AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Jesus Christ!” Conner barked.
“Okay, that fucker needs to go down,” Eric Carter yelled. Eric was alternate captain.
I watched as Zoey took in the team’s reaction. She could no longer pretend to be a passive bystander and she knew it.
Zoey sighed and patted her purse. “I brought his phone and his laptop with me. He’s playing poker with his buddies tonight.” She glanced at me. “I only have an hour, maybe two, before I need to get them both back or he’ll realize they’re missing.”
Emotion welled within me.
I hugged Zoey. “Thank you,” I whispered into her shiny blond hair. “You won’t regret this.” Just as quickly, I released her. “You’re doing the right thing.”
“I hope you’re right, Matthias.”
“Joan,” I called. “Your time to shine.”
Joan’s petite frame jumped up at the chance to demonstrate her hacking abilities. Granted, with Zoey here to log into Coach’s phone and laptop, it was more about truly destroying all the evidence.
Joan and Zoey walked to one of the side tables to get to the business of deleting videos from both devices as well as the cloud.
Jason approached me. Based on his expression during my confession, I had every impression that he was one of Coach’s victims. I wasn’t going to call him out on it, not here, in front of our team.
“Who’s to say Coach won’t keep at it?” Jason asked, his voice tight.
The rest of the team chirped up to inquire about the same thing.
I offered a rueful smile. “This is where it’s good to be a Vaulteneau. My dad has a lot of pull with the university. With a lot of universities. All it takes is the right word in the right ear, and Coach Anderson will be blacklisted.”
Jason shook his head. “Never thought I’d be glad to associate with a rich bastard like you until now.”
“No need to flirt, Jason. I’m, well…I’m taken.”
Jason’s face twisted like I was speaking a different language. “First off, I’m not flirtin’. I hate your fuckin’ guts, Matty, but in this instance I’m willing to let that slide because what you’re doing for the team is a decent thing. Second of all, if you tell me you’ve actually snagged yourself a proper boyfriend or girlfriend, I’ll blow you in front of everyone.”
I started laughing.
“The hell you will,” Ciaran said with a snarl, and that’s all it took for everyone to figure out that I was talking about Ciaran.
“No fuckin’ way,” Jason stuttered, his eyes swiveling back and forth between me and Ciaran. Ciaran appeared at my side and wrapped his arm around my waist. “I really hate you, Matty.” Jason pinned Ciaran with a sad stare. “If you get tired of this asshole’s antics, come see me.”
Turning, Jason snatched his hoodie off a chair and left the patio. Over his shoulder, he yelled, “And I’m takin’ a fuckin’ brownie with me, Matty, but that don’t mean we’re friends.”
“Looks like all is right with world, then,” I said.
Jason flipped me off and, after rummaging through the box of phones, he left through the main door.
Marcus sidled up to us. He was so tall, I had to crane my neck. “So hold up, Matty and li’l dude,” he said, because he didn’t actually know Ciaran’s name. “Ain’t li’l dude like your stepbrother or something?”
This felt like one of those situations where if I made it out to be a big deal, or denied it, then everyone else on the team would look down on my relationship with Ciaran. I was not ashamed to be with Ciaran.
The team was listening in, so I had one shot to do this right.
“Technically, yeah,” I said, “but our parents just got married and it’s not like we grew up together. We’re more like roommates who started hooking up, not stepsiblings who lived together for years.”
Marcus thought about that for a second. Shrugging, he said, “Can’t get any weirder than it’s already been tonight. Maybe invest in concealer, though, li’l dude.” Marcus gestured toward his own neck before offering us a joint fist bump.
“Uh, yeah.” Ciaran’s lips twitched. “Thanks.”
Marcus winked. “Good luck.”
