, you fucking scum . Because next time, it won’t just be me. It’ll be the three of us. And after that, it’ll be the entire goddamn team. Is that what you want?”
His lips parted, a hint of blood coating his teeth, his brows raised in what looked like genuine fear. “No,” he rasped.
“Good. Great, even,” I said sarcastically, letting go of his shirt and taking a step back. “Get your fucking shit together, stop working with her father, and get a life. Find someone new, if you even can.”
Elliot exhaled sharply through his nose, wincing as he straightened his shirt with shaking hands. He didn’t meet my eyes right away — he was too busy wiping the blood off his lip with the back of his hand. But when he did, his stare was sharp, hollowed. “Fine,” he said. “You win. Are you happy? I’m not stupid enough to think I could fight any of you.”
I watched as he moved, taking a step toward his car, turning his back to me. “That’s it?” I asked, my brow furrowing. “I just needed to punch you?”
He turned, walking backward, wiping his mouth again. “Guess so. Maybe it knocked some sense into me.”
I blinked. “How am I supposed to believe you’re not going to do anything?”
He shrugged in exhaustion, his hands raising on either side. “I don’t know, man. Trust that I don’t have a death wish?” He laughed, but there wasn’t a hint of humor in it. “I’m just done. Done with her, done with you three, done with all of it. Good luck with your fucking circus.”
I stared at him as he wrenched open the door of his car and slid into it, hitting his steering wheel once in irritation, before revving the engine and peeling straight out of the parking lot.
All right. One problem solved.