Mr. Wick’s eyes are suspicious as he looks at my mom.
Mom just shakes her head and goes to the cabinet above the refrigerator. She grabs a bottle of rum and sets it on the island. “I guess we’re having a drink here.”
CHAPTER 48
The Secrets
Caden
Lockers slam shut as everyone gets ready to take off to the post-game party. Spirits are high since we won, but subdued since Nico got hurt. His text says he and Harper are at her house now.
Jack catches my attention as he pulls on his shirt. That snide little comment from Zach shouldn’t have thrown me off, but it did. The purpose of it probably was to make us doubt each other. Zach assumes no one knew. That’s what he was hoping.
No one’s asked Jack yet, but that time is coming.
We don’t keep secrets from each other. I lace my shoes and stand.
Eli winces as he moves his shoulder around in circles. “That fucker needs to learn a lesson.”
The same guy who took out Nico turned his sights on Eli. Fucking Ethan Parker was the slowest fucker out there, always letting that guy run past him. But Parker took off fast from the locker room. It’s the fastest anyone’s seen him move tonight.
I wanted to teach him a lesson about how to effectively block someone, but it will have to wait until practice. If that waspayback for his little dance at the party, we’re going to have other issues.
Nico is out for the rest of the year because Ethan didn’t do his job.
Luke comes back from the shower, scrubbing the towel over his head. His bruises from his father were healing, but they look darker from the couple hits he took tonight.
“Told Penny to get a ride to the party with MacKenzie.” Luke opens his locker and pulls out his clothes. “We need to check on Nico.”
Knee injuries are a bitch. Used to take people out of the game permanently. Now, hopefully, he’ll recover. But not this year. We just have to lean heavier on Eli.
There are still too many people in the locker room. This new normal of not being able to talk wherever we are sucks. But we can’t risk it.
We finish getting dressed and grab our bags to head to the cars.
“Will I see you guys in the morning?” Coach Turner calls as we pass his office.
“Yes, sir,” I reply.
“Good.” He grins at us. “We’re going to run drills and do a scrimmage.”
Eli stops in the doorway. “Harper’s still good to do stats?”
Coach Turner nods. He glances over all of us. “You figure out why those guys were talking about Harper in gym class?”
“Do you remember anything more useful than they were a bunch of athletic white boys?” Jack puts his hand on Eli’s shoulder and smirks.
“Definitely basketball players.” Coach Turner shakes his head. “They were back at it on Thursday. Talking about some field and Walker.”
I meet Jack’s gaze. Walker has a farm out west of town. Don’t know what the fuck they were talking about.
“If you think of anything else, let me know.” Jack glances at the others. “We’re out of here.”
“Good game, guys.”
We all give him an acknowledging nod and head toward the parking lot. When Jack moves toward Luke’s car, I shake my head.
“Jack, you’re with me.” I walk to my car.
