Page 58 of Bad Run

Good. I didn’t want him anywhere near her to begin with.

When I ask about the will, she tells me that both her mother and grandmother are on her side with the whole will thing and how her mom stopped cooking meals for her father. I like knowing that the women in her family have her back. It’s her father who needs to get his head out of his ass.

Not only are the stipulations sexist as hell, but anyone with eyes can see how amazing Gwen is at her job. How passionate she is about what she does.

How absolutely fucking perfect she is in every way imaginable.

And as usual when I go to bed, it’s her face I imagine before I fall asleep. It’s her body I want lying beside mine.

I’m so screwed.

nineteen

Lance

Present

Each photo I scroll past on Gwen’s social media profile makes my ribs tight. Her aqua eyes shine as she smiles at the camera.

“Holy shit!” Reed barges into the locker room, slamming the door into the wall.

My phone slips from my fingers and skitters across the floor and between Heath’s legs. “Fuck.”

Heath bends over and grabs my phone, but not before seeing a familiar face on the screen. He doesn’t utter a word, but the smirk on his face says it all. He saw, and he knows.

Reed raises his cellphone in the air. He looks around the room in a panic. “Where’s Romero?”

“PT room. Why?” Cam asks.

“Dude, there’s a sex tape of Nico on the internet. Look.” Reed holds out his phone for us to see.

The video is black and white, but I can’t make the people on the screen from where I’m sitting.

“No fucking way.” Blake jumps out of his chair and rushes to Reed’s side.

“Let me see that.” Cam snatches the phone from Reed’s hand as Heath and I share a glance.

“Might as well,” I mumble.

Heath nods his agreement, and together we flank Cam.

He scrolls through an article discussing Nico and Savannah’s personal histories and their relationship, none of which sounds true.

Cam pushes Play on the attached video.

It’s black and white and grainy, and it starts with a woman’s back. She moves up and down, then freezes, shouting Nico’s name and throwing her head back mid-orgasm. At the last second, a large man with dark hair and tattoos appears in the frame.

The room. The woman. The guy. They all look oddly familiar to me.

“We have to show Romero.” Cam rushes out of the locker room and into the PT room, with me, Reed, Heath, and Blake nipping at his heels.

When we walk into the room, Nico is lying on the table, knee bent to his chest, as Doug, the pipsqueak PT trainer who follows Gwen around, helps him with his mobility stretches.

“I don’t mean to be rude, Dougie, but hit the bricks, kid,” Cam snaps.

Without a word, he rushes out of the room with his tail between his legs.

Nico jackknifes upright. He looks two seconds away from freaking out. “What’s wrong? Is Talia okay?”