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I know he owns the gambling app, and he has all my money tied up out of my reach, and there’s the fate of Knox and his friends to consider.
Gosh, I wish I could go back to hating Knox. Not that I everhatedhim. I nurtured that intense dislike to protect myself from him. From his loathing.
If seventeen-year-old me knew, when he yelled at me on my doorstep, that it was because he thought I’d slept with his brother… what would I have done?
The new problem that arises now, an interesting complication, is the water.
Every so often, a chilled breeze sweeps through the room. My hair is plastered to my head, the front of my shirt and pants are soaked. Goosebumps rise on my arms, down my back. And after a few minutes, the shivering starts.
It’s December in Colorado. Needless to say, it’scold.
Thirty-six hours, he said.
So much for Church helping me out.
52
KNOX
Ileave a trail of bodies across Denver.
It sounds dramatic, but that’s me.Dramatic. And furious.
My knuckles are split, and some of the guys I was taking my anger out on got in a punch or two before I put them down. Butdamn it, Abernathy has been keeping me on the move. We got to the arena only to find it empty, save the owner. Lucas Abernathy Senior.
And he didn’t have a clue what we were talking about. Maybe we should’ve pressed him more, but the look he gave us when we brought up his son… He spit out something about his son always meddling in the team’s affairs, an unwelcome endeavor, and we decided to leave him.
For now.
“We have a game.” Jacob pulls me up from where I’m slumped against the wall. “Come on. Get up.”
I never really understood the whole burn-the-world-down-for-her vibe he and the others exuded. It made me feel different. Something must’ve been wrong with me, right? Because they’d literally kill for their girls, and I feltnothingtoward Willow.
The truth? I tried.
I tried to love her.
But I couldn’t sleep next to her without thinking about all the ways she could betray me, and I couldn’t open myself up.
Ironic, wasn’t it? She struggled with the exact same thing. And still, she at least tried. I just shut her down and blamed the bet. Itwasfor the bet. But there was a spark of fear that coursed through me at her confession, too. Like her getting close to me was suddenly very real and very,veryterrifying.
Did I think of Aurora in that moment?
Did I think of the way she would judge me for laughing in Willow’s face?
No.
Not until Miles punched me, and I realized that his reaction is exactly what I wanted to do to him after I found out about—well, after I thought they slept together.
“Let’s go,” Jacob urges.
I shrug him off.
The latest guy to get in my way also happened to be the first. Jerry the doorman.
I step over his body on the way out of the room, and I’m a bit like a zombie in the car on the way to the arena. The arena that we scoured, so fucking hopeful.
Thirty-six hours ago.
