Page 10 of Forever Relentless

And neither would I.

Chapter 3

Noah

The car was full of talk, but no one was saying anything important.

Dante glanced at me as Hadley and Savvy debated everything that had happened.

“What is it?” he asked me quietly.

“There’s something they’re not telling us.” I glanced at him, and he nodded. “I don’t know what, though.”

“Me neither.” His gaze flicked to the backseat, where the girls were still talking, and Dustin was staying quiet. Probably wise.

“I can’t believe she’s dead,” Hadley mused. “I didn’t expect that. I never even researched it as a possibility.”

The car was quiet as we all thought about it.

“What did she say to you?” Dante asked me quietly. “When you hung back?”

I snorted. “Told me if I got the chance to transfer, to do it.”

“Huh.” His hands tightened slightly on the wheel, but I noticed. “That’s what you said too.”

“Yeah.”

We drove in silence, well, if you ignored the fact that Hadley and Savvy were analyzing every sentence spoken today as if it were gospel, or open to interpretation. Mason Sterling had left little to interpret. He’d been very straightforward in his answers.

Fuck off — the universal language known to everyone.

Why was he so angry? Apart from the fact that his career had been wiped out, why hadn’t he transferred?

“Why didn’t Sterling move schools?” I asked no one in particular, but thankfully, it stopped the girls’ constant chatter. “She told me to transfer. Why didn’t he?”

“He was accused of sexual assault,” Savvy said slowly. “Wouldn’t that be something schools check for?”

“But he wasn’t,” Dustin mused. “She never accused him. No one outright accused him, and no charges were ever brought.” He tapped my shoulder. “You’re right, though. There was nothing stopping him from moving schools. He was a freshman. Shit sticks, but it eventually washes off. He could have moved across the country.”

Dante and I shared a look. “Shit never washes off,” I grumbled. “Once they think they’ve got something on you, it never goes away.”

“He could have been affected by it,” Hadley said in agreement. “He could have needed therapy, counseling, anything. His career was just gone.” I turned to look at her. She was glaring out the window. “It’s what that bastard Sutherland does,” she muttered. “Fucks with your future.”

Dante nodded grimly. “I wouldn’t put it past him to make a few phone calls and blacklist his name.”

Savvy sighed loudly. “Well, that’s just a horrible thought.”

“Horrible truth,” I corrected her. “They were all set to get rid of me, remember?” I looked over at Dante, who nodded. “I had you and Coach Holt to vouch for me, but even then, he didn’t look too keen to come forward until Dante said something.”

“Your dad needs to find a new university to manage,” Hadley said to Savvy, and I think she was serious. “There are too many things wrong with our one.”

“How far does it go, though?” Dustin had leaned forward, over Hadley, so he could talk to Dante and me. When he let out an oomph, I guessed his girlfriend had just punched him in the ribs or something for lying on her.

“What do you mean?” Savvy asked him, trying to move away as Hadley and Dustin sharpened their elbows. “Oh my God, you two, are you serious? Stop bashing each other. You’re not alone back here!”

I hid my grin behind my hand as Dante started to scold the back seat like an exasperated parent wrangling his children to behave.

My attention drifted outside as the squabbling grew louder and Spence adopted his QB locker-room voice, which he used only when we were down in the game.