Page 16 of False Catch

Reese

The team room door closes behind me with a click that sounds like a prison lock. My head spins from Coach's warning, from the weight of tomorrow's inspection, from the knowledge that I might have destroyed eight futures with my selfishness.

The hallway is empty, fluorescent lights humming overhead. Everyone else is still inside, probably strategizing how to salvage tomorrow's practice. How to hide what we've become. What I've made them become.

I need air. Need space. Need to get my suppressants from my bag and double the dose like I promised, even though Tyler warned me about the side effects of exceeding the recommended amount. Dizziness, nausea, possible suppression failure if my body rejects the overload.

Worth it if it keeps my scent under control for tomorrow.

"Reese."

I turn to find Eli standing in the hallway behind me. He must have slipped out while I was lost in my spiral of self-recrimination. His sandy brown hair is still damp from the shower, and there's something in his brown eyes I haven't seen before. Something that makes my pulse skip.

"I need to go," I say, but my feet don't move.

"No," he says quietly. "You don't."

He steps closer, and I catch his scent - paper and lightning, like the moment before a storm hits. I've always thought of Eli as the most controlled of them all, the one who observes and calculates but never acts on impulse.

The way he's looking at me now suggests I've been very wrong about that.

"Eli—"

"Stop." Another step closer. "Stop thinking. Stop planning. Stop running."

"I'm not running."

"You've been running since you got here." His voice is still quiet, but there's an edge to it now. "From us. From yourself. From what this could be."

"What what could be?" My back hits the wall. I hadn't realized I was backing up.

"This."

He moves faster than I expect, hands bracing on either side of my head, caging me in. His body doesn't touch mine, but I can feel the heat radiating off him, can smell the way his scent sharpens with want.

"Eli, we can't—"

"Why?" His head dips lower, breath ghosting across my neck. "Because of tomorrow? Because of policies? Because you think keeping distance will somehow fix this?"

"Because it's complicated—"

"Everything about this is complicated." His nose traces the line of my throat, not quite touching, and I have to bite back a whimper. "That doesn't mean it's wrong."

"The team—"

"The team is falling apart because we're all fighting this. Fighting you. Fighting ourselves." He pulls back enough to meet my eyes, and the intensity there makes my knees weak. "I've run probability scenarios, Reese. Calculated outcomes. Do you know what the math says?"

I shake my head, not trusting my voice.

"We're stronger with you. Every metric, every measurement, every possible calculation shows the same result. You make us better."

"I'm destroying you—"

"No." The word comes out sharp, almost angry. "You're saving us. We just haven't figured out how to let you."

His hand moves to cup my jaw, thumb tracing my lower lip with unexpected gentleness. "Stop fighting so hard, Reese. Stop pretending you don't feel this too."

"I..." My voice breaks. "I don't know what this is."